Anyone burning Blashack?

Is anyone else out there using blashack rice in there 520. I am using it and find the settings to be best at 3 on auger and 4 1/2 on air. I am thinking the air is high because the coal is large for rice, like mabey buck. I seen harmony rice and it is much smaller in size than what I have. J C says with buck you need more air. Any other Blashack users out there ? What are your settings ? Hope I dont have any pictures for stoker man

Is your auger tube hot or is it a little warm Warm is ok hot is not if it is hot knock the air back I am burning buck at
3 Teeth and 6 air and my S.S. Auger tube is warm from the pot to 3 " from where it comes out at the base the rest is
cold do you have smoke coming out of the barrel if so back off the air

check out the coal size chart small buck is the same size as big rice and so on

http://www.readinganthracite.com/images ... 0front.pdf

I turned up the air again, now up to 4 3/4. Its been 24 hours and now 2 to 2 1/2" ash ring and the dark spot finnally appeared. The pipe is warm at the base and 4" out. No smoke or smell even when the coal was a few inches above the auger. I cant get the sparks to go very high above the coal bed like you described JC. But I think Im close to being tuned in. I am waiting on the ash weight to see if I should be happy with te new setting. What is the ash content for Blashack ?

I am burning Blashack rice coal in my 520. I just started about 10 days ago. Seems to be working OK at the factory settings. I started out with 4/4 settings and recently set them at 3/3.5. Seems to be working OK at those settings. No outfires, feed tube is warm from the outside down about 4". I would think the bigger the coal (buck) would require a lower air setting as the bigger coal would allow more air through. Just my thinking. It isn't always right, according to my wife.

kevin12973 wrote:I turned up the air again, now up to 4 3/4. Its been 24 hours and now 2 to 2 1/2" ash ring and the dark spot finnally appeared. The pipe is warm at the base and 4" out. No smoke or smell even when the coal was a few inches above the auger. I cant get the sparks to go very high above the coal bed like you described JC. But I think Im close to being tuned in. I am waiting on the ash weight to see if I should be happy with te new setting. What is the ash content for Blashack ?

What sparks the fly ash burning with a hot fire Blaschak coal 13.100 Btu's per lb with 11% ash content There 99.9%
consistent in there mix

slb04786 wrote:I am burning Blashack rice coal in my 520. I just started about 10 days ago. Seems to be working OK at the factory settings. I started out with 4/4 settings and recently set them at 3/3.5. Seems to be working OK at those settings. No outfires, feed tube is warm from the outside down about 4". I would think the bigger the coal (buck) would require a lower air setting as the bigger coal would allow more air through. Just my thinking. It isn't always right, according to my wife.

Buck is bigger it will need more air to burn all the way . If you set the air like you do with rice you will get alot more unburnt coal .buck needs more time & more air to burn all the way threw .That's why you slow the feed rate down and run more air. In a hand fed stove you would be correct bigger coal more air can passes threw smaller coal less air passes threw it. But the Air surface area on a hand fed grate is much larger Then a stoker. A stoker has 1/8 " or 1/16 size Air

holes. You need more air going threw them to burn bigger size coal and more time. Big size coal in a hand fed will give
you more heat but will burn up Quicker. The smaller size will give less heat but will burn longer. A Hand fed is Natural air
with bigger air ways threw the grates. Plus the coal sits there for hours or days .with a stoker stove the coal as less time to sit before it will pushed off with new coal feeding in. So you have less time to burn it up so you need more air and slow the feed rate down A stoker is force air going threw the coal with much smaller air holes

A wealth of information, as usual. You are the man. Thanks again J.C, nice to know you are there for all us newbies to coal.

OK.Another 7 days. Took 10 bags to top off the barrel which is the same as all the other weeks but this time I only had 66 lbs of ash. That is 16% ash. Thats alot better then the 25% I've been getting the previous weeks. I turned the air back down to 4 1/2 because the ash ring was a little big. I think 16% is as good as I can get. Mabey when I go to 4 teeth I will get better burn.

I do not know how you are coming up with them Numbers but that is high Blaschak is always at 11% ash content.
you can go to the breaker and get the test reports. They do every 2 weeks twice a month some times once a week if they are into a new vein of coal . And remember you are burning out of a drum so depending how far up the drum you have the auger tube. You will not be burning all of the coal you stick in there will be space in there where the auger can not pick up coal. So you will not be brning all of the coal you put in. The blue Plastick drums are 22.5 " round take your measurment from below the auger tube to the bottom of the drum. You can be anywhere from 4" or more from the bottom X 22.5 x 22.5
and see how much space you are losing. Then you can figure out how many lbs of coal you are not using that sits at the bottom. Subtract that from the weight you are putting in. You could be anywhere from 50lbs to 75lbs depending on how high the auger is from the bottom of the drum. Where it can't pick up the coal I will bet you that you will be closer to 11% ash content maybe arouund 11.66%

I do the figureing just like I do the cars fuel cunsumption. I toped off the drum on sunday 2:30 pm, then one week later at the same time I filled it to the top again. It took 10 bags to bring it to the top. Probobly 4 bags left at the bottom but not sure because I didnt count when I first filled it from empty but that is irrelevent.

Hey Kevin. Good to see that it's starting to work out for you. I have noticed that some coal doesn't burn so well when there is just a call from the timer.On mine, we use the domestic in the morning. I hustle out and look and there is a nice fire going. Later in the afternoon the fire has gone down to almost nothing and the fire doesn't ever get as big as it was when there was a call for heat. So I assume that most of the coal that was burning ,went out and hits the pan as unburned. Seems like it takes the fire quite a long time to build back up if it has been on the timer all day. Last week it was colder so there were alot more calls for heat. Noticed that the bed was burning full on a timer call. Your fire must have held a better bed. So some of the coal that wasn't burning completely before, is now being burned to ash. That's why your ash figures are getting better.Give it time, It sounds like you are almost dialed in for the heating season. It sounds like you have a handle on the situation. Shoulder time in the heating season is different. I have some Calvin Lenig's that burns terrible in the summer, but is real sweet in the winter. Keep posting on the ash %. Have you tried reburning some of the ash? Scott

Well, I had big problems this week. The co detecter was going off when I got home so I took a look, the fire was out. Started it back up then checked on it later and the pipe was really hot about half way down and smoke inside the barrel, lots of smoke. Auger was working fine but didnt feel like it was pulling much coal. Decided to scoop out the barrel to see the auger inlet and found a piece of shale or something about 3" sitting ontop the auger. I should have taken coalburner (J.C.) advice sooner on screening the coal. I have a screen now. Its been 24 hours now and coal is burning perfectly again. If anybody can learn from my mistake then I dont feel so bad about the 2 days of termoil. Screen your coal !

I am glade you found the problem before anyone or anything got hurt it is a good thing that piece did to make it threw
the Auger tube it would of scewed somthing up . Yes Screen you coal it is well worth the little extra time you need when
filling your hopper / drums up It will save you Time and money in the long run Not counting saving a life or two

kevin12973 wrote:I do the figureing just like I do the cars fuel cunsumption. I toped off the drum on sunday 2:30 pm, then one week later at the same time I filled it to the top again. It took 10 bags to bring it to the top. Probobly 4 bags left at the bottom but not sure because I didnt count when I first filled it from empty but that is irrelevent.

Your drum should be filled to the top every nite.If the drum gets low combustion gases can ooze out.

I have a lid on the drum so gasses cant escape. Thinking of adding a vent to it and venting it outside. Dont know if it is worth the effort.