Sulfur Smell.. Hot Topic of the Week.

 
Motorbike
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Post by Motorbike » Sun. Nov. 02, 2008 9:58 pm

Ok, since this seems to be a hot topic I want to share what is happening to me. Advice needed.

Since Friday I have been getting sulphur smells in the house. Friday was the worst, today not so bad. The smell is strong coming out of the hopper.

It all started Thursday night. My father-in-law (to be) says that I am getting too much unburnt coal in may ashes. My ash tubs are pretty heavy when full. You can visibly see the unburnt coal.
I just think its crappy coal.
Anyway, I was told to back off my feed rate and give it more air. So I did.
Friday morning I wake up to a chilly house. I cut it back too far and only had about 1 inch of fire the next morning while the boiler was trying to catch up to a low temp. That's no good.
So I adjusted the feed rate back to where it was. I noticed a slight sulfur smell but didn't think anything of it. I get a call from my girlfriend complaining of a sulfur smell.
When I get home everything looks fine. Draft is at .04 to .05. Fire burning ok. CO detector is 3 ft away from stove and not going off. I have a digital one and it reads 0 also.
The hopper is low, and I suspect that is the reason for the sulfur smell. So I fill up the hopper all the way up.

We go away for the weekend and come home tonight and it seems the sulphur smell is gone. The house is warm. I go into the basement and I can smell sulphur but not too bad. Again, Co detector is not going off. Draft is holding strong at .04 to .05. Sulphur smell if definitely coming out of hopper. The coal I loaded on the hopper is damp.
I think the last round of adjustments fixed the problem.

Questions:
Should I empty out the hopper to make sure nothing is going on at the bottom?
What about my ashes? Anything I can do or is this normal?

Any other input is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Attachments

ash tub.jpg

picture of ash tub

.JPG | 171KB | ash tub.jpg
ash close up.jpg

close up of ashes

.JPG | 224.5KB | ash close up.jpg
fire starting to burn.jpg

picture was taken as fire started to burn. idleing along.

.JPG | 86.7KB | fire starting to burn.jpg
boiler front.jpg

top half of boiler with draft guage on wall.

.JPG | 96.6KB | boiler front.jpg


 
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traderfjp
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Post by traderfjp » Sun. Nov. 02, 2008 10:15 pm

If you sift out the black pieces in your ash will they burn. Try throwing them back on the top of the fire and see-if u can. Your ash looks pretty normal with a higher percentage of black pieces. It could be bone of shale. I don't know.

 
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gambler
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Post by gambler » Sun. Nov. 02, 2008 10:29 pm

Maybe with the warmer weather when your furnace sits at idle for a long time the draft drops to next to nothing and you get the smell. But by the time you looked at it with a reading of -.04 it had fired a little or the outside conditions have cooled and created a good draft in your chimney.

 
Kenbod
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Post by Kenbod » Sun. Nov. 02, 2008 11:12 pm

Similar problem when I hooked up my Kaa-2 Keystoker Boiler. Intially, I didn't know if it was off-gassing of paint fumes on a new boiler of combustion gasses. It was probably both. Combustion gases can definitely come from where the stoker attaches to the boiler as well as the frame around the fire door. As stoker was a new deal for me. My old manual was purely negative pressure/draft with a baro damper. This little beast has the combustion fan running 24/7. It can (and does) pressurize the combustion chamber. The only way to keep combustion gasses out of the boiler room is to make sure draft exceeds that pressure. If your baro damper doesn't always have a little bit of draw on it, something requires adjustment.

Warm weather, exterior chimneys, oversize flues, idling flames, and cold boilers kill draft. In my case, I also went crazy with the furnance cement. Slightly less air helped too as it pressurized the chamber less. Once the chimney got fully warm and the weather got colder, I stopped being a problem.

 
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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Mon. Nov. 03, 2008 5:54 am

I thought I had a tiny bit of unburned coal. Someone said to wet it and it shows up better. He sure was right! I took a ten quart pail & filled it 1/3 way with ash. Then filled the bucket half way with water. Sloshed it around and poured off the water. WOW! I had a LOT of unburnt. I reburned it & it was coal, not rock.

How is the seal between the hopper and the stove? One person had a big leak right there. I think the others are right, at some point you're not getting enough draft. Or maybe you could use more make up air? If the room is real tight the stove might be running out of air. Open a window on the windward side a crack. If you open a window on the lee side you could possibly make the problem worse.

 
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traderfjp
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Post by traderfjp » Mon. Nov. 03, 2008 7:00 am

Damn Fred. You even disected the ash. Don't u ever rest? I guess we'll all rest when we're dead.

 
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Post by syncmaster » Mon. Nov. 03, 2008 7:17 am

what is your restrictor plate setting ?


 
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coalkirk
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Post by coalkirk » Mon. Nov. 03, 2008 7:47 am

Don't worry about the unburnt coal for now. The sulfur smell coming out of the hopper is an emergency. CO is coming out with it. Your CO detector should be going off so I assume it is no good. Get a new night hawk from home depot. No get two. Don't take advice from your father in law. You need to back off on the air to your fire. You are over pressurizing the combustion chamber and what the flue can't handle is coming out of the hopper. You should check the overfire draft by removing the set screw in the door and use your manometer. I'm not trying to scare you, but you need to take action right away. CO will kill you. :cry:

 
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Razzler
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Post by Razzler » Mon. Nov. 03, 2008 5:06 pm

i don't know stokers. I do know when you put a new load of coal on the fire it releases the sulfur as soon as it starts heating the coal up. Looking at the picture motorbike has of the fire it seems that it is burning pretty far back on the grate. Could it be that the fire is heating the coal up back further on the grate closer to the hooper and the sulfur is working it way out the hooper? I read a couple different posts now that guys are have a sulfur problem but theres no CO problem. :notsure:

 
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coalkirk
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Post by coalkirk » Mon. Nov. 03, 2008 5:15 pm

Razzler wrote: I read a couple different posts now that guys are have a sulfur problem but theres no CO problem.
I say that's impossible. If you've got a sulfur smell, you've got CO. The sulfur smell is from burning coal. When you burn coal, you make lots of CO. (just ask obama) If co detectors are not going off, it's because of defective CO detectors OR CO detectors that haven't reached the threshold at which they sound.

 
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gaw
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Post by gaw » Mon. Nov. 03, 2008 6:39 pm

coalkirk wrote:Don't worry about the unburnt coal for now. The sulfur smell coming out of the hopper is an emergency. CO is coming out with it. Your CO detector should be going off so I assume it is no good. Get a new night hawk from home depot. No get two. Don't take advice from your father in law. You need to back off on the air to your fire. You are over pressurizing the combustion chamber and what the flue can't handle is coming out of the hopper. You should check the overfire draft by removing the set screw in the door and use your manometer. I'm not trying to scare you, but you need to take action right away. CO will kill you. :cry:
I agree with coalkirk based on what I have read and understand about your situation.

I think with the sulfur smell a little goes a long way but it does come from the burning coal and logic would say if you have the sulfur smell you must have some carbon monoxide in the air also. Sulfur smell and a headache is very bad.

 
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rockwood
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Post by rockwood » Mon. Nov. 03, 2008 7:19 pm

coalkirk wrote:
When you burn coal, you make lots of CO. (just ask obama)
That would be CO2. ;)
Still made me laugh even though it really isn't funny.

 
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Razzler
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Post by Razzler » Mon. Nov. 03, 2008 7:47 pm

Coalkirk, This is ware I read he had a sulfur smell with no reading on the CO detector and there was another post that said it to just can't find it now.
Help! Strong Sulfer Smell

 
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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Mon. Nov. 03, 2008 8:19 pm

While were here... make sure we all remember that you can also have a deadly CO level with no odor at all.

 
Motorbike
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Post by Motorbike » Mon. Nov. 03, 2008 8:30 pm

I have 2 Co detectors near the stove and both are different. Neither is going off.
I have a total of 4 in the house.
The one has a digital readout on the front and has never gone above zero.

I think I caused my problem when I tweaked the restrictor plate on the combustion blower. Since my post I closed it up more. I would say it is right in the middle (half open). This is where it has been since I have been running the boiler and haven't had a problem. It's been around a month now.
It makes sense that I was over pressurizing the combustion chamber.

How could I check my draft across the fire with the Dwyer Mark 25?

Don, where is your restrictor plate set?


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