Have New OCB - Wont Stay Lit, Any Tips?

 
lauriecoke
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Post by lauriecoke » Fri. Dec. 19, 2008 7:36 pm

Hi,

We just got our outdoor coal boiler an we cant seem to keep it going. It is a Shaver Pro Series 165. We are finding all kinds of info for indoor burners, but not much for outdoor. We are burning anthracite (or at least trying to). Some info on it... the flue pipe extends down into the firebox about 12" (towards the back) and is extended up about 5', it has a combustion blower blowing into the ash pit. We know almost nothing about this, how do we know how much coal to put on, when to put it on, how to pile it... it is a rather large firebox. We even cleaned it all out and started over, but it still goes out. Please Help!

Tom & Laurie


 
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WNY
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Post by WNY » Fri. Dec. 19, 2008 7:43 pm

Does it have the shaker grates? What size coal are you using? How are you burning it, coal needs air from under, unlike wood that need air on top to keep it burning.

 
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Poconoeagle
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Post by Poconoeagle » Fri. Dec. 19, 2008 7:48 pm

according to thier web site I didn't see the word COAL mentioned. They advertise them as wood. ??

 
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Post by WNY » Fri. Dec. 19, 2008 7:50 pm


 
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Post by Poconoeagle » Fri. Dec. 19, 2008 7:53 pm

whoops now there it says coal ...... :shock: searching for the Shaver Pro Series 165 brought wood only :roll:

 
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gambler
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Post by gambler » Fri. Dec. 19, 2008 7:55 pm

When you get it lit up and burning, load the fire box as full as you can. Coal likes a deep bed.

 
lauriecoke
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Post by lauriecoke » Fri. Dec. 19, 2008 8:01 pm

It does have shaker grate. We start it with hardwood and can get a nice hot bed with blue flame, but it only lasts a few hours. We have heard a bunch of different ways to stack it, pile it, bank it, volcano etc, so we really don't know what to do.


 
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Post by Dann757 » Fri. Dec. 19, 2008 8:16 pm

Laurie,
Keep asking questions - I'm new here but there are some really knowledgable people that will help you. I have a hand-fired indoor stove- I've been able to keep it going constantly now due to all the advice here. Can you post pictures? Coal size, draft characteristics, chimney height, a lot of factors come into play.

 
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Post by gitrdonecoal » Fri. Dec. 19, 2008 8:16 pm

what size coal are you using? looked at their website and it says nut coal uses a different shaker system. as previously mentioned, make sure all air is coming under the bed, not above it. I don't know much about the outdoor furnaces. don't know if a baro dampner is needed. LS farm might know a little bit more about outdoor. do you let the coal bed get nice and hot, a nice red glow on the top of the bed before you shut the ash pan door? maybe at first leave all dampners below the fire open all the way and play with it untill you get it dialed in. and don't shake the shaker at all the 1st 24 hours. let the fire get established before doing so. give us some more info, tell us all the steps you do firing, loading, the setup (dampners, combustion fans, ect).

 
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Post by Poconoeagle » Fri. Dec. 19, 2008 8:23 pm

You must notify us, if you plan on using "NUT COAL".
This requires a different grate and a bigger fan - at a slightly higher cost.

from thier site.

 
lauriecoke
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Post by lauriecoke » Fri. Dec. 19, 2008 8:53 pm

I believe we are using nut coal, it is about 1-3". At the bottom of the page on the shave sight it has "nut" coal as a smaller size. We did ask and I believe it is the right size grate. We put more coal on tonight and it seems to be doing much better. Hopefully, we will be able to figure out just how much we need for the long hauls of days and nights.

Laurie

 
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Post by LsFarm » Fri. Dec. 19, 2008 9:19 pm

Hello Laurie, you will have problems keeping the fire going without the combustion fan running.. I'm saying this based on your description of your chimney.. Coal won't sit and 'smolder' like a wood fire,, if there isn't some air being pulled or pushed through the coalbed, the fire will go out. You may want to add several lengths of chimney pipe to the existing chimney stack to raise the height as much as possible.. A good chimney is the heart of a hand feed stove.. A stoker stove can get by with a marginal chimney.

Like suggested above, load the firebox as deep as you can, mound it up and slope it up towards the back.. Coal likes to have a deep fire. It will burn in proportion to the air supplied to the fire, it won't burn all at once.. Just load it on.

Take care,, Greg L

 
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Post by captcaper » Fri. Dec. 19, 2008 9:30 pm

you need 3 to 4 inches of red coals as a bed all the time for Anthracite 6 inches for Softer coal. On this 4 inches you pile your coal in. Keep the air intake open so it burns the way you like. Lot's of folks don't build a fire like this. I didn't when I first started. It went out. I read books for Firemen of boilers made in the old old days. This is were I learned about red coal depth's.

 
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Post by braindead » Fri. Dec. 19, 2008 9:37 pm

The biggest struggle I had when I started burning coal was learning to fill the firebox all the way up with coal. I kept trying to build a small fire, thinking I would somehow waste coal if I put too much in. And of course it would go out. I now realize that you can't put too much coal in the firebox. Like everybody here says, up to the top of the firebrick or until its about to fall out the door, whichever comes first. If you have a big fire, you can turn it way down. But once it gets too small, you can't get it fired back up. You can only watch it go out. I NEVER would have figured that out without reading all the great posts on this forum.

Joe

 
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Post by gambler » Fri. Dec. 19, 2008 9:39 pm

lauriecoke wrote:Hopefully, we will be able to figure out just how much we need for the long hauls of days and nights.
Don't try to guess how much you will need. Load it up as much as you can and adjust the air for the heat output you need. Coal uses air to control the burn not the amount of coal you put in the boiler.


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