coal quality and fly ash

I have a Hitzer 608 Stoker. I changed coal suppiers this year. After burning since end of Octoer/beginning of November I noticed about days ago I got that sulfur rotten egg smell almost constantly. So I took stove pipe off and there was enough fly ash at flue collar on top of stove that it was almost completely closed off. I have never had this happen in the 3 years of owning my stove. Can coal quality lead to an increase of fly ash?

For sure! White ash coal has way more fly ash than red ash coal. I ran a hand fed for 28 years and stopped sweeping the chimney because nothing really came out that did not already fall to the base. In came the Keystoker 90 stoker and after 2 years I was embarassed at how much ash swept out of the chimnney, almost a scary amount. I burn mostly white ash coal. I now sweep the chimney every year Who would of thunk the stoker would of been such a drastic change.

The amount of flyash produced can vary from one coal source to another, or even from one load to the next depending on variability of the raw product.

Stokers tend to produce more fly ash because of the air velocity through the coal.

How has the wind been in your area this year? Here it has not blown as much or as hard this year as in past years and I have had to clean my T on the back of the stove which I have never had more than 1/4" in the bottom.

Tonight I decided to pull the flue pipe off my EFM and check it for flyash...it was 50% full! Different coal this year, lot more flyash. Guess I should set a better example and check the pipes more often.

Rob R. wrote:Tonight I decided to pull the flue pipe off my EFM and check it for flyash...it was 50% full! Different coal this year, lot more flyash. Guess I should set a better example and check the pipes more often.

Does the lead-up to taking a clean-out cap off for flue pipe cleaning require a full shutdown, or merely a decent draft?

I just switch the stoker off, vacuum, then switch it back on.

So decent draft and power off it is. Thanks!

If you use T's with caps instead of elbows, it's a snap. I've got one at the top into the chimney and one at the bottom into the boiler. Takes less than a minute with no shut down. You do suck a little flue gas out but no big deal.
I've cleaned mine out twice so far this season.

Nice ck. If I wasn't straight up through the house I'd definitly use that set up--cudoes dude

freetown fred wrote:Nice ck. If I wasn't straight up through the house I'd definitly use that set up--cudoes dude

Fred your stove doesn't exit out the back? Use a T there instead of an elbo.