Raw coal pile

fuccillo111 wrote:Update on this issue. I shut down a couple weeks ago to clean everything and found the source of raw coal sneaking into the bottom of the koker. Theres a 1/4" gap where the grate "butts" up to the rear wall of the koker and some coal is allowed to escape through the gap before its journey down the burner and end up on the bottom of the koker. I had hing to fill the gap with so ill get some kao-wool at work and fill it this spring. What weird is my stepdad gets the same pile of unburned coal at tne bottom of his koker. Maybe its supposed to do this, I dont know.

vulcan wrote:fuccilo,

This is my 1st year burning coal and have a new koker, I also get the 2 small piles of raw coal it is noticeable but not very much I vacum it when I clean it out. I have seen the source and have the small gap you are talking about too. I am not sure if it is suppose to be like that but it doesn't seem to cause any problem.

CoaLen On: Sat Nov 08, 2008 4:07 pm
I had (have?) the same issue with my Koker. The sides of the "grate" don't go all the way back to the back wall of the furnace. There's about a 1/4" vertical gap. As the stoker bar pushes coal down the grate, some of the smaller pieces fall off to the side through this gap. It collects on the shelf below the stoker unit and once that area is filled, begins to collect on the floor of the furnace.
I cleaned all the ashes and coal off the grate and all the coal out of the hopper. I then cut a couple of pieces of rope gasket material to the proper length and pushed them into the gaps. This should prevent any coal from falling through, keeping it all in front of the pusher bar.
I'm assuming the gaps are simply a clearance designed into the furnace and stoker assembly to prevent any assembly problems. I checked mine very closely before doing anything, to make sure something couldn't be tightened to draw the stoker closer into the back of the furnace. Everything looked good, so I went ahead with my fix.