Strange...White Dust and Clinkers

Ls Farm...I should clarify my statement about having to scrape the grate. The "dam" breaks up pretty easily, but when I shut the stove down to clean it out, I did have to scrape a small speed bump off of the grate which was something that I've never had before. I do believe it's anthracite as the big clumps that are forming can break up pretty easily, but there's something wrong with it still. The bulk coal is supposedly the same as what I get in the bags according to my supplier, but the bags look to be broken up a little bit more (not that noticeable) and do not form clinkers. If they do form clinkers, they are not even an issue though because they never span the width of the grate and actually block the feeding of new coal.

I appreciate all of your input and I do value your opinion, but I belive there's a couple of things going on here that I may have mislead you with. I think the bottom line is that it is anthracite coal, but of very poor quality or it's been cut by bitiminous to save costs. Either way, the dealer has lost a customer and unfortunately for him, I actually use about 7 tons a year, which is probably more than any of his other customers.

Or the same loader was used on the Bit and Anth piles...
and you got some Bit mixed in with your load...

I don't think the issue is related to to contamination as much as intentional deception. I'm mixing the two right now. I dump the bulk stuff in (probably 10 lbs) and then about 1/3 of a bag (probably about 15 lbs) and then I repeat that until my hopper is full. I use about 70-150 lbs per day, depending on the the temperature outside and I'll tell you that every time that 10 lbs of bulk is passing through, it backs up the feeder as always. It's not contamination causing this anymore. I'd agree that it was if I hadn't already ran 300-400 lbs of the bulk crap through the system.

CapeCoaler wrote:Or the same loader was used on the Bit and Anth piles...
and you got some Bit mixed in with your load...

That's not really possible unless someone wasn't paying attention. Matter of fact whenever I was loading the loader operator would make an effort to make sure I got a look at the bucket especially in the winter because he couldn't see it and that would be after he "banged" it a couple times while it was inverted . If he was messing around in the raw coal before loading you'd occasionally get some mud stuck in there or pieces of nut frozen to it which is not something you want if you're loading rice. Even then it's only a handful of coal usually.

The white IS from salt mixed with the coal - that aspect of your problem has nothing to do with bit or anthracite, it is salt. Salt is often mixed with coal in varrying amounts to keep it from freezing during extended cold spells. Whether that's common practice w/ anthracite or not, I'm not sure. I have a hard time believing it's bit coal as the differences in operation and just the size and color of the flame would make anyone notice very quickly something's not right; in addition the sizing would be totally wrong (unless the processor made the mistake prior to screening). It could be that some salt and a small amount of high coke button bit coal was mixed with his anthracite - or he could have just gotten a load of "newport".

Take a look at my pic on the right - if it doesn't look like that it's not bituminous.

pconn171,
Just wondering who is or was your supplier ??
Are they from Washington Pa. ??

Need to know, Im in the area and will use them if I cant make it up to Zubek's in Somerset County..

xaos wrote:pconn171,
Just wondering who is or was your supplier ??
Are they from Washington Pa. ??

Need to know, Im in the area and will use them if I cant make it up to Zubek's in Somerset County..

Good timing because I don't come on here that often and I just saw this. It seems that the problem was the salt as the supplier had suggested. I don't know if it's true or not, but I haven't had a problem since I've finished that load. The funny thing is that it didn't take much at all to cause a problem. We swept the bed of the truck out and everything.

The supplier isn't in Washington, PA. I'm assuming you're referring to Heet Inc? They are the supplier to my supplier however in Mars, PA. I'm told that they dropped Heet though as of this year and are finding a new one. They complained that their prices were getting too high. I agree...4 years ago it was 180/ton and now it's 260/ton. I'm going to be back to propane if it keeps going up at this rate.