This better not jinx me! My 1020 has been running great.

Two flame outs this season, both as a result of leaving the slide valve closed on the bottom of the bin. First one was my son's (while I was traveling). Second time was all me. I am starting to think I may need to institute a tag out procedure, where I clip the operator to the slide valve with a lanyard, that won't allow them to walk away, with the slide valve closed.

I have been burning approx 5% pellets mixed into corn this year with good results.

Has anyone had good luck with burning straight pellets in a American Royal/Universal Grain 1020? I can't justify burning corn @ $6.60/bu.

Pellets are cost attractive, but not sure about settings, so would appreciate any tips from someone who has been there.

I like that 1/2" pre-screen!!! This years corn was some of the cleanest ever, but one lousy piece of stalk, did jam the transition from bin auger to fire pot auger in my boiler, causing an unplanned lack of fire.

A hobby that saves money and keeps the house warm, always gets approval from my wife.

Corny,
Thanks for the feedback. I first used this setup when I was using a borrowed gravity wagon, first season. It worked good, so I moved it over, when I purchased my own wagon.
A possible upgrade before next season is a hinged plexiglass lid over the chute. There have been several occasions where I am vacuuming during a snow, and the plexi lid would keep snow out, while allowing me to watch the flow.

Timo2le,
Hope you are recovering from surgery. Below see my set-up for corn handling.
PVC conduit attached to wagon chute:

Blast gate to isolate barrel from boiler:

My adaptation of Kanburn method:

Shop vac attached:

Close slide valve, turn on shop vac, open door on wagon.

Scrape boiler heat exchanger and pull clinker out of burn pot, while waiting for barrel to fill. Usually 8-10 minutes from pulling shop vac out of garage until putting it back.

Nogas,
This is how I set up my system:
Underground from out door boiler to basement. Through "Y" strainer to side arm exchanger on hot water tank. From side arm heat exchanger back to 30 plate water to water heat exchanger.

Nogas,
I'm burning a Universal Grain 1020 Outdoor boiler. Underground PEX to the inside of the basement, through the side arm, then to the 30 plate water to water heat exchanger. The boiler water is always circulating through both heat exchangers.

I did put a tempering valve on the water heater, otherwise I would have 170deg. F DHW.

I'll try for some photos this week end.

I need to get some photos of my vacuum set-up. Lost the previous set with the crash of the old computer.

Nogas,
The DHW is what we will miss the most. When I did my install 3 years ago, I bought the "side arm" heat exchanger and tapped it into my regular hot water tank, between the drain and pressure relief ports. The thermo-siphon works really well, giving us almost limitless hot water.

I vacuumed the last of the corn from my gravity wagon into the hopper of the boiler on Saturday, then added that last 1/2 bag of pellets. I monitored the boiler mid-day Sunday until I noticed the fire level in the burn pot dropping.

I scooped the last of the fire out of the burn pot, to avoid a burn back into the auger (lesson learned at the end of last season).

Still have approx. 400 gal of pre-buy propane to use, so we are back to LP until Thanksgiving. At this point in the season, and with the price of corn, it isn't worth dragging the gravity wagon back to the farm for a small load.

We'll miss the abundant hot water...

I was not aware of the air tube modification until after I had started burning for the season. I keep a spare fan, and my ritual for each of the prior three seasons has been to clean the spare fan during free time, and install a clean one to start each season.
My cleaning method, is to dis-assemble motor from housing and squirrel cage from motor. I soak the housing and squirrel cage in a strong solution of Simple Green and really, really hot water. Usually softens the creasote to a point that I can scrub the parts clean with a red scotch brite pad.
Air tube mod. is planned for the next time the fire is out. I am thinking of using 3/4" sweat copper fittings (just dry fit) to avoid flexible hoses that could collapse.

Universal Grain/Corn Crib still have not returned my calls.
Jeff @ American Royal did tell me that he had all parts for the 1020 except the burn pot auger, which I would have to send to them for rebuild. Or I could rebuild it myself by welding washers onto the shaft to replace the flighting, which is what American Royal would do if I sent mine in for rebuild.

Timo2le rescued me by shipping me some of his spare parts, even while struggling to get his boiler up and performing. One more example of the class of people on this forum.

Have any of you Universal Grain 1020 owners had a reason to contact the manufacturer recently? I lost a burn pot auger late Fri. early Sat. (flighting worn off at transition to burn pot)
I called Universal grain Saturday a.m. and again this morning, leaving VM both times. Still no call back. It was -2deg. F. this morning and I am starting to become unhappy.

Need to purchase burn pot auger for Universal 1020. I am located in SE Michigan.
Thank you!

I lost an auger motor due to gearbox in year 1.

I was re-reading an earlier post, and I would definitely work towards a solution for the three missing heat exchanger scraper rods. (maybe three big washers cut in half and welded to some steel rod) I think your hot gasses may be short cycling out the stack, rather than swirling around the primary heat exchange tubes higher up in the burn chamber. Also, I ran mine in start mode for the first 35-40 DAYS.

I have been considering replacing mine with short pieces of appropriate auger flighting, for more of a turbolator effect, and them tying them together with chain and sprockets to scrape with a turn of a crank. (It's not broke, but I still want to fix it)

Hang in there! Even with high corn prices I still prefer my 1020 to LP.

Tim,
I'm into my third year burning my Universal 1020. I burn all corn and had 1 jam last year and 0 so far this season.

One of my lessons learned from last march is, don't let the fire burn back into the fire pot auger. I let mine starve for fuel when we had a early warm up in Michigan. Fire burned back into burn pot auger, melted the seal in the auger bearing, and locked my burn pot auger.

I enlarged my air box hole with a hole saw. I used a piece of 3/4" thick wood the size of the fan flange and drilled through it with a 2 1/4" ?? hole saw. I then bolted the board to the air box, to hold the hole saw centered over the existing (2" ??) hole.

Where are these bins located?
Thanks!