Adjusting Settings

To calibrate your aquastat, turn the low limit to 20 degrees higher than your water temperature. Working at a safe temperature, let's say the water is now at 140 degrees. Turn the limit to 160. Let the stoker bring the water temperature to exactly 150 on the TPI gauge. Now slowly turn the low limit knob back towards the 140 mark and when you hear it "click", you have calibrated the aquastat to the 150 setting. It should be close to the 150 indicator on the aquastat.

This assumes that your TPI gauge is accurate.

rocketjeremy wrote:I got this load at premium fine coal. I got about 6 tons so I don't really have a chance of mixing. It does seem like it had more "fines" or small pieces mixed in with it. I couldn't quite place what looked different about it but I would say that's it. It does seem like it is happier with more air. I think it might all be chalked up to the coal. I think for now I"ll leave the aquastat where it's at and try and play with my feed/air until I get a good stable run. Then hopefully I can post some pics and call this thing ready for the winter.

They do get some mine run coal from LC&N but not all of there coal comes from there there are alot of small suface mining Co. in the area that they buy mine run / raw coal also they where running bank coal threw there aswell .
Play with the Air settings until you find the one the coal likes . Also with alot of dirt fines you may want to Pull the clean
out lever more often to keep the fines out of the pot

Stoker-man....thanks for the info on the aquastat. I will look into that tomorrow. I think I can trust my TPI gauge because I have a L6006A in as well and I have a "click" on the L6006A at the exact temperature my TPI reads. So I think that would tell me they are either accurate or both same amount wrong. So far I ran all day today with no problems. I'll check it one more time before I go to bed now but I think I might have found some settings to get me through. I'll check the aquastat tomorrow and do some fine tuning with feed/air and check draft again but then hopefully I might actually be able to just let it do it's thing.

Coal berner-thanks for the information on the coal. Hopefully I can get settings that will make it run ok. Maybe next year I will try some from someone else. Although I'm surprised because I've gotten 3 other loads from them I was very happy with. I do pull the cleanout lever multiple times a day so hopefully I will continue to be ok there. I grew up on hand fired so I can never resist the urge to pop my head in a few times a day to see how the fire is doing.

rocketjeremy wrote:Stoker-man....thanks for the info on the aquastat. I will look into that tomorrow. I think I can trust my TPI gauge because I have a L6006A in as well and I have a "click" on the L6006A at the exact temperature my TPI reads. So I think that would tell me they are either accurate or both same amount wrong. So far I ran all day today with no problems. I'll check it one more time before I go to bed now but I think I might have found some settings to get me through. I'll check the aquastat tomorrow and do some fine tuning with feed/air and check draft again but then hopefully I might actually be able to just let it do it's thing.

Coal berner-thanks for the information on the coal. Hopefully I can get settings that will make it run ok. Maybe next year I will try some from someone else. Although I'm surprised because I've gotten 3 other loads from them I was very happy with. I do pull the cleanout lever multiple times a day so hopefully I will continue to be ok there. I grew up on hand fired so I can never resist the urge to pop my head in a few times a day to see how the fire is doing.

There coal source changes often so the final product will to buy from another source when your ready for more coal next year PM me I will hook you up with good consistent quality coal . To check your water temp Just drain some water out of it into a glass or whatever you want to se and use a thermometer to check the temp against the temp gauge & aquastats use a small hose on the boiler drain or if you have a drain on the water coil you can check it from there but if you have a mixing valve on the DHW the temp will be lower then the boiler water temp .use the boiler water if you can

Well as an update I have been having A LOT less outfires then I was having at the beginning of all of this. I think I came to the conclusion that I did in fact get a lesser quality of coal. I set my feed and air just a bit higher and that seemed to slow down the outfires a bit. The only thing I have noticed is that my temps (according to my TPI gauge) are going way high. I will have the high limit set at like 200 and it will still be stoking away at 220. I haven't blown the safety valve but I have no idea when it is shutting down and stuff. Is there a way to get the aquastat back in sync. For example the TPI will read 140, my L6006A will "click" at 140, but my aquastat won't "click" until like 160. I've been managing this problem as best I can with the timer to keep the fire going but not hitting the high limit (which I think is where my less frequent outfires are coming from). I had the aquastat out when I did my last upgrade a few weeks ago and the bulb seemed to be fine, no corrosion or deposits on it etc. If this was a kitchen stove or something I would take the knob off and simply replace it at the correct settings. Can something like that be done for the aquastat? Thanks. ~Jeremy

rocketjeremy wrote:Well as an update I have been having A LOT less outfires then I was having at the beginning of all of this. I think I came to the conclusion that I did in fact get a lesser quality of coal. I set my feed and air just a bit higher and that seemed to slow down the outfires a bit. The only thing I have noticed is that my temps (according to my TPI gauge) are going way high. I will have the high limit set at like 200 and it will still be stoking away at 220. I haven't blown the safety valve but I have no idea when it is shutting down and stuff. Is there a way to get the aquastat back in sync. For example the TPI will read 140, my L6006A will "click" at 140, but my aquastat won't "click" until like 160. I've been managing this problem as best I can with the timer to keep the fire going but not hitting the high limit (which I think is where my less frequent outfires are coming from). I had the aquastat out when I did my last upgrade a few weeks ago and the bulb seemed to be fine, no corrosion or deposits on it etc. If this was a kitchen stove or something I would take the knob off and simply replace it at the correct settings. Can something like that be done for the aquastat? Thanks. ~Jeremy

The 6006 should be set 20 degrees lower set at 5 diff Then the 8124 Aquastat low set so 160L 200H with 10diff for cast iron Rads or 15 for copper finned baseboard. What is the psi at the PVR will open at 30psi or should open at that if it is
good and working. If you have your diff set at 15 or 20 that is why the high limit set 200 is gong to 220 20 degrees over shoot or diff .That is what the diff setting is for 5 10 15 20 25 degrees under or over the Low & high set point on the aquastat 8124

Do you have both returns piped in?

Stoker....yes both returns go in....that was one of the upgrades I made this summer...my unit was never originally plumbed that way.

Coal....maybe I'll try shortening my timer again...I had it at 2 mins and had an outfire so I pushed it till 2.5 but it was just out again now when I got home from work. Every time I look in when it's running I"m getting a good burn so the only thing I can see is that it's going too long and hitting the high limit. Which if I'm understanding you right would be 215 (200 for my aquastat setting and 15 more because I have my diff set for that with copper finned baseboards). Oh and pressure is fine...stays steady.

The burn I'm getting I think looks good with the dark center, then burn ring, then ash ring. I still don't know why the aquastat "clicks" at a different temp then then L6006A and then TPI.

I had to play around with the adjustments of efm's stoker this week. I'm running 4 teeth and 5 air and it is a beautiful burn. I did notice one thing: The coal that I had stored in drums for 10-15 years must have a higher BTU content than the Blaschak coal we bought this week. The weather Thursday and Friday was very similar. Yesterday, the old coal satisfied the thermostat early in the day and the new coal burned the entire 8 hours today and never quite made the thermostat setting. We're also making one ash can full of ashes every 18 hours.

If your going above the high limit, which is 200, if it's set at 200.... you are overfiring your boiler vs. your demand. It's heating up faster than your radiation can remove it.

Out again....turned the timer back down to 2 and it didn't make the night. It doesn't seem like changing the timer is effecting my problem. I'm at my wits end.....

While it was getting back to business again I started looking more at it and thinking about stuff and is it possible that the sensing bulb on the aquastat got "messed up" during some of my upgrades during the summer. I did a lot of changing of wiring in the aquastat and one of which was relieving tension that was on a BX cable that the original owners had installed. Could working with this have twisted the capillary tube so that is now sensing the wrong temperature? I checked it again this morning after the whole house came back up the temperature and it sat for a while and the TPI read 200, the L6006A was tripping at 200, the tapped out water temp was 200 but the aquastat was tripping at 180 and that was turning for settings for 200-140 (10diff).

If this is possible...my next question would be could I replace that bulb without replacing the entire aquastat?

If you can find an old aquastat, you can remove the bulb attachment and replace yours. They either work or not. Maybe it's partially kinked.

Thanks stoker-man....I'm glad to know that is an option. I did some research and figured out how to pull the aquastat. Everything came out fine and I couldn't see any kinks in the capillary tube. Maybe I will try and find an old one though just in case. My temps are getting rather high again so I just changed my timer to be hourly instead of 30 mins. Maybe I will have more luck there. I'm not exactly sure of the cause or remedy yet but I still think I'm hitting the high limit and then burning out. I'm also considering putting some vents in the room where the stoker is in. It's pretty small....I leave the door open to the rest of the basement for heat dissipation and so the stoker has enough fresh air but maybe if I can keep the door closed (which will help on the dust) and vent the unit to the outside I can keep the temperatures more manageable (and in the summer time too for hot water!).

If you pull the aquastat, dip the bulb into a can of known temperature water. Use a thermometer and add cold water if necessary to check the bulb.

Another great idea from the stoker-man! I will pull it out again sometime this weekend but this time with a "control" bucket of water that I can test the bulb in. I still have my fingers crossed that the timer modification would help me out. I always read of people that use a 1-hour timer but never have been that successful with it. I think I'll be fine through the day...with this chilly rainy weather here in the northeast it runs on it's own. Tonight will be the test after all the thermostats have kicked back for the night.