EFM or a Keystoker?

I am starting a retro project in my home. I am installing radiant floor heat. I was considering the Keystoker KAA-2 the smallest one they make as my requirements are not very high because I have a supper insulated house.
I was wondering about the idea of a used EFM 520? Not sure if this is too big for my needs?
Any thougts??
Thanks

I can't tell you the difference in btu's, but the auger on the EFM would steer me in that direction, and the back up oil burner on the EFM would be nice if you leave town. If you need a shovel workout, the keystoker might pump you up like arnold swartzenger. Are you goint to use it for domestic hot water also ? I like my aa130, it's fun to watch the moving parts.

if i had to choose between the two you listed id go with the keystoker.

if you were going to choose between any boiler id go with the Axeman Anderson - 130

Ah yes, the proverbial ( I won't have to shovel coal if I get an EFM ). Well yes you do. The only difference is about a foot higher with the Keystoker compared to the 55 gal drum. I've owned both and the difference is negligible.

hophead wrote:Ah yes, the proverbial ( I won't have to shovel coal if I get an EFM ). Well yes you do. The only difference is about a foot higher with the Keystoker compared to the 55 gal drum. I've owned both and the difference is negligible.

If you have the auger going into your bin you don't need to shovel, here is another well thought out idea.
http://nepacrossroads.com/about15777.html

If you have room and use bag coal with a walkin basement that's great. In the real world most people don't have the room for a setup like that. Coal must be moved to a certain height above either the auger or a bin period.

hophead wrote:If you have room and use bag coal with a walkin basement that's great. In the real world most people don't have the room for a setup like that. Coal must be moved to a certain height above either the auger or a bin period.

Why would you need much room, if you have a window across the room you could always support an I beam on the ceiling subfloor and with a trolly ,use bags hung by the straps to move across the room and above the auger. Let gravity take it's corse. At work we use these bags and they lift them by the straps useing a forklift, they don't need to be supported from below and their is a tube funnel on the bottom to let them flow. Then the auger will take care of the rest.

If you are referring to the skid/bulk bag setup I am using, I don't have even have an outside stairway to my cellar. The intregal skid with discharge gates and a permanently mounted bulk bag makes it easy with low cellar windows to move the skids under the window with a pallet jack and have the coal truck chute it through the window into the bulk bags. As each skid/bulk bag gets full, you just move another skid/bulk bag under it.

Used pallet jacks are cheap ($100). the two 14" x 24" steel plates for the discharge gates cost $34, the bulk bags can be had for under $30. The rest is pressure treated lumber and plywood. Four or five skid/bulk bag units rotating in your cellar can keep most people going for at least 1/2 year, at which time you have the bulk coal truck fill them again.

We just went a month without touching the coal feed using one skid/bulk bag with a 4,200 sq ft house in vermont.

Probably a bigger question for the Keystoker/EFM decision is how much money he wants to spend on a boiler and will he ever want to add more heat loads to it.

Here is a direct link to the EFM 520 feed with skid/bulk bags;
EFM 520 Install with skid/bulk bags feed

Thanks

The one thing we all have in common is still have to carry out the ashes. I took care of a stoker at my church before they switched to oil. In the last year before they switched to oil a member came up with a ramp with a wheeled carrage, cable and motor to carry the ash tubs out. That was nice, right out a window. How many btu's does the efm 520 produce ?

The DF520 is rated at 218K gross/188K net, and I'm not sure how they came up with that number since it has changed over the years. At 22 pounds of anthracite an hour, maximum feed, that would be 286K gross if the coal was rated at an ideal 13K per pound. With the oil gun having a 1.5 GPM nozzle, that would equal close to the rated 218K gross, which might be how the lower gross was figured.

With the Winter almost over, we used about 8 tons of coal since October 1st. That heated a glass walled, uninsulated warehouse, with 30 foot ceilings of about 10,000 sq. ft. to 60 degrees and the office to 75 degrees. I'm not so sure a boiler net-rated at 188K can really do that.

Only rice. Our dealer claims that all his coal comes from Blaschak.

Keep in mind that the EFM's BTU rating is adjustable. The KAA-2 is rated for 76,000 BTU/hr. That's about 3-4 teeth on the EFM. I have my EFM set at 4 teeth. I have had absolutely no complaints about it after using it for 2 years. This year I built a bin that holds about a ton of coal. At the coldest part of the season, I had to fill it every 3 weeks. Can't vouch for the Keystoker but the EFM is built like a tank and could probably be used as shielding for IEDs.

stoker-man wrote:The DF520 is rated at 218K gross/188K net, and I'm not sure how they came up with that number since it has changed over the years. At 22 pounds of anthracite an hour, maximum feed, that would be 286K gross if the coal was rated at an ideal 13K per pound. With the oil gun having a 1.5 GPM nozzle, that would equal close to the rated 218K gross, which might be how the lower gross was figured.

With the Winter almost over, we used about 8 tons of coal since October 1st. That heated a glass walled, uninsulated warehouse, with 30 foot ceilings of about 10,000 sq. ft. to 60 degrees and the office to 75 degrees. I'm not so sure a boiler net-rated at 188K can really do that.

Being the 520 coal feed rate is 2.5 lbs per hr per tooth with Rice coal and the newer s-20 with the longer gear motor arm can go to 10 teeth max feed rate is 25 lbs per hr 25lbs x 13000 btus per lb hr is 325.000 btus going in now subtract 15 to 20% for heat loss. At 15% is 39.000 btu loss is 286.000 btu out put 20% heat loss is 65.000 btu is 260.000 btu out put .

22.5 lbs per hr is 9 teeth is 292.500 btu input subtract 15% heat loss 43.875 btu is 248.625 btu output At 20% heat loss
is 58.500 is 234.000 btu output .

The older 520 with the older s-20 that used the shorter gear arm had a max feed rate of 8 teeth 2.5lbs per tooth = 20 lbs
per hr max with Rice coal your btu's out put will be lower with less coal on max feed rate .
Buck wheat size coal is 2 lbs per hr per tooth when using it in 350 & 520

The s-15 had a max feed rate of 6 teeth 15 lbs per hr with rice smaller pot with a shorter gear motor arm buck is 2 lbs per hr per tooth .

All of efm's will burn 80 to 85 % efficient when they are set up correctly and are cleaned out on a yearly or bi yearly basic
depending on the coal Quality your putting in to it