85R

Earlier this year we stumbled upon an opportunity to buy a local historic home that had fallen into neglect and foreclosure. Basically, as I understand it, neither of the two previous owners had run the central heat, a 2-pipe steam system powered by a 7-section Smith-Mills 350, which is backed up by an older Smith-Mills 44. Both boilers were equipped with natural gas burners, but a combination of neglected drainage and frozen pipes had produced a flood of major proportions that trashed the burners.

We figured that we needed cheap btu's - and a lot of them - if we were to be able to make this work. With a bit of searching, I located a refurbed EFM 85R retrofit stoker that seemed like a good match for the 350. (The "85" refers to the capacity of the unit in pounds of coal per hour.)

While I had heard of these things and seen some literature on them, I was a little overwhelmed the first time I saw it. The stoker unit alone is 8 feet long, and weighs about the same as an entire EFM 520 stoker boiler (over 1100 lb.). The burn pot is 26" in diameter, and this one came with a universal bin feed auger and ash removal.

I'm happy to report that, with a minimum of busted knuckles, the unit is now in service, and we plan to move in on Monday. Thought you might enjoy these pics.

Mike

Thats a big un!

Got any larger pictures?

The email from the phone that took the pics contains a small jpg and a bigger htm image, but the forum doesn't seem to take htm's. I'll try to come up with something better (may take a little time - we're in the middle of moving).

Mike

When you have time please post some larger pictures, what a find!

Isn't that about ONE MILLION BTU's? It isn't an job for a 'small' stoker. Lots of square feet to warm up and keep warm.
Remember, it's not a job, it's an ADVENTURE! (acknowledging all you current and ex-navy guys, too)
60 lbs a hour....Do you have a rail spur design ready for implementation? 100 ton loads would be great. Get a skid steer in the basement to play with....and a Vactor Truck to do the ashes.....
Love to see that home.....someone was very affluent, and it is nice to preserve that part of history.
The 85R will 'set off the satellites', they will think some "Thermal Event" is in progress!!! Just send them off to 'Alice's Restaurant' for a 'Sit long, talk much' session.
The pics can wait, but the 'voyeurs' on this site sure love them. Hope the move is effortless and that you can stay very comfortable in the 'new digs'.

That boiler is a monster...can you imagine the arms on the guys that originally screwed that steam system together? Not only were some big wrenches involved...someone was very smart to design the system to begin with. The best of the best at the time, two pipe steam.

whistlenut wrote:Isn't that about ONE MILLION BTU's? It isn't an job for a 'small' stoker. Lots of square feet to warm up and keep warm.
Remember, it's not a job, it's an ADVENTURE! (acknowledging all you current and ex-navy guys, too)
60 lbs a hour....Do you have a rail spur design ready for implementation? 100 ton loads would be great. Get a skid steer in the basement to play with....and a Vactor Truck to do the ashes.....
Love to see that home.....someone was very affluent, and it is nice to preserve that part of history.
The 85R will 'set off the satellites', they will think some "Thermal Event" is in progress!!! Just send them off to 'Alice's Restaurant' for a 'Sit long, talk much' session.
The pics can wait, but the 'voyeurs' on this site sure love them. Hope the move is effortless and that you can stay very comfortable in the 'new digs'.

Yes, running flat out it's a gross input of something like 1.1 million btus/hour. I've been running on 12 teeth, which equates to about 60 lb or 780,000 btu/hr. I've been told the Mills 350 likes to be run hard - maybe I'll crank it up a bit when the cold weather arrives.

Tomorrow I'm planning to take a measurement of actual consumption - could be scary. Local terrain for a rail spur is difficult, but I probably should be looking for someone with a dumper for a transload movement.

Mike

markviii wrote:That boiler is a monster...can you imagine the arms on the guys that originally screwed that steam system together? Not only were some big wrenches involved...someone was very smart to design the system to begin with. The best of the best at the time, two pipe steam.

Little did those guys know that their creation would fall into the hands of a Girlie Man.

Mike

When the Coal Pile Manager let the auger become exposed so the fire went out I decided it would be a good time to attempt a thorough cleaning. This also provided an opportunity to (re-)install the original fire/viewing door, which I found had thoughtfully been saved by previous owners. Either that or it was too heavy so they thought it was easier to leave it in the basement. In either case, this provided an opportunity for a few more pics.

Mike

I am absolutely dumbfounded by the size of that unit.

The other day I saw someone selling a 500k Coal Gun on craigslist and thought that was a big boiler. Not compared to this!

Great job Mike, nice find and love what you've done to it.

Steve

EarthWindandFire wrote:I am absolutely dumbfounded by the size of that unit.

The other day I saw someone selling a 500k Coal Gun on craigslist and thought that was a big boiler. Not compared to this!

I had a similar reaction the first time I saw it. After a while you get used to it; it's even sort of "user-friendly" in some respects, particularly clean-out access. And if it has run at any time in the last 72 hours, you won't be cold while you're working on it!

Mike

Townsend wrote:Great job Mike, nice find and love what you've done to it.

Steve

Steve -

Thanks very much for your kind words. It fit our needs nicely, and I'm not sure what we would have done without it.

Mike

Holy cow! A mills boiler in a house? More like historic MANSION! I've done schools with smaller boilers. That 85R stoker won't begin to tax the capacity of that boiler. You could burn a ton a day of coal with that stoker! Keep the shovel handy. Cancel the gym membership. You will get a workout shovelling coal and hauling ash.

Yes, the nameplate says the capacity of the 350 is more like 1.4M btu/hr, so we could really open up the 85R if needed. We're running at about 60 lb/hr, and with that we fill all the radiators with steam and build a small positive pressure but rarely hit the high pressure cutoff. When it hit -20 deg F last winter the stoker ran for about 14 hours/day, so that's about 840 lb - not a ton, but still a workout!

Trying to improve coal and ash handling logistics this year. Aiming to bring the coal to the bin in 55 gallon drums if I can find a reasonable way to dump them into the bin. Suggestions always welcome!

Thanks.

Mike