burnham sfb 101

blrman07 wrote:the boiler PLUS a B&G circ pump for $250!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did you laugh all the way home? See below for the price of the pump by itself NEW~~~


Bell and Gossett 103252 NBF-22 Circ Pump

List Price:
$363.46
Price:
$363.31
You Save:
$0.15 (0%)


B
Bell and Gossett
Model:
103252

Yes, the guy that went with me and I did laugh about it a little, and the boiler is in excellent shape. The circ pump runs when you hook it up to 110v and I can't wait to fire it for the first time. Now I just need about $400 worth of supplies and to decide what I am going to do about a chimney / chimney pipe and come up with the $ for that

update,

the boiler is installed and was fired for the first time Wednesday. I have had no real issues yet and i will post pics of the install soon.

I do have a few questions though, The boiler is a natural draft boiler and has removable baffles that are between the fire and the top of the firebox. in the manual it only mentions that these baffles are "not required for coal firing". It seems to me that they would help hold heat in the stove, but at the same time reduce airflow. does anyone have any advice and or theories about using these baffles while burning coal?

I'd leave the baffles in if it was mine, they improve heat transfer considerably. Burnham has been a round for a while, they used to be in Lancaster PA, not sure if if they are still building boilers there. For $250, you should go to jail for stealing! Wish I'd seen it first!

Ops

Boots wrote:The boiler is a natural draft boiler and has removable baffles that are between the fire and the top of the firebox. in the manual it only mentions that these baffles are "not required for coal firing". It seems to me that they would help hold heat in the stove, but at the same time reduce airflow. does anyone have any advice and or theories about using these baffles while burning coal?

Pics would help. It sounds like something that may just collect flyash more than likely. If the baffle slides, it is a bypass damper and should be opened prior to opening the loading door. Its use would prevent smoke spillage when reloading with the door open by changing the exhaust gas path from front to rear.

Make sure that thing is filled to the top of the firebrick every time you load it. A V shaped firebox is not very forgiving if your fire is thin. Mound it right up on those cold nights.

the baffles im asking about are just above the coal in this picture



here is another view of them, just between the coal and the fire tubes. (center of the picture.

That is used to create a longer path for the hot gasses. It will probably collect a lot of flyash. I would run it for a while with it and when you shut it down to clean it, pull it out and try it without it. It may wind up that it keeps your tubes cleaner........ or not. Ash collecting on that baffle should not affect performance, on the tubes it will.

here are some pictures of my entire system

side view




the 2 boilers from the side



the oil boiler exhausted into the power venter.



some of the things you may be wondering about my pictures,
the white pvc pipe you see over the corner of the coal boiler in the first and second picture is a radon reduction system.

the boilers are plumbed with the two returns connected and the two feeds connected, the circulator pump on the return line of the coal boiler runs 24/7 pumping toward the coal unit, and there is a zone valve after the expansion tank and after where the two feeds tee together. the zone valve opens when the main circulator pump comes on, which only comes on when the house calls for heat or the coal boiler over temps.

i keep the boiler set at 190* and the over temp at 205* (the manual recommends 200* and 210*, i think they have bumped their head) and the aquastat on the oil boiler is set at 160* hi and 140* low. right now the only time the oil boiler fires is at night, after about a 15 hour burn i poke the fire shake it down and add coal if the house calls for heat shortly after that the oil burner will fire and the water temp stays above 160* thereafter.

Hey Boots - I am currently looking at a sfb-101 boiler to burn coal. Nice pick-up nice set-up.

I have some questions?
How many gallons of water does it hold? It has a water jacket not coil?
What size anthracite coal?
How do you shake the grates?
Looks like you able to get a manual, thats great.

TCMW wrote:Hey Boots - I am currently looking at a sfb-101 boiler to burn coal. Nice pick-up nice set-up.

I have some questions?
How many gallons of water does it hold? It has a water jacket not coil?
What size anthracite coal?
How do you shake the grates?
Looks like you able to get a manual, thats great.

Sorry im so late replying to you, I just now found this post.

It holds 43 gallons of water. it is a water jacket type, no coil

I use nut coal but you could use larger, any smaller than nut would probably fall through the grates

there was a shaker handle supplied with the unit, you open the "ash" door and insert the square peg on the end of the shaker grate into the square hole in the handle, and shake vigorously back and fourth being careful not to turn the grate so far that you dump your fire.

Yes, i was able to locate a manual thanks to a member of this forum, I also have a .pdf version that i would be happy to email you if you were interested.

if you have any more questions please feel free to ask!

Thxs Boots

What did you do for low water cut-off??
it is mandatory here to have it.

i didnt buy the unit yet.
1. because of the low water cut off issue and
2. because i need 36' of 8" dbl wall pipe(tring to find used).

Thxs

I'm not sure what you mean by " low water cut off".
I have an automatic fill valve that adds more water to the system if the pressure ever gets below 12 psi.

A low water fuel cutoff (LWCO) is a safety device mounted on or just above the boiler. It has a float inside a chamber so in the event you have a bad leak and you lose water from the system faster than it can be made up the float will drop down with the water level in the boiler shutting it down so you don't burn up the boiler. You find them primarily on automatic fired boilers so in the event the low water cutoff activates, it shuts power off to the burner system. Some jurisdictions require them to be installed on boilers with an input in excess of 200K BTU per hour. Many however exempt homes and apartment buildings with three or less units. A LWCO mounted on a hand fired boiler using only natural draft is kinda useless IMHO. Those with a forced draft or induced draft fan will have the LWCO wired up to shut down the fan. However there is no power to be shut off in the event a natural draft boiler runs out of water.

For hand fired natural draft boilers I have seen them wired up to activate an alarm of some type or turn a red light on somewhere.

Pastor Larry

blrman07 wrote:A low water fuel cutoff (LWCO) is a safety device mounted on or just above the boiler. It has a float inside a chamber so in the event you have a bad leak and you lose water from the system faster than it can be made up the float will drop down with the water level in the boiler shutting it down so you don't burn up the boiler. You find them primarily on automatic fired boilers so in the event the low water cutoff activates, it shuts power off to the burner system. Some jurisdictions require them to be installed on boilers with an input in excess of 200K BTU per hour. Many however exempt homes and apartment buildings with three or less units. A LWCO mounted on a hand fired boiler using only natural draft is kinda useless IMHO. Those with a forced draft or induced draft fan will have the LWCO wired up to shut down the fan. However there is no power to be shut off in the event a natural draft boiler runs out of water.

For hand fired natural draft boilers I have seen them wired up to activate an alarm of some type or turn a red light on somewhere.

Pastor Larry

Thank you pastor Larry. That is about what i guessed it would be, but i did not know. I do not have a low water cut off in my system.