First Fire SF260 Harman Boiler

 
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wilder11354
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Location: Montrose, Pa.
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Harman SF260 Boiler
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hitzer 50-93
Coal Size/Type: nut or pea, anthracite
Other Heating: crown oil boiler, backup.if needed

Post by wilder11354 » Wed. Dec. 21, 2011 10:06 pm

Well its a learning experience for sure. Started with wood, not a huge big wood fire, added about 2 small shovels of coal by fire, and a little on top. Closed feed door, left ash door open. walked away. came back 5 minutes later, open feed door some of coal was strating to get red on it, added a little bit more around it, and little more on top. waalked away again for ten minutes or so. Went thru this process for a goood 2 hours or so, always leaving ash door open to be sure it had good air flow from below. red glow in ash pan area I assume means its burning. open upper vent knobs for about 30 seconds check for flames on top. They were there, blue, but not a lot of them. mostly in middle. water temp is hanging in at 165>170... alls closed now but air draft dampner motoer, its opn, will be watching this for another hour or two, and see if temp climbs any higher on water. Baro damps set at 4, don't see it moving at all.

will let you know how it goes. Weathers not the coldest, but have to learn by doing.


 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Wed. Dec. 21, 2011 10:28 pm

Congratulations. Keep us informed as to your progress. I'm intrigued by the simplicity of a hand fed boiler system. I looked at a few of the DS Machine boilers before going with the AHS. Is the SF260 more automated than the DS Machine boilers?

 
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LsFarm
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Post by LsFarm » Wed. Dec. 21, 2011 10:32 pm

You won't be sucessfull with a small fire, load the firebox full, up to the top of the firebricks, side to side front to back. The coal must be deep to have a 'happy' fire. Once the fire has spread over the whole firebox, then the water will get hot.

Greg L

 
grumpy
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Post by grumpy » Wed. Dec. 21, 2011 10:47 pm

When I was new at burning coal, and I still am I learned one thing from everyone here, and that is Don't Walk Away with the ash pan open... just saying..

 
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wilder11354
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Posts: 1221
Joined: Sat. Jan. 29, 2011 10:48 pm
Location: Montrose, Pa.
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Harman SF260 Boiler
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hitzer 50-93
Coal Size/Type: nut or pea, anthracite
Other Heating: crown oil boiler, backup.if needed

Post by wilder11354 » Wed. Dec. 21, 2011 10:49 pm

Got the coal as high as the firebox bricks. Just took me a good while to put coal in without stiffling out embers that were burning in beginning of firing up. Last check, opened ash dooor, then top air knobs for a few seconds, open firebox door, no blue flames, but after a few seconds they sprang out of bed of coal.

Air draft motor door has a plate, and a pin that opens flapper for air. ?/ is can the pin be located into another holeso it has more air enterig(open more)? seems like recover heat load is sluggish or is that normal?

Set house thermostats all at 70 for now, seeing how it is still warm this year compared to last.

 
grumpy
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Post by grumpy » Wed. Dec. 21, 2011 10:55 pm

I find with my stove that over the fire air tends to get the blue lady's to come out of hiding, then that seems to help get the fire going faster.. but at the same time you can't keep the loading door open to get them, if ya know what I mean.

 
shaggy
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Post by shaggy » Wed. Dec. 21, 2011 11:21 pm

I started burning in mid October for the first time with my SF260 and I found that to get it up to 180 I had to load it higher then the fire bricks. I usually keep the sides at about the top of the bricks and heap the coal in the center. The manual says to load up to ten inches and I think it's only six inches or so to the top of the bricks from the grates. The only thing I don't like is the metal flap that hangs down in front of the feed door, not sure what it does except prevent you from loading a heaped shovel full of coal in without making a mess. When it was warmer I only used 1/2 the firebox or so now I'm using about 2/3's of it and it seems to be working good. The recovery is probably normal mine seems the same way sometimes but it always seems to keep up with my demand. I did learn the hard way that a dump zone is a requirement. I have an old cast iron radiator in my garage set up as my dump zone and on warmer days it would push some heat to it. It was working fine until a couple weeks ago when the zone circulator for my garage zone failed. I was lucky to come home when I did because she was piping hot my basement was filled with steam and the needle was pegged as high as it could go. I shoveled out the remaining coal and got it to cool down and luckily aside from the bad pump the only other casualty was an air vent. I have since added another aquastat and now have two dump zones just to be on the safe side.


 
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wilder11354
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Location: Montrose, Pa.
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Harman SF260 Boiler
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hitzer 50-93
Coal Size/Type: nut or pea, anthracite
Other Heating: crown oil boiler, backup.if needed

Post by wilder11354 » Wed. Dec. 21, 2011 11:33 pm

have 2 zones in house wired for as dump zones. Oh I've read about leaving ash door open and walking away. Done checkingi it for tonight, will see what it looks like in morning.

first pics with flash..its burning, second pic no flash, see the blue flames.

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shaggy
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Post by shaggy » Wed. Dec. 21, 2011 11:49 pm

Here is mine I loaded it up for the night about an hour ago. By morning and after a poke and a shake it will be level at or just below the top of the bricks. It was right at 180 so I think the draft door just closed judging by the looks of the fire.

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wilder11354
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Posts: 1221
Joined: Sat. Jan. 29, 2011 10:48 pm
Location: Montrose, Pa.
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Harman SF260 Boiler
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hitzer 50-93
Coal Size/Type: nut or pea, anthracite
Other Heating: crown oil boiler, backup.if needed

Post by wilder11354 » Thu. Dec. 22, 2011 7:55 pm

shaggy wrote:Here is mine I loaded it up for the night about an hour ago. By morning and after a poke and a shake it will be level at or just below the top of the bricks. It was right at 180 so I think the draft door just closed judging by the looks of the fire.
My aux air draft door never closes, At least while I am either awake or here. outside Temps have been hovering right around 48* or so during days, nights are a few degrees cooler. Possibly I am not getting a good draft out chimmney. No, I don't have a manometer to check draft, if so would have to go thru a double(air insulated) flue pipe. My dampners bob weight is on the left side for horizontal installs. my flue where its mounte is on a 45* incline, dampner is mounted vert & horizontally per leveling directions(bubble level). No movement of dampner that I have noticed so far. Hope weather gets cooler soon so I can see if colder temps get a better draft.

 
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Post by mikeym70 » Thu. Dec. 22, 2011 10:13 pm

I burn my SF260 at around 160 degrees or less on a regular basis. @ 160 degree max water temp the house keeps an easy 72 and often times there is no call for heat in this weather. I have a small dump zone that is hooked to an L6006 aquastat. When the water temp gets to 180 it pumps to the garage just to keep that from being too cold to work in. I often only have a small fire in the front of the fire box and 'push' some of my ash to the back of the box to keep that sealed up. Last year I used 3.5 tons - keeps my 4000 sq ft home plenty warm. It's not insulated very well either - concrete block construction with 1/2" foam on the interior of the 2nd floor and next to no insulatin on the first floor. Once you get it figured out you'll be happy with the boiler. It took me about a month of goofing with it to really understand how/when to load the boiler and to what point. I even have the wifey loading it when I'm not around - it's that easy! :D

 
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whistlenut
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Post by whistlenut » Thu. Dec. 22, 2011 10:25 pm

I would like to mention NOT leaving the ash door open for extended periods. We all hate bad press, and more importantly, we strive for 'zero accidents'.
Please make a mental note about the extra air being unregulated when you are away from the boiler. This is true for wood as a fuel, oil, gas, everything that can kill you if it gets out of control....... :idea: :idea: :shock:

 
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I'm On Fire
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Post by I'm On Fire » Fri. Dec. 23, 2011 9:20 am

shaggy wrote:Here is mine I loaded it up for the night about an hour ago. By morning and after a poke and a shake it will be level at or just below the top of the bricks. It was right at 180 so I think the draft door just closed judging by the looks of the fire.
Nice picture. I have trying to get an awesome pic like that from my stove but don't know how to do it. How do you get it to look like that in the pic?

 
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Post by shaggy » Fri. Dec. 23, 2011 9:22 am

Weak draft could be the problem, at first I thought I may of had the same problem then a friend suggested mounding the coal. Once I did that she started to burn excellent. Looking at your picture with the flash on it looks like you have a small mound towards the back of the pile but it doesn't look like there is anything burning. It took me a little while to get it running good and when I have had to restart it, it takes a few hours to get it burning good. I would sit there with the ash door open for an hour or so before I could get a good burn going I even put a small 6" fan in front of the door to help things along but in the end I learned that the less you mess with it the better you are. It needs time to get going and I think that opening the load door a lot was part of my problem. If you can't get a good fire going even with the ash door open then I would say you have poor draft and hopefully colder weather will help then once your up and running you should be good. I have burned 24/7 even through the 65 degree warm spells we have had with no issues at all.

 
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Post by shaggy » Fri. Dec. 23, 2011 9:24 am

I'm On Fire wrote:
shaggy wrote:Here is mine I loaded it up for the night about an hour ago. By morning and after a poke and a shake it will be level at or just below the top of the bricks. It was right at 180 so I think the draft door just closed judging by the looks of the fire.
Nice picture. I have trying to get an awesome pic like that from my stove but don't know how to do it. How do you get it to look like that in the pic?
Good timing I guess. It looks like that usually right at the end of a good burn right before or just after the draft flapper closes.


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