Coal Gun by Alternate Heating Systems

Anyone have experience with the coal gun? How well does it work? Any better than other stokers? Any worse?

Thanks

Like any of the stoker boilers, they have advantages and disadvantages. Based on the Coal Gun owners I have talked to, here is a short summary of the pro's and con's I have heard.

Pro - The unit comes fully assembled and can fit through narrow doorways.
Pro - The unit is very efficient when run at moderate to full capacity.
Pro - It is designed to burn pea or buck size anthracite; both of which are normally more plentiful than rice.
Pro - It only requires a 5 or 6" chimney thimble.

Con - The height of the hopper can be a problem for some basements...and some arms/shoulders.
Con - Unless you purchase an additional auger, you are limited to the coal capacity of the hopper.
Con - The ashing control and draft must be properly "tuned" or you can get explosions of coal gasses.
Con - During periods of low demand, the coal on the perimeter of the combustion area may not burn completely...resulting in unburned coal in the ashes.

Before I purchased an EFM 520, I considered a Coal Gun. My low basement ceiling made the EFM more practical for my situation. I also liked the EFM's adjustable feed rate.

Hi John, the AHS is a gravity feed version of the AA boiler, the boiler vessels are otherwise virtually identical.

do you have a desire to have a very large coal supply hopper so you only have to 'look at' the supply hopper once a week or month? keep if full with a tractor loader? Or do you not mind the idea of hand filling a hopper every few days ? if you want the big hopper, then you want an AA or an EFM, you can use the AHS, but an add on auger must be purchased.

You could design your out building with a tractor-fill able hopper on one end, and the coal boiler at the other end, with a pedstrian door access, and an ash dump nearby.

Greg L