Franco Belge 92-125 Coal Boiler: I need information

I have an opportunity to buy a Franco Belge 92-125 Coal Boiler, but I can't find much information about that boiler. If you get this within the next 5 days, I'd appreciate if you could answer any of the following questions:

* BTU rating
* Do you know of a place where the manual is available online? (I tried googling, but no luck so far.)
* Do you have any other recommendations or concerns about that boiler?

If you happen to own the same boiler:
* would you be willing to photocopy all or part of your manual (for a reasonable fee)
* or, could you answer some detailed questions if I buy the boiler--see next item...
* I looked at the boiler in person (it is for sale within 10 miles of me). Some of the internals look strange to me with some extra grates I would not have expected. I can go into detail later, but, if I buy the boiler, I'd like to do something like describe those grates to you and see if you can tell me where (or if) they belong.
* What size(s) coal does it burn--based on some leftover pieces in the grate, they look like (partially burned down) pieces of nut coal--too big for pea, and I don't think you could burn rice based on the size of the grate (ideally, I'd like to burn nut, as that matches what I burn in my wood/coal stove).

Thanks!
rhkramer

The model number is 92-125. Is there some other name / designation I could use to search for the manual online?

I don't know if it is intended to burn both wood and coal. It would be nice if it could burn wood long term.

I don't have any pictures, but the eBay listing does--see eBay listing

rhkramer

The grate looks like a wood burning grate, I don't see anyway to shake the grate to remove coal ash from the coal bed.. maybe I'm missing something.

Does the boiler have a different set of grates with it or available to burn coal?

Otherwise it's a nice looking little boiler, are you sure it's big enough for your heating needs ??

Greg L

LsFarm wrote:The grate looks like a wood burning grate, I don't see anyway to shake the grate to remove coal ash from the coal bed.. maybe I'm missing something.

That probably answers one of my questions--one of the extra grates is apparently for burning wood.

LsFarm wrote:Does the boiler have a different set of grates with it or available to burn coal?

Below the one you see is a grate that is more like a coal shaker grate.

LsFarm wrote:Otherwise it's a nice looking little boiler, are you sure it's big enough for your heating needs ??

I don't have any information on it, no nameplate on the stove indicates anything other than the model (92-125) and what I'll call boilerplate, e.g., it says Franco Belge, ... But, no BTU rating and such.

Can you show a photo or a link to the other grate you describe??

How many square feet of house are you heating, and what are you useing to heat it right now??

Greg L

franco b wrote:The 92 series were rated to produce 76,000 or 100,000 BTU. I don't know which one this is.

Thanks!

franco b wrote:Franco Belge is a quality maker but I do think you might have to make some modifications like adding fire brick to reduce the size of the combustion chamber which is invariably sized for wood. This may or may not be easy. Bargain price I would buy it especially since you want to burn wood.

LsFarm wrote:Can you show a photo or a link to the other grate you describe??

Not really, the only pictures I have are the ones you can see on the eBay listing. But, one of those shows the bottom door, on which you can see the places to put a square wrench to shake the grates. I didn't try to shake the grates--it looks like if I'd try shaking them empty (or without the other grate in place), I could raise them almost vertically and let anything above them drop into the ash pan.

But, with a load of coal or wood there, I wouldn't expect that to be a problem.

LsFarm wrote:How many square feet of house are you heating, and what are you useing to heat it right now??

About 2000 square feet. The last two (mild) winters, I managed it with a (big) Gibraltar coal / wood stove in the living space. In colder winters, I use a coal fired boiler in the basement. It is an odd thing--sort of a self feeder, but nothing like you see in American stores--it came from England. It can only burn rice coal, the coal tends to bridge and stop feeding, allowing the fire to go out, and I worry about getting repair parts for it, or with its age, having it start to leak. To keep the fire from going out, I have to poke through the coal feed area every 2 to 3 hours, more often if it's very cold (and calling for more heat).

The brand name is Trianco--if you've ever seen or heard of one, I'll be impressed.