Any AA-220 owners

Hi,
I know this boiler is relatively new to the market, but are there any owners here who could share their thoughts on the AA-220? I am considering it as an option for my home.
I would be very appreciative of any feedback.

Best Regards,
Gary

I know you have all the tech data, and Matt and Dave will PM with you also. This should be an interesting topic as the old timers hash out your capacities required for the square footage you need to 'condition'. For years I've used AA's of 130K in situations where an oil or gas boiler would be in the 260K range. also have a place with 2 260's that heat in excess of 8000 sq ft each....AND provide domestic hot water.
Sometimes "Slow and Steady" wins the race, and I'm interested in seeing how this plays out.

I've seen both the LL 110 and the LL 220 in person, and they are remarkable to say the least. The argument of deep bed stokers vs inclined grate stokers will surely come up...always does.
The bottom line is ALWAYS: Will this unit effortlessly satisfy the heating and hot water demands of my home. One LL220 is easily providing heat for a 6000 sq ft truck stop garage. We ALL know that the doors to that place are always opening, and still the boiler is smiling away, asking for 'more'. Keep the info coming, guys!!

I haven't run one myself, but the few I have spoken to that have seen them in action were very impressed.

Hope this isn't a sidetrack, but 'whistlenut', how would you outline the advantages/disadvantages to the deep bed and inclined grate stokers? Just trying to learn all we can. Thanks.

My 220 will be arriving next Tuesday so I will let you know. I am getting rid of the FO boiler and I couldn't be more excited to get the new boilder up and running!!!

And so another one comes over to the Dark Side.

Guess you'll be changing your Stove/Furnace Make.

billybones
New Member

Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2012 4:34 pm
Stove/Furnace Make: undecided

Hello all ....I am new to the forum and I am in the process of the first time lighting of my AA220 right now. At 120F and working through the idle firing process at the moment. This is my first boiler of any sorts. So I will only be able to provide limited information and only specific to this model.

dfridleyjr wrote:Hello all ....I am new to the forum and I am in the process of the first time lighting of my AA220 right now. At 120F and working through the idle firing process at the moment. This is my first boiler of any sorts. So I will only be able to provide limited information and only specific to this model.

Don't worry about the idle too much in the beginning. First get the max feedrate (The threaded rod on the feeder ) set for both burners so they are even and burning fully. May take a few cycles but take the time to get them right it will be worth it. You can put the idle timers at 6 or 7 min off and 1 min on as a god starting point while you are adjusting the max. Leave the rheostats to full on which is counterclockwise all the way just before the click. You can turn the combustion rheostat down a little about 1/4 turn if you want. Once you are satisfied with the max fire you should have a full fire all the way to the end of the grate with no red coals jumping overboard. Now you can play with the timers, try opening the off time a little at first but try to stay below 8mins if you get to 8 and that is enough to keep from the boiler from going to far over the high set point t leave it be. If it continues to 200 then shorten the on time a little, make very small adjustments and let it cycle a few times between adjustments. If all is well and maintaining temps well you are done and from this point on you should only have to add coal and empty the ashpan as needed.
Were people get into trouble they see the temp climbing and decide to slow it down by turning the max adj down. 1 turn on the threaded rod has a huge effect on the timers, so again once the max is set properly leave it alone. If it over shoots to often and keeps hitting the high limit only adjust the timers or if it is close you can use the rheostats to really dial it in.

Thanks greatly for the input. Right now the Low Limit is set at 150 and the HL at 180. I have not seen the boiler get over 152F on the aquastat but the Tridicator only shows about 100F.
Other than that my settings are about as you described.... I just opened the idle time to 7 as you suggested from an original setting of 6. What I am observing and wondering if it is correct is: on the end of the grate the "ash" (which has a lot of chunks in it so I have a hard time calling it ash ) is about 1 inch thick. Is the feed rate too high and not completely burning the coal or is this normal? The ash at full burn is about 1/2 inch away from the end of the grate, which is where I start to see the red hot coals and the blue flame start. Does this all sound right?

Although I am new to coal I am an ex-Naval Submariner Machinist Mate/LDO and used a reactor to generate the power/heat. I understand the heat cycle, I just need to get some better understanding on the different components in this system and the overall steady state to steady state theory. The manual from LL explains it pretty well but now that I am applying theory to practice and see real results, it opens the breadth of questions a little bit.

Thanks much Flyer.

dfridleyjr wrote:Thanks greatly for the input. Right now the Low Limit is set at 150 and the HL at 180. I have not seen the boiler get over 152F on the aquastat but the Tridicator only shows about 100F.
Other than that my settings are about as you described.... I just opened the idle time to 7 as you suggested from an original setting of 6. What I am observing and wondering if it is correct is: on the end of the grate the "ash" (which has a lot of chunks in it so I have a hard time calling it ash ) is about 1 inch thick. Is the feed rate too high and not completely burning the coal or is this normal? The ash at full burn is about 1/2 inch away from the end of the grate, which is where I start to see the red hot coals and the blue flame start. Does this all sound right?

Although I am new to coal I am an ex-Naval Submariner Machinist Mate/LDO and used a reactor to generate the power/heat. I understand the heat cycle, I just need to get some better understanding on the different components in this system and the overall steady state to steady state theory. The manual from LL explains it pretty well but now that I am applying theory to practice and see real results, it opens the breadth of questions a little bit.

Thanks much Flyer.

I think what you are seeing is a clinker. Could be the coal its not going to hurt anything just the iron in the coal fusing. It may go away it may just be a product of the fast heat cycles in the beginning.
Your setting sounds correct. Just make sure it does not seem like it will go out at idle watch it through a few more full run cycles then play with the timers.

Everything is going quite well. Couple of questions:

1. When the coal is fed to the grates I am getting coal dropping to the floor of the burn area next to the ash pan (I moved the ash pan over so I am not dropping it into the pan anymore) and not onto the grates. After about 2 days now there is a gallon of coal I will need to scoop out. Is this normal or do I have something misaligned on the feeder/grate area?

2. I am using almost 2 bags of coal per day and feel (probably more hopeful) that this is more than it should be. However if I back off the feed screws the boiler will continue to burn and run the cycle completely but it is now about 1 to 1.5 inches from the end of the grate where the red coals start. I think this is too far?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

dfridleyjr wrote:Everything is going quite well. Couple of questions:

1. When the coal is fed to the grates I am getting coal dropping to the floor of the burn area next to the ash pan (I moved the ash pan over so I am not dropping it into the pan anymore) and not onto the grates. After about 2 days now there is a gallon of coal I will need to scoop out. Is this normal or do I have something misaligned on the feeder/grate area?

2. I am using almost 2 bags of coal per day and feel (probably more hopeful) that this is more than it should be. However if I back off the feed screws the boiler will continue to burn and run the cycle completely but it is now about 1 to 1.5 inches from the end of the grate where the red coals start. I think this is too far?

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Sounds like one or both grates are not properly seated . Is it coming out from the back corners ? If it it is it will have to be shut down and the grate needs to be reseated. Its also too early to gauge your coal usage you use a lot more till things get up to temp. With this weather i would expect 1 bag till it gets colder.

It appears to be falling from the back corners in between the two grates. That is where the tallest part of the pile is. Boiler is off and cooling down to investigate the seating of the grates.

In regards to your reply about the system needing to be up to temperature to know the actual burn rate at the present outside conditions I would think that after 60 hours of operation all heat sources and heat loads would be at steady state.

If the grates are not pushed all of the way back or seated appropiately then I would see that as a potential for lack of burning efficiency.

Thanks again.

dfridleyjr wrote:2. I am using almost 2 bags of coal per day and feel (probably more hopeful) that this is more than it should be. However if I back off the feed screws the boiler will continue to burn and run the cycle completely but it is now about 1 to 1.5 inches from the end of the grate where the red coals start. I think this is too far?

What kind of load are you putting on the boiler? Are you running both stokers?

There is a grate setback ( 1.5" with no air holes) that the cooling ash passes over before dropping into the ash tub, so you reddish mass of burning coal should stop at that point and become burned grey ash.
Have you operated this unit long enough to determine the load setting? We have had only one cold night this season, so unless you are heating an Olympic sized pool or radiant floor, your usage seems high. Those 110K stokers are VERY efficient, and it isn't even winter yet......as Dave asks: is one or both of the grates not sitting in the proper place. Moving the boiler could have done that during the install process. I am sure it is a solution you will know more about than any other who don't have this boiler. The stoker is simple and damned near bulletproof!

Yes, 60 hrs is plenty of time to run, but I'll bet you still have a small load on the boiler.