help choosing a hand fired boiler

Hello everyone my name is Steve. I have been burning coal about 28 years. My boiler is a De Dietrich CF 120 6 section cast iron. Alas the time has come to replace it,it cracked during it's first fire this year. I use coal oniy during the coldest months. Normaly would get 12 hour cycle unless real cold and windy. Our house is 2400 sq ft built in the 20s. my oil fired boiler , I think a converted coal unit,is 4 sections cast iron firing .85 gph.I also use a Harman P68 on the first floor. The De Dietrich is very similar to the Attack Boilers being sold by New Herizons Corp.. I would like to buy a locally manufactured unit.Is there any cast iron boilers any more? If not I have been checking out Harman Trident , EFM WCB , and New Yorker. Any reviewes and suggestions would be great.

AHS makes a multi-fuel boiler. I have one with a oil Gun attached. Easy to load and shake down,built soild.
http://www.alternateheatingsystems.com/ ... ilers.aspx

Has anyone who contributes here ever found success with a D.S. Machine hand fired boiler? They seem so simple and straightforward in their function and robust in their design that I could never believe the endless problems the one gentleman on this form who had one agonizingly experienced.

EFM makes a very nice hand fed boiler, it is very well constructed and one of the few that is designed to burn anthracite as a primary fuel.

If your current oil boiler was built to use coal, my first thought would be to consider a conversion stoker for it. That's probably because my collection of them seems to be breeding like rabbits in the garage. But seriously, it would combine a cast iron boiler that's already installed with the benefits of coal and the control of oil.

Mike

I went tried a hand fired boiler using a DS machine for a 1-1/2 heating season(s) . My advice is step away and purchase a new or used stoker like AHS, EFM , or Keystoker. My AHS260 outperforms the hand fed unit for heat output and gave me my life back from cutting, stacking,feeding and fussing a hand fed unit all day long. I had a bunch of trees fall from Hurricane Sandy and my neighbor came down with his buddy for the fire wood. They noticed my AHS in the shop and watched it work for for two hours in amazement and kept asking when I had to fuss with it . I said in a day or so the ash pan will need empty, they were just drooling ..

Macdabs

I have a New Yorker WC90. We've mostly burned wood in it. Tried coal for the 1st time last weekend. Burned really nice, a lot less work than wood, more consistent and can achieve higher temps without additional work. I'm struggling to keep a coal fire going for more than 10 -14 hours, but that's likely operator error. Will try coal again when the temps drop below 30 and stay there.