Purchased a home with an EFM A520W in the basement

Hi everyone,

This forum has been a wealth of knowledge.

I purchased my first home back in December, and in the basement is an EFM A520W dual fuel (oil/coal) auto stoker boiler.
It is heating my house with cast iron rads, and domestic hot water. It is currently set up to run on oil with a Beckett burner. However, it has a 10 foot worm shaft connecting to a 55 gallon drum hopper.

I found the original instruction and operational manuals for this unit, along with a few other documents in the basement. It appears to be dated 1973-1976 or the early 1970's.

Before purchasing the home, we contracted with UGI to convert to natural gas. As soon as they can dig, I am having a mod/con Triangle Tube Solo 110 and an indirect fired water heater installed. The 520 has been serving us the past two months without issue to heat our two story 1800 ft2 home. As part of the home inspection, we had the unit serviced, and the plumber said it is in great shape.

My plumbing contractor is going to place it on a pallet in my basement when he installs the gas boiler. I am thinking of selling it. Would anyone be able to provide a ball park estimate of what an asking price would be? Is their a used/refurbished market for these in Northeastern PA or Upstate NY?

I am located near Wilkes-Barre, and can provide pictures of the setup.

Thanks in advance for your help,


Gas Burner

Yes there is a market. And around $3500.00, depending on who's looking to buy.

Oh, Heck no! You ought to be able to get $4800 for that. Just kidding It's got to be in really good shape, almost brand new to garner that kind of money. It's an older model.

You won't have any trouble selling it. If you have the stock oil burner package, it would be at least '79 or newer. Does it have a square door on the front? Then it should be a DF520 model. If it's an AP520W, then maybe it's one of the first dual fuels with the old round door.

I'm going to get pictures up later today after I shovel out.
Thanks to everyone for their input and advice.

Why not have it plumbed in and left in place? NG will go up in price eventually. Then again if you have plenty of $$ it is a mute point.

I rather like having a couple of heating units to work with. Helps me keep a little bit more of what I work so hard for.

I would leave it in place, plumb in the NG boiler in a P/S loop, and keep both units.. As Cabinover said above, NG won't stay cheap forever.

Greg L

cabinover wrote:Why not have it plumbed in and left in place? NG will go up in price eventually. Then again if you have plenty of $$ it is a mute point.

I rather like having a couple of heating units to work with. Helps me keep a little bit more of what I work so hard for.

That's a great old unit you have there Gas. I might be temped to keep it and see what NG does.

I'm with you Cabinover. I have two coal stoves, a Jotul propane Allagash unit and an oil steam boiler in the basement. Mix and match.

Are you really sure you want to sell it? You just might develop an interest in the culture that belies the lifestyle. You are very lucky to have NG available to you, so I do understand your logic.
I suggest, as many others, leave it plumbed in, with shut off valves. The T-Tube unit is an absolute contradiction in technology with the extremely 'low-mass method' vs the 'adequate thermal mass heat retention method'.

Along with hundreds of forum members, I will suggest that you will never be as comfortable with any other form of heat as you will be with coal.
Please don't fall for the 'sucker punch' of : Why would you go backwards in technology and use a carbon based fuel.......when the NG is SOOOOOOOOO efficient and clean.

Also, as to the value of your unit, I'm thinking that a rebuild will be necessary, and that keeps the value below 3000.00 unless someone absolutely has to have the boiler RIGHT now, and overlooks the wear items.

Good luck in your endeavors, and thanks for sharing with the forum.

PS: The Triangle Tube Solo 110 is a VERY fine unit. It has the best warranty and there are PLENTY of them in my area, all burning Propane.......as we have no NG available.

GasBurner wrote:My plumbing contractor is going to place it on a pallet in my basement when he installs the gas boiler. I am thinking of selling it. Would anyone be able to provide a ball park estimate of what an asking price would be? Is their a used/refurbished market for these in Northeastern PA or Upstate NY?

McGiever wrote:Yes there is a market. And around $3500.00, depending on who's looking to buy.

$3500 is a common asking price for a round-door unit that has been run through the shop...."basement price" is considerably less. Whoever buys it has to travel, extract it, haul it home, spend hours going through the stoker, possibly repairing the tankless coil area, etc. NOTHING comes apart easily, and it is easy to put $1000 in parts into them. The bottom line is....it is worth whatever someone offers you after they look at it. There is no doubt that someone will purchase it, but what they offer will depend on the condition of the unit and the difficulty of getting it out of the basement.

Here is a link to the pictures:


http://s1287.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... e.jpg.html

Part of me wants to keep it and part of me wants to give it a new home. I like to tinker and appreciate good engineering. I think it is a fantastic concept, and I would possibly like to have a secondary source of heat just in case. The Triangle Tube Solo seems like a good unit, but it looks like a stainless steel stock pot with a fan mounted inside a Rubbermaid tote.

The plate on the auger motor says model S20, serial 30531.

Based on the pictures, what type of condition is it in, and how hard would it be to shut off the oil burner and get the coal mechanism running again...what is all involved to burn coal? The radiation in my house is cast iron water and is rated at 63,300 BTU per my plumber. I don't even know how to turn the coal part on, but I am mechanically inclined, as restoring motorcycles and fiberglass boats is a hobby of mine when I find a good project.

I am worried about carbon monoxide, but I have alarms in the basement. The house was built in 1942, and the basement has two separate "coal shanty" rooms under the front porch with a chute in the wall for the coal truck to deliver from the street. There is actually a reclaimed coal pit mine right behind my home.

If it ran coal, would the circulator pumps still run to feed the hot water through the system based on need from the thermostat, or is it always running? Would it overload the pipes?

If anyone needs more detailed pictures let me know.

Thanks again.

Here is a better link to all of the pictures:

http://s1287.beta.photobucket.com/user/ ... 0848851178

That is a fine looking unit and installation. Any chance there is a cast iron door near the boiler that says "EFM" on it? You would need a door to cover the opening where the oil burner is mounted.

The stoker itself would need to be checked, the auger/bushings and six burner plates are the most common wear items. Depending on how long your unit has been run on oil, the stoker might not need much work at all.

By the way, thanks for sharing the original literature. Lots of the information on those service cards has been lost to history.

I agree with Rob on the value issues. A used unit sitting in a private party's basement is different from one being offered by a dealer or someone else with recognized expertise. Also, I don't think you should be using DF models as a benchmark. A dual fuel unit generally has a separate port for the oil burner. From what I could see in the pics (and I seem to be having a browser problem when trying to view them), yours looks like a round door plate boiler with an oil gun mounted in the fire door. A round door plate boiler certainly has value, but in the market I'd figure it to be lower than a square-door DF model.

I don't think I'd favor keeping it around if you don't intend to use it. These units like to work, and don't benefit from sitting unused in the basement. If you decide to sell it, you might want to see whether your plumber could/would pull the boiler head out of your basement with the same rigging he may be using for your new boiler. The new one undoubtedly is lighter, so my suggestion might not work, but if it does a 520 on a pallet in the garage is worth more than one on a pallet in the basement.

Mike