Is High Temp Normal in AA 130

so you guys say 145 low 165 high for the AA130 for summer ? I heat my water with it too

You been running 190 degrees for radiant??? WOW!

No about 130 degrees

BigFoot wrote:so you guys say 145 low 165 high for the AA130 for summer ? I heat my water with it too

As long as your DHW is at the temp you want, why run it higher? When I first started with my 260 I ran the temps high, 180-190° peak. It just eats more coal and you run a greater risk of overshooting. Remember those high temps mean higher chimney gas temps and radiat losses because it will try and maintain them. You need to maintain a low around 145° as oxygen disassociates from water at 152° and you don't want that present in your boiler to prevent rust.

I also agree and recommend what the other AA and AHS guys say, but with a couple notes. IF you are using a domestic hot water coil, you are NOT able to modulate the demand like early showers.....laundry......dishwasher and the typical early in the day demands for heating. As I always say, you HAVE to give serious thought to using an indirect water heater and or larger tankage.

With solid fuel; especially coal, you create that early morning demand so the boiler is running full tilt for a couple hours, then all of a sudden, you have NO demand and a runaway freight train snortin' and jumping wanting to take over the world. This is where I interject: Please add more expansion capacity immediately, AND check the damned tank or tanks daily because they can and do fail without visible signs. Those of you who don't respect the knowledge Sting offers for free: shame on you" I understand money is tight for everyone, but look on Craigslist or local papers and keep an eye out for indirects that have been removed in favor of some dinky instant hot water gas rig.

I do run the temps on my AA's at 180/165 in the winter and now 165/145. 40 gallon Indirect in place, 12 years now. Dump zone in place........and It is a waste to have to run a boiler at 180/165 all summer if all you are doing is heating water. However if the demand is huge for the domestic hot water cycle, give some thought to dedicating or creating a dump zone for this very issue. Also, set the overtemp aquastat up to 210, because when the timer is overridden, an out-fire is the possibility. As Sting tries to educate folks about 'running' your system is about balance, of the entire system. The 'Jackrabbit starts and demands' need to be slowed down and managed smoothly. Functioning from 'Panic Mode' creates more panic and more situations beyond our control.

Axeman suggests setting the Hi limit aquastat to 220! That is so you don't have an outfire from the time not cycling due to a slight overtemp (which is normal). Don't worry. (The AA is rated for 250 degrees.) So long as you keep 5-10psi of pressure in the system the water won't boil.

Try your boiler at a triple aquastat low setting of 150 and a high of 170 with a differential of 10. I would set the hi limit aquastat at 220. You may still have the occasional overtemp but the timer will still cycle the stoker to hold the fire. Be sure the grate solenoid is working properly and the anthrastat is properly calibrated and set at 130 to 140 degrees (procedure for that is withing these pages and searchable). Don't have your "shake", as Axeman calls it, set too low or it won't feed enough coal. You will experience more unburned coal in fall/spring.

Since you are running radiant and have TMVs to modulate temperature, your boiler temp should be lower in the fall/spring as opposed to winter because your load requirements are far less. If you had outdoor reset it would shift to setback temps due to higher outdoor temps. This should be sufficient as most radiant systems don't need the heat to go over 100degF in my research. Low and slow is what I have heard, but I don't know that area of heating.

Thanks for all the great advice. I have been running at 165-145 and all seems good. And I do have a dhw indirect tank 40 gallons. So life is good. My anthrastat is been set at 135 for a couple days and I have good ash. I had a lot of unburnt coal at 140.

Thanks again for the great advice!!

for the future if the anthrastat gets out of calibration:

Anthrastat

Was your fire actually 'OUT' ?? after only part of a day's time ? That doesn't sound right.. you have an 11" diameter firepot with 3-5" of burning coal. It does not need a fluff-up, or more coal every hour.. I have my timer set at 2 min every hour when I use the timer, and I usually only use the timer for the first month and last month of heating season. All winter I don't use or need a timer.

Greg L

Must have poor draft if the fire goes out that quickly.

My similar AHS Coal Gun has no timer (I tried one once, but it failed in relatively short order so I abandoned it) and except for when I shut it down intentionally for clean outs, it runs 24/7 year round with no timer, and I've never lost the fire.

Like Greg mentions, you don't see any orange coals, just a gray layer with black coal over it. Not to be a PITA, but if you SLOWLY introduce your hand into the viewing port, you will feel some warmth from below. If you are completely retarded, you will show your buddies that it is out and stick your hand into the gray layer. If you aren't into visiting the Shriners Burn Center, perhaps that is not a good idea. A 130 will last 36 hrs +/- and a 260 will be even longer, perhaps in excess of 48 hrs. A Keystoker guy should NOT play this game, or any inclined grate system. 10 minutes and your fun is over.

I hear what you guys are saying and would love the fire to last all day. I do assure you it was out because I pulled every bit of coal out to restart it. I am currently working on the draft issue. I borrowed a draft meter and it measured .015 to .02. Added 6' stack and had no change. Single wall. So then went to insulated stack 3'. Still no change. I am in process of going to 6' of insulated stack. If no change then what? I also got another draft meter and also read same. Fun Fun!

I haven't seen any mention of number of clicks you're running at.

2 clicks. And 135 on athrastat