My New Toy, Losch Stoker Boiler

I got me a new toy to play with, an old Losch stoker boiler. It needs a good bit of work but, the price was right. If the boiler holds pressure, I will likely do a refurb on it. It was in service until last December.

I'm not sure what I will do with it, I have a nice Yellow Flame boiler. Maybe it's my stage 5 Stoker Madness acting up again!

One thing that worried me, the owner said some time ago someone unhooked the water lines from the water cooled grate. Would this warp or damage the grate?

Does anyone know how many gross BTU's one of these puts out? It says it's a model 475, searial# in the 2900's.

If the grate is damaged, Maybe I will stuff my Yellow Flame 4 grate stoker in it!
One side cover looks pretty good and the top covers look good. The rest are rusty junk!
I got 2 Taco 007 pumps with it. It will have to sit in the corner for a few months. I am still getting the Yellow Flame ready for heating season.

-Don

Congrats on the new project! She's a beauty of a beast.

Some one will have to post the recipe for Homegrown Penetrating solvent/lube...you're going to need an ample supply.

Something different not many pictures of the Locsh's get on here.

Thanks Freddy, McGiever.

You will get the full treatment when it goes into refurb, lots a pictures.

your right about the penatrating oil! I'll get a shot of the DHW coil tomorrow. That thing looks totaly crusty and scary!

-Don

You have the sickness !

I have a call in to Dr Phil to see if we can catch this before you go 'zombie' on us. The grate size tells the BTU sizing. 10"by 14" is common on the 475's. They did make a 12" by 14" also.
It will be about 147K gross they say and net is about 130K. If the grate has no feed water connections, probably it was leaking badly, and they disconnected it. If you think you can get clever and find another, good luck. Are the feed and return pipes there for the grate? Don't run around 'sporting wood' until you have done more work on it. This is NOT like a Yellow Flame, and parts are hard to come by and costly. I hope things fall into place, but, no joke, go easy on this one.....

A little before Halloween but, here is the scary DHW coil.
You could soak those studs in oil for a year, no way there come'in out without brake'in off.

Note the boiler puddy in the middle. I can't beleive how much of the plate steel is rotted way! And this was running last December and making DHW.

-Don

Here are some photos of the boiler tubes. There are 10 tubes, 2 rows of 4 and a bottom row of 2. I don't know if I like that, a tube boiler looks a lot more difficult to clean than a plate boiler. I wonder which type transfers heat into the water better?
I would be amazed if the DHW coil doesn't leak at the flange when I get around to pressure testing this beast.

-Don

That is why I absolutely love to see the boiler itself hidden behind an insulated sheet metal cover. Brilliant, just brilliant. That is another story.....Looks like you are in for a pile of rusty scale off the boiler......scrap is 185/ton here, so you do the math......I'd be getting some fluid film or equal IF you decide to go ahead. Did you take the plate off the underbelly to expose the ash caked on the tubes. Somehow I don't think this boiler was well taken care of. Pressure test the grate and see if that is salvageable. The boiler may be fine, and I'd be 'fire wrenching the water coil nuts. They don't look like brass nuts....that would be too easy. How is the base??

The base is in very good shape, just surface rust. I don't think it has an underbelly plate, just the side plate, the studs on that are only a little bit better than the DHW coil. The pressure test will be the key. If it only leaks at the DHW coil, it can be fixed.

Here are some photos of the grate. Hopefully I can get those cut off pipes out of there without damaging the grate.
These are the hangers the grate hangs from inside the boiler.
The grate has a cover on the bottom that is held in place with 2 acorn nuts. That would make it very easy to clean out the area under the grate.
-Don

Oh yes, there is an access panel on the back of the boiler blank. 3 - 3/8" by 1" bolts. It may be rust covered right now, but they will probably snap off unless you are careful. The plate , once removed, allows you to get at the lower end of the tubes and structure to brush, vacuum, or scrape the tubes and boiler sides. Safety glasses, unless it is on its side...lots of fly-ash impacted in there. This rehab will challenge you, but never fear......Get something on that rusty hulk soon, or you will become sick looking at it every day while the yellow flame cruises along harmlessly.

Now you got me wondering about that plate! I will look for it this weekend. That will take some time away from wiring up the Yellow Flame though.
So, I guess these were built in Summit Station PA? My Aunt, Uncle and 3 cusins lived in Summit Station, one of them still lives there. They moved there about 45 years ago. We used to visit them very often and I never saw or heard of a boiler factory in or near there.

-Don

Don, that access plate is about 12" square and is on the underbelly on the domestic coil end. It may be rusted to death, but if should be there, unless the same dude who removed the grate water lines removed it and tossed it. Soak that rusty thing with some old ATF for now.......

The famous or was it infamous? Losch water cooled grate. Another solution in search of a problem.

It was another great idea that worked very well, and the real issue was/is, no one figured they would last 50 years, and some folks would re-purpose them and ask another 50 years from them.

Interesting engineering in the design and implementation of the 'shaker grate' and gear box that controls it. I understand those who would think it is a very complicated approach to achieve what Keystoker and other inclined grate systems use today. I like the KISS approach, however a challenge is a good diversion in life.

My old Winkler looks like the transmission could be used in a WW2 Tank.......SOAB. It's 75 years old, works great, and is trouble-free. There are plenty of the Losch units in homeowner sizes and more in industrial applications. Ask Matt DeRenzo, he sees more than all of us.