need coal fired steam heat boiler

Thats what it says on the fire door, and below that, apparently where it was made, Oswego. Think it can be brought to life?????????

looks like the burn pot is in good shape, more than likely can be brough to life. flush the boiler many times, clean the firetubes inside the boiler, change the oil inside the iron fireman gearcase, basically just clean everything up real well.

btw, first thing, i'd get a paint sprayer and cover that asbestos with a thick coat of white exterior latex paint; one of the fastest and surest ways to prevent that stuff from getting airborne and in your lungs.

btw, if you're still using the one pipe steam system, be sure that all your air vents are working perfectly, both end main vents AND radiator vents, if in doubt replace them, nothing will cause greater inefficiency and headaches than that, also insulate all main lines if the asbestos has been removed.

That's a snowman (asbestos cover monster) if I ever saw one. I'll bet that one will work with a little TLC. I have seen two systems here in Buffalo that had kept a serviceable coal boiler intact with a newer gas unit. It looks like it was meant to be a back up.

It's most likely anthracite burning not bituminous as well.

Nope, notice the lack of an ashpan?? the large area around the firepot is to catch the bituminous clinkers and ash. This one will require daily removal of ash and clinkers with 'clinker tongs' and a hoe and shovel

As far as I know the Iron fireman units were all designed for bituminous... I modded mine to work with anthracite.

Greg L

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Empire Furnace Co. 38 N. Main St. Rushville 14544 (716) 554-4492

This is "oilman's" company and number.

That's the one I was going to look for when I got home this afternoon, Thanks !!

Greg L

I would charge the system with 15# of water and if it has any leaks (be sure it is isolated from the house, if it isn't, I would doubt if you have any as they would show already), fix them. Get a wire tube brush at the plumbing supply store the size of the tubes, attatch it to a long handle and run it through the tubes to clean them. Clean everything up and make sure its lubed and free to function properly. Seal and close the exhaust end and you should be ready to go.

What kind of coal is in it? If its anthracite, you are one very lucky individual. Not too many people find a gold mine in their basement. If its Bit, your still pretty well off. Whatever it is, you have a ton to dial it in. How about some pics of the coal?
That thing was not backup, no one would install that thing as backup. It is the original primary heat source.
Ditto sealing the asbestos, do not under any circumstances allow anyone to talk you into removing it. The abatment will cost about $10,000 and your basement will become the warmest place in town besides the pizza house's oven (the house may get cold too, depending on how much punch that thing has, either way the cost to operate will go way up). There is nothing on the planet better for that job than asbestos. If any is loose, wet it before you play with it and wrap it with stuff from the supply house, its cheap. Then seal it up with the paint.Wear a very tight particale mask too.

most of the kittaning coals mined currently and some of the pittsburg bituminous coals have lower swelling indexes, pm me if you need a supplier.

Thanks for all the insights. Was looking at it again today, and it seems like the two boilers (the active gas one and the dormant coal one) are really joined together at the hip, so to speak. I was feeling heat on pipes from the gas boiler all the way back to where they went into the coal boiler. I turned on some water on a valve on the coal boiler and got some water out, there's water in the sight glass too. its almost like they just joined them up, left the water into both of them, but the coal one is just dormant.

Tmw Ill take some pictures of the coal in the hopper of the fireman. IF there's anything else you guys think another picture of would be helpful, let me know. Theres an aquastat of some kind on the side of the boiler too. I'm going to get the sprayer and some buckets of white paint and start sealing up that asbestos. I can clean out the tubes and all, but as far as firing it up, I really don't know what I'm doing, wouldn't want to mess it up, so I guess I should call the 'oilman' guy and see if i can hire him to come take a look and get it going. Thanks again for all your helpful comments, at one time I thought this thing was just dead iron that I was going to have to pay someone to bust up and haul away some day. This board is a godsend for boilers and those who love them!

Look the boiler over and see if there is a pressure gauge on it somewhere, see if the boiler and water in it is under pressure.

get a few pieces of the coal out of the hopper and put on the floor. stand on the pieces and twist your foot to see if you can crush the coal. If it is soft coal, you can probably crush the piece easily... If it is anthracite it will be very tough to crush or break the piece of coal.

Once you get the boiler cleaned up, and the asbestos painted, and are ready to fire it up, let us know and I'll see if I can't walk you through the process of getting the iron fireman up and burning.

But if you can get 'oilman' over to look at and inspect the boiler this would be much better and safer.

Greg L

Bituminous in NYS would be very unusual.

coldguy wrote:at one time I thought this thing was just dead iron that I was going to have to pay someone to bust up and haul away some day.

When you are sweating bullets, remember what you said here.

Back in the '30's which is when that model IronFireman stoker was made, the transportation costs of the extra hundred miles to the western PA and western NY bituminous coal fields would have been minimal.. Syracuse is not all that close to the heart of Anthracite coal. The lower cost of Bituminous coal would have made economic sense back then...

A lot of Bituminous was shipped east, because of the price.

The Iron Fireman was a popular product installed in hand fired boilers to eliminate the 'flesh and blood' fireman who was needed to keep a hand-fired boiler stoked 24/7. The iron fireman stoker could reduce boiler tending to two 30minute sessions per day if set up correctly. [large enough hopper, and large enough refractory border to collect the clinkers and ash.

The iron fireman underfeed stokers were inserted into the area where the ashpan used to be, and the firepot took the place of the shaker grates, the area around the firepot was poured full of refractory cement to make a shelf to collect the ash and big clinkers from the bituminous coal.

The alternative was to install a complete new oil or anthracite boiler... this cost about 5 to 8 times as much as the stoker.

I have some coal stoker trade newspapers from the late 30's and early 40's which show an amazing amount of business activity installing bituminous underfeed stokers in formely hand fed heat units..


Greg L

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heres a pic of the coal, not the greatest pic. anyway, i stepped on a piece and it crumbled pretty easy under my foot into powder...pretty soft i guess