My KAA-4-1

So far so good.

I dumped a half bushel of screened coal in
the hopper earlier today.

I dumped one 40 Pound Bag of Kimmels Rice Coal in the
hopper at 12:30 AM.

Lots of wind and snow from the North earlier, the sky has begun to
clear over Cayuga Lake.

The wall hung thermometer on the shed says its -20 on my mountain
at 1 AM.

lzaharis wrote:The wall hung thermometer on the shed says its -20 on my mountain at 1 AM.

That sounds like quite a test for your new system.

Hello Rob,

We did ok last night. The wind is picking up now
and the thermometer facing east in the partial sun
says its 36 degrees now with a thin layer of clouds.

The baseboard has been heating well with no waterfalls
or gurgling and you barely hear it ticking when its shedding heat.
and the extra water(15 gallons) in the system has spoiled me too I guess.

There is very little ash in the ash basket since last night so I will
probably change it in the morning.

I have 22 forty pound bags of Kimmels Rice Coal drying out near to the boiler
and I will be bringing more in before the day is over.

The boiler has been holding its own so far and I have been
sleeping well.

SO for those of us in New York and New England that are coal burners we have the
rest of the weekend to get through now and we will be ok.

The wind is coming from the North across my mountain and the road is snow covered.
The thin shelter belt of mature Pine Trees and Willows helps cut the wind speed.
The temperature according to my outdoor wall hung thermometer is 8 degrees Fahrenheit
and the cloud cover is becoming thicker.

My Saturday February 13 update for the board members on my KAA-4-1 boiler:

7 full threads on the threaded rod.

Water temperature is 175+- Degrees.

The fire bed on the Pocono AA model flat bed stoker is perfect with a
one inch band of ash, two inches of fire and four inches of Kimmels Rice Coal.

I opened 2 more bags of Kimmels Rice Coal to drain and air out before I dump them in the hopper

Time to bring out the space heater to melt the ice off the truck and the tractor and preheat them.

So far so good on the KAA-4-1 shakedown cruise, averaging 2 forty pound bags of Kimmels Rice Coal every 18 hours+- . I have not burned any oil (not that I could anyway as the burner is not installed).

Mail is not in yet -still waiting for plumbers bill

Pocono AA Keystoker...Okayyy

I could not have done all this without 7 years of research and the collective help
of the NEPA CROSSROADS Forum and its fine membership, Dan Holohan and
his well written books that convinced me to change from using a bladder expansion tank
to a steel compression tank in the new heating system and assembling a
Circulator module with the help of Mario Lemieux's loaning out his Pipe Vice and
Three Foot Pipe Wrench to me and my wanting to burn the carboniferous period black rocks.

I sold the Switzer Wood and coal boiler rather than scrap it and I still have the Buderus Logana G205 boiler minus the burner I would rather sell to a new home rather than scrap it.

If I could have afforded the 6K installed cost of the VanWert 400 Anthratherm installation 33 years ago the point would be moot.

Of course if I had been financially able to do this 2 years ago I would have.

Now I am looking at 14K with interest having paid for all the pipe and fittings, the boiler and the eight tons of Kimmels Rice Coal and the 35+ forty pound bags of Kimmels Nut Coal that I burned before we made the change over to the Keystoker KAA-4-1. They have a very good polyester woven open mouth sewn bag that stands up to a lot of handling and is easy to stack and carry.

At least I can pay the loan off early with the some of the savings in fuel cost anyway. Live and learn. I know the cost of Clear Un-dyed Un-taxed K1 Kerosene is going to go back up sometime and my tank is full so no worries there and the spousal unit is warm.

I will be driving down to The Kimmels coal packing plant in Wiconisco, Pennsylvania in the Summer for at least two more tons.

SO far so good from my mountain at 1,140 feet Above Mean Sea Level.

Nice to hear that your install is working properly and keeping you warm (without having to burn oil) in this cold weather Leon.

So, here we are two weeks later since my last posting
about my plumbing issues and having had to deal with
the recent period of extremely cold sub zero weather.

The homes poor insulation and architecture would make
it a huge expensive undertaking to upgrade/repair as the home needs a
new steel roof as well.

The previous owner hid problems and took many many many shortcuts.

This experience gives me more incentive/desire to rip out the baseboard salvage it
and install salvaged hot water radiators using square tubing from Europe to eliminate
the underfloor piping.

I am happy to report no problems. I have been burning
about 80 pounds a day on average with the pusher plate
stroke being set at seven+ full threads out.

I hate to see the excess heat going out the stack without it being
scrubbed and reclaimed.

I KNOW, I KNOW, I KNOW, do not waste your time thinking about
wanting/needing a scavenger or heating a nurse tank or a hot tubs
heat exchanger.

Me, I would much rather have a small Jacuzzi tub rather than a hot tub as they are
easier to clean and maintain.

I have been screening out all the unburned coal and putting it back in the
hopper to be burned.

I have had outfires, but I have kept track of the boiler in the warmer weather
days recently and shutting the stoker off as there was no heat call for a very
long time and the fire went out.

Of course if a winning lottery ticket happened along:

1. I would raze this place after salvaging the materials to donate them
Lots of steel and eastern hemlock to re use

2. dig out the old foundation and crawl space to below grade elevations

3.create the proper elevations below grade for a basement

4. install the proper new compacted fill, concrete wall foundation and
drains to a sump pump.

5. have a pole barn home erected to live in with a full basement with
a huge 22 plus ton coal bin see item 7f.

6. have the attached slab on grade garage erected when the home is built

7. waffle all summer over whether I want hot water radiation with a
gravity system or the better of two worlds using one pipe steam to
the home and steam to air forced draft heaters in the very large garage
and order the schedule 80 pipe for the work using the KAA-4-1.

Leaning toward gravity hot water with a pair of return water tanks feeding
the KAA-4-1 sump.

a. insulate the garage and home, plaster and lath for walls and ceilings
b. insulate the foundation and garage slab for the floor heating loop with 24 inch spacing
c. install an in floor loop heating in the garage using the heavy piping used for car wash floors in
the garage floor

d. use high strength sand mix concrete for all pours and vibrate them in place
e. cure the slabs with straw, heavy tarps, water spray for a month.

f. begin erecting the shell and installing lumber for the walls and ceilings-no plywood or sheet rock in this place. floor joists are on 12 inch centers and all 2 by 4 floor lumber laid in edge to add strength to the floors as they will be covered with stone tiles.

8. start building clear span train room above the garage for the three
mountain railroad layouts with modern switchbacks that I want to build.

Its still not complete mind you, but nice to dream of doing it this way.

lzaharis wrote: I hate to see the excess heat going out the stack without it being
scrubbed and reclaimed.

I KNOW, I KNOW, I KNOW, do not waste your time thinking about
wanting/needing a scavenger or heating a nurse tank or a hot tubs
heat exchanger.

You have a Keystoker. There is next to no heat being lost out the stack.

-Don

lzaharis wrote: I have been screening out all the unburned coal and putting it back in the
hopper to be burned.

I have had outfires, but I have kept track of the boiler in the warmer weather
days recently and shutting the stoker off as there was no heat call for a very
long time and the fire went out.

Your putting partly burnt coal in the hopper and your wondering why your having outfires??? Really?

I would suggest thinking more about that.

-Don

It sounds like your timer is not operating the stoker correctly. Spend some time with a meter and find out why.

Not so much wondering Don, I figured with the long no heat calls it would just die out- still learning............

OK so I have a 15 degree differential set on the white wheel from the 120 degrees set on the wheel of the L6006A so that would be a low limit of 105 degrees if I understand the L6006A instructions.

the triple aquastat is still set with
180 as the high limit
I60 as the low limit

The boiler high limit still lights up at 195 per the hydrolevel settings from the factory
and shuts the stoker off.

My thermostat wire pair is tied into the L6006A white to white terminal,
red to red terminal and the lead paired parallel into the TT terminals
in the hydrostat (WW/ RR) then to the thermostat so far so good.
The spade terminal (w) is not used.

Circulator runs and stops with the thermostat too.

I trust my electrician.

lzaharis wrote:Not so much wondering Don, I figured with the long no heat calls it would just die out- still learning............

If it is setup properly it should idle for days on end with no heat calls. Some guys run their Keystoker boilers through the summer for hot water.

Your L6006 aquastat is basically doing nothing the way it is setup.

The timer is not doing what it is designed to do. Yes, the boiler runs well and keeps a fire when the heat calls are often enough and everyone is happy and is warm, but when the heat calls get stretched further apart with milder temps then the fire goes out due to in adequate minimum idle fire setting of the timer.

As your electrician had found and fixed...
Keystoker has the L6006 shown wired in parallel with TT @ triple-stat.
But the L6006 "dump" setting is no where near the present setting of 120*F.

The timer is working the way it is supposed to and the wiring is right, Yea!!!!!

I stood there and watched the timer for two cycles of
three cycles and heard it start for the third one.
I have a maintenance fire every ten minutes for 90 seconds
even at the high limit temperature of 180 degrees.

SO far so good on a Monday.