My KAA-4-1

Hello Rob,

My KAA-4-1 has the single combustion fan that shuts down when the aquastat is satisfied and start up when the hold fire timer is activated by the pin position on the timer hence my going to 4 pins every 6 minutes now. If I had the KAA-6 or KAA-6-1 it would have the twin combustion fan set up.

The stokers blue/yellow flame is reaching the steam chest and we are pushing at least 12 gallons per minute to the T where the flow splits with about six gallons +- going back to the steam chest through the boiler bypass valve.

The flue breech on my KAA-4-1 has a flue baffle box in front of it with an opening that is 1 inch by 6 inches wide to hold the heat in with the flues inlet opening at the bottom.

From the 6 inch flue breech I have

1. one six inch tee with plug for a clean out that connects to the six inch elbow then to a short section of 6 inch stove pipe which then connects to a six inch elbow which then connects to a third Tee with a clean out plug which is connected to the third Tee with the Barometric damper. The weight for the Barometric Damper is pushed to the center. I then have another six inch elbow which then connects to a short section of stove pipe which connects the next Tee which connects to a short section of straight stove pipe then to the 6 inch elbow that is connected to the 6 to 7 inch increaser/reducer at the 7 inch thimble and then into the tile lined chimney.

If I had had the boiler lined up with flue thimble I would not have had to use so much stove pipe. In saying that, I had to have room to move freely past the boiler to store the bagged coal and reach the pantry and the other exterior door for egress.

Leon

Hello NEPACOAL,

I do not make or use a lot of Domestic Hot Water
as there are two of us in the house and we have a
propane fired hot water heater that makes our
hot water in the non heating months.

The fire is perfect now with one inch inch of ash, two inches of fire,
then 3 to four inches of unburned coal.
The system has 24 pounds pressure and 175 degrees water temperature +-
in the steam chest.

Rob R. wrote:Does your stoker have a small fan that runs all the time?

1 pin is 15 seconds of "on time" right? 1.5 minutes every 10 minutes seems like a lot to me, especially if you have a fan that runs all the time blowing air through the coal bed.

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Hello Rob, I may have misspoken and if so I need to correct that;
So as tired as I am:

4 pins= one minute. I have 5 hold fire activation's every thirty minutes.

I have the single combustion fan that operates either on a heat call when the low limit minus the differential is reached-I think that is the right description?, or the hold fire activation which five times per half hour/10 times per hour.

tired

Hello nepacoal,

My KAA-4-1 does not have the separate Rheostat to control the fan
speed.

The combustion fan is either on when the hold fire timer activates it or
there is a heat call and starts when the boiler cools to 140 degrees with
the differential at 10 degrees.

It is snowing heavily here now and the winds are coming from the south.

I pulled one pin from each cluster of 4 pins as the boiler was overheating and I opened a door for a while to shed some heat out of the house.

I have to get a separate dump zone set up when I can afford to do it.

I have to go to town and I will check back later.

Well, my KAA-4-1 overheated and I have been
using the door and window stats.

I have reset the pins to three pins every 10 minutes
so I will see how that goes.

I have also reset the triple aquastat to 140 low
160 high with the same ten degree differential.

After changing the pump speed to the maximum speed "three" and
using windostats and door stats I reset the timers pins to 2 pins
every 10 minutes and lowered the high limit to 140 and low
limit to 120 with 10 degrees on the differential

The water pressure is back down to around 15 pounds per square inch
and the temperature in the steam chest is 170 degrees Fahrenheit.
The L6006A is set at 180 degrees fahrenheit.

We have had a lot of wind in the last few hours as well as snow so
that may be part of it all with the draft being so good and why it was
so hot as it went to steam for a few seconds and spilled water on the
floor and stopped before I lowered the settings on the triple aquastat.

My fire went out at 11:30 and I restarted it a few minutes ago.
I reset the pins to 6 pins(90 seconds) at 0 minutes and 6 pins(90 seconds) at 15 minutes.
I will see how the boiler does for an hour before I go to bed.

SO I have a bad timer GRRRRRR,

Yes, I have power to the timer. I placed a pencil mark on the yellow wheel and a second one on the steel mounting plate for the timer. I walked away and came back 15 minutes later and the timer did not advance to trip the hold fire sequence nor would the clock advance through the hold fire sequence.

So its back to dinosaur juice till they send me a new one UGH.

If it weren't for bad luck...
Love the thread, lots of info and good detail...
Where did you source the tank and sight glass...
Want to get rid of the bladder tank here...

CapeCoaler wrote:If it weren't for bad luck...
Love the thread, lots of info and good detail...
Where did you source the tank and sight glass...
Want to get rid of the bladder tank here...

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Hello CapeCoaler,

I just keep screaming at fate, and it just keeps rearing its ugly head as it has over the last 17 years!! I guess fate started in on me earlier in 1996 when Lupus killed my mother. She was 64 years young when it killed her and ruined my family :^(-

I bough the 15 gallon tank, the B+G airtrol fitting, the sight glass kit and the 1 1/4" I.A.S. (In Line Air Separator) from http://www.tribrosupply.com in Vestal New York, great folks to deal with and they are a family owned business and they take bank money orders too.

The B+G supplied sight glass kits come from their supplier "STRAINER SCREEN AND SEPARATOR COMPANY from Narragansett, Rhode Island. The SSC folks also make the replacement Riello oil burner filter and O ring kits for the the Riello oil burners that I have mentioned before.

Any B+G plumbing parts distributor in the northeast can sell you these parts as they would come from the B+G warehouse in Buffalo, New York.

If I had to do it over again I would pass on the sight glass as the stem packing's on the valves
leak. If you do buy a gauge; take the time to install a pair of good ball valves on the upper and lower tapping's on the top of the tank first and then the gauge valves after you have lifted the tank into place and then install the gauge glass to eliminate the leaking stem packing's issue.

I may just install the ball valves and ninety degree pipe fittings this summer anyway to solve that issue with mine.

If you do buy a steel expansion tank buy the next size up being the thirty gallon size then you do do not have to have the gauge glass cut to fit. The more water you have the better anyway and the more thermal mass. the B+G specification and installation sheets supplied with the parts are very informative and well written for the layperson and the plumber alike. there is no guessing ever.

The Timer is out of warranty period ugh/date of sale of boiler................

I was going to buy one locally but they want $159.00+tax for the complete unit.

I am not going to bother with the rheostat as they would charge me for it anyway and a new fan. The whole mess sounds like my truck-it was one of the last Isuzu pick ups that came off the assembly line in Shreveport La. in 2008 and we had a wonderful time trying to find parts for the new engine as the engine did not match the VIN number to get the right block heater and I ended up buying a radiator hose heater for it. Now all I have to do is install it.

UGGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!