Prill underfed stoker

Hello Steinke,

Have you installed and ducted your stoker furnace yet for this winter season?? I think you have already had snow !!

Greg L

Great find!!!

I have not ducted a return air system in yet - after much thought, it would just be too much nasty-looking ductwork that would take lots of work to cover up. I did fire it up though in the beginning of October, and have been burning ever since.

I have an open living design, and the return air flows down the half-height stairwell nicely. Place you hand at the top of the stairwell, and you feel hot air rushing upstairs. Sit lower near the steps, and you feel cold air rushing down to the stove.

I measured my stack temps yesterday. Once the stoker gets up and running, I have 550 degrees going up the stack. That is ridiculous. There just not enough "residence time" in these Prill furnaces, at least with the coal I'm burning. I turned my combustion air down some, but it did not help.

I have a Magic Heat reclaimer that I need to install to see if that helps. Local coal guy (Pease Feed and Coal) deals in them, and says he thinks you can get 30% more heat out of Prill and Stokermatics if you install one. I'll give it a shot when I get a chance. Just need to put a new fan motor on the one I have.

Steinkebunch

Certainly, anything called "Magic" should be accompanied by pictures!

Where do you measure your stack temp?

I'll get some photos when I get it hooked up. Might be a few weeks until I get time though. There are several other threads on the forum concerning Magic Heat reclaimers. Most with efficient stokers claim that they aren't too useful, as stack temps are already down to 200 degrees or so. But in my case, I may benefit from it.

I measure stack temp about 18" above the outlet, just below my barometric damper. I have a hole drilled in my double-wall smoke pipe for a draft gauge insert, so I just insert a salvaged barbecue thermometer in it. The thermometer appears to be accurate at room temperature, so I'm just assuming it's accurate at higher temps too. Could be off some

Hard to stomach sending so much heat up the stack! I think I just still have too high of feed rate. Right now I have a 1-3/4" pulley on the motor, and a 7" pulley on the gearbox. In the next week, I hope to build a 1.5" pulley (can't find one off the shelf with a 5/8" arbor) and buy an 8" gearbox pulley. This should give me 75% of the current feed rate. If the Magic Heat can pull about 25% more heat out, maybe I can keep about the same BTUs using 25% less coal. I'd love to bucket 1/4 fewer buckets into the house! But then my wife would probably just turn the t-stat up.

Then next season, when I run out of Grass Creek coal (bit. coal), and switch to PRB coal (sub-bit.), I'll probably find everything changed... Right now I have a mound of pulleys laying under the gearbox, trying to get the right feedrate. They just don't make a 5/8" bore variable speed adjustable pulley that goes small enough.

I'll keep you posted.

Steinkebunch

great looking stove and good price, that is a wil-burt transmisson and you can still order parts direct from wil-burt also augers ,that thing looks like someone was just to lazy to put coal in it, you probaly will be able to use it for at least a good 10-15 years
markc

After looking at your pics I can see that your ring and pot look identical to my hardin. Just had some one from another site tell me the maerton stoker is also identical to the hardin. Really have to call them or go up on a holiday.Also the tranny seems the same ,just oriented different. Nice unit you have.

Even though Prills is no longer in production there is someone in Sheridan Wy . That used to work for Prills . He opened his own business, name of it is Grumpy T's. Prill furnaces are his speciality. # is 307-683-6205