Boiler Availability

Anybody know if other manufacturers have long wait times to get a boiler right now? My friend is looking for one and is being told a keystoker won't be available until around December. Are EFMs as good and more readily available?

I know the Fireplace Gallery has some on order but I don't know if they are spoken for.

Phone:(570) 298-2150

Fireplace Gallery
2540 S.R. 29 South
Tunkhannock, PA 18657

aeh has a stoker bolier under iteams for sale it like the efm

uses buckwheat coal

He's looking for something that burns rice coal.

Unless he already has the rice coal there really is no reason to need rice coal. The Van -Wert, EFM's and that unit are all very simialr. The rice should burn in that unit without any problems. Ours will burn either rice or buck but works best with buck. In any event the buck will be easier to come by.

Will the EFM run on buck also? I know they say rice, just curious if it can handle a different size.

Yes the EFM should burn Buck also. air and feed adjustment will be different and a good draft is very helpful. I have asked this same question myself prior to buying coal this year. I ended up getting rice anyway since my local guy had it also. But its good to know it'll work. Credit to JC (coalberner) for this answer...

Interesting, I'll pass it on. I know that most of what they sell here locally is rice.

I called Keystoker last week. Same answer. Know some people "in the business". Local installers can't get anything new from EFM for 6 months minimum(regarding full units, does not necessarily apply to parts).

I would not get a rice burner, to many people burning rice, the breakers have thousands of tons of other sizes sitting around, in fact they are rebreaking other sizes to make more rice.

My 2 cents

Mitch

How come it's a penny for your thoughts, then we get 2 cents worth?

I think the rice thing is temporary....like wood pellets right now... give it a few months & I think they'll be enough for those that need it. Maybe I'm wrong!
I had it in my head that when coal was mined it came out in big chunks then was ground to size, but I guess it's not like that. Simply, they mine it and screen it. They get what they get. If they have to grind it to a smaller size it's expensive, time consuming, and hard on the machinery. I would think that if Rice size continued to be more and more popular and they have to grind it, that they'd have to raise the price of Rice.

i burned buckwheat in my efm 520 all last year with no problem. I was told it could burn buck but it would wear out the worm out faster

The breakers do crush the mine run coal. Basically what they do is they give the mine run a quick screening. Anything larger than stove gets sent to a grizzly (crusher) and crushed to a smaller size. Back in the day there were guys at the top of the breaker with sledge hammers. There job was to smash the really bigggg lumps into smaller sizes that the crushers could handle.

I ran both sizes in my EFM last year. With rice the unit is pretty much silent, when using the larger buck I could hear the coal crunching in the auger and it seems like there was more strain on the stoker gearbox, auger, linkage, etc.. I'm sure it can handle it but more strain is less good.

Running Buck in a EFM 350 or 520 is fine as long as the coal is no more then 10% oversized and is not 15% undersized
Rice coal runs from 3/16 to 5/16 buck runs from 5/16 to 9/16 so big rice will be 5/16 and small buck will be 5/16
the same size So if you get buck make sure it is Small sized buck you will be fine Now the EFM 700 900 & 1300 where
set up to run buck The Auger was a 2.5" And the Auger tube was 3 " The 350 & 520 as a 1.5 " Auger & a 2 " Tube