Looking for Coal Steam Boiler

Off the top of my head, the boiler with the stoker hanging off the side and the short pipe and worm attached and protruding, is about 60" wide and 42" deep, plus the 30" required clearance behind the boiler to the wall. Add a 55 gallon drum and the total width would be about 84". The height is about 60"

EFM 520 with Jacket on is 51 3/8" tall 42.5" long 27 5/8 wide The blower with hood sticks out 15" from the side of boiler
it is 24 3/4 " tall With both Auger's short & long you will need 83 3/8 " from the side of boiler Short Auger is 48" over all
witch only 17" will be sticking out of the side of boiler you should use a long Auger with the short Auger from the center
of the Auger coming out of the boiler base will be 15.5" off the ground Once both Auger are together the Tip of the bin

feed Auger Long one will be a 1.3/4" off the ground you should put the boiler on a 4" concrete Pad or 4" Blocks
Long Auger's come in 48.5 " 66" 90" 114" 138" witch any of them can be cut down to fit your needs But with a 520 The Max over all length should be 6 Ft or 8 Ft do to the motor That is on them The 10 Ft 12Ft 14ft 16ft Auger's are made for the older bigger units like the 700 900 1300 They have a larger motor on them Well I hope this helps Oh one More thing All 520 700 900 1300 can be set up for steam If you are interested in Refurb EFM units let me know PM me for info
Oh one Quick Note The clearance for the water coil is 29" from the wall for removal Except for the older 520 Highboy's
witch the water coil is on the front of the boiler So all you need is clearance room for the stack pipe coming out of the back

coaledsweat wrote:I would avoid a hand fired steam boiler.

Why would you avoid a hand fired steam boiler? I have experience hand firing boilers, though on a much larger scale.

coal berner wrote:EFM 520 with Jacket on is 51 3/8" tall 42.5" long 27 5/8 wide The blower with hood sticks out 15" from the side of boiler
it is 24 3/4 " tall With both Auger's short & long you will need 83 3/8 " from the side of boiler Short Auger is 48" over all
witch only 17" will be sticking out of the side of boiler you should use a long Auger with the short Auger from the center
of the Auger coming out of the boiler base will be 15.5" off the ground Once both Auger are together the Tip of the bin

feed Auger Long one will be a 1.3/4" off the ground you should put the boiler on a 4" concrete Pad or 4" Blocks

I would need to go with the very short auger. I will take some measurements and see if I would be able to install the EFM stoker. So now lies the piping arangement for two steam boilers. I could go with one main steam stop check valve on each boiler, and also cut out valves on the condensate return line and operate either one boiler or the other.

How would I go about setting the boilers up so that say I fire my coal boiler, and now it is time for work, go to work, fire happens to go out, no steam, gas boiler senses out fire, fires up and generates steam for the house.

Could I install a steam flow sensor on each steam pipe leaving the respective boiler, then install automatic valves for the return line so that the boiler that is on line and generating steam, the condensate return line valve will open for the on line boiler? Just trying to think of routes to go for the piping arangement. Any thoughts are welcome.

One other thought. I was thinking about a vapor stat for each boiler, leaving the pressure troll there for a high limit safety. Thanks all for your help.

EasySteaminBT wrote:

coaledsweat wrote:I would avoid a hand fired steam boiler.

Why would you avoid a hand fired steam boiler? I have experience hand firing boilers, though on a much larger scale.

I would think because of the difficulty regulating the burn rate, but Coaledsweat will have the final say on this. I have seen drawings of old coal boilers that were hand-fed that had a mechanism consisting of a pressure sensitive device and a lever with a chain that extended to the draft opening to regulate the intensity of the burn, as the pressure increased the inlet air would be slowly closed.

One place I shoveled coal, we used weights that controlled the damper to regulate the draft which in turn would maintain the steam pressure. Really old school, but effective, and it did maintain what we wanted.

Waiting for your input coaledsweat . Thanks again all

As others have posted, it is more difficult to regulate. It will work though, but I doubt that you could buy a new hand fired steam boiler. You would have to find a pretty old used one.

coaledsweat, AHS makes the new WOC 55 and have it available in steam trim. I spoke with the AHS folks today. Due to the size of the house, they recommended the AHS-260 as well, if I wanted to go with the coal gun. It already has a hopper, so I wont have to use a 55 gallon drum. He also told me that I would have to raise my gas boiler so that the NOWL on both boilers are equal, eliminating the need for cut out valves on the return line. The only downside will be the wait, which is feb-mar. I am considering all options, even a used 260 or WOC 55 as I would like to heat with coal this season.

Thanks again all.

I just noticed Keystoker has hand fired steam boilers too.

Keystoker put a halt to their hand fired boilers, just called them today. They will not be building them for a while, due to the twofold request for their stokers. They can not keep up. Their wait is longer than AHS. So the question now boils down to......do I spend the 7+grand on the Hand fired unit which is of good quality, or the 11+ for the 260. I would take used as well if anyone has any...as funds are limited.