Found a Nice Low Mile Ackerman

I wouldn't be too concerned about it being too big.. if it is it will tell you with excess unburnt coal in the ashpan.. My unit does well with a light load as well as with a heavy load.. but the AA's all have some unburnt coal in the ash,, it is annoying but not a big deal if you think about the percenatage of unburnt to burnt.
The unburnt comes from the fresh coal that falls out of the coal supply tube at the top of the firebox. this coal rolls down the cone of fire/coal.. some pieces roll all the way to the outer diameter of the firebox, The heat is not very high at the perimeter, unless the fire is really working.. The water cooled steel keeps the coal from getting hot enough to burn or burn well, and it slides down the firebox as the grate shaves the ash off the bottom of the coal pile.. Soon the column of coal in the firebox has an outer perimeter of unburnt or partially burnt coal surrounding a central column of ash and burning coal, topped by a cone of fresh coal..

I found that once the unburnt coal was removed from around the central column of burning coal, and the central column was smashed down so it took up the entire firebox, the full diameter fire continued all winter season untill this summer where over a few months of warm weather and only DHW the outer perimeter of unburnt coal restablished itself.. I let the fire go out, I'll start it again in November, depends on how cool the weather gets

I hope that explaination makes sense..
Greg L

How close is your neighbor? Run pipes and heat him too. You could end up heating for free!

Here is a pic. It took a few days to get this right.

I asked him if George Washington had ever slept in the house and he said no........ but he quartered troops there.

It's almost new! WOW!

It looks like he ran about a ton and a half through it before he shut it down judging from how much coal he bought with it and how much I took home. What is this thing worth in todays market? What is the price of a new one?

I think a new AA 260 is about $9000.

Greg L.

That does look in great shape, very nice steal!

What did it cost you?

That thing looks AWESOME!

I'll give you $500 more than you paid for it!!!

Ask the other about this, but I would suggest putting the AA on blocks or something similar to get it off the ground a tad. My Keystoker manual says to do this to prevent the bottom from rotting out.

[quote="beatle78 Ask the other about this, but I would suggest putting the AA on blocks or something similar to get it off the ground a tad. My Keystoker manual says to do this to prevent the bottom from rotting out.[/quote]

No bottom on an AA.

Nice boiler coaledsweat, looks like another AA that was not painted, you can really see what ya got there.

Matthaus wrote:

beatle78 wrote: Ask the other about this, but I would suggest putting the AA on blocks or something similar to get it off the ground a tad. My Keystoker manual says to do this to prevent the bottom from rotting out.

No bottom on an AA.

ahhhh... that's why I said ask the other's... I knew there would be a catch.... there is ALWAYS a catch

Just because it doesn't have a bottom doesn't mean you can't raise it up some. Get some 1 1/2" channel steel and have at it. Even bricks would be fine, just use longer bolts to bolt it to the floor with the bolts going between the bricks in the mortar space.

Freddy you will have to much air going into the unit if you raise it you should seal the bottom of the base to keep the
outside air out you use either plummers putty furnace cement or a silicon You want your stoker to be a air tight unit
Just like a soker stove or a hand fed stove all boilers should be air tight you do not want any extra air going into the
firebox you will just be wasting coal and heat and you will have more of a chance of co leaking out seal around the
bottom of the base and make sure the ash doors are tight aswell

coal berner wrote: you will have to much air going into the unit if you raise it

I mentioned mortar space The book does mention mortaring it in place, but I think that's for dust control. I think the Axeman is designed differently than others. You could throw a cat through the slack in the doors. In the owners manual it says to install it over a large pit and you won't have to empty ashes. I've seen a photo someplace with several AA's with open bottoms dumping into an augered ash pit.
The AA is different than most any other boiler. While it's stoking the ash pit and flame area are under a vaccum. When it's idling, as long as the chimney has some draft, it just doesn't care!

I'm going to try and catch up here.

Greg, his ash pan had no unburned coal in it that I saw, I can check it because I brought it home and will let you know. The fire pot was without fresh coal, just ash. It had some thin, crunchy clinkers in it on the top. Maybe from when he shut it down?

Adam, I paid $3000 for the whole deal. If you count the coal bin and 4 tons of coal (2 of them bagged), (2) TACO 007 F5 pumps (just like the pair I'm using ) and a Grundfos 3 speed pump (all three look brand new) at a $1000, then the boiler was $2000. I guess that's how I see it.

Freddy, your right about the cabinet, no way that is airtight. I have yet to see a draft adjustment, is there one?

I have been thinking about the ashpit thing but I don't know how practical that would be in a cellar.

This thing calls for a 12" X 12" flue at 15 MIN height, can I get away with an 8" X 8" @ 24' of height?

There is no draft adjustment,, the flapper is open when the boiler is idling, the natural draft of your chimney pulls the combustion byproducts off the top of the fire.

An 8x8x24' chimney will work fine,, I'm using 8" round about 14' high. I have about .02-.04" draft without the boiler running.. remember your AA is a forced draft fire. Once the fan runs you could direct vent it out a window,, you only need a draft for when the motor/fan is not running.

The only draft adjustment is controled by your aquastat,, it will signal the motor to start and create a hell of an artificial draft, strong enough to pull that flapper shut with a solid 'CLANG' ..

Greg L.