So Lets Narrow Down the Coal Boiler Choices...Chime in!!!

Normy · Post by **Normy** » Mon. Sep. 29, 2008 3:04 pm

Freddy wrote:How much headroom do you have? The AHS is quite tall with the hopper.To the top of the hopper is about 6 feet. It is a beautiful boiler and you'd certainly be happy with it as long as it fits.

Not quite 8 feet to the bottom of the open joists.

coal berner wrote:Normy The Pot feed Auger that goes from one side to the other side of the boiler will be 48.5" overall however only 17"
of the Auger & Auger tube will be sticking out you can put on another Auger & tube to lengthen it to whatever size you need to the barrel The augers & tubes can be cut to whatever size you need The standard sizes for Auger are 24" 48.5"
68.5" you can take any of the augers and cut them down Most people that use a drum on the efm use the pot auger which is 48.5 " overall but only 17" will stick out from the side of the boiler now you could put on a 24" extended Auger or less
or if you have room put another 48" on Or anywhere in between You will need a Auger tube coupling to extend agers and tubes As for CO leaking out of the barrel that as alot to do with the draft in the chimney and the Air setting on the boiler

aswell as feed rate setting in most cases the co issue can fixed with the adjusting of the Air feed setting and feed rate setting correctly You will need 4 to 6 " of the Auger sticking out of the auger tube on the drum side Slide the Auger tube
into the drum until the 4 to 6" of auger is in the middel of the drum Here is a link to efm showing some of the auger &
tubes set ups No matter what the Pot Auger will be 48" after that the size can be whatever works for your set up one
thing to Remember on a EFM 350 or 520 stoker boiler the Auger & tubes should not be more then 8' overall Do to wearing out some Parts Quicker on the stoker unit and you will have more coal fines to deal with The bigger efm boilers like 700 900 1300 can run up to 16' of auger & tubes

http://www.efmheating.com/manuals/Stoker%20Manual.pdf

Looks like from the manual that the auger would be parallel to the back of the unit, wouldn't the "chimney" wall be in the way?

LsFarm · Post by **LsFarm** » Mon. Sep. 29, 2008 5:35 pm

Normy, that .pdf manual is of an EFM 900, not the EFM 350 or 520, in the 350/520, the fan and motor are on one side of the boiler/firebox, and the auger pokes out the opposite side. I'll try to find a photo of the 520 on the site.

Greg L

OK, here ya go: Name That Boiler

In the first photo, see the ~2" tube between the boiler and the 55gallon drum? the one with the baseball bat leaning against it.. That tube is the auger tube,
In the second photo, which is the opposite side of the boiler, is the cover over the motor and fan/gearbox assembly.

Greg L

.

Normy · Post by **Normy** » Mon. Sep. 29, 2008 6:23 pm

Thanks Greg,

As it was written in the thread, I am surprised the auger is so small but I guess that is all that is needed. Including the 55 gal drum, the foot print is rather smaller than I expected.

Thanks
Normy

coal berner · Post by **coal berner** » Tue. Sep. 30, 2008 12:44 am

Normy Here are the correct Manuals for the 350 & 520 Both use a 1.5 " auger And a 2' tube you are feeding Rice coal
in them they do not have to be any bigger in size The EFM 700 900 & 1300 Where made to feed buck size coal they have
a 2.5" auger & a 3" tube The AA & AHS where made to burn Pea Or Buck coal so the Auger Tube has to be bigger in size
to feed PEA size coal The 350 & 520 EFM's feed threw the base from one side of the base to the other side you can switch
the feed to one side to the other The 700 900 & 1300 Fed from the side of the base either to the rear of the boiler or
the front you could also switch sides for the feed The 350 boiler & base is 2.5 " less in width and 3" less in lenght and 2"
in height The bolier holds 30 gal of water they came with either a 3 gal or 5 gal water coil The 520 holds 40 gal it
comes with a 5 gal or 7 gal water coil The 520 highboy was made from 1948 to 1954 it was 7" Taller the the standard
520 it hold 73 gals of water it came with a 7 gal or a 5 gal water coil The 700 holds 94 gal of water 7gal or 5gal water coil
900 holds 102 gals of water and either 7 gal or 5 gal water coil the 1300 holds 115 gals 7gal or 5 gal water coil If you are looking for a efm 350 520 or 700 Pm me for info

http://www.efmheating.com/manuals/DF520%20Manual-Old.pdf

http://www.efmheating.com/manuals/DF520%20Manual.pdf

http://www.efmheating.com/manuals/Stoker%20Manual.pdf

Normy · Post by **Normy** » Tue. Sep. 30, 2008 12:03 pm

Thanks Coal Berner that cleared up a lot.

thanks
Normy

coalmeister · Post by **coalmeister** » Tue. Sep. 30, 2008 3:14 pm

Don't buy a rice burner, rice is tight, and based on torrid coal stove sales, I bet supplies will get tighter, tighter to the point of charging more for rice because they now must run larger sizes back through to make rice out of it to keep up with demand. (hate that supply & demand thing

)

Normy · Post by **Normy** » Wed. Oct. 01, 2008 11:12 am

coalmeister wrote:Don't buy a rice burner, rice is tight, and based on torrid coal stove sales, I bet supplies will get tighter, tighter to the point of charging more for rice because they now must run larger sizes back through to make rice out of it to keep up with demand. (hate that supply & demand thing )

Maybe it will be just the opposite? There will be more rice burners and they will meet that demand and less other size will be available. Kind of like what is going on with diesel fuel. They say the cost is so much higher because there is less demand for it and much more for gasoline. No too long ago, it was diesel that was cheaper, go figure?

Of coarse rice will go up anyway, but it'll level off at some point and the other sizes will becomeless demand and they will slow production of those and make it a premium item?

Can I go and work on Wall Street too? Sorry I strayed from the topic.

LsFarm · Post by **LsFarm** » Wed. Oct. 01, 2008 11:20 am

When supplies of rice drop too low, the breakers will break up the bigger sizes to make rice and Buckwheat. Rice is too big a seller for the breakers to not supply it.. they may have to raise the price if they have to double process the coal to make rice.

Rice was in years past a refuse coal,, it was leftovers from breaking the larger coal sizes,, the breakers stacked huge piles of the stuff 'cause they couldn't sell it,, there weren't that many stokers that used rice..

Now with all the small stoker stoves, and many newer stoker boilers and furnaces burning rice,, rice is in high demand,,

You can always make the coal smaller,, but you can't make it bigger

I'd never turn down a good deal on a stove/boiler/furnace because it burns rice coal. Rice supplies will come back to 'normal' soon. The breakers got surprised just like the stove manufacturers this season.

Greg L.

coal berner · Post by **coal berner** » Wed. Oct. 01, 2008 11:22 am

coalmeister wrote:Don't buy a rice burner, rice is tight, and based on torrid coal stove sales, I bet supplies will get tighter, tighter to the point of charging more for rice because they now must run larger sizes back through to make rice out of it to keep up with demand. (hate that supply & demand thing )

Most Rice burner Stokers stoves can burn buck There are a few that can not and there is a lot of buck out there aswell as Rice coal if you know where to go there are only a handful of breakers that are low on Rice coal You have to call around to the different breakers you can and will find Rice coal

One more point 99% of stoker boilers can burn buck coal Being that is what Type of unit we are talking about here EFM and others

coal berner · Post by **coal berner** » Wed. Oct. 01, 2008 11:54 am

LsFarm wrote:When supplies of rice drop too low, the breakers will break up the bigger sizes to make rice and Buckwheat. Rice is too big a seller for the breakers to not supply it.. they may have to raise the price if they have to double process the coal to make rice.

Rice was in years past a refuse coal,, it was leftovers from breaking the larger coal sizes,, the breakers stacked huge piles of the stuff 'cause they couldn't sell it,, there weren't that many stokers that used rice..

Now with all the small stoker stoves, and many newer stoker boilers and furnaces burning rice,, rice is in high demand,,

You can always make the coal smaller,, but you can't make it bigger

I'd never turn down a good deal on a stove/boiler/furnace because it burns rice coal. Rice supplies will come back to 'normal' soon. The breakers got surprised just like the stove manufacturers this season.

Greg L.

Backed when the refuse piles where being made there where no rice burning stoker stoves or boilers
They where hand fed boilers Furnaces & stoves so any size that was smaller then Pea was put to the side or they used to
Make RR beds or fill most of the refuse coal Piles You will find Alot of Barley Buck Pea size in them aswell Nut Stove Egg & lump size was what was used back in the early days Remember most of this piles that are left are 75 to 100 years old there where no Rice burners back then Now you have alot of coal companies reclaiming the coal there are not that many piles left not like say 5 or more years ago there is alot of coal Gen Plants around here using it up Plus there are coal co.
mixing it in with new coal you have to be from the area to know who they are you can watch the trucks all day long filling off of the piles and follow them to the breakers Bagging plants & coal Gen plants

Normy · Post by **Normy** » Wed. Oct. 01, 2008 1:25 pm

coal berner wrote:
LsFarm wrote:
Greg L.
Backed when the refuse piles where being made there where no rice burning stoker stoves or boilers
They where hand fed boilers Furnaces & stoves so any size that was smaller then Pea was put to the side or they used to
Make RR beds or fill most of the refuse coal Piles You will find Alot of Barley Buck Pea size in them aswell Nut Stove Egg & lump size was what was used back in the early days Remember most of this piles that are left are 75 to 100 years old there where no Rice burners back then Now you have alot of coal companies reclaiming the coal there are not that many piles left

Funny to mention about RR tracks, when I was a young kid growing up in an old Mill town in Mass., the RR tracks were just as you said, full of small bits of coal. Till just now I thought that the old freight trains burned coal and that was what fell off the trains over the years. I never considered they used it for the track beds. Learned something every day.

Well the trains don't run anymore, I wonder if I could scrounge up a ton or two along the tracks

coal berner · Post by **coal berner** » Wed. Oct. 01, 2008 1:34 pm

Sure you can just screen it and clean it then burn it free coal