The Axeman Anderson Is up and Runnin!!!

yutyoy · Post by **yutyoy** » Mon. Oct. 20, 2008 7:41 am

finally, after some trials and tribulation...the AA130, is fired, and has been running for 4 days. and may I say, running quite beautifully. took a little tweaking, but its on autopilot now and working great. thanks for all the help! I couldnt imagine getting this thing working without the help of this forum. ive been burning Blachak buckwheat coal, and it seems to be burning even better than I expected. ill admit, I was a little skeptical about how "automatic" one of these old stokers were going to be. but I am pleasantly surpised, and nice and toasty.

U235a4 · Post by **U235a4** » Mon. Oct. 20, 2008 8:36 am

Congradulations! I'm happy to here that things are going well post a few pictures if you can I would like to see the install.

mozz · Post by **mozz** » Mon. Oct. 20, 2008 9:28 am

I thought they were meant to burn pea size coal? Buckwheat you will lose some capacity. I have the manual for my AA130 and it calls for pea.

yutyoy · Post by **yutyoy** » Mon. Oct. 20, 2008 9:42 am

mozz wrote:I thought they were meant to burn pea size coal? Buckwheat you will lose some capacity. I have the manual for my AA130 and it calls for pea.

yeah. it calls for Pea or Buckwheat. the previous owener told me that he had better luck with the buckwheat than with pea. so I bought a couple ton of buckwheat and I figured I would try pea next time I buy. what is everybody else burning in their AA? id love some feedback.

LsFarm · Post by **LsFarm** » Mon. Oct. 20, 2008 10:41 am

I've burnt both Buck and Pea in my AA260.. most of the time losing a little capacity for max heat is not an issue.. the AA and AHS are very capable boilers.

With Buck, I noticed it took an extra minute or two for the fire to go from idle to full heat.. but that is about the only difference.. I like bigger coal, big pea size coal seems to work well in my AA... But right now I'm burning smallish pea, and it is doing VERY well,, [Superior's coal].. I also Have larger pea from UAE and I really can't tell much difference, the Superior seems to clinker a bit more..

Congrats on getting the AA up and running.. now you just sit back and monitor it.. empty the ashpans.. keep the hopper full..

Greg L

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pret · Post by **pret** » Mon. Oct. 20, 2008 1:27 pm

I'm buring pea from Summit... burns well... been running with no problems for two weeks. The only problems I've had over the past 2 months (other than draft issues before) are out-fires... and I caused them myself! The first time I forgot to empty my ash... the second time I had the aquastat too low, and the third time I put two many fines on the fire through the observation port. I think I've covered nearly all the ways one can produce a cold pile of coal in one's ash bin! I just have to say it... I love saving money! Everyday I feel my legs getting stronger with every swift kick to the oil man's 'jimmy'... ahh... feel'n great!

yutyoy · Post by **yutyoy** » Mon. Oct. 20, 2008 1:46 pm

it does feel good to give your heating money to some hard working PA coal miners and not to rich oil tycoons. im still messin with my high / low controlls. I was running 140 / 160. but I tried lowering it to 130/150. see what happens. what is everyone else's settings for this time of year? I know that the colder it gets, I will most likely have to jack it up a bit

pret · Post by **pret** » Mon. Oct. 20, 2008 10:24 pm

I'm running at 170... I think I'll keep it there for a while and see if it is sufficient. 150/130 is pretty low - not worth an out-fire in my opinion. I have the lighting process down to an art now... but the learning curve for me was a bit on the flat side. Now... not a problem. I may drop it 10 degrees, but I don't want my family to get cold if the fire goes out. She (ASHley) loves to run around 170... so as all ladies like... I let her do what she wants! If she's happy... everyone's happy

Freddy · Post by **Freddy** » Tue. Oct. 21, 2008 5:00 am

Yippeee!! Congrats on getting up and running. How exciting! Seems several people have fired their boiler for the first time in the last few weeks. I'm not far behind...maybe later today.

I've read that 140 is as low as you want to go. I'm going to start at 150-170 & see how it works.

yutyoy · Post by **yutyoy** » Tue. Oct. 21, 2008 7:41 am

being that it wasnt very cold, my fire stayed going....but I was still worried about it being too low. so I moved it back to 140 - 160....which seems to be pretty decent in this mild weather. im not getting any unburnt coal in my ash bin.

slb04786 · Post by **slb04786** » Tue. Oct. 21, 2008 8:21 am

I hope to have my EFM 520 wired and ready to run this evening. I still need to build the bin next to the boiler though. I may need to feed out of a tub or something while I build the bin. They are calling for 2-3 inches of that white stuff to fall out of the sky this evening so it won't be any too soon if I do get to fire it up tonight.