new yorker wc-90 add on boiler

I keep my boiler burning 24/7. I let the aquastat and the baseboard system control the heat. If it is 40*, I just use less coal.. I still need to heat the house roughly 30* above ambient.

I also don't recommend raking the coal.. make a good hot fire, when it burns down shake the ashes out from the bottom of the coal bed, add on fresh coal, run a forced combustion air fan, or open the ashpan door and let lots of combustion air in, let the fresh coal catch fire, then fill the firebox up as deep as possible.. let this coal burn till you see the blue flames dancing above the fresh coal.. or leave a corner open to the red coals to provide a flame to burn off the volitiles..
Then close 'er up, and leave it alone for 6,8 or 12 hours, however long it will maintain hot water, then start the process again..

I'm gone from home all the time, so the above loading schedule just didn't work for the farm caretaker,, he has a regular 8-5 job.. he often had to start a new fire because the full firebox wasn't enough to last 12 hours.. But now with a stoker boiler [AA260] the hopper holds a week's worth of coal, and the ashpan holds from one to three days worth of ashes,, depending on temperatures..

Greg L

I don't mind stacking some coal against the water jacket, it's constantly cooled by the water on the backside anyway. I do notice, if it's touching the water jacket it is loath to burn. I do wonder about going much higher in the front than the mark on the front of the boiler, in the front. This is "unprotected" steel and iron, with a high temp silicon seal... can see the bead. Will I warp that section of the boiler, or burn the seal out?

That picture of the firebricks in the front and the coal piled in behind it... a scream. How long would that burn in my boiler? Maybe a day and a half? How do you keep the fire from drowning itself in ash?

I don't rake or poke, unless I have clinkers and bridging and can't shake them loose. I rake the clinkers to the top/front and reach in and pick them up... with a pair of heavy welding gloves on...

LeonMSPT wrote:I don't mind stacking some coal against the water jacket, it's constantly cooled by the water on the backside anyway. I do notice, if it's touching the water jacket it is loath to burn. I do wonder about going much higher in the front than the mark on the front of the boiler, in the front. This is "unprotected" steel and iron, with a high temp silicon seal... can see the bead. Will I warp that section of the boiler, or burn the seal out?

That picture of the firebricks in the front and the coal piled in behind it... a scream. How long would that burn in my boiler? Maybe a day and a half? How do you keep the fire from drowning itself in ash?

I don't rake or poke, unless I have clinkers and bridging and can't shake them loose. I rake the clinkers to the top/front and reach in and pick them up... with a pair of heavy welding gloves on...

LeonMSPT I have the same boiler and fill it to the the door and mound the coal up in the middle. The seal is the door ring bolted to the front of the boiler which i am pretty sure has water behind it. the only thing that gets real hot on mine is the door. I have noticed the combustion fan likes burn the coal hotter in the front than the back. I take a little ash from the pan and pack it into the coal in the front, 3"to 4" back. It helps for a more even burn when the combustion fan is running.

Thank you for all your information. I am not burning coal at this time because my schedule does not permit. Again, the last time I burned it work perfect. I was lucky to get 4 hours unattended. I have spoken to several people in a local area with these boilers, some are going through the night and some are not and we are getting frustrated as stated earlier. The latest thing that has been said to me is that they took the steel plates inside the boiler and replaced them with firebrick and instead of the firebox at an angle, it is more square. I have not tried this yet. I still believe that this boiler is suppose to function just the way it is built. But, I have talked to another friend that has 3 of these boilers in his family and between fires they are raking the coals underneath, making sure there is plenty of draft going from corner to corner inside and making sure that there is an air pocket in the corners and to see the glowing ambers and he says it takes him about 15 minutes and then fills the coal up to the door and leaves for work. What upsets me the most is that he tells me that he has a 77 year old mother doing the same thing and running hers 24/7 . So starting tomorrow night I am going to start my boiler with all of your information and see how it goes. I also had someone tell me to mix pea coal and nut coal and that it burned better for him. Again, my problem is when I wake up in the am with my last shovel fulls being at midnight. I wake up at 5:30 a.m. and my coal is unburned, 1/2 burnt and 1/2 unburned. I am not sure if I am smothering it or if I am not shaking enough.

I have this same boiler and have had some of the same issues. I don't believe its the boilers fault, it is mine.

Mine is run in conjunction with an oiler boiler. My aquastats on the oil boiler are set to 160/180 with 15* difference. My NY are set to 200 +/- and 215. Some will say this is to high but I base my setting on normal running of my coal boiler and these settings work for ME. I sat and played with the aquastats for day to find out where MY boiler likes to run and everything else is based off from that.

To start a the boiler here is what I do.

I use 2-5 squares of Rutland's Safestaters. I add about 1 5 gallon bucket of kindling, from scrap wood so it really not all that much. It runs up on the water jacket.

Once it starts to burn good, I open open the fan vent and make sure the fan is on. I get this fire as hot as possible. I then add more wood. When this catches and is burning good I add the coal. I add big chunks so it has good air flow. I add about 2-3 ash shovel fulls at a time. I spead it out. I do NOT dump it all in one spot. When I hear this start crackling, I add more. I keep repeating this process until I am at the top of the "fire bricks".

During this process I make sure the temp does not reach the "dump" temp. I do this by turning the fan off, and opening the ash door. This will cause the temp to drop due to circulation requirements of MY set-up.

Once I have a decent base I mound the coal up, not letting to much lay against the water jacket. When the coal is buring good I close the fan vent to about 1/4 inch. On my temp indicator it will settle to about 190 degrees and on my oil boiler's indicator it will settle about 195 degrees.

This will burn for about 5-8 before I touch it again, based on temp outside. When I do touch it... this is how I do it...

I add 3-4 shovels of coal. I let this burn for 5 minutes or so, then I may add that much again, depending on how much things have burned down. The point is I make sure any new coal is burning decently before I do ANYTHING.

I then will shake it down until I see a decent amount of coal in the ash tray. Don't shake it down with ash tray open (to dirty). I will also, not shake it down all at once. This can make the fire to cool to much. However, it shouldn't take more then 2-3 mintes.

Once this is done I add more coal to what is needed. This varies on boiler demands. I do tend to find the coal in the corner burns worse than the center.
My normal fire tending takes about 5-10 minutes this inclides emptying ash tray.

The key I have found is to not run the tempature up and down ( to max / min ) when starting it. I also, have no issue with starting fan if need to ensure good coal burn. I never poke coal bed from the underside, its just not needed. I don't fret the unburnt coal along the sides. If I have big fire those will burn.

If I am gone for an extended period I fill this thing right up to door edge, huge mound. This has burnt for 14 hours for me. Don't be afraid to get a hot base of coal and then dump coal on top and close that vent up. It will burn.

I manged to figure this out with HELP from EVERYBODY HERE. I read a lot, shut my mouth ( my wife thinks thats impossible ) and read. I also understood it takes time to learn how to use coal. I will admint I am not there yet. But, we aren't freezing yet.

I hope this helps.
Doug

After starting my last fire almost 6 weeks ago the boiler was having a hard time getting up to temp. With very cold weather on the way I thought it might need cleaning, I let the fire go out over night and today cleaned out the fire box and got 4, 5 gallon buckets of ash, then brushed and vacuumed the grates and walls. I blame the ash build up on some bad coal I bought of a homeowener at a discount price, that won't happen again. JRW

I made a poker with a 90 on the end. I work the edges then the middle to break up the clinkers. Then i turn the fan on or open ash door to brighten the coal, then i shake it down. I dont stir the coal i go straight down to the grates. It drops the coal level fast,If i dont do this the coal level gets to high and it bridges. I also bought 3 1/2 ton of pea from a guy that stopped burning 10 years ago and 1/2 ton of bagged Cornwall nut coal from a different ex coal burner.The mystery pea coal burns much better than the Cornwall nut.

Does anyone know if New Yorker dropped the WC series from their line? There is no mention of the 90 or 130 on their website. This just happened within the last day or so because I downloaded the install manual for the WC-90 two days ago.

We used to make the base for both the 90 and 130 units. Haven't had and
order for about five years. I think they gave up on them.