pabricky wrote:from all the different coal boilers you have which one do you like best, And easier to maintain
Welcome to the forum pabricky!
That is a good question, I will answer it as best I can. I have had 4 different boilers running and heating my house since I started this crazy journey.
1) Yellow Flame 3 grate. Great heavy duty boiler and flat grate stoker. It also has the best DHW coil design. Easy to clean and maintain. The older ones like mine was, don't have much heat exchange surface area inside the firebox leading to some inefficiencies.
2) Losch 475 with a Yellow Flame 3 grate stoker. Super heavy duty boiler with more heat exchange area inside the firebox in the form of long water tubes. A bit more difficult to clean but a solid runner.
3) Gentleman Janitor GJ-51 with an EFM S-20 stoker. Great boiler with triangle tubes and baffles, easy to clean. My first underfed stoker, this was a revelation. It became obvious to me a few weeks after running this stoker that the underfed is far superior to any flat grate stoker. Not having to run the stoker every 10 or 15 minutes to maintain a fire uses a LOT less coal. The fact the the underfed can go hours in a power outage without having to re-lite is one of the other advantages.
4) BairMatic boiler with a Van Wert stoker. In my opinion, the Van Wert stoker is just a touch better than the EFM stoker. It has a deeper and steeper fire pot. This allows it to dwell without power for even longer than the EFM. The BairMatic boiler is small and compact with a lot of surface area inside the firebox in the form of water filled plates. The plates are pointed on the top so fly ash has a difficult time accumulating, kind of self cleaning. This unit is my favorite so far.
I still need to try my Van Wert VA600. I have the stoker, I am planning to go pick up the boiler next weekend.
-Don