Who Burns Year-Round?

Post by **Rob R.** » Sat. May. 07, 2011 1:26 pm

Matt, the TT terminals are 24 volt. A regular thermostat wire will do the job. Let us know what settings you are running and how the indirect works with the end switch hooked up.

AA130FIREMAN · Post by **AA130FIREMAN** » Sat. May. 07, 2011 2:29 pm

Matt, I run a taco switching relay with a triple aquastat,( ZR to ZR ), (ZC to ZC)from the triple to the taco relay, and they are 120 volt, with a neutral to both and a hot to L1 on the triple and 120v in on the switching relay. On mine, their is NO low voltage wires between the triple and the switching relay. The only low voltage wires are from the thermostats to the tt on the switching relay. This allows the pumps to run with the stoker as long as it above the low limit, will fire when below the high limit on call for heat and maintain the low limit when their is no demand.

MATTHEW D. · Post by **MATTHEW D.** » Sat. May. 07, 2011 4:23 pm

Thanks for the info guys, I'll let you know when I get around to it. My home is new construction, I may have had a outfire or 2 the first 2 years I lived here. Last summer my 3rd year when the temps. were consistently in the 90's I was saying WTF every few days. I tried every adjustment possible w/ no results. One day It hit me. The major factor for my outfires my third summer was the instalation of central AC. The first 2 years we always had the windows open, year 3 we never had them open with the AC on. My home is too air tight. As soon as I installed a screen on my coal bin door the outfires stoped. I don't think It was 100% of the problem, But is was definitly the major problem. A little more wiring adjustments to keep the stoker running and maybe I'll run it a little hotter to help the draft. The big test will be when we get in the 90's. Let's see what happens. Hope to see you guys at the M&G

Matthew

em · Post by em » Fri. Jun. 03, 2011 8:40 pm

Hi, I have a question. I have a Yellow Flame Coal Furnace burning Rice Coal and I am having a problem that it keeps going out. If I set the timer (has settings of 1 3 5 7 ) No type of pins as I have been reading about, to adjust the timer you loosen a screw turn the dial and then tighten the screw back up) If it is set to run longer my furnace gets like a pressure cooker & the relief goes off....thats pretty scary! If I set it a bit lower, the furnace goes out.....what am I doing wrong? email [email protected]

mozz · Post by **mozz** » Fri. Jun. 03, 2011 9:16 pm

I think that timer is the S400a? Does it have the option to either run once or twice an hour? Something like that, sounds like a Honeywell mercury timer. They are very touchy to set up. Scribe a mark, when you loosen the screw, move it the slightest bit you can past the line, I also use a stopwatch, most likely your cell phone has one, if not, regular wrist watch. Write down how many seconds it runs when it is good, go from there. I have the file here called honeywell216.pdf, got it from the web somewhere.

Post by **Rob R.** » Sat. Jun. 04, 2011 6:41 am

I think most of the flat-bed stoker guys run a timer at 15 minute intervals. Does yours have that capability?

Draft is very important when maintaining an idle fire, you may need to clean your flue pipe and check the draft afterwards.

What are you running for aquastat settings?

One more thing, have you tried burning buck in your boiler? I think Yellow Flame stokers are made to handle it, and the air will come through the bed easier.

gaw · Post by **gaw** » Sat. Jun. 04, 2011 6:54 am

em wrote:Hi, I have a question. I have a Yellow Flame Coal Furnace burning Rice Coal and I am having a problem that it keeps going out. If I set the timer (has settings of 1 3 5 7 ) No type of pins as I have been reading about, to adjust the timer you loosen a screw turn the dial and then tighten the screw back up) If it is set to run longer my furnace gets like a pressure cooker & the relief goes off....thats pretty scary! If I set it a bit lower, the furnace goes out.....what am I doing wrong? email [email protected]

The summer killed your draft. You are being plagued by the same thing that hurt the older Keystokers. Keystoker solved the problem by adding a small blower to run constantly to keep enough air flow through the coal to keep it burning even with poor draft conditions. When you increase time on the timer the blower runs longer and the fire gets bigger and hotter and this helps to keep it going but as you found out it makes excessive heat and now that is the problem. You are not doing anything wrong, you are on the right track but if a happy compromise cannot be found I would either give up and shut down over summer and use a hot water heater for my hot water or try to come up with a way like Keystoker did to keep air moving through the grate. You don’t need a lot of air going through the coal to keep it from going out but you need a steady flow. Look things over and start brainstorming maybe you can come up with something.

MATTHEW D. · Post by **MATTHEW D.** » Sat. Jun. 04, 2011 9:14 am

If nothing is working, you can try a draft inducer on your stove pipe, that should keep a steady flow of air moving through your grate.

Post by **Rob R.** » Mon. Jul. 25, 2011 5:26 pm

Roll call - Who still has a fire burning? I shut down for two weeks so I could paint the boiler, but other than that it has been burning steadily since the first fire. I have tried a variety of settings, and never had an outfire.

Pacowy · Post by **Pacowy** » Mon. Jul. 25, 2011 6:43 pm

85R still running for DHW. 30 minutes in AM and 15 minutes in PM heats the boiler water using the setback thermostat; indirect then takes what it needs. OK, it's a little Mickey Mouse, but it (pretty much) works. We have a few tweaks in mind to try - if they don't work, down the road we might take a shot at reactivating the old, separate DHW boiler that's still here...

In the meantime, it's pretty much a one-match operation. I lost the fire one time late last burn season when I let the ash can get too full, which jammed the ash removal system and blew a shear pin. As long as I remember to take the ash out,

it has held the fire with no timer all summer.

Mike

watkinsdr · Post by **watkinsdr** » Mon. Jul. 25, 2011 8:45 pm

I'm still running my S130 with only minor problems. I did turn the thermo ash controller turned down to the lowest setting recommended by AHS (120F??). My family and I (me, wife, three kids) use a lot of DHW; so, the S130 gets a pretty good workout just generating DHW for showers, clothes washer, dish washer, etc.

So far this summer I've only seen slight draft problems when temperatures hit ~100F with absolutely zero breeze, as happened last week. To correct the problem, I purposely dumped about 100 gallons of hot water into my in-ground pool; which, forced the boiler to run for about 60 minutes to recover. After getting a good fire burning again, and getting exhaust gases back up to temperature, the draft was happy with ~0.04 to 0.05 in. consistently showing on the Dyer manometer.

My pool didn't really need the hot water; but, it didn't hurt anything either...

I'm upgrading to a S260 this weekend. I hope the S260 runs equally well through hot weather...

CoalHeat · Post by **CoalHeat** » Mon. Jul. 25, 2011 8:58 pm

markviii wrote:Roll call - Who still has a fire burning? I shut down for two weeks so I could paint the boiler, but other than that it has been burning steadily since the first fire. I have tried a variety of settings, and never had an outfire.

Me, but you already knew that! 100% oil free.

Freddy · Post by **Freddy** » Tue. Jul. 26, 2011 4:07 am

I'm not claiming to be running all summer, but it happens that I have not shut the AA down as of yet. I empty ashes each Sunday.

Post by **Rob R.** » Tue. Jul. 26, 2011 8:49 am

watkinsdr wrote:I'm still running my S130 with only minor problems. I did turn the thermo ash controller turned down to the lowest setting recommended by AHS (120F??). My family and I (me, wife, three kids) use a lot of DHW; so, the S130 gets a pretty good workout just generating DHW for showers, clothes washer, dish washer, etc.

So far this summer I've only seen slight draft problems when temperatures hit ~100F with absolutely zero breeze, as happened last week. To correct the problem, I purposely dumped about 100 gallons of hot water into my in-ground pool; which, forced the boiler to run for about 60 minutes to recover. After getting a good fire burning again, and getting exhaust gases back up to temperature, the draft was happy with ~0.04 to 0.05 in. consistently showing on the Dyer manometer.

My pool didn't really need the hot water; but, it didn't hurt anything either...

I'm upgrading to a S260 this weekend. I hope the S260 runs equally well through hot weather...

I do the same thing with the pool when it needs make-up water. Run a hose right off the tankless coil and let it roar. When it was 100 degrees last week I had very little draft, but I have never had the chimney "reverse" with the boiler at temperature. I suppose our tall chimney with vermiculite around the tiles is ideal for summer operation.

I expect the 260 will be more resistant to outfires, due to the larger mass of burning coal. If you are worried about losing draft on hot days, keep the boiler at a higher temperature when idle. e.g. 180 degrees.

Dirty Steve · Post by **Dirty Steve** » Thu. Aug. 04, 2011 11:32 am

Still smoldering with the K-6.

No oilman for me either! About 20-25# a day. Wish it was less but the daily laundry and baby bottle sanitizing for the little one is keeping usage up. Oh well. Basement DRY. Boilers purring at 145-150 degrees.

Steve