Coalpail.com Forum

Hi all! I am pleased to find a community dedicated to coal heating. I live in south eastern Idaho and coal heat is pretty much a lost form of heating here. Consequently, there aren't many service people around that can service my units or teach me how to do it myself. I have a Williamson Flo-Warm furnace and a Rheem stoker. Both I believe were installed in the 30's. I need to find a resource to help me maintain and repair both units. Can anyone help or direct me to literature that covers these units? Thanks in advance for any help!

Big Al

Hello Al, welcome to the forum.
first, a question: is your unit a Furnace [makes hot air] or a boiler? which makes hot water??

I'm afraid you may have to roll up your sleeves and get dirty,, like you said, burning coal is a lost art, and even in the east where coal was very common,
there are not a lot of good repairmen anymore,

Do a google search for Pease Feed and hardware, ro variations on Pease, Combsutioneer, Stokermatic. There used to be a retailer and repair
company that was something Pease they had a lot of parts and info about Bituminous and Sub Bit burning units. they were located in Wyoming or montana..

I'll try a search and see what I can find.

If you can post a few photos of the units, both the stoker and the whole setup,, with name and number plates if you can.

Stay warm @@

Greg L

Found it: http://www.peasefeedandcoal.com

they are in Wyoming, but most reports are they they know who can fix coal burning units..

Good luck, let us know how it works out..

Greg L

Welcome!

It sounds like you may have a good set-up there which, with a little effort/tending and maintenance, will be very economical heat for you.

Is this furnace currently running?

If you are "handy" you could maintain this unit yourself.

The first thing I would do is check the oil in the stoker transmission. There should be a "fill" plug that you can take out and try to see if the oil is level with the bottom of the plug hole (a flashlight will help see the oil level). If you cannot see the oil, or if you determine that it is low on oil, 90 weight SAE oil would need to be added.

Next I would look for oiling ports on all the motors on the unit and oil them with 3in1 oil.

If this is an existing installation in a house or something that you now own, I wouldn't change any air settings or anything else (yet) because they're probably set close to where they need to be.

It would be good if you would post closeup photos of the stoker and furnace so we can give you more instructions on how to clean ash ect. from the different parts of the furnace.

Where in SE Idaho are you? I frequently travel to the Logan(UT) area which wouldn't be too far from you.

Holy crud! I forgot about this forum! Well I am doing maintenance this year. I was physically unable to prep the last 2 years so I have a real job on my hands. I think I need to change out a couple of tuyeres . There is a strap that holds them all together under all the soot. I have three tuyeres left and I better find some more for the future. Does anyone have a resource for these?

I'm attaching several photos. Any help will be appreciated!

Wow! Al, Where have you been?

I don't know a thing about Bit coal but that looks like a good old heavy duty stoker furnace there. I'm an eastern anthracite burner but even for something like this I would give Joe at Mark's Supply a call 570-462-0748. There website is,
http://www.markssupply.com/

They are in the hart of anthracite coal country but I know they have done some Bit coal burner's in the past. They locate and or cast all sorts of parts for us old coal stoker fanatics. I realize they are a long distance from Idaho but if they have or can get the parts, it could be worth it!

Good luck,

-Don

Don,

Thanks for the link. I'll call tomorrow.

I lost this forum.....I only got serious this year because I am able to do it now.

It is a very good furnace and has given our family great service ever since we moved here in 1972. This is an old drafty house and if I were to use gas to heat, I'd spend upwards to $800 for the season. And we have mild winters. As it is, I can heat for about $400! I pay $125 a ton for my coal. It isn't great coal, lots of shale (as you can see in the photos of the firebox) but it's the best we can get locally.

I am determined to keep it going as long as I can still get coal. Luckily Obama's promise to do away with coal energy hasn't come to fruition.

As far as maintenance goes, I need to replace a few tuyeres, the preload on the auger, and of course the pre-season stuff.....filters, chimney clean out, etc. My dad installed a gas piggyback unit on this so he could leave for several weeks during the winters so he didn't have to bother a relative to maintain the coal furnace. The problem is the baffling system that the installers used. What a bunch of junk! The gaps between the baffles and the ducting allows airflow through the gas vent system. The pivot system they used on the baffles are cheap and 2 of the three have broken. Now in order to do a proper job fixing them, I will have to disassemble almost all the ducting! I don't think I'll get that done before winter, but I will tackle it next spring.

Anyway, thanks again for the link and I'll let you know what I find out.

Al

And post a pic of the beast itself!

Roar!

lol

That's a great looking furnace and stoker!

Those tuyeres look like will-burt style tuyeres.

Will-burt just sold their stoker business to JonMar Gear and Machine. Phone: 330-854-6500

Measurements and pics of the tuyeres and they should be able to help you. (diameter of the retort, number of tuyeres is important too)

Wow! Thats great news! I'll contact them tomorrow.

Thank you!

Al

Big Al wrote:Roar!

lol

Roar indeed Al!

That thing will keep you a lot warmer for a lot less money than a part time running gas furnace ever would!

It is very Wil-Burt looking.

-Don

The toughest part of servicing this so far is getting inside the firebox. My dad was much smaller than me and would wear a paper painters suit and respirator and stick the whole upper half of his body in there and clean/replace the tuyeres as needed. I cannot do that. So looking for an alternative way I noticed two straight slot bolts on either side of the fire box door that hold a large bracket (1st two photos) that appears to keep the front part to the firebox (next two photos) against the firebox. In the fifth photo you can see the nut for the lower bolt from inside the firebox. It holds an oval plate in place which comes off with no issues. When I loosen the upper bolts, they get wobbly but I do not have access to the upper nuts. Now this is either a nut held by a retainer of some sort or when I remove the bolt the nut will fall into an area I cannot reach. If I can get this entire piece off I think it will give me the space to work inside.

1st, is the front portion to be removed for maintenance? Besides the bolts it looks like some sort of glue or cement has been applied to secure the part in question to the fire box. I assume the cement would be there to create a airtight seal. But why? Also should I assume that the engineers would design this so the upper nut is held by a retainer? I would take a chance but I'm not confident that I could rig a way to get a nut to stay in place.

Any ideas?

Hey Don. What do you think about taking the front of the firebox off?

Al,

I do not have experience with old furnaces. That stuff you are seeing inside is probably furnace cement. They would have used the furnace cement to seal the firebox.

I would think the front piece comes off somehow. Keep plugging at it.

-Don