Chappee Hand Fired Boiler

Greg said it quite well, generally with hand fired bituminous you want a fairly strong draft, thus the baro would rarely even be wanted.

The soot will stick to the back of a baro (unless it's stoker fired) and will make it virtually worthless, and when (not if) you have the volitiles violently ignite, it will blow all the soot in the smoke pipe out the baro, instead of into the chimney thus covering your boiler room. I reccomend using 8" pipe from the boiler to the chimney with T's instead of any elbows and seal every joint then use at least 3 screws and your coal burning experience will be trouble (at least soot) free. the small gain in efficiency you will gain from a baro firing bituminous is not worth all the extra hassel, since bit. coal is so inexpensive a pound or so extra/ day is not going to make a measurable difference.

I was so excited when I read your post (of 9/12) re: your Chappee boiler - as info re: them is virtually nil on the web. I printed your 2-page brochure (w/grate info) and then went about trying to locate the company (American Energy Marketing Assoc. of Liverpool, NY) noted on the front of your (brochure) boiler. We appear to have the identical model and are in need of a new grate and a calorstat. Our model is from the early 1980s.

I haven't had any luck locating American Energy..., or reverse searching the phone # or address. Liverpool (NY) is within 30 miles of us.

We have no manual, anymore. If it isn't too lengthy, could you download yours or email it to me directly?

As for burning coal - we gave it a try last year - anthracite. We never quite got the hang of it, despite all the advice I downloaded. It seemed that the fire needed to be so hot to, not only get it going, but to maintain it, that it only made sense to simply burn wood (since that's how we got/kept the fire going to temp, anyway). Another issue was losing more coal than necessary, through the damaged grate.

If anybody knows where Chappee parts are available, I would greatly appreciate it. I read the post re: going with a Honeywell calorstat, which may be an option. I had already researched one Honeywell site, but didn't see anything that appeared similar to the one on the Chappee - which is exactly like the one illustrated in your info.

We have the Chappee integrated into the main (oil hot water baseboard) heating system. We have a 5-yr old energy efficiant furnace with a domestic coil - hence, no hot water heater. It's set up with a switch at the head of the basement stairs, which enables us to control the need for hot water with the flip of a switch. I just ordered 100 gal of fuel oil and double checked with the fuel company, as to when I last bought any. It was June 7, 2007 - that's right, 2007 - when I last bought 100 gal! Trust me, it was on E then! Bottom line, burning 25 cord of wood In the Chappee (@ $45 a p/u truck load = about a cord & a half, picked up from a woodsman a mile up the road) allows us to get by with less than a hundred gallons of fuel a year! (Heating a 1700sq. ft, 2-story cape cod with 5 bedrooms.)

Good luck with your coal burning endeavor!! You can't beat a Chappee!

I had a couple requests for the entire manual for the Chappee, so I've scanned it into my web page. You can view all of the images at http://cemrweb.cemr.wvu.edu/~mathews/boiler/
That directory contains 22 pages of the manual along with flyers. I just left the raw scans as jpg files. If you download them they should expand nicely with an image viewer.
John

nyfishngal,

I called the store where the boiler was purchased originally. That was in Uniontown, PA. The folks there told me they had sold many of these units but no longer carried them or parts because they were not legally able to sell coal boilers in Western PA any longer ??? I questioned them as much as possible about that without having them hang up on me but they stuck to that explanation--its no longer legal to sell or install a coal boiler in the area.
They told me there was one dealer in Pittsburgh who was still licensed to sell the units and they believed this dealer had parts. Unfortunately, no amount of pestering could get the guy I spoke with to recall the name of that dealer. He told me once the Pittsburgh dealer retired or sold out, that there would be no place to legally purchase a coal boiler anywhere in western PA. I find this unbelievable, but I'm not able to pursue the issue just to assuage my curiosity.
If you would like the name/number of the dealer in Uniontown, send me a message and I'll give it to you. The guy I talked to just couldn't remember the name of the place in Pitt, but he was friendly enough. Perhaps if you tried to speak to the owner or someone else and were more persistent they might be of some help.

John

"I find this unbelievable"

It is.

There is a guy selling these chappee manuals on ebay when you visit this page he will proceed to tell you his personal web page were sells these calorstats for around $250 each,I thought this was an awful lot of money so today I ordered a samson draft control for $78,I will find out if it works when it arrives.I found out about the samson control on https://www.hearth.com

Jeff

The guy sounds sort of rude on his ebay listing. Looks to me like he's been selling scans of the manual over and over again--anything for a buck these days its seems. Anyway, if you want the manual, I posted it on my web pages, see the posts above. Let us know how the calorstat replacement works out.
John

Berlin wrote:Greg said it quite well, generally with hand fired bituminous you want a fairly strong draft, thus the baro would rarely even be wanted.

The soot will stick to the back of a baro (unless it's stoker fired) and will make it virtually worthless, and when (not if) you have the volitiles violently ignite, it will blow all the soot in the smoke pipe out the baro, instead of into the chimney thus covering your boiler room. I reccomend using 8" pipe from the boiler to the chimney with T's instead of any elbows and seal every joint then use at least 3 screws and your coal burning experience will be trouble (at least soot) free. the small gain in efficiency you will gain from a baro firing bituminous is not worth all the extra hassel, since bit. coal is so inexpensive a pound or so extra/ day is not going to make a measurable difference.

I've always used a baro with my hand fed boiler burning bituminous coal. I can't imagine going through the volatile stage without one. Even with the baro it pulls aprox 3 feet of flame up the stove pipe while it's burning the volitiles. Without the baro the flame travels well into the chimney while burning the volatiles. I clean the back of the baro about once a week with a small wire brush a little bigger than a toothbrush. Takes ~ 20 seconds to clean. When you have an ignition as mentioned a little soot will fly out, but usually not much. I find when it ignites it blows the damper shut on the baro and only a little soot escapes. This is in my basement. If it were in my living room, I might describe the amount of soot a little differently.

Terry

Thats a great price on the calorstat ($78), do you have ordering info? I did buy one from that guy @ $250 because I couldn't find it anywhere else. The Chappee is installed and running great, I haven't used a gallon of oil yet this year. We hooked it up to our existing warm air furnace and electric water heater, so on top of no oil I am saving $80 a month on electricity for hot water! For Chappee parts you can check out:**Broken Link(s) Removed**
Hope this helps.

I need a calorastat for a chappee boiler. Where did you buy one

Hi
I am new at using coal- have a chappee boiler having trouble keep it going.get it started with wood get a good flame going and start building the coal and it starts.my problem is keeping it going.I shake it down every couple hours and add some coal after the shake down but it will just start going out.i can keep it going for about 4-5 hrs. have new samerson regulator on it and have a draft inducer on the chimmey.
any help will be greatly welcome.
rebuilditman

I use a barometric draft regulator when firing Pittsburgh Lump Bituminous Steam coal. My barometric draft regulator did not build up any black soot on the flap but I have had it blow the damper right off the pipe during a few explosions of the gas before I learned how to fire the stuff. Since then I had installed the barometric draft regulator off the tee with a one foot extension of pipe, put some screws through it, and added the bituminous coal in smaller batches over about a half hour to the top of the firebox when refueling. This eliminated my explosions and a good amount of the black soot I had accumulating on the inside of the chimney pipe. I have a 37 foot chimney and if I only fire Pittsburgh Lump Bituminous Steam coal, I have to let the fire go out and clean the chimney every four or five weeks. I'll get a little more than a five gallon bucket of black soot out of the pipes and the chimney. What a real messy job! Wear a good mask, goggles, and have a shop vac ready.
That seems like a pretty good price for bituminous coal here in Pittsburgh. Twainer, you refer that here in the western part of Pa, where? Your location reads North Central WV. Were did you get it? The last batch I got in January at Kiefer Coal in Bethel Park, Pa was $95.00 a ton. It was good stuff though! Since then I've graduated to Reading Anthracite from Russel Bros. in Washington, Pa. at $223.00 a ton. The reason for the switch at first was to eliminate the messy clean job. Now I only have white fly ash to clean out every six to eight weeks. Much cleaner and a lot less mess. The second reason for the switch was I wanted to see how it compared. Then I got spoiled from the less dirt, cleaner burn, no sulfur smell, and the wife didn't have to wash the walls and blinds every month anymore. A happy wife = a happy husband. Then I spoiled her even more when I put in a stoker. Hand fired units are nice but a stoker is the only way to burn coal. Spend the money on one and you'll be glad you made the investment.
A for the use of the barometric draft regulator, I recommend using one. I got a much better and longer burn time from the Pittsburgh Lump Steam Coal than when I did not use one.

Well, I've had quite a learning experience these past few weeks. I installed the boiler in my garage, but I didn't want to cut into my new roof out there for the chimney pipe. Instead, I did what I've seen many wood burning folks do: run the 6" pipe up and out the side wall, then up along the outside of the building.
This was a mistake. As you mention Doug, the soot buildup is terrible, and the clean out proceedure couldn't be any bigger nightmare. I was having to take the stove pipes apart every two days and run a brush through them to remove the inky black soot. The stuff floats around in the air like ink sacs, and sticks all over
anything it touches.
Day after Christmas the temps went up to 75 here so I purchased and installed a roof kit for the chimney pipe. Now it comes out the back of the boiler for about 20 inches, hits a T pipe and goes straight up and out the roof about 20 feet up. I used double wall insulated pipe through the roof and up near the top, but stayed with black pipe down low because it heats up the garage nicely while the fire is hot. I have not had to clean it yet, and I can pull the cap off the bottom of the T joint and look up the pipe all the way to to outside. Cleanup will just be a matter of walking out side on the low side of the roof and running one of those chimney brushes up and down a couple times, then holding a bag over the bottom of the T, remove the cap and let it dump.

I get the Pittsburgh lump coal in Dilliner, PA, about 10 miles from me. The charge $80 for the washed lump coal, and run of mine is $60 but they've been out of that for a month now. They also sell what they call Sewickly nut coal for $110. It burns quite a bit hotter, but I can get it to last all night with a load of that stuff in the boiler.

Washington PA is about 50 minutes up I79 for me, but I'd love to try some anthracite sometime.

Rebuiltman, your trouble sounds exactly like what I experienced before I realigned the chimney pipe. My stove would pretty much go out in about 2, 3 hours unless I went out there and jabbed holes in the coal every hour or sooner. I notice there is much stronger draft now, and the fire seems to last much longer when it gets good and hot (around 220-240 water temp) and the damper door closes up all but a crack. I couldn't get it that hot before unless I left the whole bottom door wide open.

It sounds like you're getting things together and fine tuned. I'm glad it is starting to burn right for you. Just curious, are you using a barometric draft regulator? Isn't amazing how much the chimney effects the performance? How long of a burn time at your desired temperature are you getting? Keep us posted! Thanks for letting us know how you are doing. DOUG

My Calorstat hasn't worked properly for two years - can't really complain as it is over 24 years old - original to my Chappee. I too saw the ads for the guy on Ebay - he is now on vacation in his huge RV and will only take wire transfers. Not what I wanted to do so checked with my local hardware and found a Van Wert draft control for $169. Needless to say I scarfed it up. I live in a rural area - not many heating contractors so imagine this could be gotten cheaper from a large vendor. This place had sold two this year - has one left. He said he wished he could charge as much as the other guy . I have found that these old hardware stores usually have things that are hard to get anywhere else. So keep looking - they are around. Now I just have to install it. I used wood exclusively for years but have been using Bituminous for the past two seasons - takes a while to get onto firing as every furnace is different. My Chappee heats a 10 room Victorian beautifully with wood - am anxious to get the draft control installed as I know this will help with the coal.