Chappee Hand Fired Boiler

 
twainer
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Post by twainer » Fri. Sep. 12, 2008 8:43 am

I've never burned coal before but I'm in the process of installing a boiler in my garage this fall. My house uses a gas fired boiler currently, and the idea is to stop spending money on gas!! I've been lurking on this site reading all the interesting posts from everyone. I've certainly learned quite a lot from all the posts I've read so far.

I worry about coal continuing to be available in the next few years, and about using Bit coal in my furnace, and about the smoke and ash I might experience. In general, this is all one big science experiment for me I guess.
The stove is a Chappee, here is a flyer on it: Image
Image

I've talked to a nearby coal supplier who says they sell nut coal for $80/ton. I think I will need larger size coal after reading this forum, but the supplier has various sizes so I'll look them over when I go to get my first load. Still installing the stove at this point.

Can anyone comment on this type stove or offer any advice on what using bit coal might entail in this stove?
Thanks,
John


 
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Rob R.
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Post by Rob R. » Fri. Sep. 12, 2008 8:57 am

Looks like it should do a fine job. Interesting grate design, it looks pretty aggressive. The secondary combustion air will help you eliminate some of the smoke/soot associated with buring bit.

There will be a learning curve with bit. coal, especially if it has high volitile content.

 
twainer
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Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Bermuda (Chapee) solid fuel boiler
Coal Size/Type: bituminous lump
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Post by twainer » Fri. Sep. 12, 2008 2:38 pm

Yea, I'm worried about getting the fire started and building it up properly. Ideally I'll be able to go 12 hours per load, but I'll have to learn how to get there :)

I've got to build a chimney among other tasks, so its going to be a real foot race getting everything installed in time for the cold. . .

 
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Duengeon master
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Post by Duengeon master » Sat. Sep. 13, 2008 5:39 pm

the grate looks similar to a Harman mark III grate. I like to play with bit coal and I find that the bigger pieces, (lump coal) the size of your fist works well. If anthracite is available. it is much easier to burn. It will take a little time to master bit.tell us how you make out. Enjoy your stove and welcome to the forum.:D

 
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coaledsweat
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Post by coaledsweat » Sat. Sep. 13, 2008 6:53 pm

It uses a natural draft control similar to the TARMs. Looks to be a nice unit. :)

Come to think of it, they use a very similar rocking grate.

 
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Post by CoalInNH » Thu. Sep. 18, 2008 8:39 pm

twainer wrote:I've never burned coal before but I'm in the process of installing a boiler in my garage this fall. My house uses a gas fired boiler currently, and the idea is to stop spending money on gas!! I've been lurking on this site reading all the interesting posts from everyone. I've certainly learned quite a lot from all the posts I've read so far.

I worry about coal continuing to be available in the next few years, and about using Bit coal in my furnace, and about the smoke and ash I might experience. In general, this is all one big science experiment for me I guess.
The stove is a Chappee, here is a flyer on it: Image
Image

I've talked to a nearby coal supplier who says they sell nut coal for $80/ton. I think I will need larger size coal after reading this forum, but the supplier has various sizes so I'll look them over when I go to get my first load. Still installing the stove at this point.

Can anyone comment on this type stove or offer any advice on what using bit coal might entail in this stove?
Thanks,
John
John, I have this same stove. Is your calorstat functioning? Also, do you have inner walls--a picture of the inside would be nice (where you fill the coal bed above the shaker grates

 
TimV
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Post by TimV » Thu. Sep. 18, 2008 8:53 pm

Hi
$80 a ton for coal? How many years ago was it you talked to the supplier?
Or is that for "soft coal"?? Sounds cheap to be anthracite at todays inflation ridden prices.
I payed $280 a ton bagged delivered and I thought that wasnt too bad compared to last year.
Letrs us know what type of coal they are delivering for that. Will your boiler burn either type? Dint know anyone in Liverpool,NY made boilers. Thats not too far from me.


 
twainer
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Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Bermuda (Chapee) solid fuel boiler
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Post by twainer » Fri. Sep. 19, 2008 11:02 am

:D That's great to hear CoalInNH! I was hoping someone else would have this stove.

I'm sorry to say that I don't know about the inside, I've not picked up the stove yet. Its still in the basement of my coworker's house that I'm getting it from. We were planning to load it up this Sat, but it seems all our help has made other plans for the day. The stove weighs about 800# so I'm not too keen on loading it with just the two of us. We plan on using a low height trailer so the stove can just be tilted down into the bed, but even that is too much for two people!

The calorstat is working, I've watched it pull the chain. The stove is basically new, my friend purchased it thinking to burn wood in it, but the door is too small to put good size chunks of wood in so he ended up having to keep loading it all the time. He replaced it with a larger wood burner, never having tried coal in the stove. :|
Its not made in NY by the way TimV. It was made in France some 20 years or more ago and the US distributer was the NY firm.
My friend has just had it shoved off to the side in his basement and never used it after the first attempts to burn wood. I've talked with him about trying coal in it for several years but it wasn't until I found this site that I mustered up the courage to go ahead and install the thing to give it a try. This site and the price of nat gas here now which is up to about $250/month on the budget plan!

The coal for $80/ton is bit coal, thats the whole reason for trying the stove out. Here in the western part of PA, the cost of anthracite really wouldn't save me much over using nat. gas to heat. My concern over the bit is that I don't think the stove is really designed for it, but hope it will do OK.

CoalInNH, maybe you can share some of your experience with this model? It will be a few weeks before I am ready to light up the stove here.
John

 
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Post by CoalInNH » Fri. Sep. 19, 2008 8:48 pm

You will need at least four strong guys--the boiler is at least 925# depending on model--mine is a CN -28. I don't know about burning bit though. Make sure you take off all the shielding on the outside, the doors, and the inner grates before moving. This is an extremeley hard move, I would also make sure you have a dolly, a come along, and some chains. Boiler worked great for me, but my Calorstat broke and am having trouble finding a replacement.

 
twainer
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Post by twainer » Mon. Sep. 22, 2008 7:42 am

Well, we got it moved this weekend. Just the two of us, but we took our time and used what mechanical help was available. Removed outside panels on the stove, and the doors, and inside grates but it was still really heavy. Trailer is about 14 inches high so we walked the stove outside and leaned it back on some plywood onto the trailer. Then we had to use a floor jack to tilt it up the rest of the way into the bed and a come-a-long to pull it by the feet across the bed to center it.
Unloading was about the same way, but had to get creative to find a couple points to pull the boiler out of the trailer with a chain. Its cleaned and assembled in my garage now. :D

The calorstat device is a two piece affair; The lever arm with the chain can be removed with the single brass nut/stud. Underneath that assembly is the working portion that sits in the water jacket. Its one of those expanding pellet type devices where a pin is extended upward when it gets hot--that pushes a rod up and acts on the lever arm with the chain. Not sure what you have done to trouble shoot the one on your stove CoalInNH, but if you removed the top half and the pin doesn't expand on yours, it might be ruptured. I have not removed the brass base from the boiler so I don't know what that part looks like on the calorstat.

There appears to be no lining inside the firebox. I cleaned in there with an iron poker and wire brush. I have the factory manual that came with the boiler and can post that if you need, but the fire box is simply the inner walls of the boiler castings of each section. I too have the C28 model, 130,000 BTU. The manual doesn't mention anything about BIT coal, just anthracite. I don't have much choice about it though, in western PA BIT coal is all there is.

I still have to dig my trench for the water lines back to the house (about 100 feet) and assemble a chimney for it. I've been trying to purchase some PEX insulation called maxx-r but nobody close seems to sell it. Eight foot long sections don't ship by ups so its been hard locating some.

I'll take a couple photos of the boiler tonight and post 'em now that I've got the soot cleaned off myself and the stove!

 
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Post by danzig » Mon. Sep. 29, 2008 12:12 pm

Trust me you will be able to burn bit. coal in that unit. My logwood boiler and simplex both burn bit coal well. Just have a good established wood fire to ignite the coal. Use larger coal ( stove size and mix nut with it) have your poker ready because the coal will fuse together (ashfusion). Do you have a baro damper? you will need one burning the coal.

 
twainer
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Post by twainer » Tue. Sep. 30, 2008 1:03 pm

Thats why this board is such a great resource. I never even heard of a baro damper until I started just reading all the threads on here. I went to the site for them and read why/what/how. I am installing everything in the garage from scratch so its one of the items on my toget/todo list! I've got an advice request over on the plumbing/vent topic about pipe insulation. The baro damper looks like a requirement from what I've read. I don't want to have to go out to the garage all the time to adjust the fire!

I've asked a couple of my relatives for their memories of burning coal when I was a kid back in the 50s. My grandad had bit coal on his farm and used a backhoe to dig it up and bring it to the house where they burned it in the fireplaces. My uncle recalls only that there was a 'lot of shoveling' involved in using coal :shock: My Dad who is 80 will only laugh at me when I tell him I'm putting in a coal boiler and tells me the same thing he said about my 3 sons before they were teenagers--he says "just wait. . "

 
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Berlin
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Post by Berlin » Tue. Sep. 30, 2008 5:45 pm

I don't usually reccomend a baro when burning most bituminous coals.

 
twainer
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Post by twainer » Tue. Sep. 30, 2008 7:55 pm

Berlin can you expand on your reason for that somewhat? I read (but have zero experience yet) that the baro damper allows for air flow by-pass when the draft gets high due to hot flue temps, cold outside temps, etc. It seems reasonable that I need to install a flow-bypass loop for the hot water pipes in order to maintain optimal boiler temps for best burn rate. It also seems reasonable that I should install a combustion air by-pass loop (the baro) so that I can maintain an optimal air feed rate for the best burn rate. The damper door is controlled by the calorastat for that function, but it seems the baro can only help if there is too much draft.
Do you have negative experience with the baro? I don't know what to expect since I'm still installing the boiler, but the opinions of this group who have been there done that are invaluable and worth all the theory put together :P

 
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Post by LsFarm » Tue. Sep. 30, 2008 9:57 pm

I won't try to answer for Berlin, but in my experiences with Bituminous coal, there is a large amount of soot from bituminous coal, and it sticks to everything inside the flue pipe.. it can get quite thick.. I think the soot would collect on the back of the baro's flapper-door and mess up the delicate weight and balance of the door.

The other characteristic of bituminous coal, is that it has a lot of volitiles in the coal.. these volitiles escape the coal when first heated, and often the accumulation of volitile gas will ignite with a small explosion. A small explosion in a stove or boiler with a baro damper in the flue would result in damage to the baro. In my boiler, the 'minor explostion' blew the flue pipes apart at the joints and made a real mess with all the soot all over everything.

Greg L.


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