Some old coal laundry stoves ?

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Charles Edward
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Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hot Pot laundry & a Hercules water heater

Post by Charles Edward » Mon. Nov. 21, 2022 12:22 pm

For some years I have had a Hot Pot - which I have more or less learned is a 'laundry stove'. Two-lid cooktop with a water jacket around the firebox portion. The grate cracked and I have half-assed tried to make a new one from time to time. A brake drum, a brake disc, a cast iron pan, 1/2" plate steel - but nothing I was ever happy enough with to actually trial. <g>

More recently I have acquired a little 'Hercules' unit - which seems too small to be a space heating boiler and has piping connections - so I am thinking that it must be a coal fired water heater.

1. Has anywhere here heard of a Hercules coal (or wood with a grate?) fired water heater? And if so; do you know anything about them? Were they common?

2. Can units such as these be safely fired on coal with the water jackets dry? Dry firing a boiler is always a bad idea - but what about these two? Any knowledge of that?

I can always arrange for some kind of water tank arrangement with a float valve to keep them full and pipe the other connection higher and let it steam for adding humidity. Or install a CI radiator and pipe it to convect up to that. But operating the unit(s) dry would be way easier . . . . <g>

Ideas?

 
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Sunny Boy
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Hand Fed Coal Boiler: Anthracite Industrial, domestic hot water heater
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Post by Sunny Boy » Mon. Nov. 21, 2022 12:31 pm

I've heard that running a coal-fired hot water heater dry can crack them, but I've never seen actual proof of that.

Not wanting to be the one to risk proving it is why I haven't hooked my shove-a-day hot water heater back up. Plus, having the firebed enclosed by the water jacket makes it not good as just a heating stove.

Paul


 
Charles Edward
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Posts: 20
Joined: Sun. Nov. 20, 2022 8:28 pm
Hand Fed Coal Stove: Hot Pot laundry & a Hercules water heater

Post by Charles Edward » Mon. Nov. 21, 2022 1:43 pm

Of course it reminds me of a funny story.

A woman called my office one cold winter day: "Could we install a new oil fired steam boiler? And if so; could we take delivery of her new boiler for her."

Her old boiler had failed / leaked and she had bugged them so badly about it that they had offered her a new boiler to shut her up they told me. Only stipulation was that it had to be installed properly by someone with solid steam experience. She called the local plumbers and supply houses and they all gave her my number.

It was a Friday and a friend and I were winding down the week having a late afternoon beer. He suggested we go look at the job and I said why not? It was snowing heavily by that time but we made it there to find the house is <50º, little tiny kids are in diapers on the LR floor, and you can see your breath in the house. Boiler is manual fill, the MM low-water is full of mud w/ the float stuck and there is a 1/4" width horizontal crack the width of the fire box inside the boiler. Clearly the low water safety had failed closed through lack of blowdown and they had dry fired the boiler - cracking the rear section.

But I feel pretty bad for (I thought at the time) single woman, and especially the kids, and wrack my brain and think what can be done to provide at least Some heat. I do have boiler solder in the truck (the blue container - I forget the brand) but this is a Big Leak. <g>

Penny/Pound - we fill water to the crack, dump a can in the PR fitting, and fire it up. Water fills the firebox so fast that it douses the flame. I loosen the face plate nuts / bolts to let the water drain out of the fire box and start firing it again. I have my friend watching the sight glass and just Easing water in to keep a level showing in the bottom. The dirt floor cellar has water to our ankles. After 2 or 3 cans of boiler solder I look in the peep hole over and past the flame and the water flowing down the back of the firebox seems 'maybe a Little less'. In a half hour the crack is just a damp line. And inside an hour it's dry and the boiler is building pressure.

Even back then I would have bet serious money that there was no possible Way . . . <g>

By about 8:00P the rads were warming the house. She refused to pay a dime for my miracle. Later she refused to pay for installing her new boiler - she just wanted me to deliver it to her. After all; she "didn't need it installed now. My old boiler is working fine."

I did pick up the new boiler and her and her husband came by later to try and steal it when I refused to deliver it to her. A few years later it was in my way in the shop and I sold it on ebay.

But your mention of dry boilers cracking made me remember that Boiler Solder Miracle. <g>

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