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Re: Pictures of Your Boiler

Posted: Tue. Oct. 11, 2016 8:50 pm
by coaledsweat
Years ago, I had a coal dealer that had one of those. It heated his shop and 3 apartments. It isn't going to have any trouble heating your house unless all the doors and windows are open.

Re: Pictures of Your Boiler

Posted: Tue. Oct. 11, 2016 8:52 pm
by windyhill4.2
If that 520 can't keep your house as warm as you want,it ain't the fault of the 520.
Maybe the operator :)
Or the coal
Or the heat delivery system

Still uncertain & uneasy about the 520 capability :notsure:
Check out what an EFM520 installed in a truck box is doing here for me. :flex:

Re: Pictures of Your Boiler

Posted: Tue. Oct. 11, 2016 9:31 pm
by StokerDon
JohnTresk wrote: I see alot of people on here like seeing unique coal stokers so maybe ill post some pics of the 30mmbtu hurst with retro fitted fire-jet burners that I work on at a local greenhouse. We burn up to 20 ton a day in the winter. Now thats a lot of coal!!
John from McAdoo
WHAT!!! Fire Jets! 30 Million BTU!!!

Yes, we will need a picture or two.

Welcome to the forum John. Good luck with your new (to you) EFM!

-Don

Re: Pictures of Your Boiler

Posted: Tue. Oct. 11, 2016 9:42 pm
by JohnTresk
I kinda figured but this is a new (old) house and we only spent the summer here. I knew oil would break my bank and coal was the way to go.
Buuuut, while I have some attention I have another question. What should I have my aquastat set at? I do not use it for dhw.
Any and all help is greatly appreciated!!

Re: Pictures of Your Boiler

Posted: Wed. Oct. 12, 2016 5:36 am
by Rob R.
http://cdn.efmheating.com/DF520-Installation.pdf

EFM recommends the following: 160 low, 200 high, 10 differential. If you are not using the boiler for DHW (you are missing out), the low limit can be turned down to 140. Timer should be set for 2 minutes every half hour.

Those "radiators" are convectors, and probably work very well. Keep things away from the bottom of them, and clean the dust out the best you can.

Re: Pictures of Your Boiler

Posted: Wed. Oct. 12, 2016 9:28 am
by ShawnTRD
Rob R. wrote: EFM recommends the following: 160 low, 200 high, 10 differential.
Keystoker recommends 160/180. Why would it be universal?

Re: Pictures of Your Boiler

Posted: Wed. Oct. 12, 2016 2:17 pm
by JohnTresk
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Front view

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Front view

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StokerDon wrote:
JohnTresk wrote: I see alot of people on here like seeing unique coal stokers so maybe ill post some pics of the 30mmbtu hurst with retro fitted fire-jet burners that I work on at a local greenhouse. We burn up to 20 ton a day in the winter. Now thats a lot of coal!!
John from McAdoo
WHAT!!! Fire Jets! 30 Million BTU!!!

Yes, we will need a picture or two.

Welcome to the forum John. Good luck with your new (to you) EFM!

-Don
Here you are. I only have 3 burners running right now. This is my full time job here. PADEP had us install an O2 analyzer so I can see my oxygen levels via a pc/phone. It's pretty neat.

Re: Pictures of Your Boiler

Posted: Wed. Oct. 12, 2016 2:20 pm
by JohnTresk
Rob R. wrote:http://cdn.efmheating.com/DF520-Installation.pdf

EFM recommends the following: 160 low, 200 high, 10 differential. If you are not using the boiler for DHW (you are missing out), the low limit can be turned down to 140. Timer should be set for 2 minutes every half hour.

Those "radiators" are convectors, and probably work very well. Keep things away from the bottom of them, and clean the dust out the best you can.
Thanks Rob. I spent hours looking online and never found them, now I punch in "convectors" and boom, there they are. Amazing. You guys are great!! I wish I would have joined this forum months ago.

Re: Pictures of Your Boiler

Posted: Wed. Oct. 12, 2016 5:21 pm
by coaledsweat
I looked at a 250HP Hurst years ago. I liked it but the powers that be went cheap. Is that one a fire or water tube?

Re: Pictures of Your Boiler

Posted: Thu. Oct. 13, 2016 7:34 am
by JohnTresk
coaledsweat wrote:I looked at a 250HP Hurst years ago. I liked it but the powers that be went cheap. Is that one a fire or water tube?
This is a fire tube. This Hurst boiler was orig designed with a chain grate running through it and supposed to be able to burn ANYTHING (hard & soft coal, wood, pallets). Well after 3 months of nothing but problems, we had Hurst come up and see what the heck was going on. Their conclusion: "Your only supposed to burn bituminous." Soft coal?!?! What good is that going to do us in the middle of hard coal country? After all the back and forth, lawyers and more lawyers, we lifted the boiler up, pulled the base out, added another base and retro fitted (4) 60" BG&W Fire Jet burners. They run good but boy are they temperamental lol. Now after everything is said and done (10 years later) it runs like a champ. I spend a lot of time here with it when its acting up but when its good its good. We heat 8 acres of greenhouse plus probably another 5-7 acres of loading docks and packing areas. When it gets bitter cold we use a Hurst oil burner to piggy back and help out. The oil burner is capable of putting out somewhere around 20-25 mmbtu at 180 gallons an hour. Pretty incredible.

Re: Pictures of Your Boiler

Posted: Thu. Oct. 13, 2016 8:09 am
by ShawnTRD
Holy coal. If you can get some more pictures and even video.

Re: Pictures of Your Boiler

Posted: Thu. Oct. 13, 2016 8:10 am
by coaledsweat
John, we need the video!:)

Re: Pictures of Your Boiler

Posted: Thu. Oct. 13, 2016 9:29 am
by lzaharis
Hello John,

Welcome to the forum.

With your current Hurst Boiler can I assume it is
the Coal Miser Model that had their underfed stoker that you
modified by exchanging bases and stokers????

I tried to look up the burners you mentioned that you
replaced the base with but I was unable to locate them with
what little digging I did.

The last car ferry that travels on Lake Michigan still has a marine
coal stoker boiler for steam power for the screws, heating
the cabins and to make DHW .

I will have to check to see if they are still operating as they were
facing a crap storm of opposition because they were jettisoning
the fly ash overboard as it came off bottom of the marine boiler
and the state wanted them to remove the coal boiler or shut
down completely because they were not storing their fly ash
and disposing of it on land.

Re: Pictures of Your Boiler

Posted: Thu. Oct. 13, 2016 10:29 am
by CoalHeat
Welcome to the forum.

More photos please!!!

Re: Pictures of Your Boiler

Posted: Thu. Oct. 13, 2016 10:49 am
by Rob R.
JohnTresk wrote: I do not use it for dhw.
Depending on how many people live in your house and how you make DHW currently, there might be a pretty quick return on getting the Efm setup for dhw.