New (to Me) Axeman 260

SteveZee · Post by **SteveZee** » Mon. Jan. 09, 2012 4:02 pm

Steve. Are those Gorton's adjustable?
On my rad's I have those silver cylinder type, hole on top with a wheel on the bottom. I can tune the heat output of the rad's with those wheels depending on turning them wide open or half way or even off in rooms I'm not using. Just curious is there a difference with the Gortons?

Townsend · Post by **Townsend** » Mon. Jan. 09, 2012 8:22 pm

Rob R. wrote:
Townsend wrote:Set up a Dwyer Magnehelic and set for about .035 for draft at idle. Also, put in a nice temp gauge for the smoke pipe.
What do you observe for draft and stack temperature during a "long burn"?

Rob, when I checked yesterday during a steady burn I had a temp of 425 about 24 inches up from popes hat. The draft was hovering around .045 to .05.

Post by **Rob R.** » Mon. Jan. 09, 2012 8:39 pm

Perfect.

Townsend · Post by **Townsend** » Mon. Jan. 09, 2012 8:53 pm

SteveZee wrote:Steve. Are those Gorton's adjustable?
On my rad's I have those silver cylinder type, hole on top with a wheel on the bottom. I can tune the heat output of the rad's with those wheels depending on turning them wide open or half way or even off in rooms I'm not using. Just curious is there a difference with the Gortons?

Steve, the Gorton's are not adjustable. I had adjustable vents as well prior to getting the Gortons. I wanted to balance the system and felt it would be easier to do it once and be done with it.

Is it 'Varivalves' you have? How do you like them?

http://www.gorton-valves.com/specify.htm

http://www.pexsupply.com/Varivalve

Townsend · Post by **Townsend** » Tue. Jan. 10, 2012 2:49 am

Just received the Dover Parkersburg #62 tubs. Fit much better than the round one I was using.

LsFarm · Post by **LsFarm** » Tue. Jan. 10, 2012 7:38 am

Hint: even though you are a young guy, and are in good shape after hefting those 40# pipewrenches and 50# 4" Tees, I'll suggest that you don't let the ash tubs over 1/2-3/4 full, they can get a bit heavy, and bending over to pick up a tub can [and has] create back injuries.

I just keep and empty or two around and swap em. Then when you have done your stretching exercises you can pick them up and cart them outside to the ashpile.

BTW: how much coal are you using? I'm gonna guess around 3- 5gallon pails of pea coal per 24 hour period,, maybe more at first.

Greg L

SteveZee · Post by **SteveZee** » Tue. Jan. 10, 2012 9:01 am

Steve,
http://www.emersonswan.com/manufacturers-products ... -rite.html

I have these Vent Rite #1's on all of the rad's in the house. They are a pretty good valve and I can fine tune with the adjustable wheel. They are pretty sesitive too, more so than I would have thought. It took me about a week to really get it right though because as you know, every action has an equal and blah blah........

but in the end, I got the set up pretty good for the whole place. Mine was probably a little trickier than it needed to be because some of the rads were probably oversized for the app. The upstairs bathroom, for example is a big one, where a smaller would have easily done. You know the deal though, people like a nice toasty bathroom in the dead of winter.

Post by **Rob R.** » Tue. Jan. 10, 2012 9:06 am

SteveZee wrote:You know the deal though, people like a nice toasty bathroom in the dead of winter.

Yes sir. Mine is set on 74.

Townsend · Post by **Townsend** » Thu. Jan. 12, 2012 1:05 pm

Ordered a few parts for the domestic hot water and a 0-3lb pressure gauge for the boiler.

Got a B&G check valve and a Watts mixing valve to start using the Axeman for hot water. I'm going to connect the boiler parallel to my how water tank with shut off valves so that I can revert to the electric tank id I ever need to leave house for extended time, etc. It seems straight forward but any tips and/or advice for piping the mixing valve in will be welcome. You guys with a lot of experience have some good insight that often saves problems.

Also wanted to the more accurate gauge to pipe in with the nice old large face gauge currently on the boiler.

Post by **Rob R.** » Thu. Jan. 12, 2012 1:26 pm

B&G makes a fine check valve, but you should use one of their bronze units with potable water. The one you have pictured is iron and will corrode over time.

Did you order the ash tubs locally or online?

McGiever · Post by **McGiever** » Thu. Jan. 12, 2012 4:07 pm

Steve,

I am working on my indirect now, it gets it's own zone... I guess you are using your tankless coil.

You may want to consider this, to pipe in a *heat trap* in the vertical riser to avoid thermo-sphion currents up the pipe.

Read more here: CHECK VALVE Help...

McGiever

tsb · Post by **tsb** » Thu. Jan. 12, 2012 5:16 pm

I found the best solution for DHW is to keep the cold water feeding into the
hot water heater tank. Then use a potable pump loop to the coil in the boiler.
The pump is controlled with a temperature probe on the bottom of the tank.
When the temperature in the tank drops, the pump circulates to the boiler.
This keeps the boiler from getting dragged down with cold water from the well.
The tank provides enough storage and the pump keeps the tank at a constant
temperature.

LsFarm · Post by **LsFarm** » Thu. Jan. 12, 2012 5:47 pm

The beauty of an Axeman Anderson is that it can ramp up to full fire from a dead idle in just minutes. So it rarely has problems keeping the water temperature up for heating the DHW.
The AA260 has a lot of water in the jacket, so the thermal mass is pretty big as well.

I use a plate water/water heat exchanger to preheat the cold well water before it goes into my DHW heater, the thermostat is turned way down, somewhere around 100*, so if I've not used hot water for a day or more, the propane will keep the tank at least warm,,
With the first call for hot water, the replacement 'cold' water is actually usually 160* or so, so my DHW is never cooled off.
If I remember to, I will run a few gallons of hot water in the evening if I'm not doing dishes or laundry, just to 'charge' the
DHW tank with hot water.

Not a perfect system, but I don't want yet another circulator running in the house.

Greg L

firewoodman · Post by **firewoodman** » Fri. Jan. 13, 2012 7:28 am

I have street/well water comming in on one side of the DHW coil , then a mixing valve on the output side feeding into the input side of my HWH w/ ball valves inlide so I can switch if the need arises. I have 5 kids, a clothes washer that never stops.....my hot water heater NEVER comes on!!!!(insert smile here)

my hot water actually gets hotter the longer I use it. I would have liked to put the mixing valve on the output side of the water heater but I think I have a thermal high temp shutoff and was afraid of tripping it and my luck would have an outfire while away from the house....

Townsend · Post by **Townsend** » Fri. Jan. 13, 2012 5:41 pm

Rob R. wrote:
Did you order the ash tubs locally or online?

Rob, I purchased them on-line at Ben Franklin for $20.75 each.

New (to Me) Axeman 260

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