Why Is Axeman Andersen Considered the Best?

e.alleg wrote:the EFM guy is on here to answer questions

mikeandgerry wrote:For me the following factors led me to buy Axeman Anderson:

1. 84% Efficiency: Double-pass fire tube design. It is a central heating boiler plant (no stoves for me, thanks) with domestic hot water coil. The unit has a relatively low stack temperature (A sign of efficiency assuming the proper heat is being delivered to the house).

2. Time tested design-- no known major problems

3. Auger tube/coal bin feed: no bag or hod handling. Infrequent handling (shoveling) of coal using an in-cellar (or boiler room) coal bin. I just didn't want an AHS hopper. My shoulders don't like the overhead lifting. The AHS auger tube adds many $$$ to the price.

4. Fairly-detailed brochure and manual with mechanical drawings and that dandy Bureau of Mines Report with real data to peruse. The AA info badly needs updating though.

5. Low dust operation. I have found next to none in my boiler room. The fly ash does fall to the floor under the unit, a flaw described in the Bureau of Mines report. Less than a cup of granular fly ash. I can live with it.

6. Good fines control: they settle under the pick up tube and become the "hopper bottom" of your bin. Probably have to deal with them every few years or so. About a cupful of fines collect in the feed tube head but are contained there indefinitely. The peas and excess fines continue on to the fire pot.

7. Pete Axeman is not a salesman. He's an engineer and manufacturer. I appreciate the soft sell. He was outstanding to work with and quite available directly for questions.

8. Lifetime warranty (vessel and grate).

9. Some early units are still in operation.

10. Steel Boiler vessel. In fact, everything is heavy steel. Very heavy steel.

11. ASME code design. (required in my area) AHS is non-code for the same $$$. AHS will provide a stamp for extra $$$.

12. Extremely rugged. If it breaks though, it likely can be fixed without major troubles.

13. Controls are standard boiler except anthrastat.

14. Pea sized coal is in less demand than rice. Pea burns with less gas build up, i.e. combustion bumps are nil. (not so with buckwheat which can be burned in the AA with a slight modification)

15. Set and forget operation. (excluding, of course, the thusfar twice a week jump in the coal bin to shovel coal for 90 seconds and the once a week trip with the ash bins to the landfill.) I started the fire Nov 7, 2007. In about 35-45 minutes my fire pot was full and the boiler was heating my house and hot water. I haven't had to do much since. (What a let down from my 18 months of immersion in this topic designing my boiler/radiator system from scratch -- LOL--I was almost diappointed there were no problems to manage!)

I agree. The AA 130 & 160 are simple and efficient. I burn about 7 - 8 tons a year up here in Buffalo in a converted gravity system with 1030 sqaures of cast iron radiators. There's a lot of water in my system, but the hot coal fire coupled with a low flow system pump is the right set up.

mikeandgerry wrote:

I agree. The AA 130 & 160 are simple and efficient. I burn about 7 - 8 tons a year up here in Buffalo in a converted gravity system with 1030 sqaures of cast iron radiators. There's a lot of water in my system, but the hot coal fire coupled with a low flow system pump is the right set up.

You have a big place! I calculated I would burn about 4 tons. I have only about 520 sq ft of radiation in a twenty year old house. My father and I made about three trips around the northeast picking up used radiators that I bought on Ebay. I mostly bought "modern" Burnham Slenderized with a few larger and older Aero's. We hit Phila, Lancaster, Binghamton, New Canaan, Hartford, CT and two places in NJ. It was hard work; I doubt that I would do it again. I strained my back. However, they are wonderful; Nice even heating.

I averaged about 35.00 each at auction and then invested another 90 each having them bead blasted and painted with custom color automotive paint. They look great with no out-gassing from the new paint. With fuel and *censored* (not counting time-it's definitely a labor of love!) I have about 225 each in my "brand new" radiators or about half of the cost of new Burnham's! It was a big, time consuming job though. with my Anthratube and my new radiators I guess I'm set for the next 50 years or until death do us part.

My system holds about 100 gallons, 20 of which is the AAA130. Aquastat is set at 170/190/15diff. I used a primary/secondary system with 5 zones (3 br's). I bought a mixing valve for a manifold system but didn't use it believing that primary/secondary would be better and would create sufficient mixing. Now I understand that it doesn't do much mixing. My return temps can be very low at times. I keep a thinner fire because I don't have the load you do and I have a very large loop that consumes 23k btu/h. Recovery is slow at times. If the fire has been idle there is sufficient hot water to heat the zone but the return temps can drop as low as 90d. I am fortunate the boiler is steel and can handle it. This summer I will be adding the mixing valve to moderate the temp. I will trim the loops more now to reduce the flow or swap out to a low flow primary pump.

e.alleg wrote:How do I figure my square feet of radiation from my water/air duct coil, is there a formula for size of coil/size of duct/size of ducts/water temperature/cfm ? This info would be handy if I ever convert to radiators like mikeandgerry did.

mikeandgerry wrote: My system holds about 100 gallons, 20 of which is the AAA130. Aquastat is set at 170/190/15diff. I used a primary/secondary system with 5 zones (3 br's). I bought a mixing valve for a manifold system but didn't use it believing that primary/secondary would be better and would create sufficient mixing. Now I understand that it doesn't do much mixing. My return temps can be very low at times. I keep a thinner fire because I don't have the load you do and I have a very large loop that consumes 23k btu/h. Recovery is slow at times. If the fire has been idle there is sufficient hot water to heat the zone but the return temps can drop as low as 90d. I am fortunate the boiler is steel and can handle it. This summer I will be adding the mixing valve to moderate the temp. I will trim the loops more now to reduce the flow or swap out to a low flow primary pump.

mikeandgerry wrote: I keep a thinner fire because I don't have the load you do