Leisure Line AA 220 Boiler Using Excessive Coal and Not Much Heat

windyhill4.2 · Post by **windyhill4.2** » Fri. Dec. 18, 2015 12:18 pm

strykerlover wrote:Yup, my parents have a Keystoker boiler and use half the coal I use and their house is much bigger. The difference is that their boiler is in their basement and mine is 150 feet away in the garage. I think that the 220 is not a big enough unit to handle my needs. Please share your experiences I have been inside and out of this boiler a number of times.

From OWB to EFM520 Installed in Truck Box ~ I don't know if you have ever read my thread,nor do I know if there would be anything of value to your situation in it. It is a fairly long read,i have tried to make all pertinent info available for all who read the thread. There is no doubt that one will burn more coal when the boiler is in a remote location,but should not double the usage. We burn alot of coal per yr,but we do keep our leaky buildings all warm ,which keeps us warm &

warminmn · Post by **warminmn** » Fri. Dec. 18, 2015 1:17 pm

strykerlover wrote: I've also had to redo my chimney within one year of use because the top two sections rotted right off and fell to the ground.

I am just posting part of your paragraph that caught my attention. I know very little about your system, but that sentence, at least to me, sounds like there may be water leaking onto your fire, or heavy condensation. That would cause your chimney to rot quickly and could be why it uses so much coal. The odds of me being right are probably low, but it makes sense to me. Good luck regardless of the outcome.

strykerlover · Post by **strykerlover** » Fri. Dec. 18, 2015 1:48 pm

Well, you might be right as I added two sections of 10 inch single wall galvanized pipe to the top of my insulated pipe and I had a water cap at the top. I suppose water could have seeped in however there has been no internal evidence of that. The two sections of galvanized pipe didn't last the whole year. The double wall stainless is lasting fine right now.

warminmn · Post by **warminmn** » Fri. Dec. 18, 2015 2:45 pm

Maybe someone that knows more about your unit will know if thats even possible and will reply. I was just throwing it out there. More likely condensation than an actual water leak, I would think. But likely I'm wrong and thats fine. Im just trying to help.

EarthWindandFire · Post by **EarthWindandFire** » Fri. Dec. 18, 2015 3:10 pm

Hmm, you guys live so friggin far away its hard for ANYONE to help you.

Van Buren Maine is on the Canadian border, north of Quebec.

That's 3 hours north of the Maine moderator Freddy who lives in Orrington.

strykerlover · Post by **strykerlover** » Fri. Dec. 18, 2015 3:26 pm

Yup! We often make fun that we live on the end of the earth, however, we are southwest of Quebec. It gets friggin cold here in Northern Maine. This year has been unseasonably warm and I am not complaining. Still burning about 80 pounds of coal per day though. When I run out this year I will be converting back to oil.

windyhill4.2 · Post by **windyhill4.2** » Fri. Dec. 18, 2015 3:40 pm

I am a few miles south of you & burning 120#/day for 3 buildings .

swyman · Post by **swyman** » Fri. Dec. 18, 2015 5:50 pm

Stryker, well all the positives just went out the window. Wen to sleep this morning with outside temps @30 and boiler at 160* and woke up at 3:30pm to 30* with wind and 114* boiler temps. Started the second stoker and went back to the same crap I had before, had to turn the combustion blowers down past half way to maintain a .01-.015 firebox draft. This is no where near the capacity of this boiler so in knowing that I will hold my tongue with the bashing I so want to do. For right now I went to my dealer to see what they can do with this vent problem. It's not rocket science, the direct vent is running wide open and my vent pipe is short. Have not personally been able to get ahold of my neighbor but I talked to his son tonight and he is having issues also but will get info from the source to see if he has similar problems to ours. Wife had to take a cold shower tonight.....not good.

EarthWindandFire · Post by **EarthWindandFire** » Mon. Dec. 21, 2015 1:42 pm

Do you own a new model Apple phone or iPad?

If you do, maybe someone here could Facetime with you in "real-time" which would be more fruitful than posting.

swyman · Post by **swyman** » Tue. Dec. 22, 2015 1:46 am

EarthWindandFire wrote:Do you own a new model Apple phone or iPad?

If you do, maybe someone here could Facetime with you in "real-time" which would be more fruitful than posting.

I do have an ipad?

strykerlover · Post by **strykerlover** » Tue. Dec. 22, 2015 9:37 am

Swyman: Sorry that I did not get back to you sooner. My opinion is that these boilers are extremely finicky and until I cleaned mine very carefully it never worked well. It fills with soot and ash within a couple of weeks and draft is dramatically effects the operation of the boiler. When I was running a draft inducer in my stove pipe it was even worse and the boiler would get plugged up within 3 - 4 days, also was blowing all of my heat out of the chimney. I think that the boiler should not be installed remotely as it's efficiency is not as advertised. On the next nice day you should take your stove pipe off the back of your boiler and clean the ash, I suspect that your direct vent is pulling particles and plugging up your boiler.

swyman · Post by **swyman** » Wed. Dec. 23, 2015 7:52 pm

strykerlover wrote:Swyman: Sorry that I did not get back to you sooner. My opinion is that these boilers are extremely finicky and until I cleaned mine very carefully it never worked well. It fills with soot and ash within a couple of weeks and draft is dramatically effects the operation of the boiler. When I was running a draft inducer in my stove pipe it was even worse and the boiler would get plugged up within 3 - 4 days, also was blowing all of my heat out of the chimney. I think that the boiler should not be installed remotely as it's efficiency is not as advertised. On the next nice day you should take your stove pipe off the back of your boiler and clean the ash, I suspect that your direct vent is pulling particles and plugging up your boiler.

I did a full shutdown and cleanup 2 weeks ago after burning the first 2400# pallet. I have about 30 more bags to go on this pallet and will do another shutdown and cleanup then. I don't think that I will have as much ash since I have not tried to push the boiler as hard plus most of the burn time has been on a single stoker with the warm weather we are having...thank the lord! I could not imagine what I would be burning if we had the weather from the last 2 years? My neighbor finally got his running and is burning under a bag a day to my 2 in these mild temps.

Flyer5 · Post by **Flyer5** » Wed. Dec. 23, 2015 8:25 pm

swyman wrote:
strykerlover wrote:Swyman: Sorry that I did not get back to you sooner. My opinion is that these boilers are extremely finicky and until I cleaned mine very carefully it never worked well. It fills with soot and ash within a couple of weeks and draft is dramatically effects the operation of the boiler. When I was running a draft inducer in my stove pipe it was even worse and the boiler would get plugged up within 3 - 4 days, also was blowing all of my heat out of the chimney. I think that the boiler should not be installed remotely as it's efficiency is not as advertised. On the next nice day you should take your stove pipe off the back of your boiler and clean the ash, I suspect that your direct vent is pulling particles and plugging up your boiler.
I did a full shutdown and cleanup 2 weeks ago after burning the first 2400# pallet. I have about 30 more bags to go on this pallet and will do another shutdown and cleanup then. I don't think that I will have as much ash since I have not tried to push the boiler as hard plus most of the burn time has been on a single stoker with the warm weather we are having...thank the lord! I could not imagine what I would be burning if we had the weather from the last 2 years? My neighbor finally got his running and is burning under a bag a day to my 2 in these mild temps.

Can you give a pic of the powervent connection ? I think if we cannot figure this draft problem by Monday I want to send you a whole new unit.

gerry_g · Post by **gerry_g** » Sun. Jun. 12, 2016 10:42 pm

strykerlover wrote:I genuinely accept all of your valuable input. My last two sections of chimney above my roof are not class a double insulated. I ran out of $$$$ and need to use single wall pipe, so that May effect my draft as you stated. It has enough draft to pull a tissue as it is now. I hope that's not the issue, but you never know. Those sections are over $250 a piece.

It does get really cold here, and trust me, if I wasn't stuck here I would move to a warmer climate. My home is built with 2x6 construction super well insulated, including 1 inch R-board on the exterior. I have brand new gas filled windows, my home was built in 2011, and I built it with my own hands, so I know it's well insulated. My walls are actually about 9 inches thick included the vapor barriers needed for home built for cold weather. I also have 25 inches of cellulous in my attic to prevent heat loss through the roof.
.

Main has required heat recovery ventilation for some time. I wonder if you have negative pressure at the stove?

gerry

strykerlover · Post by **strykerlover** » Mon. Jun. 13, 2016 8:08 am

I am posting my boiler for sale. $4500 with the aquastats, pumps, expansion tank, switches and all other hardware. Just let me know if somebody is interested. I am located in Northern Maine.