The Bairmatic - Van Wert Project

Meter reading today was, 3009.9 - 2980.4 = 29.5 hours, 4.2 hours per day over the past 7 days. 50.6 pounds per day average. Past few days it's been cold like normal Winter! Milder early in the week.
This morning I ran a 3/4" PEX water line over to the coal bin and put a hose bib on it. The 1" red and blue PEX to the right is the abandon heat exchanger zone. The heat exchanger went with the GJ-51. I hosed down the coal, then went in and shoveled the coal over to the auger side of the bin. Should be a couple weeks til I have to rake or shovel again.

-Don

I was doing some research on the forum this morning and I found a short, but interesting Van Wert thread.
joek18 @ Van Wert 600 Rebuild and Install Job

This thread discusses the VA-400/VA-600 feed rate and how to adjust it. The original poster and some of his friends with Van Werts were having problems with un-burnt coal due to the feed rate being to high. It refers to the VW parts list for the bits that need changing. To my surprise, I found out that I have NOT been running this stoker as a VA-400. I've been running it a bit slower.

I decided to try the original VA-400 settings, just for the heck of it. The original set up for a VA-400 is:
Motor pulley = 3.5"
Gearbox pulley = 3"
Gearbox = 600 : 1 ratio
Gearbox sprocket = 10 teeth
Pot auger sprocket = 21 teeth

I had everything right except the motor pulley. I was using an adjustable 3" split pulley. I swapped in a 3.5" motor pulley. I turned the air down to 4 and let it go. If my old feed rate tests were accurate, this set up should yield about 17.5 pounds per hour. According to the manual, the VA-400 should push 12 pounds per hour. I'll leave it run for a day to see what happens. My guess is the feed rate will be to high and the ash will be very heavy.

While I was doing this I noticed that the 4 nuts, bolts, washers that held the motor on were not quite right. I neglected to put lock washers on and the flat washers were small enough to get stuck in the slots. I installed some big grade 8 flat washers with lock washers, all is good to go now. Swapping this pulley got a lot more complicated than I thought it would be! -Don

Jeez Don, looks like it took most of the toolbox to get that swapped!

Do not forget that the factory Van Wert "tune" was for buck, and they also suggested white-ash coal.

Rob R. wrote:Jeez Don, looks like it took most of the toolbox to get that swapped!

Do not forget that the factory Van Wert "tune" was for buck, and they also suggested white-ash coal.

Yah, that split pulley didn't want to come off!

Mummm,, Your right, 12 pounds per hour in the manual refers to buck, not rice. With the EFM, 6 teeth should be about 12 pounds per hour on buck, 15 pounds per hour on rice.

I think at some point I will set up one of these stokers and do some more feed rate tests.

-Don

After looking at all that,i am glad I got a stoker based on the old manure spreader drive system.

Click,click,click,click,click.click...

Meter reading today was, 3040.0 - 3009.9 = 30.1 hours, 4.3 hours per day over the past 7 days. 51.6 pounds per day average. Past few days it's been cold like normal Winter! Again! This coming week is forecast to be more like Winter than any weather we've had this whole season. Monday into Tuesday we should get 14+ inches of snow. We have not yet had a snowfall that accumulated 1 inch, now 14+! YAY!
The bin has a big gofer hole in it now. It's still 16" down to the mouth of the auger though. That should get us through for at least another week.

-Don

Well that was fun but the stoker ran for 6 hours over that passed day, 2 hours longer than before. Lots of black coal going over the side. Some black in the pan. Went back to the split pulley set at 3". That's interesting, in this boiler that feed rate setting doesn't work at all. When I get the VA-600 down here, we'll try it again to see if it works any better.

-Don

I put up a couple videos of the feed rate change. The first one is a description just after installing the 3.5" pulley. The second one is after we switched back to the 3" split pulley.





The full playlist is,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIi1uGP5KOA&list=PLFU8SaWNbzx9mci79cXUaH2ECEraIT4AT

-Don

Why would changing the boiler effect the way it burns, assuming the BTU's required don't change? The inside of all of the boilers you have showed look pretty similar.

David

David... wrote:Why would changing the boiler effect the way it burns, assuming the btu's required don't change?

I think the different boiler firebox may, in some small way effect how the pot burns. The BiarMatic has heat exchange plates right above the pot, the Van Wert boiler this stoker came out of has a large open firebox.

The main reason I have been playing with the feed rate is, it seems that people with Van Wert VA-400's and VA-600's have had problems with the feed rate being to high. Here is an example of one of these threads.
joek18 @ Van Wert 600 Rebuild and Install Job

I found this thread interesting because it involves more that one Van Wert and they talk specifically about changing the gearbox to auger ratio using 25 tooth and 30 tooth sprockets on the auger. The biggest auger sprocket I have is 21 tooth, so I have been changing the motor to gearbox ratio instead.

This has the same effect on feed rate but also greatly changes the amount of combustion air the blower provides. This is why I have been running a higher air "number" than other Van Wert users.

In my boiler this is further complicated by the fact that I am burning rice coal. The Van Wert was designed to burn buckwheat coal. Using rice coal effectively increases the feed rate by about 20 to 25%.

-Don

David... wrote:The inside of all of the boilers you have showed look pretty similar.

They are actually very different. The Van Wert and the Anthra-Glow boilers have a vertical spiral gas path that has inner and outer sets of boiler walls. This is probably the most efficient design.

The BairMatic and later Yellow Flame boilers have extra heat exchange plates right above the firepot. Other boilers use rows of water tubes above the firepot.

The EFM 520 uses heat exchange plates on the exhaust side of the boiler. Earlier 520's used fire tubes on the exhaust side of the boiler.

-Don

Meter reading today was, 3075.9 - 3040.0 = 35.9 hours, 5.1 hours per day over the past 7 days. I've been playing with the feed rate this week so I don't know what the coal usage is right now.
I set up a test rig while I was snowed in on Tuesday and ran some feed rate tests. Here are the results.
MOTOR PULLEY SIZE = POUNDS PER HOUR:
3" = 10
3.5" = 12.125
4" = 14.5
Split pulley set at 3.25" (all the way in) = 11.5
Split pulley set at 3.05" (1 turn out) = 10.5

Currently running the 3" pulley = 10 pounds per hour. I think this is a little low, but I will run it for the week to see what happens. At the end of every feed rate test, I dumped the coal in the gopher hole to help thwart his activities. When I changed the ashpan I found this. It's the baffle block off that I installed during the Christmas cleaning. It's pretty warped. I guess aluminum wasn't such a good idea. Here's what the fire looks like from the ashpan's point of view. -Don

The Mighty BairMatic/Van Wert has made it through another Winter!!!
Meter reading today was, 3100.7 - 3075.9 = 24.8 hours, 3.5 hours per day over the past 7 days. 35.4 pound per day. Feed rate is still set at 10 pounds per hour. It is running very good there.

This week we've had some cool weather and some warm weather. It was 82 yesterday! Thank goodness it only went up to 50 today. It's time to patch my ductwork back together after installing the radiant floor and removing the hot air coil. It seems air conditioning time is close at hand, yuk. Changed the aquastat back to Spring/Summer settings. I had it set at LO = 150, HI = 170. Now it's LO = 130, HI = 150. I finally dipped into the reserve bin. Not that I needed to, but it seemed easier to scoop it out of there than to rake from the other side of the main bin. -Don

Meter reading today was, 3120.1 - 3100.7 = 19.4 hours, 2.8 hours per day over the past 7 days. 27.7 pound per day. Feed rate is still set at 10 pounds per hour. That is really good! There have been a few mild days but a few cold, rainy days also.
I did some bin raking today. We should be able to make it into may on what is left. I'm planning some changes over the Spring and Summer months.

-Don

StokerDon wrote: I'm planning some changes over the Spring and Summer months.

-Don

Well there's a shocker