Axeman Anderson 1959 130M

Hoytman wrote: ↑

Sat. Jun. 20, 2020 10:01 am

The porch is a breezeway going across to basically a 3 car garage.

Hoytman wrote: ↑

Sat. Jun. 20, 2020 10:01 am

My home is only 1300 sq ft, so a stoker boiler may be over-kill, I don’t know.

That sounds a lot like my house! Mine is 1400sq ft with breezeway attached to a 2 car garage. The Axeman is in the garage. I have a full basement but that is not a necessity.

Lightning did his install with a water to air heat exchanger. That would work for you too. My house has a hot air system so I started out with a heat exchanger in the ductwork then, a couple years later added cast iron radiators.

Hoytman wrote: ↑

Sat. Jun. 20, 2020 10:01 am

I burned about 24lbs per day just to heat the house. I only burned two months or a little over. I anticipate a full winter including shoulder seasons to be 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tons.

You will burn more than that with a boiler. The boiler is a central heating system, not a room heater like a stove. It will heat the whole house, domestic hot water and your garage. I burn about 6 ton a year.

-Don

I guess I should have been more clear...

I realize it will burn more heating our water as well as the garage. I wonder much it would burn only heating the house...like my stove?

Hoytman wrote: ↑

Sun. Jun. 21, 2020 3:34 pm

I guess I should have been more clear...

I realize it will burn more heating our water as well as the garage. I wonder much it would burn only heating the house...like my stove?

There is no way to really make that comparison, I have tried. Your stove is a room heater, you can play tricks with it to send some heat to other parts of the house but it's nothing like a central heating system.

Assuming that you put a water to air heat exchanger in your ductwork, it would be difficult to zone off one room like the Hitzer. You will also have the stand by losses of a remote boiler install.

By the way, EFM coal stoker boiler, FREE!!!
https://lancaster.craigslist.org/zip/d/quarryvill ... 37017.html

I have never seen an EFM for free.

-Don

StokerDon wrote: ↑

Sun. Jun. 21, 2020 3:02 pm

Lightning did his install with a water to air heat exchanger. That would work for you too. My house has a hot air system so I started out with a heat exchanger in the ductwork then, a couple years later added cast iron radiators.

Right... in my case the water to air exchanger is useful as a stepping stone towards plumbing the whole house with baseboard radiators. Not that there is anything wrong with forced air, it's a matter of preference I guess. I suppose it's easier to zone with radiators because air isn't being pushed around so much. Also, the heat is more comfortable and more evenly distributed, provided its installed properly.

Lee, did you ever look at the videos of what I had in mind?

Another 7 days in the books. 6975.7 on the meter. 20.3 hours of fan run time, 2.9 hours per day, 18.5 pounds per day. Hay, that's pretty good! 10.5 hours of ashing, 30.3%. That's terrible! No wonder the ash looks like partly burnt coal! A little less than half a barrel left. Still running the 5" fan motor pulley. No outfires this week! Current settings,

Auger motor = Runs with fan motor
Anthrastat = 120 (Inkbird)
Fan RPM = 2875 RPM (Stock is 2875 RPM)
Ashing = 1.1 Teeth
Auger speed = 3.94 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
Grate cycles per hour = 5.2
Pounds per hour = 6.5 pounds per fan run time hour?
Aquastat = 155 (Inkbird)

-Don

Hoytman wrote: ↑

Sun. Jun. 21, 2020 7:02 pm

Lee, did you ever look at the videos of what I had in mind?

I did yes, I'll text you

SHUT DOWN!!!

Yesterday we had a HUGE puff back. It blew the chimney cleanout off again. No other obvious damage but the fire won't stay lit now. I don't have time to play with in right now so I figured it would be a good time to exercise the 'Ol Van Wert in the basement. The puff back was like a very large fire work going off. Flames and flyash flew out the chimney! We will have to check to see if any internal baffles are bent.

-Don

Yesterday it was time to figure out what the problem is with this Axeman Anderson 130M. Just for kicks I tried to light it again. Is time I hand fed it some Pea coal. It still would not light. In my thinking, one of the prime suspects was the fan. I pulled the fan assembly to have a look. The fan looked OK. Last year when we had this opened up, the fan had cracks in it and was starting to "Sing" while running. At that point we borrowed the fan from the 1991 130M. We couldn't get the fan hub off the 1991 130M without cutting it off so we ended up using the fan on the 1959 hub which is not a balance assembly. At that time we ordered a new fan and a couple fan gaskets. Fan plate with old, home made gasket. Bearing box. Put the new fan and gasket on. I was very surprised to find a fairly thick, black coating on the inside of the swirl chamber. It was like creosote from a wood burner. It was stuck on there pretty good too. I don't know what it was but I have never seen it on a coal only burner before. Put it back together,,, and it still would not light! After checking the stove pipe a bit more closely, I found the cap at the top of the 5" stove pipe run had partly popped off and the connection to the chimney thimble had also loosened up a lot.

I hammered the pipes back together and after a little encouragement, the fire took off. The other problem is that the bottom of the bin Rice coal is harder to burn than the new Pea coal. As of this morning, the Rice is pretty well digested and we are running on just Pea.



-Don

I would be curious as to if running the fan at a lower speed would mess with flue gas flow of the boiler. That and how did running the fan slower affect the stack temperature. That layer of black coating could be from the flue gas temp not getting high enough, that or a lack of velocity. This is just a thought. It would be interesting to run it again for another year with the current setup if conditions allow to see what happens.

ziggy87 wrote: ↑

Sun. Sep. 20, 2020 10:01 am

I would be curious as to if running the fan at a lower speed would mess with flue gas flow of the boiler. That and how did running the fan slower affect the stack temperature.

Running the fan slower doesn't effect how the gasses go through the boiler at all. What it does is pull less heat from the fire and push less heat into the boiler walls. This is how you reduce the BTU output of this type of boiler.

Anytime you force less air through the coal bed the stack temp goes down. On this one, with the fan running at 1725 RPM on Pea coal the stack is about 250 degrees on a long run.

ziggy87 wrote: ↑

Sun. Sep. 20, 2020 10:01 am

That layer of black coating could be from the flue gas temp not getting high enough, that or a lack of velocity.

I don't think that is possible. There would have to be something in the coal to leave creosote type deposits. I suspect oil from the bearing box and or the bottom of the bin Rice coal.

ziggy87 wrote: ↑

Sun. Sep. 20, 2020 10:01 am

It would be interesting to run it again for another year with the current setup if conditions allow to see what happens.

We have run with the fan at, and below 1725 RPM for a year and a half. I never saw this build up in there before.

-Don

I think the creosote like stuff you had to scrub out is hardened fly ash and rust caused by condensation from it sitting with no fire for several months. I found a similar type thing in mine. When I shut down in the spring I cleaned out the fire chamber and pulled out the ash sled but didn't clean out the swirl chamber till September. The cyclonic separator was a mess also. I won't do that again lol..

Lightning wrote: ↑

Sun. Sep. 20, 2020 6:17 pm

I think the creosote like stuff you had to scrub out is hardened fly ash and rust caused by condensation from it sitting with no fire for several months.

I didn't think of that one. This is the first time the 1959 130M has been shut down for any length of time. After shut down, I didn't clean it or even remove the stove pipe.

Now that I think about it, that stuff looked a lot like what I cleaned out of the swirl chamber when I first got this boiler. The previous owner just shut it off and left it full of ash and coal. So, that is a pretty good answer to this mystery.

-Don

I think the design does a pretty good job of keeping itself clean but it may leave a "coating" of fly ash on the internal surfaces. If that coating isn't removed then it'll react with moisture and then the steel. Probably not a healthy situation to have every summer. I'll be sure to do a more thorough cleaning right after shutdown next spring.

It's been ruining for a week now and there have been no problems. We are running a 3" fan motor pulley and a 4" fan pulley. This gives us a fan speed of 1293.75 RPM. Factory original speed is 2875 RPM. Boiler temp controller on the left, ashing temp controller on the right. Boiler set to 155 degrees and ashing temp is 140 degrees. 7023.4 hours on the meter. Pea coal fire! Here is a video of the fire and a description of how one of these contraptions works.


Current settings,

Auger motor = Runs with fan motor
Anthrastat = 140 (Inkbird)
Fan RPM = 1293.75 RPM (Stock is 2875 RPM)
Ashing = 1.5 Teeth
Auger speed = 3.45 RPM (Stock is 8.05 RPM)
Grate cycles per hour = ??
Pounds per hour = ??? pounds per fan run time hour?
Aquastat = 155 (Inkbird)

-Don