Aa-220 value used

What is the value of a used leisure line aa-220 boiler in avg condition? Considering one for my new house but not sure what a good starting point is.

Look at the build date and ask to do a pressure test before you make an offer.

Welcome to the forum.

In general, coal stoker boilers don't carry a lot of resale value these days. When oil, gas and propane prices get really high, the coal appliance demand goes up. Right now, middle of Summer it is a buyers market.

You should do a lot of research before you buy an AA220. There are at least 2 very long threads on this forum where an AA220 owner couldn't get enough heat out of this unit. It was determined that these little stoker units can't push enough coal to meet the 220,000 BTU advertised output.

If you really need 200,000+ BTU, I would look for something else.

-Don

It should be noted at this juncture that 220,000 BTUH input is the equivalent of burning 18 lbs. of coal per hour, and 432 lbs. per day. That's a lot of coal.

Most new homes likely need about 1/3 of this much boiler. I just read somewhere where the average homes 'Manual J' heat loss calculation is about 34,500 BTUH. This means that 99% of the time an honest output of 34,500 BTUH will heat the average home. And average demand will likely be about half of that.

Allowing for 70% honest efficiency, and a gross/net (pick-up) factor of 1.15, this comes to:

(34,500 * 1.15)/0.70 = 56,680 input BTUH. (the need sufficient to cover 99% of all days)

A popular rule of thumb states that 1.4X 'Manual J' is how much boiler you will need on the single coldest day in any given span of 10 years. So, putting it all together, we get:

(34,500 *1.4 *1.15)/0.70 = 79,350 BTUH as input. (the need to cover the coldest likely single day in any given period of 10 years)

Something between the 99% and 100% input demand is likely sensible. Call it 68,000 BTUH as input.

An aggressive 'Manual J' heat loss calculation shouldn't cost more than ~$200. Be sure to demand an aggressive evaluation. Not conservative. If you demand an aggressive heat loss calculation, you are forcing the test agency to actually crunch the numbers, as opposed to guessing.

is it LL-220 or an AA-260...
Leisure Line 220 or Axeman Anderson 260...
Two very different boilers...
The 260 is a beast...
The LL-220 might not be so robust...

It is the leisure line version for sure not an axeman. I have had a manual j done and it came in at just shy of 100,000 Btu so size wise it is fine. They are asking 1500 which seems like a steal compared to the 3000 asking price I have seen on others. Still hooked up and holding pressure so is ok in that regard.

There’s just to much of a sour taste on this forum for me with those...

Chimney or power-vent for your install...
AA for me when it happens...

Schnell wrote: ↑

Sat. Aug. 03, 2019 5:39 pm

I have had a manual j done and it came in at just shy of 100,000 Btu ...

Your new house must be huge. Nearly 3 times larger than the average new house. Either that, or situated in Alaska, or a combination falling somewhere between these extremes.

Some peoples new homes are far from newly built...

McGiever wrote: ↑

Sun. Aug. 04, 2019 2:06 pm

Some peoples new homes are far from newly built...

Quite true. Obviously I didn't look at it this way.

Kinda a combination of all of the above. Upstate Ny can be brutal in the winter. Wife and I are converting a barn into a house. So the timber frame is about 100 years old. Floor Sq footage wise it is about 2800 S.F. but when you take the 31ft ceilings into consideration and corresponding wall of windows the heat load grows fast. Will be power vented most likely that height chimney gets expensive fast.

In my opinion, the AA220 will probably work but it will be near it's limit heating this house. It will probably do the job as long as you don't do anything silly like put it in an outbuilding.

Schnell wrote: ↑

Sun. Aug. 04, 2019 5:31 pm

Will be power vented most likely that height chimney gets expensive fast.

You obviously have not done any research on this subject. A masonry chimney can last for 100 years and only requires cleaning once a year, if that. You will be cleaning out that power vent once every few weeks in the Winter.

-Don

And what do you consider “upstate” NY?

The leisure line boiler vessels are made by Axeman Anderson.

I would look at using gravity hot water heat to heat your converted home
as perimeter hot water radiators used with gravity hot water heat do not
require circulators to move hot water to heat the home or business.

The hot water is heated to 170 degrees and the hot water riser allows the
water to rise to the open to air expansion tank and then fall by gravity to the
radiators. The common return pipe to the boiler sump is plumbed so that
the cool water riser is only six inches away from the hot water riser pipe
to allow the hot water to travel quickly to the open to air expansion tank
and deliver the heat in the home at slow even rate through the entire
structure.

A gravity hot water heating system is easy enough to plumb up with an
open floor plan and you do not need a very large open to air expansion
tank to store the hot water that will flow downwards to the radiators.

A gravity hot water heating system can heat a building three stories tall
from the basement and there is always the option of using a hot water
pump to push water into a larger open to air expansion tank with a
hot water float control valve to prevent overfilling the tank with hot water.

There are quite a few gravity hot water heating systems still heating very large
homes that have been operating for 100 years or more.

I look forward to hearing more about this conversion as used hot water
radiators are available in Auburn and Syracuse or Buffalo to name just
a few cities.