Yellow Flame Sighting!
- StokerDon
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 7484
- Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
- Location: PA, Southern York County!
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
- Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
- Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood
Yesterday I loaded all of my 3 grate Yellow Flame stoker parts into the truck and we went for a ride.
The Yellow Flame is a moving grate stoker that was designed to burn Barley size coal. Burning Rice size requires significantly less combustion air. Without being able to reduce the combustion air much on the early units they are prone to grate warping and coal clinkering.
This one, with the air turned down to Zero, burns Rice coal nice a calmly with no problems. The other nice thing about the newer Yellow Flames is the addition of 3 wet heat exchange plates above the fire. This gives the boiler significantly more internal surface area to absorb heat from the fire before it goes out the stack! Yellow Flame coal stoker boilers are great, heavy duty, industrial strength units Designed to burn the cheapest coal and last more than a lifetime. There are still a lot of them hiding in peoples basements and you can often get them for cheap or even free!
Roll the video Son!
Here is my Yellow Flame playlist. Not many Yellow Flame videos on Youtube!
-Don
We went to see Forum member John. He has a 3 grate Yellow Flame boiler heating his late 1700's farm house and DHW.
This one is stamped 1982 so it is one of the newest Yellow Flames you will ever see. It has the latest version of the Yellow Flame stoker in it with an interesting feature.
It actually has a combustion air adjustment on it! I saw a picture of this a long time ago and thought that someone added it. Turns out that it came from the factory with it.
Older Yellow flames run pretty much wide open. The have a "C" shaped cover that can be used to kind of reduce the combustion air but it's really not very effective.The Yellow Flame is a moving grate stoker that was designed to burn Barley size coal. Burning Rice size requires significantly less combustion air. Without being able to reduce the combustion air much on the early units they are prone to grate warping and coal clinkering.
This one, with the air turned down to Zero, burns Rice coal nice a calmly with no problems. The other nice thing about the newer Yellow Flames is the addition of 3 wet heat exchange plates above the fire. This gives the boiler significantly more internal surface area to absorb heat from the fire before it goes out the stack! Yellow Flame coal stoker boilers are great, heavy duty, industrial strength units Designed to burn the cheapest coal and last more than a lifetime. There are still a lot of them hiding in peoples basements and you can often get them for cheap or even free!
Roll the video Son!
Here is my Yellow Flame playlist. Not many Yellow Flame videos on Youtube!
-Don
- Lightning
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 14652
- Joined: Wed. Nov. 16, 2011 9:51 am
- Location: Olean, NY
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Modified AA 130
- Coal Size/Type: Pea Size - Anthracite
Neato! So the grate actually reciprocates to and fro to move the coal down the slope? I was hoping to see that in the video but didn't notice it.
- Hambden Bob
- Member
- Posts: 8531
- Joined: Mon. Jan. 04, 2010 10:54 am
- Location: Hambden Twp. Geauga County,Ohio
- Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Harman 1998 Magnum Stoker
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Blower Model Coal Chubby 1982-Serial#0097
- Coal Size/Type: Rice-A-Roni ! / Nut
- Other Heating: Pro-Pain Forced Air
Good Show,Stokes!! I've got to take some "Sit Down Time" and watch those flicks!! Just exactly "When" did Yellow Flame Hit Da' Skids and go Out of Business?? Are Spare and Maintenance Parts being supported by anyone who purchased their assets??
- StokerDon
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 7484
- Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
- Location: PA, Southern York County!
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
- Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
- Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood
HB I don't know when they Hit the Skids but the Assets are now owned by Mark's Supply Shenandoah, PA, 570-462-0748. They supply the major ware parts, grates, side rails, motor to gearbox couplers and such. There isn't much else that can go wrong with a Yellow Flame. Motors are common 1725 RPM, nothing special. Gearboxes are made by Bond like a lot of other coal stoker Manufacturers use. It's pretty easy to keep one of these going.Hambden Bob wrote: ↑Sun. Apr. 03, 2022 11:28 amAre Spare and Maintenance Parts being supported by anyone who purchased their assets??
http://www.markssupply.com/
It moves pretty much like an Axeman grate, Very Slooooow. You can see it a little better in this video. The distance the grate travels is controlled by the bolt hole you select on the crank wheel on the gearbox.
-Don
- StokerDon
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 7484
- Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
- Location: PA, Southern York County!
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
- Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
- Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood
Not hard at all. A simple adaptor plate would do it. You might need to use a Keystoker hopper though, maybe not.
There isn't much need to switch to a Keystoker though. The Yellow Flame stoker is more reliable. If I was going to switch stokers in one of these boilers I would go with a Van Wert. The boiler is very similar to a BairMatic and we already did one of those with great results.
The Bairmatic - Van Wert Project
-Don
- CoalHeat
- Member
- Posts: 8862
- Joined: Sat. Feb. 10, 2007 9:48 pm
- Location: Stillwater, New Jersey
- Stoker Coal Boiler: 1959 EFM 350
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman Magnafire Mark I
- Baseburners & Antiques: Sears Signal Oak 15 & Andes Kitchen Range
- Coal Size/Type: Rice and Chestnut
- Other Heating: Fisher Fireplace Insert
Thanks Don for the report on John's Yellow Flame, I enjoyed it!
- McGiever
- Member
- Posts: 10128
- Joined: Sun. May. 02, 2010 11:26 pm
- Location: Junction of PA-OH-WV
- Stoker Coal Boiler: AXEMAN-ANDERSON 130 "1959"
- Hand Fed Coal Boiler: BUCKET A DAY water heater
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Warm Morning 414A
- Coal Size/Type: PEA,NUT,STOVE /ANTHRACITE
- Other Heating: Ground Source Heat Pump and some Solar
- StokerDon
- Site Moderator
- Posts: 7484
- Joined: Mon. Nov. 11, 2013 11:17 am
- Location: PA, Southern York County!
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Gentleman Janitor GJ-5, Van Wert VA-600, Axeman Anderson130 X3.
- Hand Fed Coal Furnace: Harman SF3500 reduced down to 3 grates connected to its own plenum
- Coal Size/Type: Rice, Chestnut and whatever will fit through the door on the Harman
- Other Heating: Noth'in but COAL! Well, Maybe a little tiny bit of wood
No problem, glad you enjoyed it! His old stone farmhouse is probably a lot like yours.
I figured now would be a good time to get this kind of information out there. The price of oil, gas and propane is WAY up. People that don't have a lot of money will be looking to coal right now. It's important that they know that they don't have to buy a NEW Axeman, AHS or EFM. There are less expensive options and this is a great example. -Don
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- New Member
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Thu. Feb. 10, 2022 2:15 pm
- Stoker Coal Boiler: yellowflame
- Hand Fed Coal Boiler: no
- Coal Size/Type: 130 btu
I forgot to mention StokerDon, the guy I bought it from had a welder add a piece of 3/8 by 2 on the end of the stoker before the ash drops off so the heat makes it out of the ash before it falls
- CoalHeat
- Member
- Posts: 8862
- Joined: Sat. Feb. 10, 2007 9:48 pm
- Location: Stillwater, New Jersey
- Stoker Coal Boiler: 1959 EFM 350
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Harman Magnafire Mark I
- Baseburners & Antiques: Sears Signal Oak 15 & Andes Kitchen Range
- Coal Size/Type: Rice and Chestnut
- Other Heating: Fisher Fireplace Insert
You are correct Don, and I don't see prices dropping for a while.
- Hambden Bob
- Member
- Posts: 8531
- Joined: Mon. Jan. 04, 2010 10:54 am
- Location: Hambden Twp. Geauga County,Ohio
- Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Harman 1998 Magnum Stoker
- Hand Fed Coal Stove: Blower Model Coal Chubby 1982-Serial#0097
- Coal Size/Type: Rice-A-Roni ! / Nut
- Other Heating: Pro-Pain Forced Air
Thanx For Da' Answers,"Big D"! From everything I've learned from You Guys,Mark's is a Good,Reputable Crew to spend Your Hard-Earned Cash with!!
- Retro_Origin
- Member
- Posts: 900
- Joined: Sun. Feb. 21, 2021 7:46 pm
- Location: Schuylkill county
- Stoker Coal Boiler: 1957 Axeman Anderson 130
- Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat / Pea
Yeah, for real, why doesn't my keystoker have this? There is so much extra air space above the bed it makes me think it's intentional. Then I see this!
Thanks for sharing!
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- Member
- Posts: 2358
- Joined: Sun. Mar. 25, 2007 8:41 pm
- Location: Ithaca, New York
- Stoker Coal Boiler: Keystoker KAA-4-1 dual fuel boiler
- Hand Fed Coal Boiler: former switzer CWW100-sold
- Coal Size/Type: rice
- Other Heating: kerosene for dual fuel Keystoker/unused
======================================================================================================Retro_Origin wrote: ↑Mon. Apr. 04, 2022 5:42 pmYeah, for real, why doesn't my keystoker have this? There is so much extra air space above the bed it makes me think it's intentional. Then I see this!
Thanks for sharing!
The keystokers have a wet end wall surrounding the flue breech that is also part of the steam chest making it look like an upside down L.
The lower sidewalls and base of my kaa-4 are dry as I assume your k-6 is as well. The hanging baffle plate is a stop gap to hold the flue gasses longer just as is the hanging baffle plate is used over the flue breech to slow the gasses down before they are pushed out of the flue breech.
The VanWert boilers I looked at in 1981-2 had multiple triangle tubes welded to the wet side walls of the boiler as another method to pull heat out of the flue gasses as they rose.
If someone made a small coal stoker like the All Canadian Coal Fired Heaters in a smaller water volume with the same number of vertical smoke tubes in a vertical water jacket smoke tubes/afterburner to hold the heat in it would make so much heat it would pretty much run at the idle hold fire cycle only.
- Retro_Origin
- Member
- Posts: 900
- Joined: Sun. Feb. 21, 2021 7:46 pm
- Location: Schuylkill county
- Stoker Coal Boiler: 1957 Axeman Anderson 130
- Coal Size/Type: Buckwheat / Pea
I think I get what your saying, do you have a picture of the "all canadian coal fired heater"? I'm picturing the 'flues' going straight up through the boiler itself.
I'm interested to see how the heat transfer works on the AA, it seems counter intuitive to me that the fast moving air caused by the induction fan (?) through a relatively large area would cause good heat transfer, especially because at the 180' turn where it would be slowest there isn't wet wall contact ( heats the fan plate instead?)...(AA told me the heat really transfers into the fan assembly, in a 260 it can boil the oil without the proper heatsink device mounted to the fan shaft)
SD-would you care to expound on the effective heat transfer to the boiler?
I'm interested to see how the heat transfer works on the AA, it seems counter intuitive to me that the fast moving air caused by the induction fan (?) through a relatively large area would cause good heat transfer, especially because at the 180' turn where it would be slowest there isn't wet wall contact ( heats the fan plate instead?)...(AA told me the heat really transfers into the fan assembly, in a 260 it can boil the oil without the proper heatsink device mounted to the fan shaft)
SD-would you care to expound on the effective heat transfer to the boiler?