EFM 520 Installed and Running

I purchased a used efm 520 at the end of last season with the oil burner option. It took me about 3 weeks to install I worked on it week nights and week ends between being sick but that's another story. The install itself wasn't all that difficult but the main problems were getting out the pipe reducers out 2 in the back , the large one on top and the small 1 for the pressure relief valve I wanted to use the full 3/4 pipe fitting because here or the other forum 3/4 is barely enough to blow it down safely. Once I learned how to get them out by cutting just up to the threads with 2 cuts about 1/2" apart and tapping on the part sticking up out of the fitting and knocking that 1/2piece out the rest pretty much screwed out. I lit it last Thursday with a turbo propane torch it was a bugger to get it going but that's all I had at the time. Is it normal to burn about a 5 gallon bucket of coal a day? I will go home today and set the draft as per EFM's specs. My wife has a lot of faith in our new boiler she took 1 of my CO2 detectors to bed with her LOL . Its been running with 4 teeth on feed and 3 1/2 on air and about 2 minutes on cycle timer. I'm very pleased with the unit. There is 1 unexpected benefit to this boiler it's installed under the kitchen which in turn warms the floor very nicely which is the woman's part of the castle . This indeed was a learning experience and I want to thank all of u for the problem solving research u posted for us newbee's

Thank You again

Bill S.

HI Bill

I hear you on all counts! I had to remove the reducers on my boiler as well. not fun!

Mine is also installed under the kitchen floor and it heats up the floor nicely!

On the coal usage. I use probably about 20 - 25 lbs per day on a no/low usage day. My timer is running 2 minutes per hour (1 min per half hour really).

I am running 4 teeth and 4.5 air. aquastat 140 - 175 with 10 differential. I was using 4 and 4 but found 4.5 to keep the fire a little nicer right now. when the unit is running more as we get into winter i'll probably be able to go back to 4 on the air.

Good luck!

Congrats on the install. I've been the same route with the fittings. About as much fun as a prostate exam. I haven't been able to figure how much coal I'm burning a day but I'm getting about a fourth of a tub of ashes. I want to put an hour meter on the stoker motor so I can calculate roughly how much I'm using. I've been running 3 teeth and 3 1/2 air. I bumped it to 4 and 4 tonight. It's supposed to get colder the next couple of days.

Good luck.

The trick to monitoring coal usage is to fill the hopper exactly the same time every day. Whether it be 50# bags or 30# buckets do it at the same time every day and mark down the high/low outside temps and wind speed/direction from the weather website NOAA, at the end of the week you will have a good idea of how much you'll use depending on the weather. Here if the wind is blowing I use way more coal as my house is hopelessly drafty.

My auger goes directly into my 12 ton bin so I can't even guesstimate. I figure with an hour meter I could take the total time and multiply it by the feed rate and come up with a reasonable estimate. I guess it really doesn't matter. Once the bin is low I have to fill it but I'd like to get a general idea of my usage.

I have an elapsed time counter coming my way to record minutes of operation for my stoker. That should give me a good gauge on usage. I have been burning since Oct 22nd. I have used approx 200# in those 5 days which would put my usage at about 40# per day. I am still dialing the boiler in. I originally sarted at 4/4 on feed/air settings. Sunday I went to 3/3.5. I haven't had any outfire as of yet (knock, knock) and my auger tube is running slightly warm. We'll see how much I use going forward.

I am going out of town for the weekend and am planning on leaving the coal boiler running in the automatic oil failover mode it is in now. I will be gone from Thur morning until Sunday evening. I have not had to empty my ash pan yet so I figure it should be ok while I'm gone if I empty it before I leave. What are your thoughts on this?