Prill Underfed Stoker

 
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steinkebunch
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Post by steinkebunch » Sun. Jun. 08, 2008 10:55 pm

Howdy: Thought I'd pass along this FYI. I found an underfed stoker stove/furnace for sale near my home. I bought if for $300, a real deal I think. It's made by a company called "Prill" in Sheridan, WY. They are no longer in production.

Have not had a chance to tinker with it, but I'm pretty pumped about getting it installed for this fall. My homebuilt hand-fed will be going to the garage to heat it. I enjoyed building the hand-fed, and it did a great job last year, but I guess I'm moving to the "girlie" side.

They use mostly off the shelf parts for timers, motors, limit switches, etc. The only items I would hate to replace are the transmission and stoker pot/ring. Who knows, maybe one could even find a gearbox for the tranny that would work. Probably just as easy to machine some new gears, etc.

Best idea would be to keep seals, oil, etc in service so as to avoid any problems in the first place.

Enjoy the pics. Questions? Can't answer much 'till fall as I know little about it.

Steinke in WY

Attachments

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Prill M82

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Outer firebox door, ash drawer on bottom

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Inside firebox (pot)

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steinkebunch
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Post by steinkebunch » Sun. Jun. 08, 2008 11:00 pm

More photos

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Inside pot

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Rotating ash ring mechanism

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Transmission

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Ash drawer

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Motor/Combustion Blower

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steinkebunch
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Post by steinkebunch » Sun. Jun. 08, 2008 11:03 pm

Las pic for now. Would love to hear from other Prill owners. Pros/cons of stove, tips, trouble spots, etc. Looking forward to using a thermostat instead of a draft slide. Last year with handfed was a rollercoaster ride with our high-volatile bituminous coal. Still better than wood though. Thanks.

Steinke

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"Keep fire" timer

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jeromemsn
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Post by jeromemsn » Sun. Jun. 08, 2008 11:46 pm

Wow, looks like somebody is going to be warm this winter. Thanks for the pictures and the information on the Prill, and keep us informed on your install progress. looks as if somebody hardly used it or that they took very good care of it, either way it was a great find at that price!

 
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Freddy
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Post by Freddy » Mon. Jun. 09, 2008 6:16 am

Congrats on the good find!

 
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Scottscoaled
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Post by Scottscoaled » Mon. Jun. 09, 2008 7:10 am

Wow! A bit stoker. Post some more please! The transmision looks alot like a Gj's. :) Scott

 
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europachris
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Post by europachris » Mon. Jun. 09, 2008 7:50 am

Michael at Pease Feed and Coal http://www.peasefeedandcoal.com probably knows a lot about that unit and likely has (or knows where to get) parts if needed. He's out in your neck of the woods. That unit is obviously designed for the coals you have out there that tend not to clinker as much as the eastern bituminuous. That stove looks very much like the Combustioneer stoves, but they have the burn pot surrounded by refractory to let the ash clinker into a ring rather than fall into an ashpan.

Let us know how it works next winter when you fire it up!

Chris


 
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stoker-man
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Post by stoker-man » Mon. Jun. 09, 2008 11:11 am

We may be using that same bottom-fed Prill pot on our stokers for Wyoming.

 
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LsFarm
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Post by LsFarm » Mon. Jun. 09, 2008 1:13 pm

Congratulations Steinke!! Now you will have to post [with photos :) ] of the whole process of burning with that stoker..

I think you are the first,, maybe the second Prill owner... is the feed mechanism an auger?? how about a photo of the coal hopper??

What a find !!
Greg L

 
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charlie
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Post by charlie » Mon. Jun. 09, 2008 10:14 pm

Nice find! I rented an old house once that had one of those- not nearly as well-maintained. I would feed it 6 five gallon buckets of coal in the morning and 6 more when I got home from work. It was a nice place to sit when it was 30 below zero, if a person didn't mind a little smoke. Three years, except for the grey walls, never had a problem with it. I also have some Prill spare parts around if you get in a bind. Do you get your "volatile bituminous coal" from the PRB?

 
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steinkebunch
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Post by steinkebunch » Tue. Jun. 10, 2008 9:55 am

To answer a few questions so far:

It is an auger feed system. I dug the coal out of the bin last night to check the auger condition. Man it holds a lot of coal! I'll try to get a photo of the hopper/auger.

Also, I get my coal from a the Grass Creek mine in Wyoming's Big Horn Basin. We wonder if the mine is going to stay open, as they have no big contracts, just selling to little stove owners like me. If they go under, I'll have to get coal from Decker, MT or Pease Feed and Coal (reseller of Decker coal, but closer to me). Decker coal is probably better coal, but it's not as close as Grass Creek.

Thanks for the interest. Extra parts could come in handy sometime. Good to know that EFM may be using the same pot - maybe the parts will continue to be in production that way.

Steinke

 
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Post by RICHARD2 » Wed. Jun. 11, 2008 11:58 am

Saw one for sale in Cheyenne, WY. Find it by Google'ing the words in quotes.

"Prill Automatic Coal Stoker Model # 100 HS"

 
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charlie
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Post by charlie » Fri. Jun. 13, 2008 11:15 am

I'm partial to Decker coal as I spend much of my time there :)

I've found that an old jigsaw blade works really well for cleaning out the air slots in the head. On several occassions, I've had the "T" that turns the ring quit turning the ring. It's because the "T" wears out the corners of the ring and can't get enough of a bite of the cog to turn. This could take several centuries. I've remedied that in snow storms by replacing the ring. I've friends who take the "T" out and build it up which also apparently works and doesn't lead to a bunch of old worn-out rings laying around. Note that mine is one piece, but yours looks like it can be easily detached to replace or build up.

I have had fines jam the auger up as well. I have to pull the motor/transmission to turn the auger by hand as the pin behind that silver clover shaped knob shears off to protect the transmission. I use welding rod for pins. I have a large ratchet fitted with an 8" long piece of square stock that fits perfectly and takes some of the pain out of turning the auger by hand. An auger with very sharp edges and wettish coal have caused these problems. Hopefully, none of these things will happen to you!

I turned my boiler off last weekend... just in time for some snow! Good thing I also have a wood stove. Thought maybe you'd hook your new Prill up during this cold spell. Hard to believe it was in the 100s elsewhere this week.

 
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steinkebunch
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Post by steinkebunch » Sun. Jun. 22, 2008 11:44 pm

Charlie: Thanks for the input on the Prill. It crossed my mind to fire it up this last cold spell, but I refrained, mostly because my wife is still sore I bought yet another stove. Plus it's sitting in the garage, not the house.

I wondered how to clean out the air slots. The welding rod/shear pin idea is good too. Fines are just a fact of live with bit. coal I guess.

Later,

Steinke

 
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Post by LAWMAN » Tue. Oct. 13, 2009 5:51 pm

My father used to be a dealer for Prill furnaces. DON'T use welding rod as a shear pin for the transmission is the furnace. Use a Brass shear pin, you can cut the correct length of pin out of a longer stick you can buy at a welding/ parts store. The shear pin is there to protect the gears in the transmission when you get a jam in the auger. It may be a bit inconvenient if one breaks but if it won't break then the cost of replacing gears in the transmission would be horrendous not to mention taking a long time. (stuff always breaks during the worst snow storms, RIGHT??)


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