Coalpail.com Forum

I just recently purchased a home and along with the home came an old weil-mclain wood/coal boiler. I don't know much about stoves and boilers. What can you tell me about what I have?

Appears to be a hand fed soft coal "bituminous" coal boiler. What does the data plate say. Picture please

Hopefully the picture is good enough. I've been experimenting with it and I'm having trouble getting a burn to last overnight. I can barely get a burn to last 5 or 6 hours. And that's with a 5 gal bucket of coal

Well I don't know anything about your boiler but I can tell you why you are only getting it to burn 5-6 hours. You are not putting enough coal in it. you've got to cover all of the grates and fill up the coal to the top of the firebrick. Burning coal is not like burning wood. You only want combustion air reaching the fire from below.

Mobe - I'm not saying your wrong, because I really don't know. But in the coal pit out back is anthracite coal. So that's what I've been using. I know newer boilers the damper is controlled in some fashion. Where as mine has a lever next to the door with notches and I can adjust the air but it is not adjusting automatically. So when I get my fire to say 400 degrees( per the stovepipe magnet), and cut the air back it holds at that temp for some time. But it slowly drops lower and lower until it's finally out. Am I doing something wrong? There is a set of weights with slots in them and a hook at the top, along with a pin that has two nuts. What are these for? Lol as you can tell I don't know what I'm doing.

The data plate says it can burn 17# an hour, 40# of coal isn't going to cut the mustard. Once it is going good, fill it to the top of the firebrick. If really cold out, mound it up. I would give Weil a call, they may have a manual available.

Ok ok u got me those can be an all fuel boiler. Coal or wood. Hard or soft. Supposed to depend on grates. The damper u speak of, is it on the fire door or under the great in the base? Coal needs air from the bottom to burn air across the top helps burn volatile gases as they pass over hot coals in he back. That arm with the weights look around and find a door down low on the base. There would have been a chain that hooked to the end to raise and lower that door. There is prob something threaded into the boiler hooked to that arm. U hang the weights at different places on the arm to correspond to to boiler temp. It will lower as temp goes up and raise as it goes down. Opening the door when fire is low and closing it when it's hot.

77,250 btuh. That firebox isn't going to hold much more than a 5 gallon bucket of coal. That boiler is just a little bugger. There will be no fire brick in it, as was said. Keep grate covered. When u shake ashes just till u see glowing coal in the ash pit. Make sure take ashes out often. Ashes touch the bottom of the grate. They can't dissipate heat and will warp like a bananna. When u fill it for the night bank it to the bottom of the fire door in the front uphill to the back to a depth half way up the fire door in the back when it's cold. Never shut the door when it's making heavy volatile smoke without seeing flames, when she lights it will bring the doors open in a hurry. Where u at where is the coal ur burning from. I burn bit bout 20 tons a year. Cheap heat. Dirty little work but saves a little cash I can spend on my little boys and mumm.

U want to shoot me a PM and I will give u my email addy I will see what I can help u with. Old timers are where info on these things is stored

Ats6 wrote:Mobe - I'm not saying your wrong, because I really don't know. But in the coal pit out back is anthracite coal. So that's what I've been using. I know newer boilers the damper is controlled in some fashion. Where as mine has a lever next to the door with notches and I can adjust the air but it is not adjusting automatically. So when I get my fire to say 400 degrees( per the stovepipe magnet), and cut the air back it holds at that temp for some time. But it slowly drops lower and lower until it's finally out. Am I doing something wrong? There is a set of weights with slots in them and a hook at the top, along with a pin that has two nuts. What are these for? Lol as you can tell I don't know what I'm doing.

Post some pics of what is at both ends of the chain. You may have a thermostatic control, they can and do fail. I'm sure that beast came with a draft control if it has a chain.

Here is a pic of inside. Again I really don't know what I'm talking about but I don't see fire brick. And also here is a pic of the back

My advice is to not use it with other than a low fire until you get the automatic air control figured out. You are playing with potential dynamite.

I really appreciate this. I've been asking around and nobody I talked to knows much

MoBe wrote:77,250 btuh. That firebox isn't going to hold much more than a 5 gallon bucket of coal. That boiler is just a little bugger.

Where did you get that number? I'm not seeing it. The more I look at it, it appears to be a monster. I'm guessing close to 200K. Don't worry about no brick, the firebox is backed by water. Where do the weights go? On the chain itself?

I have no idea. I can't figure it out. I have to be missing something right? There is no chain, all I have is that pin and the weights in that one picture. And mobe is saying that there is a lever that raises and lowers with water temp....... I'm not seeing that either. There is the door and that lever with notches in it so I can adjust the amount of air coming from underneath. But that lever doesn't move unless I move it.

Ats6 wrote:I have no idea. I can't figure it out. I have to be missing something right? There is no chain, all I have is that pin and the weights in that one picture. And mobe is saying that there is a lever that raises and lowers with water temp....... I'm not seeing that either. There is the door and that lever with notches in it so I can adjust the amount of air coming from underneath. But that lever doesn't move unless I move it.

Yes, I think something is missing. Kind of hard to tell what. I would contact WM and see if they can help. If you can't dig up the right stuff, there are bimetalic draft controls available at reasonable cost that can be retro fitted easily.

coaledsweat wrote:

MoBe wrote:77,250 btuh. That firebox isn't going to hold much more than a 5 gallon bucket of coal. That boiler is just a little bugger.

Where did you get that number? I'm not seeing it. The more I look at it, it appears to be a monster. I'm guessing close to 200K. Don't worry about no brick, the firebox is backed by water. Where do the weights go? On the chain itself?

77k is the approximate I-B-R net output at the radiators, calculated as 320x240 or 515x150. After accounting for distribution losses/pickup factor, boiler efficiency and unburned coal, that probably translates to around 12 lb coal input/hr when handfired.

Under automatic firing, however, the rated boiler output is about 34% higher (sorry handfiring people ). This corresponds to the oil input rating of 1.55 gph (= 215k btu/hr) and the 17 lb/hr stoker-fired input rate. When stoker-fired, it's bigger than an EFM 350 and smaller than a 520. When hand-fired, it's a little smaller than a 350.

Mike