New DS Aqua-Gem

 
nickdearing88
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Post by nickdearing88 » Wed. Aug. 29, 2018 5:30 pm

Happy Labor Day everyone!

I bit the bullet and purchased a new DS Aqua-Gem 1100 this summer. It's currently sitting in the basement, waiting to be piped in. It seems very well-made and high quality, especially the grates!

Is it really true that it's designed for no fire brick to be used because of the water jacket surrounding the firebox? That seemed odd but there is no mention of fire brick in the manual.

@bcdex Do you still like your Aqua-Gem?

I'll post some pictures in the fall when I get it hooked up and operational.


 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Wed. Aug. 29, 2018 7:15 pm

Congratulations! It should prove to be a very nice boiler. I've seen them at the local retailer, and they look quite well made.

 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Fri. Aug. 31, 2018 2:56 pm

On the Obidiah's website there is a picture of the DS1100 Aqua-Gem boiler, and it has fire bricks installed.

Go here, click on "Photos" and see picture #18 of 24:
https://woodstoves.net/ds-stoves/coal/ds1100-aqua ... boiler.htm

 
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Post by franco b » Fri. Aug. 31, 2018 3:19 pm

I would consider firebrick a must for steel walls, and very desirable for cast iron as well. Better combustion.

 
nickdearing88
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Post by nickdearing88 » Sat. Oct. 13, 2018 11:54 am

Hi everyone.

I did confirm with DS Machine and my coal dealer that the boiler IS designed for no fire brick, due to the entire firebox being surrounded by a water jacket, including the front. The only place minus a water jacket surround would be under the grates, of course.

After a few weekends of work, my buddy and I got the boiler stove pipe and plumbing completed. I did my first test-fire on Thursday night with sticks and small logs because I wanted to let some of the "new stove" odor burn off and begin with a more easily-stopped fire in case of problems.

The boiler comes with a steel plate that covers most of the grate surface except for a
2" x 16" opening in the center to improve air flow for wood burning. I burned about 20 lbs of wood, hot and fast, and let the fire go out. This heated the boiler and primary hydronic loop to about 180. I didn't have much of a heat demand that night (High 40's). The wood burned cleanly and efficiently, to complete ash. It's got decent thermal mass with all the cast iron, steel, and 27 gallon heat exchanger, so that kept us warm until early morning.

Friday morning I removed the wood burning plate from the grates and re-started a fast, hot wood fire to begin igniting some coal. I started with Blaschak pea to make sure I could anchor it down enough during the mild weather. The grates are designed more towards nut size but after my coal dealer always talking about his success with pea during fall/spring, I grabbed 15 bags to give it a try. The wood ignition fire took right off and I started adding coal sooner than I did in my old add-on furnace. The coal started crackling right away and I continued to add slowly over about an hour until the firebox was full. It took almost 80 pounds to fill.

I let it crank up with the air control on high, watching the boiler water temp to make sure it didn't get too high. Then I started cutting the air back until I had both intakes shut with only two paper clips on the smallest intake. I was paranoid I would loose the fire with so little air, but the purpose of my test was to start seeing "how low can I go".

Cut to 24 hours later and it's been idling along just fine, burning barely any coal, keeping an average water temp of ~175F! I still can't believe that little air can keep the fire going, but so far-so good. There has been the occasional call for heat or DWH that has caused the Samson reg to open the intake slightly, but for the most part it's been slowly chugging along successfully. I have done one light shake after 24 hours but didn't get much ash before I had some red coals dropping and a nice glow under the grates again. It likely could have gone longer but I was nervous....

I have a manual damper that I still have to play with but the stove pipe temp has been about 175F while idling. Does that seem reasonable? It seems like so much of an improvement from the mess of a coal furnace I used last year.

 
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StokerDon
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Post by StokerDon » Sat. Oct. 13, 2018 1:10 pm

Sounds like a nice boiler!

When you say "old furnace" I am assuming you mean a hot air furnace vs. a boiler. If so, yes, 175 degree stack temp is pretty normal for a boiler that is just loafing along. Once you put a good heating load on it and that Sampson regulator opens up, you stack temp will go up too.

Sure hope you got some pics of this thing???

-Don

 
nickdearing88
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Post by nickdearing88 » Sat. Oct. 13, 2018 9:54 pm

@StokerDon

Yes, I'm pretty happy with it so far. We just finished plumbing in the DHW coil tonight -- it worked like a charm with two concurrent showers.

Last year I used a 1970's coal add-on furnace that was ducted into my LP furnace. Both furnaces were failing and I planned to do a radiant floor install anyway. I struggled through the winter last year burning my first ton of coal and a few cords of wood, and some propane. By spring, the grates were completely non-functional.

Glad to hear the 175F temp is reasonable. I want to play with the manual damper as it gets colder (and while windy) to see if I can add any coal savings there. The highest stack temp I've seen while reviving before shaking and starting new coal, was about 250F. This is still using pea; I suspect I wouldn't be able to get nut to burn as well at such a low rate.

Anyway, I'm very happy with it so far. If anyone on here has or used to own a similar boiler, let me know about your experiences.


 
nickdearing88
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Location: NW PA
Hand Fed Coal Boiler: DS AquaGem 1100
Coal Size/Type: Blaschak bulk pea/nut
Other Heating: LP Boiler

Post by nickdearing88 » Sat. Oct. 13, 2018 9:58 pm

I'll get some pictures uploaded when I get a chance.....

Here is one I took of my first wood fire burning in the boiler.

Attachments

IMG_20181011_184223.jpg
.JPG | 485.7KB | IMG_20181011_184223.jpg

 
lzaharis
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Post by lzaharis » Sun. Oct. 14, 2018 11:40 am

My Switzer wood and coal boiler was built with a rectangular firebox and I purchased a piece of 2 inch by 12 inch channel iron and laid it on the shaker grate frame and then I stacked firebrick in it filling the volume of the firebox half full all the way to the flue breech.

It made all the difference in the world as far as making heat and storing it in the firebrick to allow the heat to continue to heat the water and also reduce the amount of smoke from wood burning when I was using wood for fuel.

Having a firebox lined with firebrick is a must as the firebrick protects the metal water jacket. Even mudding in 4 or 5 courses of firebrick with high temperature mortar laying the firebrick on edge will help you as the heat will slowly reach the boilers interior walls through the brick and at the same time keep the fire hot with less work and less coal or wood.

 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Sun. Oct. 14, 2018 11:49 am

If DS says it doesn't need firebricks, it doesn't need firebricks. My AHS Coal Gun doesn't have any firebricks. Neither does the Axeman Anderson progenitor of the AHS.

Firebricks would only come into play if it proves to bee too much boiler for the task at hand, and if the OP desires to restrict the size of the firebox in order to reduce the boilers input/output.

 
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Post by StokerDon » Sun. Oct. 14, 2018 12:05 pm

lzaharis wrote:
Sun. Oct. 14, 2018 11:40 am
My Switzer wood and coal boiler was built with a rectangular firebox and I purchased a piece of 2 inch by 12 inch channel iron and laid it on the shaker grate frame and then I stacked firebrick in it filling the volume of the firebox half full all the way to the flue breech.
lzaharis wrote:
Sun. Oct. 14, 2018 11:40 am
Having a firebox lined with firebrick is a must as the firebrick protects the metal water jacket.
This is totally irreverent as the DS boiler is a different design. Besides, it's the "water" in the water jacket that protects the metal, not the fire brick.

If a reputable boiler manufacturer like DS says it doesn't require fire brick, I would believe them.

This boiler has a fairly small fire box. I would think a firebox reducer is not a good idea.

-Don

 
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Post by lzaharis » Sun. Oct. 14, 2018 1:47 pm

Hello Don and Larry,

I only suggested the firebrick as many boilers use it to insulate the boiler walls to prevent cavitation corrosion and eventual pinholes in the wet firebox walls due to the cavitation corrosion.

When RIck was building his evergreen line of outdoor wood and coal boilers he had firebrick laid vertically resting on the shaker grate frame on the three sides of the water walls to protect them and prevent cavitation corrosion from wood or coal burning, these hand fed units could also burn corn cobs as well for fuel.
The little boss man and big boss man outdoor wood and coal boilers were outdoor hand fed boilers that were fully lined with fire brick as they had 3 huge water saddle water tanks like the old Shay locomotives used on logging railroads.

The front and rear of these boilers had no water walls to allow easier maintenance of the boilers to clean out the soot and ashes from the forced draft chamber and to reduce the chance of water leaks as these boilers were un- pressurized boiler systems.

The standard 9" by 4.5" by 2.5" firebrick was laid in channels made from welded to the inner frame of the ceiling and boiler walls using standard angle iron to let the user remove and replace any cracked firebrick as required by sliding out the good firebrick to access the cracked firebrick and remove it.

An underfed fire pot stoker, flat grate, sloped grate or the AA or AHS traveling sled stokers would have much less of a chance of creating cavitation corrosion as the burning coal does not have physical contact with the boiler walls.

Firebrick is still used in many industrial boilers fireboxes and create the afterburner chambers in incinerators and to insulate the walls around access doors and burner inspection port doors of industrial boilers.

It worked very well for me and I burned less wood and coal fuel. I would have much preferred to install an undered stoker in my old switzer but Gary Switzer said it would cost too much to do as the boiler would have had to be removed and brought back to Penn Yann to do the fabrication work and test it as it would have to be tested again to have an H stamp as it was tested before I bought it in 1981.

When I reduced the size of my fire box using a piece of 2" by 12" by 12" channel iron and 48 or so standard fire brick stacked to the flue breech it created a huge heat sink that stored the heat from the fire and also released the heat from the firebrick back into the boilers firebox to keep the fire hot and reduce the smoke to a bare minimum when I used wood for fuel and I also used much less coal when burning chestnut and stove coal in winter.
Last edited by lzaharis on Sun. Oct. 14, 2018 2:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 
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lsayre
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Post by lsayre » Sun. Oct. 14, 2018 2:00 pm

lzaharis wrote:
Sun. Oct. 14, 2018 1:47 pm

An underfed fire pot stoker, flat grate, sloped grate or the AA or AHS traveling sled stokers would have much less of a chance of creating cavitation corrosion as the burning coal does not have physical contact with the boiler walls.
My boiler uses powerful electromagnets to keep the coal from touching the boiler walls. :?

 
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StokerDon
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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

Post by StokerDon » Sun. Oct. 14, 2018 3:34 pm

Please try to stay on topic here.

I'm certain that the original poster that just bought and installed a brand new boiler just wants advise on how to start and run it. This post is not about doing modifications to other boilers.

-Don

 
nickdearing88
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Hand Fed Coal Boiler: DS AquaGem 1100
Coal Size/Type: Blaschak bulk pea/nut
Other Heating: LP Boiler

Post by nickdearing88 » Sun. Oct. 14, 2018 5:17 pm

@lzaharis
Yes, I understand your concept and it is a possible thought for down the road. But I agree with the other posters and trust the manufacturer. I asked them several questions in my email, and make several points about the firebrick. They promptly replied and answered all the questions. It's done very well over the past few days with both wood and coal.

Yes, the firebox is not over-sized and I wouldn't want to restrict it further, but it's nice and deep -- perfect for coal. I ran the numbers based after I let the coal fire die today: 105 lbs in 57 hours, that should mean I averaged my input to about 23,000 BTU/h. That should be able to go lower with longer burns. I'm pretty happy with that from a 100,000 BTU rated boiler.


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