I'm not sure what an intermittent electric gear drive is so I don't know why. Probably because this was designed long before the pellet stove existed. This is the smallest stoker that EFM made and it was designed in the late 1940's. Even though it is EFM's smallest, it is way more heavy duty than any pellet stove part I have seen. At max feed, this will push 15 pounds per hour, equal to about 162,000 BTUH.
That's a lot of volume and btus. Pellet stove are probably about 5lbs/hour max. The pellet stoves I've used have a low speed electric motor that augers in a small amount every ten seconds or so. Maybe recent coal stokers do it this way now too?
@@jamesshanks2614 Very true! From what I've seen, most pellet stoves don't last 5 years without needing repairs. This EFM stoker was built in 1962. Currently, it is inside the Gentleman Janitor boiler we talked about in this video. It is installed in a house in North West Connecticut and still running perfectly.
@@scottbreneman6700 The bottom line is that pellet, coal and wood stoves are all designed as room heaters. The EFM stoker boiler was designed as a home central heating unit. This means that the BTU and reliability requirements are much larger.
Hey Don. I noticed that your shaft coming out of the gearbox is turning counter clockwise. My EFM has that thing spinning clockwise. Is this backwards? A fella left a comment on my video saying that he heard from you that it should spin counter-clockwise and that I should reverse my motor which will produce more air for combustion. Is this true? Here's a link to my video. I would appreciate it if you could give me some advice on this. Thanks. ua-cam.com/video/UL0JWGjyil8/v-deo.html
My EFM's all have the old style gearbox and the output shaft spins counterclockwise. I have a freind that has a later EFM with the small, square gearbox, the output shaft on that one spins clockwise. I guess I should have made that more clear.
Okay thanks a lot. I bought this one new in 2004 and I set it according to the chart they supplied. I was never sure how that fire should look to achieve optimal efficiency. The ash looks sort of like popcorn when it drops into the pan and it crushes easily. I think it is burning good but how do I really know?
From the EFM manual, the fire should have a 1" to 2" ash ring during a long heat call (at least 30 minutes). The feed rate should be set to match your heat load ( usually 4 or 5 teeth will do it). Use the air setting to get the ash ring right. If you have a large heat load, you can push these up to 6, 7 or even 8 teeth. Each tooth of drum gear engagement equals 2.5 pounds per hour of Rice coal. At 5 teeth this is 12.5 pounds per hour or about 135,000 BTUH gross burner output.
why does it use a racheting drive instead of an intermittent electric gear drive like a pellet stove does?
I'm not sure what an intermittent electric gear drive is so I don't know why. Probably because this was designed long before the pellet stove existed. This is the smallest stoker that EFM made and it was designed in the late 1940's. Even though it is EFM's smallest, it is way more heavy duty than any pellet stove part I have seen. At max feed, this will push 15 pounds per hour, equal to about 162,000 BTUH.
That's a lot of volume and btus. Pellet stove are probably about 5lbs/hour max. The pellet stoves I've used have a low speed electric motor that augers in a small amount every ten seconds or so. Maybe recent coal stokers do it this way now too?
Why mechanical? Simplicity. Everything runs off one electric motor. Using another electric motor would simply increase the likelihood of a failure.
@@jamesshanks2614 Very true! From what I've seen, most pellet stoves don't last 5 years without needing repairs. This EFM stoker was built in 1962. Currently, it is inside the Gentleman Janitor boiler we talked about in this video. It is installed in a house in North West Connecticut and still running perfectly.
@@scottbreneman6700 The bottom line is that pellet, coal and wood stoves are all designed as room heaters. The EFM stoker boiler was designed as a home central heating unit. This means that the BTU and reliability requirements are much larger.
Hey Don. I noticed that your shaft coming out of the gearbox is turning counter clockwise. My EFM has that thing spinning clockwise. Is this backwards? A fella left a comment on my video saying that he heard from you that it should spin counter-clockwise and that I should reverse my motor which will produce more air for combustion. Is this true? Here's a link to my video. I would appreciate it if you could give me some advice on this. Thanks. ua-cam.com/video/UL0JWGjyil8/v-deo.html
My EFM's all have the old style gearbox and the output shaft spins counterclockwise. I have a freind that has a later EFM with the small, square gearbox, the output shaft on that one spins clockwise. I guess I should have made that more clear.
Okay thanks a lot. I bought this one new in 2004 and I set it according to the chart they supplied. I was never sure how that fire should look to achieve optimal efficiency. The ash looks sort of like popcorn when it drops into the pan and it crushes easily. I think it is burning good but how do I really know?
From the EFM manual, the fire should have a 1" to 2" ash ring during a long heat call (at least 30 minutes). The feed rate should be set to match your heat load ( usually 4 or 5 teeth will do it). Use the air setting to get the ash ring right.
If you have a large heat load, you can push these up to 6, 7 or even 8 teeth. Each tooth of drum gear engagement equals 2.5 pounds per hour of Rice coal. At 5 teeth this is 12.5 pounds per hour or about 135,000 BTUH gross burner output.
Okay thanks a million.