GE downdraft burner, Beckett AF,AFG?

GarvinP

I'm looking to replace my burner on the old GE steamer. It has a Beckett af in it now. Is there any advantage with the AFG?

Big Ed_4

Knock Knock

.... Time to change the whole boiler don't you think ??? . Surprised that old bugger is still around .. You know ....you cant buy chambers for them anymore . I take a stack temperature on them before I work on them ... 800+ degree reading tells me the chamber is down , I shut them down and condemn them for the fear of a house fire ... Also not sure if they make the special blast tube needed for a GE retrofit anymore either ... Make a good investment .New boiler my friend.. Oil is not a buck a gallon anymore ..

GarvinP

are you sure

That we are talkin bout the same unit?



This doesn't have a firebrick chamber but a steel dome that is water jacketed on all sides. The stack temp is 500-550. and they were apparently common around here as I had a building that had one too. I replaced it with a new HB Smith and since I keep records of oil use and heating degree days, (conviently the year after I had the one replaced, the heating degree days were the nearly the same) I saw NO improvement in oil use (I had it checked by another service person mid year, an older guy that was said to be very good with steam/efficiency)



So I'm not so sure that I will "save" any oil in replacing it.

(I believe the service manual is on line here with a nice cross-section of what the boiler looks inside)

MikeB_3

Sorry

It does have firebrick near the bottom,..quite far away from the main flame it seems to me,..observation with a "SEAsnake,..it looks pretty good,...

Big Ed_4

Yes

The chamber also works like a baffle .. We " use to" remove the chamber to properly clean the boiler .. They had bump outs on the four chamber pieces that holds them off the wall of the boiler.. if the chamber bump outs wore or broke away , the flue passage closed up and the boiler developed back pressure... If they are broke or missing pieces you loose the baffling and develop high stack temperature ..



We started to convert them when we could not find parts for them any more .. the last one I converted may have been in the mid 70s .. ..



.cad cell relays came on the scene and we found problems with proper sight of fire .. Long skinny special blast tube are always a problem.. The top coil plate would rot out the boiler ... The water would just lay there ..



The GE was designed in a era where there was competition with the all quiet coal burners ..Quiet automatic oil burners sold in those days ..



Yes I know the boiler ....