American Standard

strom327

Can you still find fire box baffle plate for American Standard Steam boilers? Also looking for the fire box. 

EBEBRATT-Ed

Pictures.

They are long out of the boiler business.

The fire box can be fixed up with aftermarket products. Not a problem for someone that knows what they are doing. Check out Lynn Products Co.

Don't know what the baffles look like without pictures

I am sure you could have something made up if it's worth fixing.

SteamingatMohawk

What is the model number of the boiler and approximately how old is it?

Big Ed_4

The American Standard chamber baffle was a plate of cast iron ,it sat on ledges for a fire box baffle . Must be forty years since I changed one , and sure it was new old stock back then . I remember a ceramic one used in other boilers , two piece which hung by a chain , also two piece arched cast iron version .They were used for the old low speed quiet era burners when oil were competing with coal , the purpose of the chamber plates what to produce a hotter cleaner fire.... Even if you can find one they wouldn't last with the newer high speed retention heads ...

EdTheHeaterMan

Not likely to find the over chamber baffle. If you want to keep that old girl running more efficiently; after you replace the combustion chamber with a Lynn Bath Tub, You can place three fire bricks in the top door, one in each of the flue passages This will slow down the flow of flue gasses thru the heat exchanger.

In order to allow some of the radiant heat from the flame to reach the wet base of the heat exchanger, I have cut slots in the bathtub about 1-1/4" wide and about 6" from top to bottom starting about 2 " down from the top. . I cut 3 of them on the left and right side, but not on the back wall. Those holes are designed to allow the boiler to absorb more of the heat closer to the flame.

If your firing rate is 1 GPH or greater, You do not need a combustion chamber with a High-Speed Flame Retention burner. All you need is a target wall to insulate the back wall from overheating the water in that area causing the water to flash into steam and thereby allowing for a potential crack in the boiler at that spot.

The combustion chamber's job is twofold. One is to insulate vulnerable parts of the heating appliance from the high temperature of the flame, The second and more important is to reflect the heat of the flame back into the oil droplets in the chamber to promote vaporization. The flame retention technology produces enough heat at 1 GPH and higher to sustain efficient vaporization of the oil without a combustion chamber.

The Am. Std. Arcoliner or Arcoleader is a wet base boiler. No need to insulate the cast iron from the high temperature of the flame because there is water on the other side of the cast iron. That water will keep the cast iron from overheating. (just like water in a copper pipe keeps the copper from getting hot enough for the solder to flow into a solder joint).

I hope this is helpful in your quest to preserve your American Standard. The parts are available, The knowledge to use those parts is also available from some of us. Be careful with Fire in your Home. If you are not qualified to build a proper fire (oil, gas, or otherwise) then you may as well build a campfire on the coffee table in your living room. You may end up with the same result in either case.

I once purchased a Decaffeinated Coffee table from Steven Wright, but that is a story for another time.

Respectfully Submitted,

Mr.Ed

PS. I know a guy named Bob Strom from outside of Philadelphia, Worked in the Supply House business. Are you related?

Steamhead

EdTheHeaterMan said:

If your firing rate is 1 GPH or greater, You do not need a combustion chamber with a High-Speed Flame Retention burner. All you need is a target wall to insulate the back wall from overheating the water in that area causing the water to flash into steam and thereby allowing for a potential crack in the boiler at that spot.

The combustion chamber's job is twofold. One is to insulate vulnerable parts of the heating appliance from the high temperature of the flame, The second and more important is to reflect the heat of the flame back into the oil droplets in the chamber to promote vaporization. The flame retention technology produces enough heat at 1 GPH and higher to sustain efficient vaporization of the oil without a combustion chamber.

The Am. Std. Arcoliner or Arcoleader is a wet base boiler. No need to insulate the cast iron from the high temperature of the flame because there is water on the other side of the cast iron. That water will keep the cast iron from overheating. (just like water in a copper pipe keeps the copper from getting hot enough for the solder to flow into a solder joint).

Actually, there's one more factor in play here- the volume of the chamber. If this is too great for the firing rate in use, the flame temperature will be too low for good combustion and you'll get smoke or soot- even with a flame-retention burner. Older burners needed more volume for what passed for good combustion back then. If there's too much volume without the chamber, guess what- you need the chamber!

@Firedragon covers this in his book, "Advanced Residential Oilburners".

EdTheHeaterMan

It is also covered in the Fuel Oil News article from January 2016

https://fueloilnews.com/2016/01/29/the-oookies/

My memories of the "No Chamber Needed" are from the 1980s. I think that was before Firedragon George wrote about this phenomenon. I have only encountered something similar to this on 3 occasions. Each time I just cleaned the boiler and set the flame properly with instruments. Never had a repeat of the "oookies" on the same boiler after I (or my son) did the tune-up.

I can see how you might want to keep the chamber in the ArcoLiner. I'm wondering if the OP is looking for the metal chamber the was available back in the day. If so... Fagadaboudit! Those steel chambers would only last 5 years before we would replace it with a Bathtub shaped Quickie.


Yours truly,
Mr.Ed