Antique steam heat boiler/radiators

What do you mean by "manually started"?

It should be replaced but someone that understands it probably could fix it. Hutzel had people that understood them 30 years ago, don't know about now.

If the valve is sticking it could be replaced with a modern combination valve. the whole conversion burner could be replaced with a gas power burner. If a safety/operating control is bad, those are common off the shelf parts for someone that knows steam heating. You should not operate it without being right at the boiler watching the sight glass and the pressure gauge until the problem is identified and fixed.

Might try @The Steam Whisperer - he's in Chicagoland but might come that far, and if not he might know someone. Also ISTR @dabrakeman is in or near Detroit.

That boiler was designed to burn coal, and many such boilers were later converted to oil or gas firing. During the fuel-rationing days of World War 2, they were often fitted with baffles to slow down the exhaust gases and extract more heat from them. It would be interesting to see what's inside.

And ISTR @Tim McElwain has the manual for that Republic Gyroscope burner.

that appears to be a multi pass boiler, if whoever did the conversion put some baffles in it to slow the products of combustion down it might not be awful.

Where exactly? I am in Ann Arbor area. I can make some calls. There is a few guys here still doing steam, but busy enough they don't travel far!

Yes. Assuming that they know how to do it properly.

exactly

I think the liability on any person or company that works on that old of a piece of equipment is always a concern. If it leaks a month after a burner replacement??

Often the service person gets the blame.

I would expect to sign a disclaimer of some sort from a serviceperson that would tackle that.

Dan Wood sounds like he knows a little about steam! I would go with his recommendations.

could replace the gas train to that conversion burner with a single stage combination valve and on/off vaporstat and fire it at whatever rate the boiler and system will tolerate.

Mr. Wood,

I am speaking out loud here as a homeowner and coal burner.

I am wondering if a standard Riello 40 gas burner would be a quicker option for her?

The burner tube is small enough that fabricating a steel plate to mount it in would be easy enough to do

Cut the thick steel plate to size have a hole drilled in it large enough for the burner tube and drill bolt holes for the flange mount and then it is done

You would have to open the ash pit door after the old burner and flame chamber is removed to remove the door and drill the mounting holes for the steel plate and then cement it in place or use a thick bead of permatex to seal the plate to the door which would save work by using a larger plate to overlap the edges of the ash pit door.

You would want to use a low speed drill bit with water as a lubricant and coolant to drill through the ash pit door to mount the new plate to the ash pit door.

Thank for your response, If she intends on keeping the house there are good options for her to use a small coal stoker boiler for steam heat using rice coal that are much smaller than this boiler and Anthracite Coal is available in bulk quantities and burns cleanly with no smoke.

FWIW the coal fired steam boilers are set up with controls and plumbing just like the oil and gas fire units and can be certified with ASME and H stamps.

The AHS S130 coal gun coal stoker set up as a dual fuel unit for steam with a double drop header would take up less than half the space that beautiful Ideal steam boiler takes up.

She would save a great deal of money using Anthracite Coal for making dry steam in that big house.

If a Riello unit is chosen as a replacement gas burner you could simply add that burner to the AHS COAL GUN as the Riello burner units are equipped with them as standard equipment.

Hello and good evening Danny_Jr. you and I are the same age,

There is no need to be embarrassed at all. There are 2 coal brands of stokers that use an auger to feed coal to the fire box, EFM with its DF520 that is useable for steam and hot water heat uses Rice Anthracite Coal, and the Axeman Anderson 130S and the 260S that use Pea Anthracite Coal for hot water heat and steam as well.

Keystoker also makes coal stoker boilers that can be certified for steam heat with the ASME and H stamps as well and would be readily plumbed for double drop headers as they are smaller than the ideal coal boiler that is there now and reuse all the new parts that were installed for the old boiler on a new coal fired stoker that does not burn a great deal of coal compared to the ideal hand fed boiler that was installed in her home.