American Royal Timer Settings

[MapleLawnFarm]

Well, I’ve been burning my American Royal for several days now, and it’s working great so far. I was wondering though how high in the fire pot the fire should be burning. Mine seems to stay close to the top now that the house and household hot water are warm, but in the beginning, it was lower in the burn pot. This seems logical to me, but I’m thinking I may need to adjust the timers since it’s not real cold yet (I’m just south of Chicago). Any of you American Royal guys have some practical experience with the timers that you could share?

Thanks!

-Nick-

[farmer1]

yes sometimes you have to play with the timers to get it to burn the way you want it to just fired mine up tonight running on Barley seems to run better on barley when temps flux up and down when it gets cold will switch to corn

[pinecricker]

You should have pretty good luck with the setting from the factory of top timer... Green on 4 and Red on 5 and bottom timer Green on 12 and Red on 2..
I have tried a lot of different settings the last few years, and seem to end up back on 4 and 5..
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[GreenRoofAcres]

New to the forum but I have been reading the posts for about a year. I also just installed an Ammerican Royal this fall and have been having an adventure.

On mine the blower connection to the feed auger was wrong and sucking the smoke back thru the auger to the blower. This filled the blower assembly with creosote. This covered everything dripping out of the blower on the floor. It stuck the solenoid cover shut and burned up the solenoid. I was burning corn in storage from last year so I know it is dry.

I was able to get a solenoid from American Royal but they are not willing to send a blower. The creosote ate the paint off of the blower and anything else it touched with paint.

I have tried to clean the blower up but it is still covered with creosote so I do not think it is blowing enough air. The low burn timer is 12 min delay with the feed timer as low as I can get it (about 1/2) and keep it running more than a second or two. The high burn is set to feed 3 1/2 and delay 6, with these settings the pot keeps getting over run and going out. I get these icebergs of black half burnt corn sticking 4-6 inches out of the pot. If I do not go out several times a day the fire will go out. It can barely keep up with the heat demand of the house, Water temp set to 145.

My house is resonably tight and very we insulated, I had an Aquatherm 145 wood boiler that could keep up with no problem.

Any ideas?

[MapleLawnFarm]

That's a bummer about the blower ordeal! I've seen in one of the other posts on here that Grainger might have a new blower if you need it.

I've been running my 1020 at 2 on 12 off for the low side and about 2.5 on 4 off for the high side; aquastat at 150, house thermostat at about 75 (I like it warm).

Today I turned up the aquastat to 160 since it's been getting colder outside and the furnace blower seems to be kicking on more often. We'll see if I need to turn the high timer on setting up at all in the next few days.

It definitely seems like running the setup is somewhat of an art, because of the multiple variables. I think if you can do some adjusting to keep it in high mode more, your fire may be easier to keep going. I had to relight mine about 3 times at the very beginning of the season because it was just too warm outside and there was actually not enough demand on the boiler.

[GreenRoofAcres]

Grainger has the blower in stock, but as a note they will be no longer stocking it when this stock is gone. I do not know if Dayton has stopped making them or if Grainger is just going to stop stocking them. This was all caused by the air tube to the auger not being right and should be replaced under warranty. It is the definition of poor workmanship.

I agree they are each a different animal, any day we get to 50 I shut mine down and restart inthe late afternoon. We heat 2200 feet of house, 1400 feet of basement floor and all of our hot water with it and still can not keep it cool on a 50 deg day.

I was running my temp at 135 or I would over temp in every day in the fall. I over temped yesterday.
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Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave

[MapleLawnFarm]

I agree, that sounds like warranty work to me.

Wow, 135 is definitely low. Pinecricker mentioned that it may be a unit that doesn't have the upgrades... it sounds like he's right. Shoot him an email, he'll have more info for ya.

I'm wondering if I should get an extra blower to have on hand just in case I need one in a few years... do you know the part number from Grainger by chance?

[GreenRoofAcres]

I have tried bumping up the temp to 145-150 but I keep over temping during the day. If it gets warm at all I shut down during the day.

The number on the blower is a Dayton 2C067. This blower is in grainger but does not have the flange to mount to the fire pot. I could not find one with the flange at Grainger. You would need to pull the blower/motor and put it in the old assembly. They just dropped the price to ~$50.00 cheap insurance since it runs 24/7.

They told me I had all of the upgrades when I bought it in April, I just did not get to install it until October.

How do I get in contact with Pinecricker?
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Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave

[farmer1]

Hi there I also had the same exact problems real nasty build up on fan i pulled it out and cleaned the fan and housing and put back in i did purchase 2 of those fans from Grainger since my brother and i each have the same stove cheap insurance i did replace that 3/4" elbow on the auger tube with a 1" straight nipple seemed to help with the air flow have not heard about routing it from the out side of the firebox but makes sense i am running Barley in mine have both my timers on 2on 10 off for high and low burn seems to be running a steady 137-140 temp i do have problems with the damper sticking open i also had to replace that solenoid went out the first week i had it running but everything i have been able to get from Grainger we keep spare parts for everything auger motors, solenoids and timer switches, the fans can be pulled out and drop in a new fan into the old housing been running great for 2 months now this year last year was a learning curve i know my timers are set different from my brothers .

[GreenRoofAcres]

Sounds like a recurring story. I do like the unit and think it will be a good unit once I get past the setup and learning curve.

For the auger they had me drill and tap a 3/4NPT in the front bottom corner of the air box. Then run a 3/4 tube back to the auger. Before I made the change I could pull the hose off, hold it next to the elbow coming off the blower and wacth the smoke get pulled into the blower. Now it always blows the air into the auger.
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Just smile and wave boys, smile and wave

[MapleLawnFarm]

Now that it's getting colder, I turned my aquastat up to 165. I'm wondering if I'll need to turn up the on side of the high timer... does more on time actually equal more btu? I'm assuming it does, and I'll end up closer to the factory recommended 5 minutes on 4 minutes off as it gets colder, so that the boiler can keep up with demand. With 2 on 4 off, it seems to be getting behind the power curve.

[pinecricker]

Mine is on 5 and 4....Like the Old Master says...Your mileage may vary..
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[MapleLawnFarm]

Well, I've been running at 5 / 4 for several days now, and it's been kicking butt. Aquastat on 165... may go higher though as it gets a little colder.

[sting]

The only reason to go higher is if the load isn't getting warm

Running too hot of water -- circulating too much energy in the liquid -- isn't the best thing. It invites short load cycle times - over runs on thermostat settings and increased loss during transmission.
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When you turn your boiler on -- Does it return the favor?
I am sorry - My responses are limited - You must ask the right question!

[MapleLawnFarm]

The furnace blower cycle time is why I'm thinking I may need to go higher. I don't want to kill my electric bill by having the furnace blower going constantly. I'm assuming as it gets colder, the blower will want to kick on more, which could be offset by a higher aquastat setting. I'd have to adjust back down later in the winter though, when it starts warming up again.