Kerr Titan 101 Wood Boiler Manual?

[peakbagger]

Hi All, I am trying to help a relative to get a Titan running again. It holds water pressure and appears to have been plumbed into a oil boiler loop so has been kept wet. Its was in basement that was partially flooded so its a case of deciding if its worth getting it running again. It was used until 7 years ago but from the looks of it the air damper control has been broken or out of service even before it went out of service. My Burnham is similar vintage and the controls look familiar but it would be nice to see a manual on the internal details and how to clean it.

I searched and found a lot of older threads for folks looking for a manual. I did find one offer for a manual from a member that still is active and started a "conversation" so maybe I will get lucky. If he does send me one and I can figure out a way of posting it

Its definitely an old school install. No storage and very basic piping. The goal is to see what it needs to get running and then if its possible get it running for the winter then decide if its worth upgrading.

If anyone has manual for to 101 or the wood/oil variant I would appreciate it.

 

[maple1]

Do you have a pic? My father has a Kerr wood boiler but don't know the model off my head. Also doubt the manual is findable after all these years. Has vertical tubes. You have to take a cover off the top where the smoke pipe outlet is to get at them (the outlet comes out of and is part of that cover). I think just two wing nuts, one on each side, hold it on? Might be stuck pretty good it hasn't been off for a long time.

Then again it might be a different boiler all together. His is green.

 

[peakbagger]

I dont have a picture but there is one in this thread https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/kerr-titan-help.121722/. I think its the second one in. Its also green.

I didnt have a lot of time to look at as it was a holiday but I expect it would be vertical tubes. The wood loading cover hinges were rusted shut so I left instructions to the owner to hit them with penetrating oil so we can get it open and see what condition the internals are.

I have a similar vintage "orphan boiler" and the controls looks quite similar. Does your father's have the safety relief plumbed into the firebox to put the fire out if the relief lifts?

It comes down to getting a good look and see if its worth rebuilding.

 

[maple1]

Hmm, that looks similar, but not quite the same. His box is obvious, it sticks up above or through the top panel. In plain sight. I will need to take a closer look - I think I will be by there later today. My memory ain't quite what it used to be.

And yes his relief is plumbed to the firebox. I can see why they came up with that idea, but not sure it's a real good one. His relief took to dripping once, made quite a mess before it was noticed.

 

[chasnaj]

I have a manual for a Kerr Titan Model 101-T. A friend's step-father has one for sale and he gave me the paperwork to research. It will take me some time, but I can scan it in if you still need it. Now I am no plumber, but would like to know what a reasonable price range for this unit would be. I haven't seen it yet, but am told that it is in good condition and only been used for one season, which seems hard to believe since the owner's manual is from the '70s...
ps- I will have a plumber friend of mine look it over before I buy it.

Thanks.

 

[peakbagger]

I have a manual for a Kerr Titan Model 101-T. A friend's step-father has one for sale and he gave me the paperwork to research. It will take me some time, but I can scan it in if you still need it. Now I am no plumber, but would like to know what a reasonable price range for this unit would be. I haven't seen it yet, but am told that it is in good condition and only been used for one season, which seems hard to believe since the owner's manual is from the '70s...
ps- I will have a plumber friend of mine look it over before I buy it.

Thanks.

Great, I definitely still need it. I wont be sure of the value until I have had a chance to spend some time looking over the one I am supposed to be fixing. I have seen several on Craigslist and Uncle Henry's, given their age and the likelihood that they are heavy and usually installed in a basement I sure would not expect them to be particularly valuable. The ones I have seen are usually asking price around $500. Given their age there would be big question is how long they will still hold pressure. The front loading door and air flap arrangements on the one I am supposed to get running looks marginal.

 

[michael2468]

Great, I definitely still need it. I wont be sure of the value until I have had a chance to spend some time looking over the one I am supposed to be fixing. I have seen several on Craigslist and Uncle Henry's, given their age and the likelihood that they are heavy and usually installed in a basement I sure would not expect them to be particularly valuable. The ones I have seen are usually asking price around $500. Given their age there would be big question is how long they will still hold pressure. The front loading door and air flap arrangements on the one I am supposed to get running looks marginal.

I own a Kerr Titan TC-202 wood/coal boiler been hooked up for over 40 years and still runs great. Only problem is I have to make my own fire bricks due to the size being 9x18x1.5. I don't know where my manual is but if you have any questions pertaining to operations I can certainly answer for you. TC-101 is wood only.

 

[peakbagger]

Wow thanks for answering this. I have the door of the unit sitting in the garage waiting to weld on new hinges as the originals are not very beefy and were rusted closed despite lots of penetrant. I have already opened the top cover and cleaned and checked the tubes. Does yours have turbolators? There are none on this one. Looks like it could use a set.

Can you recognize the dual aquastat on the right?. The single aquastat on the left runs the circulator pump once its over low setpoint. The one on top on the piping is the overheat circuit that dumps hot water to the heating zone as a dump zone. I guess one half of the dual aquastat runs the air flap (which doesn't seal very well) which should close when the unit goes over high setpoint. Not sure what the other half would do?. On my burham the Circulator aquastat is on the back of the unit and there are two aquatstats, one controls the air flap to close when over setpoint and the other one opens the bypass to the dump zone. My only guess is that the mystery aquastat is tied on the oil boiler so it does not run unless the wood boiler is below setpoint ?

I do plan to check out all the control loops once I reinstall the door with new hinges but any info is appreciated. It does hold pressure

The current owner used to use it with little or no instructions until 10 years ago when the basement flooded. They would just slam the wood to it and would normally just overheat the house but on occasion they would lift the safety relief and soak the firebox until fire went out. Even with that sort of abuse the firebox and tiles do not look bad. Its in a wet basement that flooded on occasion so I expect once its fired again its going to take awhile for the brick to dry and cracks could appear. I will do some training and put in remote temp indication on their main floor before I leave. I am swapping out the circulator for a newer grunfos ECM pump as the current pump is trashed..

They burn marginally seasoned wood so it being a smoke dragon with open clearances is not a bad thing. At least its a straight interior chimney.

 

[michael2468]

Wow thanks for answering this. I have the door of the unit sitting in the garage waiting to weld on new hinges as the originals are not very beefy and were rusted closed despite lots of penetrant. I have already opened the top cover and cleaned and checked the tubes. Does yours have turbolators? There are none on this one. Looks like it could use a set.

Can you recognize the dual aquastat on the right?. The single aquastat on the left runs the circulator pump once its over low setpoint. The one on top on the piping is the overheat circuit that dumps hot water to the heating zone as a dump zone. I guess one half of the dual aquastat runs the air flap (which doesn't seal very well) which should close when the unit goes over high setpoint. Not sure what the other half would do?. On my burham the Circulator aquastat is on the back of the unit and there are two aquatstats, one controls the air flap to close when over setpoint and the other one opens the bypass to the dump zone. My only guess is that the mystery aquastat is tied on the oil boiler so it does not run unless the wood boiler is below setpoint ?

I do plan to check out all the control loops once I reinstall the door with new hinges but any info is appreciated. It does hold pressure

The current owner used to use it with little or no instructions until 10 years ago when the basement flooded. They would just slam the wood to it and would normally just overheat the house but on occasion they would lift the safety relief and soak the firebox until fire went out. Even with that sort of abuse the firebox and tiles do not look bad. Its in a wet basement that flooded on occasion so I expect once its fired again its going to take awhile for the brick to dry and cracks could appear. I will do some training and put in remote temp indication on their main floor before I leave. I am swapping out the circulator for a newer grunfos ECM pump as the current pump is trashed..

They burn marginally seasoned wood so it being a smoke dragon with open clearances is not a bad thing. At least its a straight interior chimney.



View attachment 244363

That unit is wood only. Mine is wood or coal. The 3 aquastat one on top is override to turn recirculating pump on to cool unit down I set mine at 220 degrees. The one on left is temp setting to turn blower on to ignite fire I set mine at 140 degrees. The one to the right is the high temp setting I set mine during really cold time at 180 degrees. Mine has auto blower and draft located in back of unit when blower kicks on damper opens wide when reach 180 degrees it will shut down and damper will close to the setting I set to maintain fire. It cannot close shut because fire will go out it needs to have some draft. Mine is set free standing not hooked up with oil. Mine has a water coil installed on left side of boiler and I have a 70 gallon hot water storage tank for domestic hot water. Works great. Secret is to keep it clean min of once a month. I do not put baffels in tubes when buring wood it plugs up to fast I only use baffels when burning coal. I live in North Adams, Ma. and it gets cold in winter. I burn around 10 cords all winter but am heating entire house and domestic hot water. I only get about 4 hours of hot burn time per load. Your fire box is much bigger then mine due to wood only. My fire brick are 9 x 18 x 1.5 which I make myself with fire clay, Portland cement and sand real pain in the ***. I bought this unit new from a company in Canada 45 years ago. Had to replace blower motor once everything else still running strong. Also I did re-route the blow off valve to a bucket instead of firebox. Good for safety in firebox but it will destroy box that is why I changed.

 

[peakbagger]

I guess there is quite a difference as this one definitely doesn't have blower. Thanks for the input.

 

[chasnaj]

Boy, I am sorry I didn't do this before. Here is the scanned manual.

 

[peakbagger]

Thanks for the upload. I had to replace the door hinges that were rusted solid and that took most to the summer to get motivated to fab and weld them up. I remounted everything about 6 weeks ago and was there last Friday to install a new ECM circulator pump and magnetic separator. I also tore into the wiring and was wondering how to figure out what everything did so a manual was greatly appreciated.

Better late then never!!