Taking the cover off is no big deal. Nothing else comes off/out. The blowers and secondary draft adjustment screws stay attached to the blower plate. It’s just the 12 sheet metal screws you have to keep track of. But don’t do it until the fire burns way down or is out, because you’ll get smoke in your face and you need to open both doors to get at the screws anyway.
One of the main reasons I bought this boiler was to eliminate the smoke, since I live in a populated area. Really, for me, everything else is secondary. But having said that, it’s a lot more efficient and powerful than the boiler it replaced.
Ah the air thing again--------------- I’m not sure that anyone has got a handle on this. Just what is working best for them. My take on this on how it works in a eko. There is three adj. and they work together. I have my primary air ( the one under the cover) open about 3/4 way. The secondary open 6 turns. I run the fans open from 1/2in to 1in. By working together I mean like this. If you have the primary closed smaller it will cause a higher pressure to the secondary with the same fan opening. If you have the primary opening open all the way the secondary will get less as the path of least resisance is through the larger opening, With the fan opening the same. It seems to me that if you have to much air going into the primary chamber you tend to get more smoke as it is trying to burn there but you need enough to push the gasses down into the nozzel. It seems to be a balanceing act with type,size,moisture content and air temp all being part of the fix. That is why everyone has to kind of learn what works best. The end result is when you get the best gasifcation, stack temp, heat output, and low ash for your situation. I do wish that the air adj were easier to adj and that it would have more instruction in the manual so people didn’t have to learn on there own so much. I think as there is more of these out there it will become better.
leaddog
Ah the air thing again--------------- I’m not sure that anyone has got a handle on this. Just what is working best for them. My take on this on how it works in a eko. There is three adj. and they work together. I have my primary air ( the one under the cover) open about 3/4 way. The secondary open 6 turns. I run the fans open from 1/2in to 1in. By working together I mean like this. If you have the primary closed smaller it will cause a higher pressure to the secondary with the same fan opening. If you have the primary opening open all the way the secondary will get less as the path of least resisance is through the larger opening, With the fan opening the same. It seems to me that if you have to much air going into the primary chamber you tend to get more smoke as it is trying to burn there but you need enough to push the gasses down into the nozzel. It seems to be a balanceing act with type,size,moisture content and air temp all being part of the fix. That is why everyone has to kind of learn what works best. The end result is when you get the best gasifcation, stack temp, heat output, and low ash for your situation. I do wish that the air adj were easier to adj and that it would have more instruction in the manual so people didn’t have to learn on there own so much. I think as there is more of these out there it will become better.
leaddog
I agree - it’s a balancing act. To make it worse, it’s not a static balance. You can’t put the primary and secondary adjustments in any give spot and say “the air will always be split 50/50.” It might be where the fan damper is located now, but when you change that one setting, the balance is going to change too, based on which chamber gives more resistance to more or less air.
I also agree that too much primary air will lead to smoke out the stack. Maybe I WILL have to get in there and see where that adjustment is at this weekend.....
Leaddogs got me thinking I also need to try a different primary adjustment. I usually always have smoke of some sort, unless in the last 3rd of the burn or so. Do you guys lose your smoke as soon as you have gasification started?
Any smoke usually disappears within about 15 to 30 minutes after a cold start. When there are coals on the nozzles, sometimes there’s no smoke at all on reload. I do get vapor when it’s really cold.
So if I have a nice coalbed start, and good flame below, I really should see nothing then?
Well, I had to tinker with the primary, and here is whats happening so far. I definately have a much bluer flame out the bottom. I think the color blue is the hottest color. I could really feel the heat hit me. What happend (so far) is that I needed a bigger fan opening to keep the flame going. So, my stack is about 50-75 degrees higher-around 375-400. I was afraid to close the fan more than one inch or I might lose the gasification. So now it leads me to Steves original post Q- Am I getting enough water flow out of the boiler. Keep in mind to that I am using only one nozzle. Now all of this could mean nothing in the morning when I see more results-ash, water temp, so forth. Im watching my water temp, and I raised it about 6 degrees in maybe 15 minutes. Took a shower-long and hot, and it seems to be just holding steady. Now I am wondering if I lost the flame or not.
Man, these things are so tricky. At some point will we not have a EKO/Gasifier Bible? I hope so for the next guy. I still think we are in the book of Genises.
Eric,
Just to be clear - no smoke means no visible emmissions from the stack. I still get this whispy gray smoke that dissipates within 15 ft of the stack, even this morning when there is no breeze. In the past, I’ve gotten up on a ladder, and it is oderless as well. Is my wood wetter than I think, and this is water vapor?
Scott,
Which way and how much did you adjust your primary?
I’ve got two big pumps pulling the heat from my boiler, each of which is probably moving double the water your laddomat is moving. I think you may have an issue there with that setup. Have you posted a sketch of your setup to these guys here yet? I know what I think would help, but I’d like to hear some other opinions on it as well.
How is it working out with the one nozzle blocked? In theory, it should burn twice as long. But practically, I’m guessing the wood at the other end of the firebox isn’t going to fall into the coals and keep burning. It would make for a really easy start to the next fire pushing that dried wood into the coals and putting more on top!
Hooking up the CB should be a snap. The biggest issue will be how close it is to where the EKO was. Once the pipe and wireing are there, hookup is quick, filling with water can take a while, then fire it off! Good luck with that.
Second tets is in progress here. Tank was 172 this morning, it was 169 yesterday. So, we’ll see if we transfer any more heat using the extra coils. 3.5 hours to wait....
That could be. I’ll get that with wood that’s not as dry as I’d like. I get a fair amount of vapor when it’s really cold, too. I’d say if it dissipates within 15 feet and is odorless, then it isn’t smoke.
I think Scott said he cut his wood last spring. It’s probably not completely dry, which I think might be part of his problem. Wet/green wood won’t gasify easily, and won’t stay lit, either.
I’ve reluctantly decided that everyone who burns wood should have a moisture meter (which I don’t). It’s kind of like driving without a speedometer.
Eric,
You may be onto something when you said it takes a whilel for these things to react to changes! I’ve made no adjustments since yesterday (to keep things the same for my hx test) and this morning there was no visible smoke when I looked out about an hour after starting it up. 2 hours into the cycle still no smoke. I went out and took a peek - the lower chamber is still burning nicely and stack temps are around 250.
I hate to jump to conclusions half way through my hx test, but.... The tank is up about 9 degrees in 2 hours. It was only up about 5 at this point yesterday. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that this is really going to be better after 4 hours.
And, since I burn based on time, and the time is such that the boiler never goes idle or empty, and the air adjustments are the same as yesterday, this may mean I can capture more heat per load of wood, too. We’ll know in another 2 hours!
Well, it seems I have enough pump capacity and not enough hx capacity!!! Just checked the end of my 4 hour burn. Tank is at 188. That’s up 16 degrees, 3 more than yesterday.
And to be fair, the hotter the tank gets, the slower it wants to heat up. And, at those tank temps I noticed the boiler went into idle mode. Not sure when, but it was idling at about 3 hours and 45 minutes. That really limits the rate of heating the tank, too.
To be fair, I’d have to repeat this test next week, trying to start with the tank temp down around 160.
Two points of concern -
First - the pump off the boiler did manage to push through the pex, pump in the basement, and the two flat plate hx in the basement. I closed a valve in the basement to get a fair test with no losses to the ground.
Second - with the path the way it is in the boiler shed, the basement pump can either pull through the coils in the tank or pull through the boiler. They are essentially in parallel. Check valves won’t help, because the water is always flowing the same direction.
The first problem I can solve with a valve that opens only when the pump runs. (Any recommendations on a good 1 inch valve to work off of 110 VAC?)
The second problem is a whole lot more difficult. I didn’t plan on adding an automated valve there, and I have about 4 inches to work with.
Here’s a thought - Does anyone make actuators to fit on the stems of 1 inch ball valves? I know for larger industrial valves it’s easy to get actuators that just fit on the stem. No need to replace a valve when you want to automate one. That would make my life soooo easy!
Well, I had really bad results closing the primary air sliders to about 3/4. This morning my tank was really cold, and the eko shut down out of wood. I havent had that since last year. Im not sure what it means. Must have burned really hot and fast to use up all that wood and not have much heat left in the tank. My tank has not been that cool for a while, and man did I have trouble getting things stable again. I am thinking not enough water flow, 6” stack instead of 8” chokes it some, and maybe the wood selection was soft stuff, but i tried to mix it as I normally do. Right now im into my best wood.
Add to that my trouble restarting. I am thinking with my house pump running continuous, maybe it keeps the Laddomats valves from working the way it should. That pump (011 taco) sits about 5 feet from the top of the Eko hot supply. Maybe it overpowers those Laddomat valves.
Eric, once you have gasification started from a new fire, you say you never lose that till the load is used up? I know dry wood is best, but im confident my wood is pretty good, but with no meter only a guess. And reading Nofossils findings on 30% wood......
Im a bit worried about adding storage, but im going to try it with yet another plumbing scheme.
Steve, how often do you need to clean your rear tubes? I am also pondering eliminating the Laddomat, go with a termovar valve that I have, and move my biggest pump (011)to the Eko loop-and move up to 1 1/4 pipe. Feed the storage tanks with an option to feed the house if I get behind. Something is making cold starts too hard, and something makes me eat wood.
The End - sequal later. Sorry for the long one, but this is sort of a hard record to look back on too.
In my experience, it takes at least a year to get really dry wood. I think one of the symptoms of trying to burn wood that isn’t sufficently dry in a gasifier would be hard starting and inconsitent gasification. But you won’t know until you put a meter to your wood, so it’s all a guess.
I think the 6” chimney is a major cause for concern, especially if your boiler is producing creosote, which is probably a combination of poor draft and non-dry wood.
It’s hard to diagnose anything from 800 miles away, but I’ve burned wood for long enough to know that spring-cut wood is generally not dry. It burns better than green wood in a stove or conventional boiler or furnace, but when you get into gasifiers, I think all bets are off.
