Part Two of What I learned about my Econoburn this season

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horrocksd

Member
Mar 2, 2010
42
Finger lakes, NY
A continuation of what I learned about my econoburn this season:

8. A mix of short and long pieces of wood really helps. I place the shorter ones sideways in the fuel box, then the longer ones on top in the opposite direction. In the top third of the fuel box I just pack it solid without any spaces or criss-crossing. I also fill in gaps in the load with little stubs when it's a very cold night. Dry wood and smaller splits are essential, but I do burn some wood that's not fully seasoned (only a few pieces each load and only when load demand is high)and I also use larger splits for overnight burns or long day burns, and these work fine in combination with the "playing card size" splits.

10. When I was initially getting shorter burns I was panicking when I would come home from work, the water temp in the wood boiler would be down to 140, and the fan was running on high and my oil boiler was running in the house. I mentally pictured my oil boiler running, heating water in the loop and circulating it out to the wood boiler in the barn to be cooled by the running fan. That's not what happens--admittedly the water does gradually cool in the wood boiler, but at 150 the wood boiler circ pump to the house kicks off and the near-boiler loop comes on so I'm only cooling the wood boiler and not the entire heating system. Obviously this is not ideal and i plan to put a 12 hour time on the fan. My electrician friend says he can do it for me but because the fan is multiple speed it is not just a direct wire project. He has to figure out the wiring, diodes, etc.

The biggest reason I want a timer is not so much to automatically shut the fan off at the end of a burn ( because now i get long burns and seldom come home to the running fan and no fire), but more as insurance during a power blackout...which leads to the next topic...

10. Instead of an overheat dump zone, I stupidly opted to install a UPS (uninterruptible power supply). I ended up spending $500 between deep-cycle batteries and the UPS/charger/inverter, but the noise it makes when it come on scares the crap out of me. It sounds like the circ pump and the fan are frying. I'm told this has to do with my UPS unit not producing pure sine waves or some such thing, but all I know is I don't like the UPS solution. Also, it does seem to me that the main thing is just to keep the circ pump and computer going and not have the fan come on. So I can put a timer on the fan that can be shut off if the power goes out, that way just the circ pump runs. I know though that the real solution is to install the overheat zone which I plan to do this year or next.

11. The first month of use I was upset about the creosote in the upper burn chamber and on the loading door, but then I read some of your posts and find this is fairly common during warmer months. Occassionally my damper door sticks, but not too badly, but the "shelf" at the loading door does load up and make the loading door stick and it can be very hard to open. Now I just use a small pry bar and gently pry the door open and it hasn't been a big deal. About once per day I use a 3" putty knife and scrape the creosote off the shelf if it needs it.

12. Thinking I was being smart, I figured I should open the damper, then the lower door before loading wood into the upper chamber. That was REALLY not a good idea and resulted in some roaring fires before i could load the wood chamber. At least on the Econoburns, leave the lower (gasification chamber) door closed. The only time I open it is for the rare occassion when i have to start a fire from scratch and i only leave it open long enough to get the kindling going.

Related to this, don't clean out the ash in the lower chamber when you have much of a fire remaining in the upper chamber. If you open the lower door when the damper is closed, smoke will backflow through the fan and into yur face as you try to clean out the ash. I suspect flame could do the same if you didn't catch it in time and I'm not sure what that might do to the fan. I only clean ash out of the lower chamber when the fire is down to a few coals.

13. If your turbs get sticky use the potato trick (three potatoes beneath the nozzle in the lower chamber) to free them up, but make sure to just burn dry wood. In regard to this, spend $30 and get a moisture meter and cut some of your bigger wood to check the moisture content before trying to burn it. Most of my wood has been fine after drying for one year, but not the oak. That will have to wait 'til next year.

14 At first I was disappointed and worried that I couldn't afford to add thermal storage. At this point i still want to do it some time in the future, but hey, right now things are working quite well without it. Im' getting about 11-12 hour burns and the demand is being met. I stay a year ahead on my wood and that seems to keep problems to a minimum. As everyone on here can tell you, 20% moisture content or less is the rule. I have found, however, that some of my dryest 2-3 year old wood seems too dry to gasify, which I hadn't expected

15. When you re-fuel your wood boiler, establish a check routine so that when you're heading to work or to bed you don't have to worry about whether everything is shut properly or re-set to the right temp or the louver fan is still running, etc. For the first month I didn't have a physical routine and i would go to the barn, load the boiler, go back to the house, get half way upstairs to go to bed and stop and think, "did i shut everything up properly?" only to have to trudge back out and check it. Now i have a strange little ritual where i touch everything--the damper closure, the wood chamber door latch, the louver fan switch, and the lower chamber latch. Then when i leave the boiler room i look in through the window and check again to see if everything is in its proper position. I find that when I do something a million times it's hard to remember whether I JUST did that of if I'm remembering one of the other times I did it.

16. It's a lot of work to feed a boiler all winter. I burn about 2/3 of a wheelbarrow load each day. That's a lot of wood to handle, load, move, stack, sweep up after, etc. But it's about the only exercise i get it winter so i'm OK with it. Just be prepared to put aside the time you need to keep that boiler fed.

17. While I don't like going out into the cold twice daily I so enjoy the starts at night.
 
So 2 1/2 cord replaced 1100 gallon of oil and the boiler isn't even in the heated building ? Sounds pretty good to me.
 
woodmaster, that's an interesting thought in terms of the additional wood increment used. I was focusing on the total wood used, but you're right in pointing out the incremental difference and the net gain in house temps and comfort. While we like not having to haul wood into the house and not having the dust and smoke, we do miss huddling arund the fire on occassion. I can just say that in terms of dollars, it's the difference between $4300 to pay for heating oil and $1000 for cut, split and delivered firewood--basically a four year payback on my boiler investment if everything continues to perform. I have no complaints so far and I love not getting stiffed by oil prices. Now if I can just figure out a way to power my cars...
 
I hear you on huddling by the stove to warm up. Now I have to lean up against a radiater :) And the room where the stove
was isn't 90 degres. :eek:hh: On the down side I have to dry my coveralls and boots in the boiler shed. :long:
 
You know what's so striking to me in reading your post is the similarity of our experiences. Our boiler is about the same distance from the house and of course a different brand, but you could have been writing MY experiences. I don't have storage yet, but this mild winter now has me motivated to go ahead and add that this summer. I've got the other big projects behind me that I can do storage. Well written and you captured nicely life with a gasser without storage. I've read here about the potatoes before and plumb forgot about that trick. You just set them under the nozzle in the lower chamber??? How the heck does that make sense. Did someone suddenly decide... gee I think I'll put 'taters under my nozzle to see what happens?!?! Good job. Thanks
 
Thanks for all your detailed thoughts. It's quite a chronicle.
I've had some interesting times with my 150 also.
As others have said, I'm looking forward to adding some storage to my system, too.
I'm all indoors, but don't seem to have much of the smoking issues you do.
I do shut the whole boiler down when loading in wood. I'm going to change that circuit to be just the fan soon.
I rarely have coals left. Either I'm not timing my fires well, or burning some soft wood that goes through its coal phase too quickly.
So I'm starting a LOT of fires. Probably every other one would be my guess.
Did you give your thoughts to the factory? Any response, suggestions or changes from their point of view?
Happy burning.
 
Hey Maplewood I installed a 12 hr timer on my fan and only set it to the time necessary to burn up the wood load. I usually only have to start my fire about twice a week when Ièm working late or forget it . There is a small coal bed left after the fan shuts off while the circ pumps are still running.
 
Good to share your first year findings. Here are a couple of things that might help you out. Installing storage would solve most of the issues that you listed, but I'll assume since you didn't mention it, you're not quite ready to go that route.
Regarding smoke during loading, it comes down to 2 things - loading only when the boiler is down to coals, and loading efficiently (i.e. fast). We run lots of small fires during the waking hours to avoid idling, and toss in a few splits every few hours, so the boiler door gets opened a lot. We usually know just from experience when the time is right to load, but always crack the door open just an inch or so and take a peek, just in case. Then if anything is still active, just close the door and come back a short time later. Now I know with an outside install away from the house frequent small fires would be a PITA for you. But it might help if you had a sensor going back to the house measuring boiler water temp. That way, seeing the boiler water temp dropping to a "key" point (i.e. below what your zones kicking in would take it down to), you would know it's down to just a few coals, and the right time to make the trek out to reload. There are a number of ways to install such a sensor - lots of posts in the archives describing how folks have done it. Efficient loading is something that develops over time - everyone has their own favorite method. Mine is to fill a wheelbarrow with splits and park it right next to the boiler so I don't need to take any steps - just one hand to the other for a very fast fill up. Many Hearth folks are able to load their boiler with little or no smoke coming out the door. I have a smoke detector located a few feet away from the boiler, and the only time it goes off is via the test button.
Regarding creosote, the loading door should never be sticking shut. That would probably only happen if sections of the door gasket are getting coated with creosote. Cleaning the shelf is helpful, but more important is to clean the loading door itself, especially the 4 sloped outermost panels. To clean those, I use a Hyde #10270 paint scraper with a curved 2.5" blade, which fits nicely into that area of the door. Keep trying different things - it will get better as time goes on :)
 
wantstoburnwood said:
Hey Maplewood I installed a 12 hr timer on my fan and only set it to the time necessary to burn up the wood load. I usually only have to start my fire about twice a week when Ièm working late or forget it . There is a small coal bed left after the fan shuts off while the circ pumps are still running.

Thanks. I'll go shopping for one this weekend.
 
WOW..my experiences are very simliar also. between appreciating the stars at night and checking the boiler through the barn window on return trip...its amazing. thanks for posting.
 
barnartist said:
Been burning my eco for over 5 years now. Im lost on the whole potato thing

Read in your eko manual. it talks about burning potatoe peels before you clean your fire tubes and turbs.
 
Guy, I'm not sure how it works, but the potatoes free-up the turbulators if they get gummed-up with croesote. Lots of speculation out there as to why. Someone suggested that the starch coats any creosote and make it easier to come off when you move the turb-cleaning arm. All I know is that it works really well in my boiler. The question of how someone came up with the idea is interesting to think about. I wonder if maybe someone had the not-so-bright idea of baking potatoes in the lower (gasifying) chamber, not thinking that 1800 degress might be just a wee bit high for baking spuds. On the other hand using potato peels in a wood stove to loosen creosote in the flue goes way back, so most likely it's from that.

Willworkforwood, I see what you mean about not worrying about cleaning the creosote off the door "shelf" so much as cleaning the slanted parts of the door, and especially the underside. I also learned the value of loading as quickly as possible and early-on I built a shelf about 30" wide and at the height of my shoulder. I keep enough wood on the shelf for a full load. That way, no poking around to get the wood I need to load each time. I also keep about a full facecord in the boiler room constantly to dry additionally before I use it. With a constant 70-80 degrees in there it works nicely for drying as well as pre-heating to avoid thermal shock from frozen wood. I'm not sure the Fire Marshall would approve though.

Wantstoburnwood, could you post post a diagram of how you wired the timer? I've bought a 12-hour wind up timeer with an on/off switch. It seems to me that with four wires and two speeds to the fan that wiring the timer isn't just straight forward. I'm really an amateur at wiring and could use help with that. Don't want to screw-up something.

Saturday I spent a few very nasty hours removing impacted ash around the periphery of the floor of the burn chamber. Man, is that stuff foul! It's like creosote to the tenth power. Just real foul. Not looking forward to doing it again at the end of this heating season. It was easy for me to forget about cleaning ash out of the firebox since most of it gets blown into the gasifying chamber. I've always cleaned that out each week, but never gave the burn chamber another thought. Then it dawned on me that the floor of the firebox seemed to be working it's way upward and I thought "duh", must be about time to clean out some of the ash in there. It was about 4 inches deep all along the outside wall and the creosote from the walls had melted and then cooked into it. I may have discovered a new element--"mega-crapium". My wife tried to force me to burn the clothes I was wearing, but I bagged them for re-use later in the season when I have to do this again. : > )
 
Hi Horrocksd
As was mentioned by someone earlier...you need to think about storage.
The cleaning of the doors,molten creosote/ash mixture,dirty turbulators will all disappear.
I have been burning since Oct,used about 7 cords seasoned wood,i haven't had any mess inside my boiler.Just fine ash,i'v looked at the turbs/exchange tubes a couple of times and haven't really seen anything to clean off.I have a little ash i clean out of the upper chamber once a week,and a little ash in the bottom chamber every few days.
Storage will take away a lot of your PITA issues,i would not have a wood boiler without it!Never had one without and never will.
Another Econoburn user
Thomas
 
Salecker, I agree, thermal storage is ultimately the answer, but I don't want to drop a huge wad on it, so I'm trying to find a deal on a decent used propane tank instead of paying $3300 that is the asking price out there. Used propane tanks seem to be scarce around this neck of the woods. When I get things together at the right price I'll do it. In the mean time I'm not displeased with how everything is working and I'm saving a wad on my heating bill. we have temps in the 60's forecast for the next two days, so I let the boiler go out this AM. That's one answer to idling.
 
I can't say enough about the merits of storage. I went the propane tank route, found mine on craigslist. You can see my install if you search other threads that I posted on here. I am daily lurker here but don't post much.
 
horrocksd, Wiring the timer into the fan should be fairly easy. Wire the neutral of the fan through the timer contacts.


On second thought, forget that idea. That's what started alot of issues with the fan in the past!
 
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