Just thought I'd post some random info and thoughts about my new wood gasser.
Its been 2 weeks now since my first fire, things seem to be going well. I picked up some brushes and rod and put together some cleaning tools for the pipes, and gave the second/third pass 2" tubes a brush down. They had a decent amount of flaky ash hanging on them. The SS brushes cleaned them spotless easily using a drill.
I also cleaned ash out of the secondary burn chamber for the first time. I got about a gallon bucket sized pile out of it. Very minimal ash for 2 weeks of burning, was interesting to see the ash was burnt down to a near solid form, and raked out in chunks. I'm sure this is common with all gassifiers, just new to me.
I inspected all doors this morning after the sun was out, and everything looks visually good to me. I grabbed a temp gun, and found as I had expected, my temps are pretty low at the stack exit. Around 150, but that was after starting a burn and not quite gassifiying yet. I doubt it would go up too much though. I was only getting 230-250 ish at the vertical first pass tubes at this point.
I'm really enjoying the burn times, I'm able to load moderately and make a 14 hr timeframe with a large coalbed to load on afterwards. The weather has been much colder than typical, night temps dipping to 10-15 degrees. The stove cycles around 3-4 times during a 14 hr period in these temps. I've yet to notice it cycle 5 times between loading. With the amount of water it holds, even if I don't load at 14 hrs, the house won't notice for what seems another 4-8 hours atleast. Sure beats waking to a cold house to build another fire, or coming home to a cold house after being gone for 4-6 hours.
I will say, I'm already daydreaming of building another, Although at this point its too early to tell what I would want to change to make it better. I would like to make a much much smaller version I know, would be much less trouble handling it and alot less material too.
A pic of the boiler for those who didnt see my build thread- before it was covered and insulated
Its been 2 weeks now since my first fire, things seem to be going well. I picked up some brushes and rod and put together some cleaning tools for the pipes, and gave the second/third pass 2" tubes a brush down. They had a decent amount of flaky ash hanging on them. The SS brushes cleaned them spotless easily using a drill.
I also cleaned ash out of the secondary burn chamber for the first time. I got about a gallon bucket sized pile out of it. Very minimal ash for 2 weeks of burning, was interesting to see the ash was burnt down to a near solid form, and raked out in chunks. I'm sure this is common with all gassifiers, just new to me.
I inspected all doors this morning after the sun was out, and everything looks visually good to me. I grabbed a temp gun, and found as I had expected, my temps are pretty low at the stack exit. Around 150, but that was after starting a burn and not quite gassifiying yet. I doubt it would go up too much though. I was only getting 230-250 ish at the vertical first pass tubes at this point.
I'm really enjoying the burn times, I'm able to load moderately and make a 14 hr timeframe with a large coalbed to load on afterwards. The weather has been much colder than typical, night temps dipping to 10-15 degrees. The stove cycles around 3-4 times during a 14 hr period in these temps. I've yet to notice it cycle 5 times between loading. With the amount of water it holds, even if I don't load at 14 hrs, the house won't notice for what seems another 4-8 hours atleast. Sure beats waking to a cold house to build another fire, or coming home to a cold house after being gone for 4-6 hours.
I will say, I'm already daydreaming of building another, Although at this point its too early to tell what I would want to change to make it better. I would like to make a much much smaller version I know, would be much less trouble handling it and alot less material too.
A pic of the boiler for those who didnt see my build thread- before it was covered and insulated
