Direct connect combustion air - Wood Gun E100

Thanks Mike - I am going to apply the logic from Muncybob (above) regarding the back door so that tray will probably be staying pretty clean.

What I am calling a "filter zone" is a zone or loop off of my main loop that has is own circulator (Grundfos 15-58)and a stainless filter (see pic). All this zone does (when manually switched on) is filter the boiler fluid - mine is propelene glycol. I have been trying to educate myself a bit about the fluid - I am gathering it is pretty important to maintain the fluid in proper condition as it will silently destroy your equipment from the inside if it becomes acidic or there is too much particle.

Currently the filter zone only cleans the fluid. I was thinking to take, lets say, 50 feet of 5/8 inch flexible copper tubing and wrapping it around and around the body of the cyclone, and around the single wall vertical stove pipe (just like your pipe) attched to the cyclone. So the filter zone would now take fluid from the main loop, filter it, then pass it through the tubing which is wrapped around the cyclone, heating it and capturing wasted heat going up the chimney, then returning that filtered, heated fluid to the main loop. I would put a bulb with capillary aquastat onto the copper tubing right on the cyclone so that when it was heated to say, 190F the zone pump would start and very slowly move fluid through that loop, heating and filtering the fluid. As a by-product it would cause fluid to run through the filter regularly, right now I just randomly run the filter zone pump. The main idea is that you are getting more heat from your wood because you are capturing heat which is going up the chimney. My cheap magnetic stove pipe temp gauge says my cyclone heats up to 340F - Muncybob has a proper probe temp gauge and is measuring 380 - 400F.

I had an experience with huffing last night. I loaded the boiler with stump cuts & irregular knotty pieces - so lots of good solid dry wood which does not stack together, lots of air space in between pieces. It was a good hot fire & started huffing - even closing the damper didn't help. So I am understanding what you are saying now. My pieces are generally fairly large. I don't split anything less than 10" round. Splits from the body of the tree are generally at least 8 x 8. All my wood is Hickory - 24 inches long.

Currently my heat loads are a 32" X 28" - 4 row coil in the ductwork which is the main heating for the house, some zoned baseboards and DHW - will be adding the garage (26K BTU fan coil) hopefully this season. My wife likes the house to be 25 C (77F) - E100 has no problem with this.
Our house temp flucuates alot though. At bedtime, I set the main coil down to 21 C (70F) for better sleeping, then back up to 77F when we get up. If we are both going to be out of the house we allow the house to fully warm up, let the WG complete a cycle and normally shutdown at 190F then cut the power (2 switches) to the WG and all the circulators. We can be away for 10 hours, when we return the house will be about 68-70F and the WG will be about 130-145F. The WG fires easy from that temp and heating the house this way works fine for us.
I had a forced air wood furnace for 20 years before the WG - we ran it the same way - never an issue. I will not trust a wood burner to be left alone. I can live with the possibility of minor huffing if I am home, but will never allow the WG to run by itself when no one is home - call me paranoid. If it wasn't in my basement it would be different.

Ooops - forgot the pic of the filter zone - red pump on lower right and the stainless cannister. The copper lines come from the main loop down to the Grundfos 15-58, then to the filter cartridge, thru a flow gauge, ball valve (green handle visible) does a 180 degree turn back toward the pump then elbows up at the pump and returns to the main loop.

MORE seal leaks............. last night I noticed the large thick round steel plate which covers where the oil/gas burner would attach is oozing brown stinky stuff. There is a 1/2 inch thick white (something like compressed Roxul insulation) seal between the mounting surface and the plate. I noticed it was kind of browning last weekend when I was trying to solve my stink problem, so I carefully smeared 2 coats of high temp silicone from the mounting surface, across the seal to the cover plate all the way around. This morning I noticed there are jelly like bubbles of brown smoke (not really creosote) smelling stuff oozing out where the silicone meets the cover plate. If you burst the bubble it is full of brown stinky liquid. Should have taken a pic. Anyone seen this before???????

I have reduced the stinky smell to the boiler room while the forced air heating is running, after I smeared silicone around the fan motor mount plate, but have not been able to completely eliminate the smell. Yesterday after the system was off for 8 hours (but still at 140F) I came in the house to a strong smoky/creosote smell. I accept with any wood burning you will always have some smoke release in the house, but the house should not stink.

I checked my ash pan last night, nice fluffy super fine powder in there, no creosote. Checked the SS chimney liner, a light grey powder film, no creosote; checked the horizontal run to the chimney - some powder, some small chunks of charcoal - no creosote; checked the refractory tubes - powder & some charcoal - no creosote.
Muncybob - I am finding the same in my horizontal run to chimney (about 10 feet) getting some ash and some 1/4" to 3/8" charcoal bits.

I have adopted your method Muncybob & AC of absolute minimal rear door opening. I will clean tubes from the front (did this last night - first cleaning) and as long as I can see the rear door looking through each tube from the front, no reason to open rear door. Should help protect gaskets also.

I am thinking it is probably beneficial to leave a thin layer of ash in the larger refractory tube right under the center bricks to protect the refractory from the direct blast of the flame - does this make sense? Does anyone do this?

Ac - have you had any issues with zone valves (sticking, failure, short life, noise)? I want to use these also for small heating zones, wondering what to expect.

Pic of my woodpile - split size. Rack sections are 4 x 8, front is just over 7 feet high, pieces are cut to 23 1/2". With my old forced air wood burner I would use 3 1/2 of the 5 sections per year.

When you say nozzle - are you refering to the slots in the center brick?

I am always hearing small pieces of charcoal bouncing around in the cyclone and maybe the 30 inch vertical pipe running out of the cyclone - I assumed this was normal.

Whenever I check the fire or add wood, I gently rake the sloped edges of the refractory to direct the coals toward the center brick - like it says in the manual - some smaller pieces fall through. Should I not be doing this?

I read some earlier posts where people had said they made 1 inch thick steel center bricks or another had used cast iron - can't find any later posts to see how that has held up. So you are buying replacement center bricks from AHS?

I am thinking that if this is going to be an ongoing (expensive) thing, to make up some steel bricks but with wings (or shoulders if you like) that would not only sit on the shelf but also on the top of the refractory, about 1 inch on each side to better distribute weight - would also protect the edges of the center trough. I had read in those posts about possible damage to the shelf. I am thinking if they were steel, if they wear I can always mig weld some patches on the steel. I have a small mig welder, but I am not schooled in welding. I am not good at welding, but I have become very good at grinding.

Thank you for that Fred61 - that never occurred to me, have not looked in there. Will check that out tonight.

I am going to have a look at my nozzle bricks before I fire up tonight.

I am sure you are right that my method is not ideal - no arguement there. I seen one of InfinityMike's videos where basically the coals filled the entire refractory sloped area to where the metal walls become visible. I never have that much coals - usually only a couple inches to the sides of the center brick - so I should have the center brick covered in 4 or 5 inches of coals all the time? I have been going according to the manual and the advice of Mike Purnell that there should not be any real accumulation of coals, that the heat from the refractory is supposed to "cook" the wood to provide the gases to drive gassification. I do find the unit has a much louder "roar" when the unit is up to temp and the wood being burned is on top of a thicker bed of coals.

Last night when I cleaned the tubes there was very little in the side tubes and about an inch for about a foot in the center tube, coals mixed with ash.

When lighting I use Mikes method of holding a propane torch to the black coals - usually takes about 30 seconds to have a bed of red coals and kindling burning well. My cheap magnetic stove pipe thermometer says about 340F.
I bought an infrared temperature reader today - will be checking actual cyclone temp tonight.

Sounds like you (Muncybob) had basically the same issues I am having smoke/stink. You start with the obvious - the doors - once those are sealed you look at the other holes (oil flange, fan motor-2 seals, cyclone -2 seals, ash bin, smoke pipe, fresh air-Fred61).

Sorry guys, the house in the pic is my neighbours house. I'll post a pic of mine from the back - to show the sunroom which looses MORE heat than the entire second floor (based on 2 different professional heat loss analysis).

Front part ground floor of my house built in June 1900, back - main floor 1974, second storey 1998, sunroom 2008.
Rectangle footprint about 1100 sq ft, so above ground about 2400 sq ft (there is also a small room off the front) plus we heat the entire uninsulated basement. I have renovated and properly insulated most of the house.
It has been -11F last few days - did not really change heat demand much, maybe one extra full size split and a 4 inch round.
Standard day for me - load 2 splits in the morning with what is left from the night (usually a full, charred split). Re-load around 6 pm - usually 3 more splits with a charred split, then usually 1 split around midnight. I always have fairly intact charred pieces when re-loading, never burned right down.

So I have this cool temp gun ($30) and I'm measuring everything. Last night I got home after a 9 hour shutdown.
Boiler wall 135F, refractory 210F. Attached some pics from cold and refiring. About 5 minutes into the re-fire I took multiple readings with the red dot on the center brick hole - getting 1047 F then the gun goes crazy because temps are over its maximum. Also determined my AHS supplied boiler temp gauge is 10F low, my cheap magnetic thermometer is quite accurate from multiple readings - my cyclone temps stand - never go over 340F according to the gun.

That wood pile is basically 2 seasons burning and is always filled - we put the seasons wood in the basement in October, then refill the rack. So one year I take from the front, next from the back - all my wood is seasoned a full 2 years (2 winters) and it sits in the basement where it is dry. Definately sure my wood is dry & properly seasoned - moisture meter consistently reads 14 - 19 %. Ha ha - if you like that wood pile I should include a pic of the one in the basement - it is like artwork - next week - hahahahaha.

So this morning I go to check the WG, it is cycled off, so I use the purge timer - only the second time I have used it.
Crank it to 15, green light, rake, load 2 splits and a tiny round - there was one charred 6x6 split left from last night, close door, go out to shovel the 6 inches of snow we got last night. Come back in 40 minutes later, check WG - OMG TEMP IS 223F ----- WTF???? Does the purge timer over ride the operating limit (set at 190F)? My high limit is set for 210F. Had to burn my underwear. And this happened with the main fan coil on and a baseboard zone. Can anyone splain that? Not intending to sound like a broken record, but this is why I will not leave it running while I am not home - just too many random events. Also had another medium explosion last night, WG cycled on after cycling off 20 minutes earlier under full fan coil load - thats the second time - running out of underwear.

Fred61 -"I experienced that terrible creosote smell with my Wood Gun and found the biggest contributor to the odor was the combustion air intake box. The combustion air does not get preheated and causes creosote to condense on the motorized damper and drips into the box creating a puddle of the nasty stuff which smelled up the whole house. With my EKO the combustion air is preheated by having the air duct within the boiler. Snap open the box and look for a puddle of ooze. "

I am attaching a pic of my fresh air box from last night - it is not too bad I think.

Yes the plug was just removed for the pic, never run without it.