A Lot Less Ash….

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Eric Johnson

Eric Johnson

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Nov 18, 2005
5,871
Central NYS
….and finer, too, since I replaced the nozzles in my EKO 60.

No more chunks!
The shovel loads are much lighter!
Longer time between ash removals!

It's gotta be more efficient, though in this very cold weather, it's hard to tell.

Well worth the expense and hassle getting them to fit, I think.
 
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Fred61 said:
Now aren't you sorry you did all that swearing:p
Click to expand...

Oh no--swearing is an important part of the process, in my view. Just like wiring. Sometimes you just have to cuss things into compliance. I can't do a decent wiring job without a lot of "colorful" language and imagery. Mostly directed at my own limitations, of course. Nobody else to blame.
 
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Grandpa was the only one that could start the old kick start single cylinder engine that ran the Maytag washing machine. Always the same process. Stomp the starter peddle twice, spit tobacco on the engine and call it a SOB and kick it again. Fired off every time.
 
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Even if you have some coals fall threw, didn't they burn up in the bottom chamber ? I only empty my bottom chamber out every week or two depending on how much wood I burn.
 
BB, I don't have too much trouble picturing that scenario. Thanks for the imagery!

woodmaster: Surprisingly, they didn't burn up. I think that what happened is that the chunks would fall to the bottom of the chamber, outside the reflecting refractory bricks, and die a lonely death there. I was surprised to find, yesterday, that after two weeks of pretty cold temps, I had about half as many ashes as usual, and all nice, fine texture. Part of that is because I'm now burning hard maple, which always produces that kind of ash in my boiler. Beech, for some reason, produces darker, heavier ash. Because of that, the past couple of summers I've been trying to cut maple exclusively. It's the best fuel for my setup.
 
All my coals that fall into the gassing chamber don't burn up either. Could be ones that bounce forward rather than backward.

You're likely seeing the combined effect of more coals burning to ash, and the ash being finer and some of it eventually making it up & out the chimney. I think that once the fuel is reduced to ash, that's it, there's not much more to be done, and that the amount of ash produced would depend on the type of fuel being burned and not how hot it's burned. Then what shows up in the cleanout is more a function of how much gets carried up the chimney.
 
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I beginning to believe that if your boiler is tuned correctly coals do not burn up in the lower chamber because it becomes an oxygen free atmosphere.
 
One way to check that theory, maple (short of taking the pipe apart), would be to throttle back the fans to half speed, which I intend to do tonight, as it's supposed to be below zero around here. Don't have a clean out, though I should. I had one before I got a chimney cap, and it rusted out pretty quick.
 
Some of the ash you're missing in the lower chamber you may find in the upper chamber due to the smaller nozzle, eh?
 
In a way, that's probably true. I think that what's happening is that the unburned chunks aren't falling through the nozzle, giving them an opportunity to become ash instead of heavier, solid, unburned coals that bulk and weigh down the ash. I'll have to excavate my ash pile next spring, but I bet the lower layers will show a greater percentage of unburned material.
 
I think you nailed it Fred. Our boiler is putting out a bluish/orange flame in anger like never before. The clinkers that do end up in the lower chamber sit there and glow red and eventually dissolve into ash, but it takes some time... not like they're really burning. I'm taking that as a good sign that the lower chamber is oxygen starved, which indicates a healthy burn mixture (I guess). We're burning mostly oak and hickory.

Congrats Eric... as much as I hated changing our nozzle, I'm sure in the whole scheme of time spent heating with wood I'm ahead since consumption went way down. Sounds like the EKO nozzle is easier to replace than the BioMass. Our side plates must come out to install the new nozzle. +1 for the EKO.
 
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