Econoburn 100

Draft: Dwyer Mark II Model 25 manometer. Very reasonably priced.

Hopefully other EB owners can address the other stuff.

Yes you can adjust the primary pump launch temp. With storage it would be a good idea to increase. One of the things I don't like with the controller is the fact that it runs the pump all the way down to 5 degrees below your set point. If you are set at 160 launch it will mix your tank until your return from the bottom is 155.

Another issue is no variable speed on the fan.

If you pm me your phone number I can call you and discuss my findings on the phone.

gg

I have instructions some where. It might be best to get them for your boiler from Econoburn directly. If you call Dale I am sure he would send you the details for adjusting launch temp.

PM me by clicking on my name to the left and start a conversation.

The recirculating pump will run until the boiler control is below the set point (which is not ideal if you have storage)

gg

Sparky said:

How do you change the primary pump launch? How do you PM somebody? What about the recirculating pump after burn does it run all the time?

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Sparky ,Did you get answers from Dale, if not I have a 100 and can dig up my manual to help you out. As far as the fan and recirc pump go, on mine (4 years old but with the new controller) they originally would stay on after a burn until I did a mod that senses flue temp and shuts both the fan and pump off at a desired flue temp which I arrived at by trial and error. So after my fire is out the fan and pump shut down at preset (by me) temps. Bruce

Sparky said:

I did get the information, What did you use for the flue temp sensor and set up. I use a mechanical timer for the fan it works to shut fan off so there is still coals in the fire box, but yours sounds like a better setup. Also can you tell me what primary pump settings you use? Thanks

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Sparky , for my fan and pump shutoff, I bought a TET 612 or JLD 612 digital temp controller from ebay for 30 or 40 bucks. That is the little box with the digital numbers located on the right side of my boiler control panel in the first photo. It is simply a programable switching box that will display your flue temp in the top screen (when you connect it to a "K" type thermocouple) and based on the temps you set will shut off and turn on your circ pump and fan after a burn is complete. Probably can't see it to well in that first photo, but my fan comes on at 130 deg of flu temp and off at 100 deg, and my pump is on above 115 deg and off at 100 deg. The top number is the actual flue temp about a foot past the pipe exit from the boiler during a burn. The second number below the flue temp is just one of the settings you put in to program it. The second and third photo show the K thermocouple pulled out of the flue pipe and where it is placed for measuring the temp. If you go this route let me know and I can dig up a wiring diagram and simpler programming directions for the controller.
As far as my temp settings, on my boiler itself, I have my circ pump(near boiler pump) on until 150 degrees then above that the primary comes on to pump to the house. Have run without storage for 4 years, but this spring I am gonna add 500 gallons . Bruce

airlina said:

Sparky , for my fan and pump shutoff, I bought a TET 612 or JLD 612 digital temp controller from ebay for 30 or 40 bucks. That is the little box with the digital numbers located on the right side of my boiler control panel in the first photo. It is simply a programable switching box that will display your flue temp in the top screen (when you connect it to a "K" type thermocouple) and based on the temps you set will shut off and turn on your circ pump and fan after a burn is complete. Probably can't see it to well in that first photo, but my fan comes on at 130 deg of flu temp and off at 100 deg, and my pump is on above 115 deg and off at 100 deg. The top number is the actual flue temp about a foot past the pipe exit from the boiler during a burn. The second number below the flue temp is just one of the settings you put in to program it. The second and third photo show the K thermocouple pulled out of the flue pipe and where it is placed for measuring the temp. If you go this route let me know and I can dig up a wiring diagram and simpler programming directions for the controller.
As far as my temp settings, on my boiler itself, I have my circ pump(near boiler pump) on until 150 degrees then above that the primary comes on to pump to the house. Have run without storage for 4 years, but this spring I am gonna add 500 gallons . Bruce

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Have you had any issues if the boiler approaches the set point and the controller drops the fan to low speed or off it it hits the set point?

Also how about when you stop the pump by flue temp. How high does the boiler temp climb due to hot refractory and coals with no pump running?


Also, when you switch to storage the near boiler pump is not effective for boiler protection. You will need some type of loading unit, mixing valve or injection setup.

gg

GG, Through trial and error, I have found that having the 100 degree low end flue temp setpoint for both the pump and fan assures that my firebox is burned out completely so boiler temp rise is not a factor. On the 100 we only have on or off with our fan (no low speed) . Early on I had my low temp setpoint at 120 degrees for the fan which turned out to be a tad too high. If I loaded the boiler for an all night burn and it would go to idle (remember I don't have storage yet) , the flue temp might drop slightly below 120 and the fan would go off and stay off. Once I set it down to the current 100 degrees , this quit happening and the fan operates as it should. Thanks for the advice on boiler protection when I add the storage, that was a question I was going to ask Dale this spring when I add the tank. For the first 4 years I had the boiler in my basement, but decided last summer to build a shed 60 feet from the house and move it there. Phase 1 was getting the shed built and moving the behemoth from the basement then of course plumbing and wiring just before our western NY winter hit (I got 6 feet of snow in 3 daysin Nov. and it hasn't stopped since). Phase 2 is getting my 500 gallon tank in this spring then replumbing for storage. Looking forward to the advantages of storage although even without it , I have been happy with the boiler. Gotta go load it right now for the night, and with a full load it will burn 9 hours even with the 0 degree overnight temps we have been having and that is keeping the house at 70 deg all night to burn the BTU's and keep the idling down. Bruce

Sparky said:

I checked out the JLD 612 would that also tell me my tank temp also? If I got a probe? Also how many things would it turn on and off? Also was wondering what you used for a smoke hood? Sorry for all the questions, you have been on a road i'm going down. Thanks

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Sparky ,On the JLD 612 there are wiring terminals for the thermocouple input, AC power input (to power the unit) and 2 AC switching relays that I use for 1) boiler fan 2) circ pump . As far as monitoring your tank temp there are probably direct read probes that can be inserted in a well in the tank similar to an aquastat probe that would make for a simpler method to monitor. Try a search for tank probes on this forum and see what pops up. The picture is of my homemade smoke hood that I made out of an old exhaust fan I had. The hood is easy to make from thin gauge aluminum or galvanized sheet riveted together with aluminum angle stock. All of which is available at your local homecenter. As I mentioned previously , up until this winter my boiler was in my basement , so the smoke hood was a necessary feature, however since moving it to the dedicated boiler shed , I don't really care if I get a bit of smoke rollout when loading . Bruce

airlina said:

Sparky ,On the JLD 612 there are wiring terminals for the thermocouple input, AC power input (to power the unit) and 2 AC switching relays that I use for 1) boiler fan 2) circ pump . As far as monitoring your tank temp there are probably direct read probes that can be inserted in a well in the tank similar to an aquastat probe that would make for a simpler method to monitor. Try a search for tank probes on this forum and see what pops up. The picture is of my homemade smoke hood that I made out of an old exhaust fan I had. The hood is easy to make from thin gauge aluminum or galvanized sheet riveted together with aluminum angle stock. All of which is available at your local homecenter. As I mentioned previously , up until this winter my boiler was in my basement , so the smoke hood was a necessary feature, however since moving it to the dedicated boiler shed , I don't really care if I get a bit of smoke rollout when loading . Bruce

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You don't mean that there are relays in the unit, right? Just terminals to hook relays to? That sounds like a decent gadget, almost wish I had seen it sooner - having relays built-in sounds like too-good-to-be-true stuff so thought I'd better ask - would still be nice even if you had to get the relays separate.

maple1 said:

having relays built-in sounds like too-good-to-be-true

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Those kinds of controllers do have relays built-in, but they're pretty dinky, a couple two three amps. For the price it's probably worth the risk of frying the contacts if your load is small enough, or just use them as pilot relays to energize the coil of an RIB, or an Omron pedestal-mounted DIN-rail relay.

I am certainly no expert on this stuff , but from what I can gather from the specs that came with the unit the internal solid state relays are rated at 220v/3amps or 110v/10amps. I have this device wired into my boiler fan and pump as a switching mechanism with no additional external relays for 4 years now and it works as I have described in previous posts on my Econoburn 100, your mileage may vary.