More Details on the Black Bear Boiler

According to a nice article in the Maine Sunday Telegram, the Black Bear boiler company is ramping up for production. Apparently, it's a very clean burning, efficient outdoor/indoor boiler that retails for about $7,500.

Here's how the paper described the technology:

"The Black Bear Boiler uses a blower to ignite wood gasses. They burn at very high temperatures, passing over a heat exchanger to warm water and feed baseboards in the house. the firebox is surrounded by a massive ceramic refractory that also slowly absorbs heat. Turning off the blower removes oxygen from the unit, and the fire instantly goes out. but the refractory remains extremely hot for up to 48 hours, and the fire will reignite when the blower flips on again."

Instead of having a 20- or 30-gallon water jacket, like a conventional boiler, this thing apparently uses a heat exchanger with much less water capacity.

It looks to me like a modified Garn, but much cheaper and easier to use, if the publicity is to be believed.

I think I'll head up to East Millinocket early next year and check it out for myself. Get 'em to toss a load of wood in the firebox and see what comes out the stack.

They're calling it a "downdraft gasifier" which is not new technology, and not really new tech for a small wood boiler, since I think Garn makes something quite similar. The best I can gather from the website is that it has 6.5 gallons of water capacity at the boiler. I tried to join up and ask some questions at the forum, but it doesn't appear to be working at the moment. They've got the other OWB boiler guys like Central Boiler all cheesed off because part of their sales pitch is that their technology is so much cleaner and more efficient.

I have nothing against OWBs in principle, but I have noticed that the people who own and sell them are really sensitive to criticism. They won't tell you, for example, how much wood they burn in a season. "I don't count every stick" is how one CB owner responded to my innocent question. And with all the negative publicity, they're getting touchier all the time. Hey, I would be too if I had that kind of investment at risk of being banned.

The Black Bear supposedly comes with a 20-year warranty. Of course, that's only good if the company stays in business that long and never goes into bankruptcy.

Craig's point is a good one; I'm mystified as to how you get enough heat transfer through that heat exchanger to keep up with what the boiler is kicking out. One thing I do know is that instead of using water for heat storage, the BB uses ceramic, so it's pretty heavy. You would have to factor higher shipping costs into the equation. There's a regular on another plumbing & heating website who owns an Eko. I'll dig up the link and post it later, if anyone is interested in getting some first-hand information.

Here's the link to the site where one or members owns an Eko:

http://forums.invision.net/index.cfm?CFApp=2l.

Most of these guys are plumbing & heating professionals.

Does it matter, Craig, that this is a gassifier? Couldn't you use the same kind of heat exchanger technology (i.e., water tube or cast iron) as you'd find in a conventional gas or oil boiler? Or would the wood gassifier still produce too much soot and other crap to make that impractical? I was thinking about buying a chip gassifier many years ago and the manufacturer suggested mating the gassifer up with a conventional gas boiler, using wood gas instead of nat. gas or propane.

Webmaster said:

In my opinion, the lack of heating surface is usually cutting corners on the manufacturing end - it is extremely difficult creating 5 sided (and more) water-backed boxes. In addition, many shops sub out their heat exchanger work, so they often get something that can be inserted into the boiler body as opposed to the boiler body itself. There are no shortcuts in making a wet-backed and wet-leg boiler - lots of cutting and lots of welding...and lots of high grade steel.

Click to expand...

We have one user, Maine, who's got one. So they may be out of business, but their legacy lives on in the Boiler Room. I was always interested in the Black Bear, before I'd even heard of Seton or Greenwood. Seems like a technology with promise, but I don't think BB had the right product line nor the right marketing approach to get the job done.

I feel bad for Millinocket. They really need some decent manufacturing to replace Great Northern Paper.

Mikey, you should check out nofossil's brother's built-your-own gasifier project. They knocked off nofossil's EKO 25. Pretty cool.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/11492/