A question for Biomax users

Don't quote me on this, but I think the BM is patterned somewhat after the EKO, but is American made. But the controls may be a tad different. That may not help much, but it is all I have!

I went down to new horizon to look at the biomax. The owner told me they made some improvements to the boiler and the new version will be available around may. One of the things they did was to reduce smoke when you open the door.

I saw an ad in the Adirondack free trader from a dealer, they are stating 12 hour burn times. Is this possible?

The BioMax is made in Poland. Apparently Zenon Pawlowski, the guy who imports the EKO, helped design the BioMax, based on the EKO. One thing it reportedly has is negative draft, which I guess means the blowers pull air into the firebox and secondary combustion chamber, instead of pushing it like the EKO and other similar designs do.

We have two BioMax users here, termite and rreinhart. I hope they'll stop by one of these days and let us know how it's working out.

gorsuchmill said:

The Biomax literature suggests its fan process significantly reduces smoke being emitted into the "boiler room" during reloading. What is your experience? I'm looking for an indoor install and choosing between a Biomax and a Tarm (approx. the same prices). I would likely pick the Biomax based on the reduced smoke feature; however, if this benefit is more hype than reality I will pick the Tarm based on its tradition in this country.

Thanks for your help.

Lee

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The operating protocol for my Tarm was to make sure that the induced draft fan was running for a minute or two and the firebox clear of unburned gasses before I stopped the fan and opened the door. There was usually a pretty good draft established by the time I opened the firebox loading door so smoke leakage was almost none existent. Even ash removal was mitigated somewhat because the draft would suck the finer particles back into the boiler.

Planning my next boiler purchase, I have looked for photos of installed boilers and their accompanying smoke stains on the boiler jackets. Evidence of smoke stains and/or manufacturer's recommendations about installing a hood for smoke removal make me wonder if I would really want one of those in my garage. Watch some of the You Tube videos of typical smoke dragon OWBs being loaded and you will see what I mean.

The 40's probably have less potential to smoke because they have only one fan pulling air through them. Mine is a 60 (outside). They have the fan in the rear as well as one in the front. When you crack the door the bypass flap opens and the front fan is switched off. If you leave the door open only enough to open the flap and wait a few seconds for the front fan to spin down you'll get little if any smoke even when the primary chamber is full of it.
I used to open the door a lot to see what was going on in there. Even though I had a pretty good suspicion there was going to be an oxygen deprived wood fire in there I enjoyed looking. If you start a fire and don't open the door until you are ready to start another fire (or add wood to coals) you will have no smoke whatsoever. I suppose that is another of the advantages of having storage.

Are you pretty happy with it? Any issues with the boiler (not the installation)?

Eric Johnson said:

Are you pretty happy with it? Any issues with the boiler (not the installation)?

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Very easy to start a fire in. Very little ash. Unbelievably low wood use. To be fair I do burn a 6"x6"x4" or so lump of high BTU coal with each load of wood.
I have to wait until the boiler cools off to about 130 degrees to operated the turbulator shaker lever through its full range of motion. I think the turbulators warp and hang in the fire tubes when the boiler is hot. Other than that I'm very pleased. If I'm still this pleased with it in 10 years it will have been one of my best investments.

Termite ,I have been wondering if a little coal would help or hurt.I live in coal country and thought ,what would happen if I put some rice coal(1/4") in the coal bed.Would It keep the coals burning a little longer?

Kemer said:

Termite ,I have been wondering if a little coal would help or hurt.I live in coal country and thought ,what would happen if I put some rice coal(1/4") in the coal bed.Would It keep the coals burning a little longer?

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Coal works great in my boiler. When it starts burning things warm up quickly. I am using very low sulpher coal to try to minimize corrosion.
No offense, but we are hijacking gorsuchmill's thread. Kemer, you may want to start a thread on coal use in gasifiers. I bet you'll get tons of info.