Four minute gasifier startup, minimal smoke

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Nofossil

Nofossil

Moderator Emeritus
Oct 4, 2007
3,618
Lexington Virginia
www.nofossil.org
I've been working on this for a long time, and I figured it's time to share where I'm at and see if anyone can help me improve. At this point I can pretty consistently get secondary combustion going four minutes after lighting, and I've figured out how to reduce the smoke that's generated during that time.

Seems to be a few important things:

- Not too much paper or kindling
- Leave top door partly open to provide more air and reduce smoke going up the chimney
- Channel fire toward the nozzle

Here's my process, from my Operating Instructions (http://www.nofossil.org/orlan/OperatingInstructions.pdf):

1.Take two pieces of light wood (pine or poplar). Make a channel over the nozzle with a 'V' shape if possible. This is to concentrate the starting fire over the nozzle and help burning pieces to fall towards the nozzle.

2.Crumple / twist one full sheet of newspaper and place on channel. Put a few small pieces of dry kindling on top – mix of hardwood and softwood if available. Don't use too much. Should look like picture #1.

3.Split a piece of buckthorn or other small hardwood – halves or quarters, and place on top. Add a couple of layers of small sticks. Each layer should be at a slight angle with spaces between pieces. Pieces should not rest too much on the large 'channel forming' chunks. Should look like picture #2.

4.Add layers of successively larger wood until the firebox is about half full or more. End with wood that's about 3” diameter.

5.Open bottom door. Light newspaper with long match or torch.

6.Watch fire start. Adjust top door to prevent smoke.

7.When fire is roaring (flue temp 275 F), close doors and damper, turn on controller
 

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I am in my rookie year of burning i have an E classic boiler and also have been doing something similar . Try saving some wood coals and put them underneath what you have . I have been doing that and slightly covering my downdraft grates with very minimal smoke 5-10 minutes pile it on with just exiting heat waves.
 
barnartist said:
Should I understand to light the fire through the nozzle opening?
Click to expand...

No, I'm not contortionist enough to do that. I use a propane torch or a foot-long fireplace match and light the newspaper down underneath all the wood - I leave enough gaps so that I can get to it.
 
logjammed said:
I am in my rookie year of burning i have an E classic boiler and also have been doing something similar . Try saving some wood coals and put them underneath what you have . I have been doing that and slightly covering my downdraft grates with very minimal smoke 5-10 minutes pile it on with just exiting heat waves.
Click to expand...

I'm typically doing this with a boiler that's at room temperature - no coals at all, and cold refractory.
 
Here's my method.... The "smoke monster" method.

Open stove. (VERY Important.)

Remove ash from previous burn.

sprinkle the entire bottom of the stove with crumpled pieces of paper.

Cover paper with a cardboard box or sheet of carboard.

Cover with 1/2 to a dozen pieces of kiln dried window trim from the window factory my dad works at.

cover with 1 layer of small slabwood pieces (1x1 sized or smaller)

Light paper all over at once.

Leave both doors open. (It's and outdoor unit. Don't worry)

Allow fire to achieve roaring potential.

keep adding slabwood pieces until you have about 5 or 6 layers.

Close both doors and bypass damper.

Start fans.

Watch massive cloud of smoke exit chimney pipe. :)

Exhaust clears after about 30 seconds.

After about 15 minutes, exhaust will reach about 800F pre-heatexchanger and at that point, I will add a bunch of medium and then large slabwood pieces.

That's my method. :)
 
the coals are cold and so is the fire brick. for dhw i will shut the unit down with wood still in it. the next fire i will use some of those coals under a small pile. so this is a brand new fire not a refill. sorry about the confusion.
 
Just a weeks worth of fires but thanks to the nofo method down to 8 minutes. Now I can show the wife a method that wroks so she can keep warm and toasty when I am out plowing snow.
 
Nofo. Thank you for your post. I have fiired my Tarm 40 4 times... with different stages of success for each one. My fourth firing was dramatically better than the first. I am hoping with your method... my fifth will be even better. The people at Tarm are just great. They have helped me through every stage. There is most definately a learning process with these boilers. I am hoping to work out a few last little bugs and get ready for the coldre weather which will be approaching in a few days. Last night I finally got the point where I worked out some final isssues.. and began a real test burn. My house was 62 in about every room. I toyed around with getting it started at 5:30... left home at 6:30... and had it burning a small fire. Got home at 9:30. Had hot coals still. Filled it up halfway with a littel pine and some hardwood. By 11:00 I had the house at 72... THE WHOLE HOUSE! wow. I was amazed. Even better... i went to bed and left it running for the first time. I woke up at 6:00 am. HOUSE STILL WARM! 70 degrees. I am convinced I can do a couple things to make this process even easier and better ( less smoke... better burn... longer burn.. less time attending to it.. getting to know how big a fire to burn...being sure my oil burner temp is set at the right point). Whoa sorry.. your topic was the burn. I am just excited and again. Thank you for helping us perfect the art of Tarmness.
 
Wow! Gasification in 6 minutes tonight using Nofo's V-Channel techinique. My primary chamber was only around 120F with a flu temp of 350-400 at initial gasification. Started out a little slow with a very small blue flame but climbed steadily up to 165F . Reloaded the firebox 1 hour later and now she's blastin away. My previous best time was around 20 minutes. Burning and learning since July 08.

Great advice.
 
Wow! Gasification in 6 minutes tonight using Nofo's V-Channel techinique. My primary chamber was only around 120F with a flue temp of 350-400 at initial gasification. Started out a little slow with a very small blue flame but climbed steadily up to 165F . Reloaded the firebox 1 hour later and now she's blastin away. My previous best time was around 20 minutes. Burning and learning since July 08.

Great advice.
 
I'm glad if this helped. My biggest issue with this system has always been the huge cloud of smoke at startup. I'm hoping to discover even better techniques. This one is at a level now where I can be pretty confident that others scan be successful starting my boiler.
 
I'm also achieving quick gasification using NoFo's technique, though I light the paper from below through the secondary chamber. One of those barbeque butane lighters does the trick - the long nose fits perfectly up through the refractory slit without having to contort (or dirty) your hand.

I second the creative use of buckthorn. We have lots of it on the eastern side of Vermont, too, and I was tossing it in the woods in disgust until a forester friend told me that it has more BTUs than most of our hardwoods. Now it's a prized addition to the firewood pile, right up there with the hophornbeam splits.
 
Hi.Would a draft inducer help with the smoke issue on start-up. then turned off when a good fire is going.
 
Actually, there's too much draft at startup unless the upper door is also cracked open somewhat. (Otherwise, the lighter blows out.)

Our Eko is located in the basement with no smoke hood or anything additional, and I've yet to have it smoke at all provided I pay attention to the doors. The unit is plumbed into a 2-story masonry chimney, so there's plenty of stack height.
 
I nominate this thread to become a "Sticky" although I do not know how to formally do that,

and assume that only the moderators can actually do so?
 
When I ever I produce methanol and finish the processing, my dad steals enough to half way fill one of those ten gallon food pails with a lid. I never asked what he did with it, I assumed he was dumping it in the fuel for the machines or something, I didn't pay any attention - Until one day I saw him pull a half dozen sticks of kindling out that pail, toss them in the bottom of the (cold) shop woodstove, pile in a full load of semi green firewood and toss a match in. It wasn't explosive or anything silly like that, but he had instant high heat and it lit the semi green wood like it had been seasoned for 2 years.... seems fitting since I make the stuff from scraps out of his wood yard. I was just thinking that the methanol vapour that boils off would heat a secondary chamber in no time with approx the same volatility as wood gas....
 
deerefanatic said:
Here's my method.... The "smoke monster" method.

Open stove. (VERY Important.)

Remove ash from previous burn.

sprinkle the entire bottom of the stove with crumpled pieces of paper.

Cover paper with a cardboard box or sheet of carboard.

Cover with 1/2 to a dozen pieces of kiln dried window trim from the window factory my dad works at.

cover with 1 layer of small slabwood pieces (1x1 sized or smaller)

Light paper all over at once.

Leave both doors open. (It's and outdoor unit. Don't worry)

Allow fire to achieve roaring potential.

keep adding slabwood pieces until you have about 5 or 6 layers.

Close both doors and bypass damper.

Start fans.

Watch massive cloud of smoke exit chimney pipe. :)

Exhaust clears after about 30 seconds.

After about 15 minutes, exhaust will reach about 800F pre-heatexchanger and at that point, I will add a bunch of medium and then large slabwood pieces.

That's my method. :)
Click to expand...


You folks had a cool day in Ladysmith today. Did you get much above zero? I hear it'll be 14 below tonight.

I can understand a quick light when it's cold........
 
I lay two pieces on each side of the gasification slot. Lay about 5 pieces of crumpled newspaper in the slot. Above the crumpled newspaper, I lay a few pieces of thinly split kindling, ontop the kindling a couple of thicker pieces of firewood. Then shut the upper door.
Now comes the important part:
I neatly roll 1 piece of telephone book paper, light one end with a strike-anywhere match. Carefully slide the "torch" into the lower refractory gasification tunnel.
Keeping the top door closed, bottom door open until the roaring fire hits a stack temp. of 200*.
Then I close the bottom door, turn on the fan for a few minutes with the main damper open.
Should at that point have a good roaring fire ready to fill.
 
well for what it's worth here's my method. as a 28 year dedicated wood burner you get good at lighting a fire after a few years of doing it. It also helps to own a wood shop, all kind of scrap kindling.

for guaranteed 4 minute gassiffication:

crumpled section of newspaper, 3 sheets, or dry shavings close to nozzle.

a few cedar shingles left over from the last house construction.

small pecies (3 years dry) splits of hardwood.

4 inch or larger (3 years dry) hardwood splits, filled to you desired heating needs.

flick your bic to a long thin piece of cedar shingle match, put fire to paper by reaching down with long match thru top front door.

leave bottom door open, leave top door cracked only for a few moments or until you see a good flame, shut top door.

sweep up mess on floor, listen, roaring fire makes a distinctive noise.

close bottom door, close bypass damper, turn on fan.

go to work or just go, the rest is up to the boiler. sweetheat ;-P
 
sweetheat, I used to load and start the fire in one shot, then I started wondering if I was getting a good hot coal base for gasification
So now I'm starting the fire in two stages. First, getting a small hot fire, then loading it up.
I don't really know if it makes much of a difference.
 
well i guess I'm doing something right. just after I light the paper, kindlin' snaps and I'll get hardwood, and fill firebox and shut door. See flames pouring thru the nozzle, and leave. The Innova is supposed to simplify start up and it does.

Sweetheat,
Nice looking site. First rate timerhouses. Impressive. Used to get down to MDI years ago, nice area. Brother was town manager for Southwest Harbor. I think that was 20yrs ago.
 
flyingcow, Thanks for the compliment, we try our best. chuck172 I sometime do the same on colder days like today. I started a fire early today because yesterday afternoons storage tank temp said it was not necessary. I got by last night with no fire. This A.M. I started a fresh fire maybe 1/2 full and returned later at 1:00 P.M. with another 1/2 load, tonight my set point of 180 was reached, In idle mode now but I doubt if their is much wood left, so I' ll go another night with what's in storage. Milder tonight also, so maybe no fire til next evening. sweetheat
 
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