Couple of questions (EKO 40)

I don`t know if I am any help only had my Eko 40 running 4 days....Yiipppeeee. I have notice my wood is not as dry as I would of expected being cut and split early last fall. Reading on some of the wood forums it seems this last year was not a good year to dry wood. Some complaing about wet firewood....It could be the cause of the damper sticking.

I clean my tee 1 time a season only. as for the damper I bet your wood is a little on the wetter side and with no storage and a low demand for heat this season you see more idle time and that will lead to a stuck damper.


Rob

The damper you are talking about is your Barometric Damper, correct?
Just installed this year after burning last year w/o http://www.davis.com/catalog/product_view.asp?sku=6806258&pfx;= . The manometer will let you monitor your draft. See Taxidermist's youtube video above your last post.

I think you are talking about the damper in the upper chamber of the EKO right ? I have had the same thing happen and as far as I can tell it's more like the too much "air " what I found is when loading too many small sticks or pallet wood created more burnable surface in the boiler and sent more wood gas thru to the lower chamber than it could handle creating some puffing in the boiler and the puffing pushed open the damper. I happened to be in the shed one time when it happened and the damper was pushed wide open and the boiler was heating up fast , could have had a melt down if I had not been there.
What I have done aside from keeping an eye on the wood load is leave the cleanout lever facing down where it will interfere with the damper opening too far and also I clamp a vise grip on the damper arm so it can only open a tiny bit before the grip touches the shell of the boiler and prevents any further opening.

I clean the ash out of the T about once every month or so , depends on the type wood as to how much ash gets up there if the wood coals nice it's not much but the wood that creates a fine ash will fill/ clog it up in no time.

AC-D14 said:

The Damper is not sticking closed it's openning. I'm wondering if I have to much air?

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I think I might of had the same thing happen last night....... I went out today to load the boiler and found the damper open???? I thought man did I forget to close it??? I did rush the relight and was wondering if it might of had a smoke explosion and opened the damper? Lucky I did not get a over heat. I will keep an eye on this.


Rob

Smoke explosions will cause the flapper valve to blow open. The EKO40 Super I have is "over-center" spring loaded to close but it doesn't take much travel to exceed "center" when there is a puff. Moving the tube cleaning handle so that the tube cleaner is in a full up position (realized when the flap is open and cycling the handle causes the flap to move towards closed) will usually prevent the flap from extending beyond center. The handle positioned in this fashion will allow escape of the "puff" pressures but will allow the overcenter spring to return the flap to the closed position after the pressures are disipated.

AC-D14 said:

This is my second year with my EKO I would say I am very happy with my system. But.....I have a couple questions.

How often do you folks clean out the "clean out" on your chimney tee. I put in the new gasification bricks from EKO and wow, I have to clean it every day or two now. Last season once a week was plenty.

Does anyone have problems with the chimney damper openning (Edit: when I go to reload it the damper is open an inch or so) while the system is up and running? Again this was not a problem last heating season but has happened 4 or 5 times this season.

Any input would be appreciated.

Also some info for others. I put in the new gasket with the coating. I read where a few people cut it. I put the two ends in together first and worked it in from there. It worked very well and there is no need to cut any off. Hope this helps.

Click to expand...

This is my second season with my EKO 40 also, did I miss something with the "new gasification bricks".

Thanks, Rich

This is the second season with my EKO40 and the first week I had it i realized there was a chance of either walking away and forgetting to close the damper after loading or the chance the damper could creep open during burn. It was a waste of energy right up the chimmny.

What I did was to make a stick and install it between the damper handle and the boilder body once the damper was closed. The stick about 6 incheds long and has a 45 degree notch at each end and both of the notched ends are covered in bright yellow electrical tape. When the damper is closed the stick is installed....

Bnefits include....from a distance I can see the damper has been closed and I never forget to close the damper after loading since I lay the stick on top of the boiler when I open the door and it is returned to holding the damper closed when i close the damper. No more wated heat up the chimmny

It been two years and I am still using the same stick. and i have never left the damper open.

I would not have it any other way. Let me know if you want a picture of my hardwood stick.

How often does a guy have to replace firebricks? I saw them on New Horizons but doesn't say anything. Can I make my own?

Cave2k said:

Smoke explosions will cause the flapper valve to blow open. The EKO40 Super I have is "over-center" spring loaded to close but it doesn't take much travel to exceed "center" when there is a puff. Moving the tube cleaning handle so that the tube cleaner is in a full up position (realized when the flap is open and cycling the handle causes the flap to move towards closed) will usually prevent the flap from extending beyond center. The handle positioned in this fashion will allow escape of the "puff" pressures but will allow the overcenter spring to return the flap to the closed position after the pressures are disipated.

Click to expand...

I believe this to be right too, it happens when I use very dry and/or small wood. A remedy I found to work well is to mix in larger pieces of dry wood or smaller pieces of green/wet wood. Both will slow the burn in the upper chamber a bit and help prevent this. I had it happen once this season and the wood was very dry, I now mix it more and start with the dry in the bottom layers on the coals and some higher moisture stuff on top.

EDIT: Also check if the nozzle is (partially) plugged. I burn some scrap wood from the reno's of our 150+ yr old home, and sometimes some metal like nails etc have blocked the nozzle and build pressure in the upper chamber.

Hope this helps,

Henk.

ihookem said:

How often does a guy have to replace firebricks? I saw them on New Horizons but doesn't say anything. Can I make my own?

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You can make your own fire bricks but it is hard to find the material (some type of aluminum silicate) that will hold up to the high temps a gasifier puts out. Do a search on fire brick and Nofossil. He did several experiments with varied results and in one of the firebrick threads there is mention of the type of materials that are best. EKO (New Horizons?) Is supposed to have the mortar for pouring your own once you get/make a mold.

AC-D14 said:

This is my second year with my EKO I would say I am very happy with my system. But.....I have a couple questions.

How often do you folks clean out the "clean out" on your chimney tee. I put in the new gasification bricks from EKO and wow, I have to clean it every day or two now. Last season once a week was plenty.

Does anyone have problems with the chimney damper openning (Edit: when I go to reload it the damper is open an inch or so) while the system is up and running? Again this was not a problem last heating season but has happened 4 or 5 times this season.

Any input would be appreciated.

Also some info for others. I put in the new gasket with the coating. I read where a few people cut it. I put the two ends in together first and worked it in from there. It worked very well and there is no need to cut any off. Hope this helps.

Click to expand...

What's the reason for the "new" gasification bricks? How do they differ from the original one's

Tony H said:

AC-D14 said:

This is my second year with my EKO I would say I am very happy with my system. But.....I have a couple questions.

How often do you folks clean out the "clean out" on your chimney tee. I put in the new gasification bricks from EKO and wow, I have to clean it every day or two now. Last season once a week was plenty.

Does anyone have problems with the chimney damper openning (Edit: when I go to reload it the damper is open an inch or so) while the system is up and running? Again this was not a problem last heating season but has happened 4 or 5 times this season.

Any input would be appreciated.

Also some info for others. I put in the new gasket with the coating. I read where a few people cut it. I put the two ends in together first and worked it in from there. It worked very well and there is no need to cut any off. Hope this helps.

Click to expand...

What's the reason for the "new" gasification bricks? How do they differ from the original one's

Click to expand...

By the look of things the new bricks capture more of the force of the flame and force it to move froward (towards the door) and make the high heat travel farther before exiting
through the tubes. Which would seem in principle to cause more of an even heating throughout the secondary chamber. That would cause better heating of the secondary air supply and better (more efficient) gasification and better heat supply for heating the water in the boiler. Looks like a nice design.