First Burn - The good, the bad and the smoky

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rvtgr8

rvtgr8

New Member
Jan 6, 2008
155
Elbert Colorado alt. 7300
abe21.net
I am in the final stages of my first burn on my Garn as I write this. To say that I am thrilled is not an adequate expression. The wood I used is very dry (4 year old, dry as a popcorn fart, pine) and so when it started smoking I was a bit concerned. I just attributed it to condensation in my flue. The smoke settled down pretty quickly when the flue temp reached 300 °F. I was entertaining visions of having one of those smoke-bomb-outdoor-wood-burners and being run out by my neighbors until then. Then, I went in to check my pipes a second time and found water on the floor. I was freaked out until I remembered that I had neglected to clean a pool of water that had accumulated in my exhaust pipe from a recent snow storm when I left my flue open to the blowing snow. After a while, the pipe dried out and the dripping stopped and everything was copacetic. I hope. It took two hours to bring my 55 °F water up to my 160 °F test range for my garage radiators. Anyone see anything that I am missing?

Robert
 
rvtgr8 said:
I am in the final stages of my first burn on my Garn as I write this. To say that I am thrilled is not an adequate expression. The wood I used is very dry (4 year old, dry as a popcorn fart, pine) and so when it started smoking I was a bit concerned. I just attributed it to condensation in my flue. The smoke settled down pretty quickly when the flue temp reached 300 °F. I was entertaining visions of having one of those smoke-bomb-outdoor-wood-burners and being run out by my neighbors until then. Then, I went in to check my pipes a second time and found water on the floor. I was freaked out until I remembered that I had neglected to clean a pool of water that had accumulated in my exhaust pipe from a recent snow storm when I left my flue open to the blowing snow. After a while, the pipe dried out and the dripping stopped and everything was copacetic. I hope. It took two hours to bring my 55 °F water up to my 160 °F test range for my garage radiators. Anyone see anything that I am missing?

Robert
Click to expand...

Sounds like its running really well. 55 to 160 in two hours is pretty amazing. With as much piping in the Garn that the exhaust goes through while the water temp is only 55, you will get quite a bit of steam as it will take some time to get the flue temp up as the water takes every ounce of the heat out the exhaust. I'm happy for you Robert and glad its working out.
 
The only thing I see missing is a mention of you enjoying your GARN heated hot tub with a beverage in your hand . . . :)

Sounds great Robert. But are you sure it was a 105 degree temp rise in 2 hours? If so, that has to be the highest input rate I have ever heard of.

Keep us posted.
 
Jim,

My bad, I made an error above. I began doing my tests in two hours when my aquastat kicked in at 130 °F . You're correct in your assumption that 160 °F took longer than a couple of hours, but it did take a lot less time than I thought that it would. When I come across some uranium rods I might get get her up to temp a bit faster. Nice catch.

Robert
 
Lol Robert, my brother was reading your thread and came out to the Garn room and said you rose your temp 105 degrees in 2 hours. He said I looked dumbfounded cause I've been doing 8-15 degree rise per hour.

I'm excited for you. I don't have to tell you how big the project undertaking is.

Now it's time to recoup the investment.
 
Yah!! 50-55* per hour would like "nukular" man. Sure you didn't drop some U-235 in that thing by mistake? :)

I have to say though that I have seen some astounding temp rise in certain situations. Bringing a Garn up 80* in a little over 3 hours is not uncommon when circumstances are just right. You have to remember that at water temps of around 105 or below, the Garn will actually transfer heat at over 90% efficiency. I would guess you may have witnessed some condensation dripping out of the flue.......? I recall firing up one customers unit beginning with about 45-50* water. He too had some very dry pine and once we got the fire going we kept adding a few fresh pieces every 15 minutes or so in order to keep the flue temp above 400*. We had very little condensation from that one.

4 year old pine would be exceedingly dry but still contain a fair amount of pitch that makes it burn very hot.
 
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