Blowback on E180

[emesine]

I went in to add wood to my Woodgun yesterday AM.....

The instructions read, turn on the fan, wait for the green light, then open the door. Being a man I turned on the fan, waited 5 seconds and opened the door. Also being not an idiot (or so you can judge from this post) I stood back a good 6 FEET from the door. The gasses inside flashed and sent a blast of fire 6 feet across my garage, burning my beard, front of my hair, eyebrows and elelashes. I had to go back inside to shower and shave before going to work. It was absolutely awesome.

This is NOT a complaint on my woodgun (no harm done, and it was my own fault for not waiting to open the door.) I just wish I had a video of the event, or at least a picture of me with all my facial hair singed. I was in too much of a hurry to get to work......

Andrew

 

[rkusek]

That's why I'm hooking up 1000 gals of storage for my EKO 40. It should allow me to be the only one that will ever need to fill it. I might even put a sign on the door warning people not to open in case someone would ever be tempted to do so. Glad to hear you came away unscathed for the most part.

 

[muncybob]

Well, I always wondered what would happen if I opened the loading door while it's still hot and not use the fan long enough!! Glad you came out OK. I would also caution about trying to restart the boiler when the stack temps are still high....started the fan but didn't get to the green light yet and had a helluva loud SWOOSH and dust everywhere...scared the dinner out of me!

My wife likes to use the WG and she's a real stickler for not only waiting for the green light but waiting another minute or 2....which is fine by me.

 

[kabbott]

I went in to add wood to my Woodgun yesterday AM.....

The instructions read, turn on the fan, wait for the green light, then open the door. Being a man I turned on the fan, waited 5 seconds and opened the door. Also being not an idiot (or so you can judge from this post) I stood back a good 6 FEET from the door. The gasses inside flashed and sent a blast of fire 6 feet across my garage, burning my beard, front of my hair, eyebrows and elelashes. I had to go back inside to shower and shave before going to work. It was absolutely awesome.

This is NOT a complaint on my woodgun (no harm done, and it was my own fault for not waiting to open the door.) I just wish I had a video of the event, or at least a picture of me with all my facial hair singed. I was in too much of a hurry to get to work......

Andrew

First let me say I am glad You were not seriously injured... Second, thank you for the best belly laugh I have had in weeks :lol:

I will admit to getting a face full of ash myself... Didn't learn a thing from it... will prolly lose my eyebrows sooner than later.

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

Glad you are ok. I'd like to say I never made a mistake like that except my member name would probably give me away, Randy

 

[emesine]

It was pretty amazing. That was monday, and I can still spot some yellow curled eyelashes today. Now that I think about it, I opened the door just a small crack, stepped back and waited a moment. I was curious, so I lined myself up with the crack about 6 feet away so I could see inside the boiler whithout (or so I thought) getting singed. The fire must have blasted through that small opening, launching it farther across to room than if the door were opened completely. The force was enough to push the door open.

Maybe storage isn't such a bad idea. I really, really wish I had a video.

Andrew

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

It was pretty amazing. That was monday, and I can still spot some yellow curled eyelashes today. Now that I think about it, I opened the door just a small crack, stepped back and waited a moment. I was curious, so I lined myself up with the crack about 6 feet away so I could see inside the boiler whithout (or so I thought) getting singed. The fire must have blasted through that small opening, launching it farther across to room than if the door were opened completely. The force was enough to push the door open.

Maybe storage isn't such a bad idea. I really, really wish I had a video.

Andrew

I know I couldn't get enough of that on You Tube lol. Probably the worst part is smelling like a crematorium for a while, Randy

 

[emesine]

My wife said our house smelled like burned hair all day. I stumbled in from the garage to our room. I woke her up so she could look at me, give me a little sympathy, and make sure I was presentable for work. All she did was laugh.

Andrew

 

[Fred61]

I had some pretty good blow backs on my 140. I had my combustion intake air piped to take in outside air with a hood attached to the side of the house and when the combustion fan short cycled she would rip the hood off the siding and I would sometimes find it 20 feet from the house. I had it hinged so that it would just flip up but the explosion was so violent that there wasn't time for that to happen. It ripped the wood screws right out of the siding. I don't want to think about what would have happened if the intake wasn't piped to the outside and just configured to take in air from the boiler room. I was never outside to see it happen but I'll bet there was a good long flame shooting out of that 3 inch pipe.

 

[tom in maine]

About 20 years ago, when Dick Hill was still working at the University of Maine, we were making different prototype wood gasifier boilers.
One of the units was a vertically fed boiler with a loading door on top.
Every time we would open the door a five foot long flame would erupt out the top and lick the ceiling (double 5/8" Type X, fortunately!)

I was working with a Chinese grad student, Shin, testing the unit. One day we were going over to do some more testing after a day of giant flames.
I said to Shin, "We are going to have fun today!" He responded, " Tom, we will have big fun today."
That still cracks up Dick and I whenever we utter that phrase.

I am editing a video that will post in a couple days of a unit that I am testing. The only problem is that it does not belch flame.
No big fun here.
Playing with fire is a manly enterprise.