boiler ran for 14 hours and never got all system water to 170 set at max ran constantly except for bridging and blow smoke out flue all day
Eko 40 gassin but no heat
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Fishman, I'm no expert but I put my EKO 40 in last fall (no storage) self install. I burn mostly crap wood and I have had very few problems. I wish I could help you. I have to believe something in the system is not right, if I talked to you it is much easier for me to help. I am a very slow typer.
A few questions I would ask and please bear with me if some of the question seem simple.
Is all the air out of the system?
Is the bypass valve working? Just the whole plumbing system in general.
Is the bypass damper fully closed?
What are your air settings? I have the primary open about 1/2". The secondary 3 and 1/2 turns. The fan damper is half open.
Is the ash cleaned out good in the back of the gasification chamber?
A few questions I would ask and please bear with me if some of the question seem simple.
Is all the air out of the system?
Is the bypass valve working? Just the whole plumbing system in general.
Is the bypass damper fully closed?
What are your air settings? I have the primary open about 1/2". The secondary 3 and 1/2 turns. The fan damper is half open.
Is the ash cleaned out good in the back of the gasification chamber?
On the front of the fan there is a damper. It is adjustable by loosening the wing nut in the center and turning it.
Eric Johnson
Mod Emeritus
I still think it's your wood, fishman. Standing deadwood isn't necessarily dry. Some really good suggestions over in the other thread.
Something's obviously wrong. Your EKO is not behaving the way it should. For whatever reason. I'm sure we can come up with a solution with enough information and brainstorming.
To set your primary air, are you taking the blower plate off (12 sheet metal screws) and setting the primary intakes? My 60 needs much more primary air than most people's, for some reason.
Something's obviously wrong. Your EKO is not behaving the way it should. For whatever reason. I'm sure we can come up with a solution with enough information and brainstorming.
To set your primary air, are you taking the blower plate off (12 sheet metal screws) and setting the primary intakes? My 60 needs much more primary air than most people's, for some reason.
Eric Johnson said:
After having read the other thread... I tend to agree with Eric. Sometimes, standing dead wood can be quite low in Btu content, and quite high in moisture content. If it's punky at all, it's probably full of water. This is just my experience so far, but every time I discuss low wood boiler output issues with someone, the problem almost always seems to be the wood quality. Now and then a secondary air adjustment needs tweaking, but almost never... at least on the units I work with.
I am not all that familiar with the EKO gassers, but they are the same in principle to what I am familiar with. If you haven't checked your wood moisture content, you should probably get a meter and check it to rule that out... before you go mad. Don't just assume your wood is ok... prove it to yourself.
Don't give up. You can figure this out.
cheers
I agree with those who are suggesting that the wood is the issue. When I first got my Econoburn up and running in mid-January '09, I had some extremely well seasoned maple and cherry-- and it wasn't unusual to have it make more heat than the house could even use, so that the fan would shut off. It made heat like it was going out of style. At one point I had the house at 72 when it was 18 below zero outside (actual reading, not wind chill)- and I did not even have the boiler loaded hard. My old farmhouse had never been so cozy under such weather conditions.
Then, as I ran out of that nice batch of really good wood (which thankfully carried me through the extended January cold snap) I began to use wood that I got in much too late during '08 (I know it is important to have time for the wood to season- but some other aspects of life this past summer undercut my ability to carry that off). Much of the 'new' wood is White Ash, which in general seasons very rapidly.
The difference is absolutely like night and day- I get much more bridging with the "new" wood, and the heat output is noticeably less in amount and consistency.
This coming season, I am going to start cutting wood like mad, early, with a focus on things that season pretty quickly.
Then, as I ran out of that nice batch of really good wood (which thankfully carried me through the extended January cold snap) I began to use wood that I got in much too late during '08 (I know it is important to have time for the wood to season- but some other aspects of life this past summer undercut my ability to carry that off). Much of the 'new' wood is White Ash, which in general seasons very rapidly.
The difference is absolutely like night and day- I get much more bridging with the "new" wood, and the heat output is noticeably less in amount and consistency.
This coming season, I am going to start cutting wood like mad, early, with a focus on things that season pretty quickly.
Fishman,
This site has helped me in more ways than I can count, and there are (unpaid) experts here that can help you figure out any mechanical hydronic issue that you have - you just need to supply information to them.
However; that being said, I give a strong second to all the comments about what you're burning. Here's a first-hand account. Trying to save some of my good wood for next year; I'm currently trying some dead standing oak that I cut in the late Summer. It was so dead, the base was hollowed-out. Turns out there are some sections with perfect mc - but only a small percentage. The majority has varying amounts of too much water. I was actually running experiments by trying this stuff with, and without a good coal bed. Using this stuff, without a good coal bed, my boiler struggled to do 170. On top of a good coal bed, it didn't put out the fire, but gets used up way too fast, because lots of energy is being used to boil off the water. And when I opened to feed, I could hear the dreaded sizzle.
Last night I sorted out a load of splits with good mc, and the boiler did it's usual flawless thing (at 2 degrees outside). You can resolve this one way or the other by trying a couple loads of 1.5-2 year well seasoned hardwood from another source. Don't give up - these gasifiers really do work!
This site has helped me in more ways than I can count, and there are (unpaid) experts here that can help you figure out any mechanical hydronic issue that you have - you just need to supply information to them.
However; that being said, I give a strong second to all the comments about what you're burning. Here's a first-hand account. Trying to save some of my good wood for next year; I'm currently trying some dead standing oak that I cut in the late Summer. It was so dead, the base was hollowed-out. Turns out there are some sections with perfect mc - but only a small percentage. The majority has varying amounts of too much water. I was actually running experiments by trying this stuff with, and without a good coal bed. Using this stuff, without a good coal bed, my boiler struggled to do 170. On top of a good coal bed, it didn't put out the fire, but gets used up way too fast, because lots of energy is being used to boil off the water. And when I opened to feed, I could hear the dreaded sizzle.
Last night I sorted out a load of splits with good mc, and the boiler did it's usual flawless thing (at 2 degrees outside). You can resolve this one way or the other by trying a couple loads of 1.5-2 year well seasoned hardwood from another source. Don't give up - these gasifiers really do work!
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