EKO 60 or 80 Using Only 1 Nozzle?

[Hydronics]

Has anyone used their EKO 60 or 80 with one of the two nozzles blocked off with firebrick? If so how do you block the secondary air tubes to the one not in use? How well does it work & do you notice a reduced output & wood consumption? This would seem to be a usefull tuning tool for spring and fall without storage.

 

[barnartist]

I have done it, but did not like the results much. I think all of the air settings need to change acoordingly, and I am still working on where those settings should be while running two nozzils. I'd still like to experiment more with it in the future.

For what it's worth, I wish I would have chosen the 40 instead of my 60. I think one nozzil in the center would have been better for the length of wood I can split, I seem to get whatever smoke I do have from one of the nozzils bridging or from how the wood fell as it burns. It's beautiful though when two nozzils are firing just right.

 

[taxidermist]

I ran my 60 for a while with the front blocked off but did not see much differance.

 

[Eric Johnson]

In theory, blocking off one nozzle should cut the boiler's output in half, without affecting it's ability to burn smoke free. I've done it and I thought it worked pretty well. Barnartist is probably right that you would like to modify your air supply when you do, but I never got that serious about it. But I think if you read through the sticky entitled "Fine Tuning Your EKO" you'll get enough information to get a good start on it. Now I modulate my boiler with the air settings and the new controller, but blocking off one nozzle is another legitimate approach to efficient burning at a lower level of output. I think it's worth experimenting with, in other words.