First month with the Varmebaronen

[Clarkbug]

Well, I have been burning the Varm about a month, and I figured I would post my experiences here.

First thing, which I now realize, is that I really need to get my house weatherstripped...the drafts are killing all of my nice heat. Not related to the boiler, but it does make it seem chilly even when things are going full bore downstiars.

Things I like:

Easy startup. I hit the fan button, load in some splits, a little cardboard, and fill it up with wood. Hit it with the torch, and Im off to the races. My wife has no problem getting it started, which is a big win.

Super easy to clean. Just open the front hatch, pull the turbs out, and use the big brush they give you. Tubes are clean in just a few minutes, and then you sweep the rest of the ash through the hole in the refractory. Rake it all out the bottom and you are done. I have been cleaning the tubes and ashes once a week, seems to work well for me.

Things I dont like:

Dust. Seems like I have a lot of really fine fly ash and dust that has a habit of escaping the boiler on me. I doubt this is the fault of the boiler, but its something Im not thrilled by. I guess thats what I get for putting it in my basement.

How my storage ties into my house. Ill post another thread about that sometime as to whats going on, but basically anything that comes out of my tank gets tempered with the return water from the house. Just makes my tanks less useful for me.


In general, the boiler itself has been working great. You put wood it in, it burns it full out until its gone. You can set a flue gas temp for it to shut down the fan/loading pump, and Im still trying to find the optimal point for that. The weather has been fairly mild here, and I just got my tanks insulated last weekend, so I dont have a really good feel for what my wood usage should be, or how long the storage will last for me yet. I do think that I have some slightly damp wood, since occasionally Ill hear some hissing and see some moisture bubbling out of the wood. I had processed some dry pallets that I think were Oak, and when they were burning this morning I was seeing a 30 degree delta in temp from the return to the supply of the boiler. Usually its not quite that high.

I do have to say, after reading about what some of the other folks here have to go through for cleaning out their boilers, Im happy with my decision.

More updates to come as I figure things out.

 

[maple1]

How did you make out tying in your oil unit? Mainly control wise, that is. I don't think that controller you told me you got is on the Cozy clearance anymore - last time I quickly looked. That's kinda the biggest fuzzy part in the things I have bouncing around in my head. Also, I have cobbled up vent hood on my old thing here - I found it greatly reduced the amount of general dirt & mess.

Glad to hear it's working good for you!

 

[Clarkbug]

The controls for the oil burner tie-in have been working flawlessly. I had to tweak my aquastat settings a little bit, but thats just the tinkerer in me. Plus I want to extend my storage time, so thats just part of the tweaking. You are right, I just checked and Cozyheat doesnt have it. But I can send along the schematic if you want me to make your own.... Im pretty sure that there are some threads here about using "ice cube" relays, and if you are handy with wiring you could make one cheaper than they are sold elsewhere. Or you can call STSS or the Tarm folks to see what they charge for one thats already made.

The dirt and mess isnt really too bad, but I just notice a fine powder catches on the boiler every few days. Looking today, I think I need to put some screws into my stovepipe, or I need to switch it so the crimp goes away from the boiler. I see little traces of particles coming out at the seams, which isnt a good sign, but its just me postulating.

One other thing I wanted to mention was the air adjustments. Its not necessarily good or bad, just something to mention, and something Im still working with. There are two air adjustments for my model boiler, and the manual refers to them as "Secondary Air" and "Tertiary Air". As far as I can tell, they are pretty much the same thing, and when I "fiiddle" one way or another, I dont see much of a change. That said, I havent needed to play with it, since it works well. The manual states that the secondary is normally closed, and the tertiary is usually open a few mm. Its really a glass plate that when you adjust, it tilts it more open or closed. The manual does state that if you have some dark soot, you need more air, and to open a little more. There is an air pathway through the refractory, which Im assuming pre-heats the air, and the "secondary" slot would probably hit this.

So a general question, how would someone go about "tuning" a boiler when everything looks good? I mean, I definitely subscribe to the theory of "it its not broke, dont fix it", but I also want to tweak if possible. Im guessing I would need some combustion analyzer or something like that?

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

The controls for the oil burner tie-in have been working flawlessly. I had to tweak my aquastat settings a little bit, but thats just the tinkerer in me. Plus I want to extend my storage time, so thats just part of the tweaking. You are right, I just checked and Cozyheat doesnt have it. But I can send along the schematic if you want me to make your own.... Im pretty sure that there are some threads here about using "ice cube" relays, and if you are handy with wiring you could make one cheaper than they are sold elsewhere. Or you can call STSS or the Tarm folks to see what they charge for one thats already made.

The dirt and mess isnt really too bad, but I just notice a fine powder catches on the boiler every few days. Looking today, I think I need to put some screws into my stovepipe, or I need to switch it so the crimp goes away from the boiler. I see little traces of particles coming out at the seams, which isnt a good sign, but its just me postulating.

One other thing I wanted to mention was the air adjustments. Its not necessarily good or bad, just something to mention, and something Im still working with. There are two air adjustments for my model boiler, and the manual refers to them as "Secondary Air" and "Tertiary Air". As far as I can tell, they are pretty much the same thing, and when I "fiiddle" one way or another, I dont see much of a change. That said, I havent needed to play with it, since it works well. The manual states that the secondary is normally closed, and the tertiary is usually open a few mm. Its really a glass plate that when you adjust, it tilts it more open or closed. The manual does state that if you have some dark soot, you need more air, and to open a little more. There is an air pathway through the refractory, which Im assuming pre-heats the air, and the "secondary" slot would probably hit this.

So a general question, how would someone go about "tuning" a boiler when everything looks good? I mean, I definitely subscribe to the theory of "it its not broke, dont fix it", but I also want to tweak if possible. Im guessing I would need some combustion analyzer or something like that?

The problem with tuning to a certain wood & moisture content is that the next load may be way different. Thats where the Lambda boilers shine./// I get dust too although mostly from opening the door when loading, Randy

 

[Clarkbug]

That was sorta what I thought Randy. I just have it set where it seems to work well most of the time, and thats probably where I should just leave it and not wonder.

 

[maple1]

I would think if you could find an a/f sensor/guage (o2? - thinking like tuning an engine) that you could install in your smoke stack, and just manually make adjustments based on the guage reading, you could improve things a lot. 'Partial Lambda', say. But I don't think I've read much of anyone doing that on here. That wouldn't overcome or adjust to changes in your fuel load in the middle of the night through a full load, but should help find a general overall improvement.

 

[Clarkbug]

Good point maple. I think that the cost of the equipment and the actual payback probably isnt worth it to me.

I put in wood, light it up, and start gasifying within minutes, so that works for me!

 

[woodsmaster]

Clarkbug does the varm have induced draft. When I load the biomass I turn the fan on and it sucks the fly ash up the
chimminey. I still wouldn't put one in the house but it does help with the ash when loading. When cleaning the hx tubes
I still get ash all over but I only do this once or twice a year becouse it's harder to clean than your varm. I found burning
to storage it don't get dirty very fast.

 

[Clarkbug]

The Varm does have induced draft, and I figured out that by starting the fan, I could keep most of the dust and ash in when doing a brief cleanout in the mornings. I get a pile of fly ash right by the air intake door, and the combustion tunnel starts to load up, so I scrape them out in the mornings. I think the dust comes when Im actually emptying the ash from the boiler, and I dont run the fan then. Maybe I could, but I figured its probably better to not put all of that stuff through the fan if I can help it.

I think its really just me finding a technique more than anything else.

My tubes dont seem to be too dirty, and I havent noticed a huge increase in exhaust temps, so maybe Im doing a lot of extra work for nothing. But since its not really that much work, it doesnt seem like a big deal, and I just end up scraping some really fine fly ash from the tubes.