Froling wood boiler installation underway!!

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Piker

Minister of Fire
Oct 6, 2008
618
We took shipment of our new Froling Turbo 3000 wood boiler today, so I thought I would start a new thread to share the installation experiences with you all. I actually plan on finishing the install tomorrow, but it will be several days before I can find the time to catalogue all the photos and post them on the forum.

For now, here's just a few shots of getting the boiler here, and down into the basement. The froling comes completely dissassembled, which makes getting it moved around a little easier since you don't have to worry about scuffing the finish on the exterior panels.

The boiler arrived here at about noon... and by 3:00 pm we had everything unloaded, and the boiler in the basement... we've moved quite a few boilers like this into basements before, so we've got the hang of it by now.

Enjoy the pictures, and feel free to ask any questions.

Cheers
 

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:) ...drool... :)
 
My first thought is that you're moving too darn fast and my second thought is that I don't see any empty beer cans in these photos?

Man....I think it took me an hour and a half just to get my boiler off my trailer. Clearly you've done this before! Nice looking unit. I can't wait to see more photos of your setup...
 
Can't wait to read about your install. It appears you are installing this yourself, did you need to be certified or are the restrictions being eased some?, Randy
 
Gee Duane that looks like way too much fun. I look forward to seeing your install photos.
 
Singed Eyebrows,

To answer your question, I AM a BioHeat dealer... this boiler, like the last one we were using, is installed in our home for personal use but also used to demo the product and our workmanship.

So, saturday went pretty well. We got a late start yesterday, so it was pretty late by the time we were all finished, but the Froling is in!! I've got a few things to put the finishing touches on, (not to mention clean up the ungodly mess we left in the basement) but the boiler is operational. I won't go into much detail today because of time constraints; I want to catalogue the whole process from start to finish, and I'm just plain beat today. Heading out for some R & R with the family.

I will say this... this boiler's operation is as smooth as it's exterior looks. Very quite... insanely fast to get lit and up to temperature, no smoke rollout whatsoever from the loading door, and seemingly effortless charging of the thermal storage tanks. This is going to be a blast. Kind of makes me wish there was more of winter left.

More pics over the next few days.

cheers
 
Piker said:
Singed Eyebrows,

To answer your question, I AM a BioHeat dealer... this boiler, like the last one we were using, is installed in our home for personal use but also used to demo the product and our workmanship.

So, saturday went pretty well. We got a late start yesterday, so it was pretty late by the time we were all finished, but the Froling is in!! I've got a few things to put the finishing touches on, (not to mention clean up the ungodly mess we left in the basement) but the boiler is operational. I won't go into much detail today because of time constraints; I want to catalogue the whole process from start to finish, and I'm just plain beat today. Heading out for some R & R with the family.

I will say this... this boiler's operation is as smooth as it's exterior looks. Very quite... insanely fast to get lit and up to temperature, no smoke rollout whatsoever from the loading door, and seemingly effortless charging of the thermal storage tanks. This is going to be a blast. Kind of makes me wish there was more of winter left.

More pics over the next few days.

cheers
It sounds as good as everything I've heard about it. Sure wish I owned one, Randy
 
We've moved quite a few gasifiers into basements over the past couple of years... but tonight was the first time to take one out. We finally got around to pulling the old one out this afternoon. All I will say is that there were several come-alongs, chains, a skid loader, and a tractor involved... and that I hope I never have to do it again.

So, I've got a few minutes this evening to catalogue a couple shots of installing the new Froling FHG. I'll start with the assembly of the boiler itself, and do my best to describe what's going on. One thing that sticks in my mind about the boiler assembly is that quality control must be doing a pretty decent job at Froling, because all the pieces fit together seamlessly.

As noted earlier, the boiler comes as a bare vessel with all three doors attached. The doors seem well built, and the handles have a nice rugged feel while offering a simple and sleek design. The doors come attached on the right hand side, but can easily be switched over for anyone requiring a left-handed hinge.

These first shots are of the primary/secondary air channels along the sides of the boiler vessel, and the pneumatic rods that control the butterfly flaps which will ultimately meter the incoming air volume. While primary and secondary air are drawn from both sides, the actuators which control them can be mounted on either side of the boiler. The first two pics are of the non-actuator side of the primary/secondary air channels, one open, one closed. The third picture is of the actuator side where you can see the braces have been installed to hold the actuators.

more pics in the next post
 

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Note the stays in the pictures above. This is called quilting... instead of a bolt that runs through the vessel and welded on both the inner and outer walls, the inner wall remains solid, while the outer wallis formed into a cone shape to actually touch the inner wall. The hole punched in the center of the cone is used to weld the outer vessel wall to the inner vessel wall... one less weld to fail, and extremely strong.

cheers.
 
These shots are of the heat exchanger and the turbulator mechanism. The Froling has a total of 10 2" heat exchanger tubes with turbulators in each one. This is significantly more heat exchange than I am used to, and one of the reasons why the Froling never sees stack temps higher than 475°... I have yet to witness stack temps higher than 375°, and for most of the burn seem to hover around 300.

Later I will post pictures of the heat exchanger access door... from the perspective of a person doing service on one of these boilers, the ease of access to the heat exchanger is definitely a bonus. But that's for a post later on.

The first 3 shots here are of the turbulators and the hanger they are installed on. They are obviously outside of the boiler in these pictures. Note the split diameter clamp that will be used to fix this mechanism to the shaker handle later on. It's a quick way to make the connection, and provides an extremely tight and reliable grip.

The 4th shot is of the turbulator assembly as it sit's inside the heat exchanger. On the left you can see the hole to the chamber where the draft induction fan will be mounted.
 

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That's going to be all for tonight... The next time I post, I'll have pictures of the completely assembled Froling. From there we'll go into our piping and of course, controls... which the Froling takes care of for you (the controls, not the piping). Once we get caught up I'm going to start crunching numbers on output to our thermal storage tanks, etc... just from the little bit I have seen thus far, I am sincerely impressed, especially considering how quietly and seemingly effortlessly this unit operates...

Cheers
 
Thanks for the photos, Duane.
It is an very impressive piece of hardware.

I look forward to the rest of the photos and appreciate you taking the time to get them online.
 
i like the looks of the turbolators. Looks to be easy to do a major cleaning. I'm assuming those will clean with a shke of the handle, but you need to take 'em out once in a while to good cleaning? Not much to actually have the ash cling to. The stack temp on the innova stays at 400, only climbs if it needs cleaning.

A lot of your description on quality and ease of putting together describes the Innova I have. It also came with the outer skins seperate, and went together very well.

The draft fan and heat exchanger area are also very similar to the Innova.
 
flyingcow said:
i like the looks of the turbolators. Looks to be easy to do a major cleaning. I'm assuming those will clean with a shke of the handle, but you need to take 'em out once in a while to good cleaning? Not much to actually have the ash cling to. The stack temp on the innova stays at 400, only climbs if it needs cleaning.

A lot of your description on quality and ease of putting together describes the Innova I have. It also came with the outer skins seperate, and went together very well.

The draft fan and heat exchanger area are also very similar to the Innova.

You are correct on the function of the turbulators... shake the handle to remove ash... and slide them out to brush the tubes. I'll do a post later on to cover all the steps on how to clean the heat exchanger. Easy access makes it a simple process.

Agreed... the innova and the froling are very similar in vessel design. Bottom chamber refractory is different, and the Froling adds the middle door for easy lighting... also another post for later on. The biggest difference is of course the software driven controls on the Froling.

cheers
 
Randy, have you checked combustion effiency with a portable fluegas analyser on this boiler yet, sure would be curious to see the actual results
 
TCaldwell said:
Randy, have you checked combustion effiency with a portable fluegas analyser on this boiler yet, sure would be curious to see the actual results

I'll chime in here and say that i myself have not seen any test data on efficiency aside from Froling's numbers. My guess is that while downdraft gasifiers with static primary/secondary air settings can achieve very high combustion efficiencies at points during a burn, the Froling can achieve a higher average combustion efficiency over the course of the entire burn. Thus far I have been experiencing output and total delivered Btu's to the storage tanks relative to the size of the fuel load unlike I have ever seen... and by a fairly significant amount. I'll go into more detail on the numbers once I've had a chance to fine tune the system and take proper readings. Eventually I may have to change the piping a bit to maximize performance, but that is another thread much later on. The problem is, and I never thought I would say this... but it's too warm out, and there's not enough heat load to bring the tank temps down so I can fire the boiler to play.

More pics coming tonight.

cheers
 
Piker said:
The problem is, and I never thought I would say this... but it's too warm out, and there's not enough heat load to bring the tank temps down so I can fire the boiler to play.

More pics coming tonight.

cheers

I can't wait for the other pictures...With it being warm out maybe you could opened all the windows and really get some fresh spring air in the house ;-)
 
Here are a few shots of assembling the side panels. The panels come with the fiberglass insulation already in place inside the panels. The insulation for the top of the boiler is basically just laid across the top of the vessel as seen in the photos. The insulation on the underside of the boiler comes in a tray that you simply slide under the boiler once it's set in place.

The second picture has a good view of the door handles. Again, they are simple, but very effective at achieving a good positive seal.

The last pics are of the primary and secondary actuator servos installed. Once these are in place, trim gets installed to cover up the mounting brackets, and also a wire chase.

The small door below the actuators is the cleanout underneath the heat exchanger. This door, like everything else, can be installed on either the right or left hand side of the boiler.

cheers
 

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This has got to be one of my favorite parts of the boiler... the draft induction fan assembly. This motor has the look and feel of a heavy duty commercial unit... I have rarely seen equipment like this used in residential applications. The motor, like the rest of the boiler, runs off of 220v, so it's going to draw a few less amps and save on the electric bill too.

Not shown in these pictures is the trim ring that makes a clean edge around the motor, hiding the rear panel insulation.

cheers
 

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The first two shots are of the lambda sensor (fat), and the stack temperature sensor (skinny). These are pretty straightforward... each with a bushing that screws into the cast iron stack adapter.

The next shot is of the brains of the operation. This view is with the lid off of the control, but with the shield over the sensitive components. This boiler is installed on a dedicated 220v circuit with surge supression to keep this control unit as safe as possible. It's a pretty sophisticated piece of hardware, relative to what you find on most wood boilers.

The following pictures are of an almost completed Froling FHG. You will note that there are two panels missing from the top of the boiler. Those panels will be installed in the photos of the finished installation. You will also note that the lambda probe is hanging over the edge. Apparently th fumes from silicone will destroy an O2 sensor if in close proximity... so I waited until the silicone that was used to seal the chimney pipe had dried before installing the lambda probe.

The front door fit beautifully, and the color is great. You will notice in the photo of the backside the trim ring around the induction fan motor... the Austrians thought of everything.

So there you have it... one nearly completely assembled Froling boiler... more pics of the final installation coming shortly. You've got to admit... this is one sharp looking boiler.

cheers
 

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quick note, the box on the side of the boiler contains a relay which takes the 220v line for the storage circulator through the coil, and switches one leg of the 220 volts feeding the boiler to run our standard 110v circulators or a 110v loading unit. pretty simple.

cheers
 
At $10,000 this boiler is a bargain in my opinion. Over it's 20 year? life an easy lighting boiler would be worth $2,000 to me & the Lamda controlled air another $2,000. When Bioheat/Froling gets the dealer network together this should be a player, Randy
 
Singed Eyebrows said:
At $10,000 this boiler is a bargain in my opinion. Over it's 20 year? life an easy lighting boiler would be worth $2,000 to me & the Lamda controlled air another $2,000. When Bioheat/Froling gets the dealer network together this should be a player, Randy

I was under the impression these units were exceeding $20k sticker price....
 
Hello Piker, congrats on getting the Froling!

I have a few friends that have the FHG and are very pleased with its performance, and plan on installing one myself this summer...

I esp. enjoy the pictures in your write up- it shows how easy it is to set up and use such a great ' modern ' gasifier! Froling is by far one of the most, if not the most advanced Unit on the market today-

You're gonna love it.

Look forward to the rest of your installation report!

M.
 
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