Has anyone out there had a Varmebaronen wood boiler?

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likely you have seen this if you have done much research but...

i like that i have the option with revamping my entire system to fallback on this in the event that i can no longer or dont want to process cordwood.

I haven't gotten this far yet but it's great to know I can do pellets if needed. Wood will likely be cheaper but pellets would be a lot less work.
 
Bare log walls will be the killer in heat loss. If you're exposed to winds it will be much worse. And as yrs go by it will be getting worse. I have r19 walls with 1/2 foam under siding and I wished I'd have foam instead of f/g insulation in my walls.
Right, I know they will be a challenge. If I have to I will perhaps use a supplemental source.
 
likely you have seen this if you have done much research but...

i like that i have the option with revamping my entire system to fallback on this in the event that i can no longer or dont want to process cordwood.

Great video! Thanks!
 
I would add that is you are thinking a 60KW I would suggest more than 800gal. I would do a minimum of 1000gal. I am very happy with my Varm also.
 
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Hi I am looking at a Varmebaronen wood boiler. As this string was titled, "Has anyone out there had a Varmebaronen wood boiler?" I thought I would ask, does anyone in Northern Maine have one of these? I had been looking at a Eko, Tarm or Econoburn. But, they are about twice the weight. Plus smokeless heat has modified 500 gallon propane tanks. I am really thinking of the logistics of getting one in place. It will be located in the basement which has a walkout door (35 inch clearance). But, 1400 lbs-plus will be a chore, at least for me. I plan on installing it myself. Electrical and plumbing will not be a problem. Currently I have a 150K btu oil boiler that works fine, so I could even downsize a bit. Anyone have one out there that is happy with it, or does anyone have a great plan for moving these other behemoths? Obviously when it is in the basement roller pipes will get it where it needs to go.

My question for a Varmebaronen wood boiler owner would be, how has it held up? With that much less weight, have they had anything wear out? From what I have read, most things are pretty cheap to replace as they wear. Has this been the case? Thanks for any help in advance :)
 
i will argue that a lighter boiler that is built properly performs better than one with more mass, storage being incorporated in both cases. the reason being is that it heats up faster, starts gassing quite quickly, and is sending hot water to your storage tanks (storage is mandatory with varms) in short order. mine is ussually up to 160* from room temperature in about 15 minutes. gassing starts minutes after lighting.
as far as built properly, the varms have great welds, very easy to clean, and the parts that do need replacing are not all that expensive. replacable items are two refractory pieces (5yrs?) and stainless tunnel (3yrs?). each item is about $150 IIRC. most vedolux owners develope a crack in the front piece of refractory within the first year. this doesnt effect operation. there is also some erosion around the nozzle area as with any boiler. i have made a liner for it that is performing well. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/steel-nozzle-liner-vedolux-37.120396/
i have only been running mine for a year. dry wood is very important. ~25% heat output is diminished and 30% it billows smoke. figure out how often is acceptable to do loadings and use that along with a heat loss calc to determine how much storage you need. plenty of threads on that to read up on.
 
I've got 2 full winters with mine now. Well, I'm still burning actually, but now every 3 days, for DHW & the odd quick warm up on a chilly morning. Will try to burn all year this year for DHW, but will see how that goes - letting the electric hot water heater run for a couple of months is no big deal on hot summer days. Not sure how much wood that is all told, something like 14 cords maybe? That would actually be burning full time from October 2012 to right now, except for two summer months last summer. Like mentioned above, I had a top front refractory show a crack early last winter. I might have been the first one to report that actually. But I have done nothing about it, it's still there & hasn't moved - I just keep a layer of ash over it. I haven't looked real close at my nozzle for quite a while now, but last time I looked I could see no noticeable wear. I got a spare set of refractory when I got the boiler, and don't plan on getting any more. They are simple shapes that could maybe be cast with some simple molds - that's what I have in the back of my mind to try when replacement time does come. (You know what they say about best laid plans though...). Even with getting more new ones, they are not that expensive, very easy to change, and not needed that often. These things really shine in the maintenance department - there is nothing easier to clean. I can pull my turbs, fully clean my tubes & have a fire going in less than 10 minutes. I could actually pull my turbs & clean my tubes with a fire going if I really wanted to. I did that once just to say I could - but it would be hard on brush heads if you did it very often.

IMO the lighter weight in this case is a sign of a well engineered product. Thinking about it, every other fuel burning boiler has gotten smaller over the years, and performs better - efficient cold-start oil boilers are pretty darn small these days. Not 100% sure of that correlation - but it sounds good. :)
 
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Coal Reaper- Thanks for the inputs. You have some great pictures. Did you ever try the SS nozzle?
Maple1 Thanks for the status on your unit. Two years with no real problems is a great start.

It sounds like neither of you have had any big problems (other than refractory cracks that have not appeared to be too troublesome) and it sounds like you both have tried to figure out how to make your units live a long btu producing life. If you had it to do all again, is there any other brand or model unit that you would look at, or are you really sold on what you bought? I really like what I have read in this thread. I have had some personal messages from dealers of other brands today, so of course, I had to ask what you would do if you could do it all again.

BTW, I really appreciate your taking time out of your day to send me the thoughts that you have. It is a big investment and there is very little hands-on product support to help make an educated decision with. I miss being able to go into a showroom and see the product. If I was in a slightly more populated state, I'm sure that there would be product to observe. Thanks again
 
I would absolutely do it again - and recommend highly.

(Then again, I have a thing for natural draft, and this is the only natural one out there.)

But if my chimney was short and natural draft wouldn't work for me - I'm pretty sure I would get what Coal Reaper has.
 
Hvent put SS nozzle in yet. The other is holding up just fine. I may switch soon just because i am tired of seeing it sit on the shelf but who knows.
Yeah, i would do it again for sure. See the link in my sig to read up on some decision making i did. There are boilers with more bells and whistles. Lambda ones will squeeze out another 3-5%, but at what cost? I wanted a boiler that would be easy to repair myself and didnt have any computers. If you are not so DIY than you may feel differently. Maple takes KISS (keep it simple stupid) to the extreme and it works quite well. Oh and the window is the cats meow!
I spent a whole year researching and designing my system before i even purchased anything. My calculations for btus and loadings were pretty much spot on. Half of the winter i load once before work and again when i get home. This brutal winter prob 20% of it i had to throw a third load in before bed. I designed for 10* but we had many nights below that. If i missed a third loading on those bitter nights it did take quite a bit of effort to bring the house back up to temp. For this reason i found myself tooping off storage tanks whenever it was convenient for me to do so.
Get the loading unit if youdo go with a varm. Plug and play and done.
Dean at smokelessheat is great to talk to and he can show you several models in operation if you make the trip out to him.
Anything else?
 
I think I will give Dean a call. My original concern was the weight issue and longevity. I was concerned if they had cut corners, hence cutting weight, but you and Maple1 have pretty much put that to bed. I read a thread somewhere where someone bought a gasifier from some company that hadn't held up and was having to buy another one, like an econoburn. I really want to ensure that I get one of the better units. I'm happy with the Ford, Dodge, Chevy truck debate. They are all pretty good. I just do not want to buy a Chinese knockoff (that isn't exactly built in China). And, as I do not know anyone in 300 miles with one, I have to ask these questions.

I have a chimney that has two lined flues (9 X 6.5 and 6X6). I will be away on some winter nights, maybe two weeks in a row, so I will be keeping my oil boiler (or replacing it too), and I have a fireplace w/insert upstairs. Currently the have the fireplace and a wood stove on the larger flue and the oil on the 6X6. What I want to do is move the oil to the larger shared flue and put the new boiler on the 6X6. This way I can operate the fireplace and the boiler at the same time. The fireplace kept the house pretty good, but would go out during the early hours of the night. Here in Stockholm it got to minus 20 regularly (but the locals say that this was a brutal winter). Day time temps stayed well below zero for days at a time.

My problem has been that most boilers want a 8X8 separate flue. The Varm appears to be able to work with less flue as it is blown up the chimney. I would imagine that I have great draft. Both the fireplace and wood stove in the basement take right off with no smoke in the house (and they are currently running in the same flue). .The chimney is on the outside of the house but in the peak, so it is about 2 feet above the peak. It is about 35 feet of chimney, maybe a little more.

BTW thanks for all the inputs on all the threads and posts. You and Maple1 appear to enjoy sharing your knowledge.
 
It dont matter how thick your plate is, if the welds are not perfect than the unit is compromised. Often times increasing plate thickness is an attempt to overcome poor quality steel. Thats even more reason for the welds to fail. That being said, keep in mind that everything does have an end of life. Pressurized systems keep the air out so you dont need to balance with chemicals on the water side. Dry wood keeps moisture and creosote to minimum on the burn side.
 
Coal Reaper - So I talked with Dean and another salesman from another company today. I really like the simplicity of the 37. It appears that there are no circuit boards to go wrong. I read in another thread that you had some background in electronics. So do I, but I really don't want to have to troubleshoot if I don't have to.

It appears that once you load up the boiler and turn it on, you are hoping that you do not hit your upper limit. Have I missed something? Here is my concern. If I load it up and go to sleep, and loose power, is there a concern? What if I note that on my real cold nights I want to top it off, how do I do that without hitting the 220 degree cutout if I am already at, say, 170 degrees?
 
You will learn how much wood to load for the storage capacity you have. In that respect (and others), the more storage the better. Typically, by the time you need to burn, it will take a full load of wood and then some to recharge storage. And, you will have installed a means of dumping heat/overheat protection that will send the extra heat into your house or elsewhere if things do get to getting on the hot side.
 
It would be really easy to troubleshoot or even bypass certain aspects to get you running. The electronics consist of a fan timer, flu temp sensor to shut off fan when fire is out, and water temp sensor to shut off fan if boiler gets too hot. There is also a light and a reset button if that high temp sensor is tripped.
Ok dump zones aside (as that can be incorporated into any system) the 37 itself has a couple failsafes. FYI a full load of dense wood like oak or bl or black birch will kick almost half million btus to storage.
1. The fan shuts off at i believe 100 or 105 or 110*C, i cant remeber which. I am not sure if the pump still runs or not but the thermostatic valve in the loading unit remains open as long as the return water is above 150*F. This allows thermosiphoning IF the top of your storage is above the top of the boiler. Same thing happens if you lose power. In either case the fire dies down to 10% within an hour of the fan being killed.
2. There is a cooling coil that you can hookup to your potable water supply or even place a large tank above the boiler and allow gravity feed. A valve that opens when temp hits set point will allow water to flow through to cool boiler.
3. You will learn quickly how much wood it will take to too off storage. You can weigh wood if you have consitant moisture content. You can also look at the pressure to get an idea how charged it is. Mine fluctuates from 12psi to 20. While we are mentioning expansion tanks, dont forget you need big ones. Budget $500 per 500gals of storage.
 
Retired,

Im not in Maine, but in Upstate NY if you felt like taking a road trip to see one. (Although, its probably more than halfway to Smokeless Heat....and he is near Amish country and delicious pretzels....) Im not burning currently, but you could see my install.

Like Coal Reaper and Maple, I had my front refractory crack my first season, but it hasnt been an issue. I did have to cut down my combustion tunnel some due to some warping, but 30 seconds with an angle grinder and it still worked like a champ. My rear refractory is showing some wear, and I might swap them both this year to get a fresh start on them to see how they do now that I know the system some. I like the simplicity of the Varm, and how easy it is to clean.

I also looked at Tarm, and they make a nice product as well, been doing it a long time. For me, it was the curved tubes for cleaning from the front that really did it, since I have low headspace in my basement for cleaning.
 
OK, thanks. It's good to know I can use either. Where I'll be living there is a lot of hemlock. I was thinking to dry wood out, I could stick some in the oven when my wife is baking bread to dry it out. Might be fatal. What do you think??


Probably in the category of "fatal error" and the bread would taste funny too. ;)

If you're buying/cutting up wood in pulp length sticks today, plan on using it for the 2015-16 season. You want to get a year ahead with a gasser of any kind.
 
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That depends on what kind of wood, and what your drying area & conditions are like.

I can cut white birch now, and burn it this winter. Did that last year, stuff was great. Likely will do some more soon.
 
That depends on what kind of wood, and what your drying area & conditions are like.

I can cut white birch now, and burn it this winter. Did that last year, stuff was great. Likely will do some more soon.


True. Birch, white ash, hemlock and other softwoods you can get away with doing that. If you're burning hard maple or oak of any kind better go for 2 summers of seasoning time.
 
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True. Birch, white ash, hemlock and other softwoods you can get away with doing that. If you're burning hard maple or oak of any kind better go for 2 summers of seasoning time.
Mostly agree with your statement but I'm going to push back a little on the hemlock. It contains a huge amount of moisture and it lies in "pockets" (capsules) within the structure. That's why it pops and crackles so much when it is burned. Back when I had my Wood Gun I was running low on wood one winter and tried mixing some 8 month old hemlock in with my load. All the hardwood would burn away and leave the hemlock in the firebox to be mixed with the next load. Sometimes it lasted for three loads.
 
Mostly agree with your statement but I'm going to push back a little on the hemlock. It contains a huge amount of moisture and it lies in "pockets" (capsules) within the structure. That's why it pops and crackles so much when it is burned. Back when I had my Wood Gun I was running low on wood one winter and tried mixing some 8 month old hemlock in with my load. All the hardwood would burn away and leave the hemlock in the firebox to be mixed with the next load. Sometimes it lasted for three loads.

concur and to add, hemlock can be a pita..all the way around...dropping them makes a mess, have to do lots of limbing, splitting is annoying due to limb knots, may take a full two years to dry below 20% and have a very low mass to btu ratio value. In my boiler a full load burns in record time and leaves a mountainous coal husk....weird. The kicker is I have a forest full...and they are notorious widowmakers.
Still love them though...standing living better. Pretty.

STARTING UP THE BOILER TONIGHT...FROST PREDICTED.

Scott
 
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