new Garn video - and question to Garn owners

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the volume of steam is related to the temp difference of the fluegas to ambient air, nothing to do with the wood . If it was warmer outside you would have less steam
 
Depending on the type of wood, I load mine close to that much.

The steam dissipates after the first our, in my experience. With higher ambient temps it may not steam at all, or for just a short time.

My 2000 is burning a load of pine as I type this.
 
TCaldwell said:
the volume of steam is related to the temp difference of the fluegas to ambient air, nothing to do with the wood . If it was warmer outside you would have less steam

True TC but I have observed my favorite farmers Garn steam/smoke almost all the way through a 4 hour burn with green wood even with air temps up in the 40* range.
 
I want to pull the trigger on a garn but now you guy's got me worried
 
Heaterman, i have done that also, but because it probably was not reaching gasification temp, a operator error, kemmer with dry wood it will only be steam, but that's why heaterman calls him his favorite farmer, another cleaning job!
 
Kemer said:
I want to pull the trigger on a garn but now you guy's got me worried

A little explanation about my favorite farmer. First off, he is a very dear friend. He and I have been singing together for over 20 years in a gospel quartet. (He's high tenor and I'm bass) He has a whole lot of things on his plate operationally speaking for the following reason.
His entire operation burned to the ground in October of 2007, the day after we delivered a single 2000 that was going to run his old milking parlor and house. We helped build a brand new double 20 milking parlor from the ground up during that winter and we used that 2000 to heat the building while under construction. (That's where I learned that a Garn is rated pretty conservatively). Needless to say, it was under a continuous firing regimen from about mid December of 07 through the end of February 08 while heating the barn as it went up. The combustion blower was simply hot wired with the timer control bypassed and whoever was on site just threw wood in it around the clock. The other 2000 was received and installed the first of March. The area being heated was a pole type structure that is about 110 wide x 80 long plus the outdoor holding area with tube in the cement. (3,800 sq ft)

Don't let my comment about the exhaust discourage you in any way. The crew firing the boiler on that farm is............is.........well........inept is the kindest thing I can say. If it's any indication at all, the farmer who owns this particular pair of 2000's loves them, even with all the self inflicted "wounds", so to speak. Despite the fact that his people over fire one day and forget to fire the next, burn green........and I do mean GREEN wood, forget to latch the door occasionally, he still says he would buy nothing else. In fact he bought another 1500 last fall which runs his old drafty 3,600 sq ft house, the farms machinery shop (2400 sq ft) and heats all the domestic hot water for a family of 9. Oh.....and the chicken coop too.

Additionally, I have to say that even though that pair of 2000's is serving a load which can peak at over 1.3 million BTU's for brief periods, and works under the conditions described above, we typically do less than $1000 in maintenance per year on them. That's including new chem treatment after "the crew from hell" boils them over a few times along with calling the Roto Rooter man when they really plug them off. What complicates the issue is that a some of the people firing the Garns think they run the same as the OWB's they own personally. We have gone there many times to find the firebox crammed full of wood and the combustion fan not running due to the loader not turning it on. :( DUH! The owner simply can't be everywhere on that place to monitor what the dozen or so people there are doing all day and night. He figures those Garns still save him about $11-13,000 worth of propane per year and that ain't bad.

Just to clarify, when I say farm you have to realize that this is a 24/7/365 modern dairy milking about 1300 Holsteins 3x per day. The Garns are in use every day with no shut down. The guys light duty scoop tractor is a 155HP 4wd JD and they use a Cat payloader for the "normal" work. He puts more wood through those two Garns in a year than most homeowners honestly would use in 7 or 8 and that's not an exaggeration. I can say with confidence after observing how these things have run that a person really can't seriously hurt or damage a Garn under any circumstances that would be deemed normal. Or even abnormal.
 
TCaldwell said:
Heaterman, i have done that also, but because it probably was not reaching gasification temp, a operator error, kemmer with dry wood it will only be steam, but that's why heaterman calls him his favorite farmer, another cleaning job!

And that's the thing that wet wood really screws up. Combustion temp. Hot = clean.
 
I guess my concern is that I would be going with the horizontal flue model and would not like to see my house surrounded in a cloud of steam.I understand it during the real cold days in the winter but wouldn't like it during summer time making dhw. At least for four hours. I don't burn green wood at least not on purpose
 
Kemer said:
I guess my concern is that I would be going with the horizontal flue model and would not like to see my house surrounded in a cloud of steam.I understand it during the real cold days in the winter but wouldn't like it during summer time making dhw. At least for four hours. I don't burn green wood at least not on purpose

Kemer,

Now, that we are out of the dead of winter with very low dew points(dry air), I see no steam. I do think you will need to evaluate the horizontal stack to make certain you are happy with the final install. I personally, have found the ground level discharge of the exhaust to be less than ideal. To some, it does not make a difference. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely happy with our GARN, and it's performance. If I had it to do over though, I would go for the vertical stack. I still may retrofit and go vertical on my stack to reduce the ground level exhaust.

As for load size. Typically, I load the firebox up pretty full for the first burn, set the timer at 4 hours, come back in 1.5-2 hours, fill up again, and that is my burn cycle. I have not seen any problems with filling the firebox up. My wood is well seasoned splits at 24". My feeling has been, I do not want to keep fill a bunch of small, half full loads, and double the work. So far, this has worked out just fine for me.

Since you live somewhere in NE PA, I'm in Kutztown,PA, you are more than welcome to come and visit, and experience a burn first hand and at least have that data point to help you in your decision.
 
He was burning rather large unsplit rounds so I wonder what his moisture content was? I think it is a trade off, putting the effort into splitting smaller to get better seasoning or cutting more wood.
 
I just shut my Garn 2000 down for the season last night. I'll be burning oil for Spring heat and DHW all summer. I don't like hearing the oil burner fire, but here's why I did it.

Most all of my best wood is gone. I was gonna try and make use of not-so-good-wood for off-season low demand. I figured I could cut a few standing-dead trees around the farm, make use of some blow-downs,etc, since I'd be firing less often. So I started doing that about two weeks ago when we had a real warm spell. I was burning two full loads every evening of 2-10 inch X 30 inch rounds. This stuff is kinda damp, some of it a little punky, NOT green, but certainly not DRY.
It burned-up just fine and seemed to meet my needs ok. Then I ran out of the stuff coincidentally on the coldest night we'd had in weeks. It got down to like 12 by morning. So I burned the same habit I'd been in, except this time the second load/re-load was of tinder-dry 24inch maple splits that were left over in the corner of the garn-barn for 2 years.
When I checked in the morning I still had 180* on the gauge, usually it was 160* DURING THE WARM SPELL. A look in the bucket that sits under my overflow tube showed that about a gallon of water had come out. So I actually had over-fired abit. So it looks like that because half of the wood I burned that day was DRY (and 6 inches shorter), I was able to raise the temp of the tank 20* higher at least, and that is with a bigger demand on it because of the cold night.

So I say, for me anyway, burning wood that isn't DRY, is a waste of wood.

Heaterman,
If your farmer could somehow manage to get enough wood ahead so it was dry, I bet he'd burn half as much of the stuff. Based on my experience above, I can't imagine burning wood that is really GREEN. I suppose the old Garn would eat it up but he must be getting next to nothing for btu's/cord.
 
JimK I plan on installing it in a attached boiler room on the back side of my garage.I imagin on a still day I wouldn't be happy.Thanks for the invite.I'll have to make time to see you.
Deerhntr Will you be able to just add a elbow and go vertical ? If that is an option then at least I'll have a way out .
 
Kemer said:
Deerhntr Will you be able to just add a elbow and go vertical ? If that is an option then at least I'll have a way out .

Yes, That is my plan. The flue pipe is a little costly, but what isn't when it it come to installing a garn. I personally don't like the ground level emissions. No matter what anyone says, their is still an odor, if you are downwind. If you don't mind it on your carhart, then ... don't bother going vertical.

good luck, you won't be disappointed.
 
A couple points.

1. You can get a Garn that is set up for vertical discharge which makes chimney construction a piece of cake as far as installation goes. The Garn supports the entire weight of the chimney with no problem.

2. Ground level discharge with the horizontal flue is not ideal in some situations and each installation should be evaluated based on its particular circumstances. For example, when I visit a customers place to plan an install, one of the first things I look for is where the exhaust is in relation to the prevailing wind. Another thing is the material likely to be on the ground, IE; is it discharging on gravel or is it blowing out into a woods with pine needles or dead leaves on the ground. Locating the discharge in or near an inside corner is also something I try to avoid if possible. I have to say though that there's a 2000 installed about 3 miles from my home that vents horizontally directly into the prevailing wind. The building is white steel and there is no staining whatsoever on the building. I drive past it at least once a week and rarely see any amount of steam coming from it let alone smoke. That guy is also a farmer but he has managed to get ahead of the curve with his wood.
 
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