Quadrafire Castile Experiment

I only have 3' of pipe, no condensation here.........

3" pipe here also. (oops, I thought I saw 3" and not 3')

Hey, I meant to ask you if you run a B modified dirt car, hence the 'handle'...

No, only 3 feet of exhaust pipe here, not much chance for it condensing in that short of a distance.

No dirt car. Long last name, so kinda initials of first and last name. I have drag raced, and vintage snowmobile raced for years.

http://www.fuelefficiencyllc.com/fehxturb.html
This company makes turbulators and other products that fall into the realm of your ideas, which are very practical. Probably more practical than my springs!

Shutting down the air wash will increase convection and radiation heat.

Been working on this for a week or so now. It works good. I had top air wash door. I removed the seal from the bottom, and installed a new one at the top. Door glass is dirtier, but heat went up greatly in the low heat setting.

IT'S LIKE CHRISTMAS The UPS tracking said "out for delivery". My springs are on the way maybe? I measured the pre-install temp. on the exhaust @ 190*. I'll post later what I find after I install the springs. UPS guy just pulled in.....
ll post what I find later.

Where I take my air temps it is normally 125 to 135 degrees on low, tonight I turned it up on high just to see and had temps around 210 degrees. She was hot..............

I had some scrap 1" stainless turbulators and I threw them out before I got the stove.

We used to chuck one end of the metal in a big lathe and hook the other end to the drill chuck and keep it loose so it could travel down the bed. Its been a long time since we made that product.

Going to see If I can make some to try sometime.

My springs arrived yesterday, and I plan to cut them up today. Insert them tonight. I do not have a way to measure the air temp. though.

Yea, that's a great way to make the twist! I could shear some galvanized I have laying around and use my wood lathe but I would have to hand turn it! I can't go that slow. worth a try, though.

In a pinch, a meat thermometer will do if you can keep it off of the wall of the tube.

I installed the springs today and found a 11* drop in exhaust temp. I don't have a proper way to measure the heat or air flow from the exchanger tubes. All seems well though. I should mention to people that are sensitive to odors to clean the springs before installing them as they will give off a little smell as the "new" burms off.

That's GREAT! I didn't have the problem with the oil burning off the springs. My wife would have DEFINITELY brought it to my attention

well, it's good to hear that it's working though. I just got my Dwyer wind speed meter but it is so darn cold here in Ga. (20 at night and 32 for a high today) that I haven't had a chance to screw with wind speeds with and without. I would expect to see higher speeds with the springs installed IF I am restricting the flow. However, the telling thing will be to find the relationship of speeds versus effective diameter to determine how many btu's are coming out of each tube. That will take some serious thermodynamic computing. Not sure I'm up to that after 45 years out of college. %-P

I have the free standing Castile. I cut my springs to 9 inches. I tried to put them in tonight. I can't get them in. There is a heat deflector above my tubes. I can't get them in because of the angle due to the heat deflector. Its not a straight shot in. How did you get them in there? I am bummed, I was excited to try this....help me

Turn and push them in at the same time. Kinda like screwing them in. My stove is older than yours but it should fit......

tjnamtiw: I'll take your cold weather, as it will be close to 0*F here tonite. The shoulder season is just about over. I'll be looking forward to your future tests.

My 'shoulder season' used to be 50-60.... :cheese: I lived through 9 years in Chicago with -30 one weekend. Nooooo Thanks.............

I am really interested in the idea of the turbulators. Gotta try some and compare to the springs.

Like B-mod said, turn and 'screw' them in. That's why I bent the beginning of the spring in. You can put pliers on them and turn CLOCKWISE. My Castile doesn't have a deflector close enough to interfere BUT my Sante Fe DOES. On that one, I had to bend the spring in an arc and turn it to get them in. Also, of course, on the Sante Fe I had to take off the grill to get them in. You can do it. I have faith in you.

I was not able to bend the ends of the springs either, could that be the problem? could the ends be digging into the tube? I cut them with a bolt cutters at work. I tried the dremal but it was taking too long. I tried to put it in the 5th tube from the left and I pushed and turned at the same time. I tried two springs and they both stuck. How did you bend the ends over? How tight are they in the tubes? Thanks for the help. Tom

Not bending in the ends is most likely your problem. The bolt cutters probably put a nice burr on the ends. I used channel lock pliers across the last loop of the spring and bent the free end in just a little on one end and then, if you look at my picture, I bent the other free end in almost to the center. I also had to go and 'adjust' the first loop so that it wasn't sticking out of alignment. The ends are dragging so if you fix that, you will see that the springs will go in quite easily with a twisting motion. In fact, I have found after taking them in and out during measuring that they go in VERY easy when the tubes are hot.

If you have problems understanding what I was trying to convey, just ask! We're here to help!

Tom

I heated the ends of the spring with a map gas torch, bent like a wet (hot) noodle, lol..............

that will definitely work, too! It actually bends pretty easily with big pliers. "If it won't fit, get a bigger hammer''

I like playing with fire, lol..............

I used a torch to bend mine, they bent like butter, very easy. Then I "aligned" the spring ends using a vise. I will try to put them in tonight. When I tried to insert them yesterday the tubes were good and hot. Last night I shined a flashlight into the tube and I could see where the ends of the springs were digging into the tube. It doesn't take long for the spring to get hot, since I had to get a pair of leather gloves on in order to pull the spring back out. It was hot after only a few minutes. I hope they go in easy now.