The new WoodGun has arrived!!! Pics

Well here it is! It arrived on Wednesday. What a perfect gift for Thanksgiving Day! Now I have to get it hooked up. I moved it near the area where I want it installed, I just have to wait for my boiler guy to come and let me know how far from walls and where the chimney can go before I position it in it's final spot. I just can't wait to start burning. I have a bout 9 pulp cord cut split and piled, and ready to burn! Speaking of which I read somewhere on here that with the WoodGun when you start the first initial burn, that you need to dry out the bricks before you burn it full bore. What do I need to do on the first burn to dry them out?

Looks like a nice boiler, even if the pooch looks rather bored by the whole thing... :lol:

You are right on needing to dry out the refractories, and really it applies to any wood burner, no matter who makes it, or what kind of unit it is... The break in procedure is pretty simple - start small...

You may have a more specific procedure in your manual, but essentially build a fire w/ some newspaper and a bit of kindling, let it burn out and the boiler cool back down, repeat with a couple of small splits, then larger ones, etc... The idea is to work up to a full load over the course of 4-5 fires, each one a little bigger, and allowing the boiler to cool back down before each one.

You may notice some smoke and stink coming from the boiler and your chimney piping during these early fires, and each time you reach a new high temperature after that - this is not a problem, it is simply the oils that come from manufacturing and finishing burning off, the final curing of the paint, and so forth. (Stoves are usually worse about this than boilers since they have more exposed firebox surface...)

Gooserider

Nice boiler! That was my first choice, I couldn't swing the money though. Dry it out slow as mentioned & you should get about 2 years out of your center bricks(nozzles). The rest of the firebrick lasts much longer, Randy

Congrats on the Turkey day present to yourself!
Allow sufficient room in the rear of the boiler to be able to use the clean out rod. I think mine is 3' from the rear wall. What is the warning label on the rear?

Lar-Bud; If this is a carbon steel WG you might want to consider a mixer on the inlet. I know it shouldn't need it because on shutdown the gasses that condense on other boilers aren't supposed to be there. To be safe I'd put one on though. A carbon steel WG has an approx. 10 year life per the factory. If it is kept hot it should last 30. If it's stainless disregard post, Randy

Thanks everybody.

Singed Eyebrows-
we ordered this one stainless steel for that very reason, the corrosion. I figured if we're spending the money we might as well go the extra to get the stainless. I plan on using this boiler for along time.

Gooserider-
The pooch, Daisy, has no idea what this is nor does she care. She just heard me mention going for a ride in the truck, so she wasn't going to get to far away from me right then. lol!

muncybob-
About the clean out. Will the rake go all the way through to the back? And if so do I really need 36" clearance in the back? That's my dilemma right now with the placement of the boiler. I thought maybe I could cut the clean out rake in half or thirds and then screw them together piece by piece when cleaning. Or I was toying with the idea of putting the boiler in sideways so the loading door would face to the left when looking at it from the front of the garage.

Oh and the label on the back says:

WARNING

Never fill a hot boiler with water, if unit is low in water. Allow unit to cool before filling with water. Failure to do so could result in death or severe injury and damage to boiler and surrounding property.

Thanks again everybody...

Looks like you got the 4 hour cycle timer and low temp shut-down on it.

Yes we did. It also has the coveted ASME "H" stamp certification, that Michigan requires.

Just wondering what size the Boiler is and the storage?

[quote author="Lar-Bud" date="1259352178"]Thanks everybody.


muncybob-
About the clean out. Will the rake go all the way through to the back? And if so do I really need 36" clearance in the back? That's my dilemma right now with the placement of the boiler. I thought maybe I could cut the clean out rake in half or thirds and then screw them together piece by piece when cleaning. Or I was toying with the idea of putting the boiler in sideways so the loading door would face to the left when looking at it from the front of the garage.

Yes, it will go straight through so a smaller rod used from both directions would suffice. I also have that warning tag...completely forgot about it! Another highly suggested material as per the booklet is to use stainless steel flue pipe...don't go galvanized as somebody stated they went through a galv. pipe in just a few months! If you have a need to speak with Carl in tech support you may want to ask for his cel ph# since they are not open on weekends...he's been very helpful to me as I am still working out an issue with the "green light".

The boiler is an E-100 with no storage yet.

muncybob-

I just wanted to get it as close to the back wall as possible to conserve space. I figured if the only reason they want 3 feet of clearance from the back of the boiler to any wall was for clean out and induction fan maintenance I could make a smaller rake. Or just clean out from the front. Anyway I'll call Carl on Monday. Do you happen to have his last name? Thanks for the heads up also on the stainless steel pipe.

His last name is Forney. He's the only one they have for tech support.

I'm fairly certain the 3' clearance in the manual is to allow for room to work on/clean from the rear. I see no reason why you could not cut that down with a shorter cleaning rod of some type and do most of your cleaning from the front. Of course keep in mid clearance needed from any combustable walls etc. and leave yourself room to move around a bit. Even with the 3' I have from my rear foundation wall it sometimes seems a bit tight. Remember that at some point you will need to replace the fan bearing.

Thanks for the replies. I did end up calling Alternate Heating Systems and talking to Carl Forney. He said basically the same thing muncybob said about the clearance. So I positioned it as close to the wall as I can get while still allowing access and keeping with codes. My HVAC guy started yesterday(finally) on the install. I told him that I wanted to have it lit by the weekend so we'll see how that goes. I'll post some pics maybe tomorrow of the progress.

I'm sure you are "chomping at the bit" by now over this!! As mentioned, be patient with the first few fires and get the refractory dried out with a series of smaller fires. The assocaited smell with the initial burns will be gone after the 4th fire or so. Then 'go for it!'...won't take long to get the onboard 60 gal. water up to temp. Be sure the temp/pressure guage is installed on it's own into the top and not T'd in with the make up water line. Looks like you'll be heating with wood for the holidays....looking forward to pics!

Carl has been good to work with and I'm hoping the replacement part that arrived last night finally solves my green light problem.

Well here's a few pics of the install so far. And yes I am chomping at the bit! Lol. Still hoping to have it fired up by the weekend, but it's looking kinda tight. They're coming again today and I've got to get ahold of the electrician so I don't know...

And a few more pics...

And the last one of the heat unit for the garage.

Congrats on the arrival of your shiny new WG. Did you buy that HX for the garage or did you make it up? Pretty cool looking ,chrome and copper.Scott

Thanks Scott. Yeah, I bought the heat unit for the garage from Anderson's in Wisconsin. The HVAC guys and lady were here again today and got the HX in the plenum and put up almost all of the pex. Tomorrow the chimney pipe and air intake pipe will be here. And hopefully It'll be wired tomorrow too. So if all goes well I'm thinking we may be burning wood by the beginning of next week or sooner.

Well the HVAC guys were here today and finished up. I put up the chimney pipe. The electrician showed up today but didn't realize that some of the stuff he needed was in another company van and that was 40 miles away. Typical, LOL. So he is supposed to be here in the morning. As is the pipe and grille for the fresh air intake. I'm hoping, and I mean hoping, to have it filled tomorrow and to have her fired up. But here's just a few more pics of the "progress".

A few more...

And the last one...

Looking good, that going to be a super present from Santa. Have a good one. Scott

I personally think you should have used crimp fittings instead of sharkbites.