Things just took a turn for the worse.

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jhunter19

Member
Feb 5, 2010
18
Central NY
Now ai have broken the pin that allows the lever to be raised to clean my exchange tubes. Does anyone know how to get that bar out to knock out the broken pin so I can replace it? I have also attached some photos of my settings and what I creosote buildup looks like. This thing cannot be working right.

At this point in time, this thing is not at all what I was barganing for. I feel like I have wasted $7k. My wife is totally pissed. There is absolutely no technical support. When I call Zennon, all he says is that I have to use dry wood. The wood I am burning is 15-20% on the inside. I am about to become Cozy Heat and New Horizons biggest detractor.

FYI, my primary openings are about 1/2 inch and my secondary is 6mm.
 

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Can't help you with the pin fix but is your wood 15-20% on a fresh split face?

You must be idling to get build up like that with storage?

Are you overloading near the end of charging the tank?

gg
 
Sorry to here of your troubles.

Is the broken pin the one on the outside of the boiler that the handle slides over?

If so you might be able to take side panel off so that you can knock out the pin. Instead of trying to remove the whole turbulator mechanisim. On my 60 it looks it would be a matter of removing 6-8 sheet metal screws.
 
Tell us some more info.....



Fan speed

shutter opening

Launch temp

How well it is heating your storage

type of wood your using



I run my 60 like a 40 with 1 fan and I always run my primary at 1" open. I have found it to work the best for me. I made mine so i could change them on the fly and watch the lower chamber to tune it.

Rob
 
Fan is at 100%. No shutters that I know of. I have my pump set to come on at 150 deg. My unit has never go into idle mode. The highest temp my storage has gotten to is about 160 deg. I am using a mix of wood maple, hickory, ash, some hemlock. The wood is 15-20% on fresh split.

Not sure what is meant by "overloading near end of charging tank."

Thanks all for the help. I am nearly at witts end. I bought this new in Nov and I do not think it has ever worked right.
 
Mike from Maine,

Thanks for the tip on taking off the side panel. In my frustration, I completely overlooked that. I was able to get the pin out. Much easier than taking apart the tubulator. I was able to free up every thing. I think this is one good thing about it being a combo unit. I just fired up the propane in it and it burns off all the creosote.
 
can you post a picture of your primary air setting ?
 
taxidermist said:
Tell us some more info.....



Fan speed

shutter opening

Launch temp

How well it is heating your storage

type of wood your using



I run my 60 like a 40 with 1 fan and I always run my primary at 1" open. I have found it to work the best for me. I made mine so i could change them on the fly and watch the lower chamber to tune it.

Rob

His 40 should have the rear induction fan only, so are you saying have the front shutter (located on the front below the wood chamber) wide open?
http://www.newhorizoncorp.com/products/wood-boilers/biomass-combo-boiler/
 
Um.... I think you have a nice unit. I would be willing to bet that there is a small flaw in your set up that is screwing up your system. If you take some time and drew out your pipe layout complete with mixing valves circulators etc and posted the drawing that would help others to see what's up. If it's not your pipe layout then there are other places to look. But where your not getting your tank / boiler up-to temp seems like piping should be eliminated first.
You have found a great site and with some input you can get some really good feedback....
Rob
 
If your unit has a blower fan look inside and make sure there is nothing blocking that area. If it's a squirrel cage fan those need to be close to 100% clean. Some times creosote or insulation gets in there and that all it takes.....
Rob
 
RobC said:
If your unit has a blower fan look inside and make sure there is nothing blocking that area. If it's a squirrel cage fan those need to be close to 100% clean. Some times creosote or insulation gets in there and that all it takes.....
Rob

On that thought make sure the fan blades are actually connected to the shaft tightly and they are not slipping. I had the blades completely fall off:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/86054/P30/#1046095
 
mikefrommaine said:
taxidermist said:
Tell us some more info.....



Fan speed

shutter opening

Launch temp

How well it is heating your storage

type of wood your using



I run my 60 like a 40 with 1 fan and I always run my primary at 1" open. I have found it to work the best for me. I made mine so i could change them on the fly and watch the lower chamber to tune it.

Rob

His 40 should have the rear induction fan only, so are you saying have the front shutter (located on the front below the wood chamber) wide open?
http://www.newhorizoncorp.com/products/wood-boilers/biomass-combo-boiler/

I think the 40 also has a fan on the front.
 
jhunter19 said:
Fan is at 100%. No shutters that I know of. I have my pump set to come on at 150 deg. My unit has never go into idle mode. The highest temp my storage has gotten to is about 160 deg. I am using a mix of wood maple, hickory, ash, some hemlock. The wood is 15-20% on fresh split.

Not sure what is meant by "overloading near end of charging tank."

Thanks all for the help. I am nearly at witts end. I bought this new in Nov and I do not think it has ever worked right.

I load mine so output is low as Tank reaches desired temp, otherwise it will idle. Not sure what could possibly be going on if you can't charge above 160. I would raise the temp the pump kicks on. It will burn hotter, I use 170 with my Econoburn.

Trouble reaching high temps and creosote seems like poor quality wood. Especially if it is not idling.

Do you have smoke when running?

gg
 
jhunter19 said:
I have my pump set to come on at 150 deg. My unit has never go into idle mode. The highest temp my storage has gotten to is about 160 deg. Not sure what is meant by "overloading near end of charging tank."

.
I think your problem is here. I don't know what type of low water protection but with my boiler I don't have any water leave the boiler untill it is 180*. My pump comes on at 170* and circulates thru the boiler untill it reaches 180*. It will gasify at lower temp but it really hums at 170 to 180. If the temp is to low the gases are cooling down to much and you are getting comdensation and not good gasification. I bet you stack temp is running in the low 200*'s. Do you have any way to check the stack temp. (not stack pipe but internal?)
leaddog
 
I don't have storage. One thing that I found helpful was to put a piece of an old fireplace grate over the nozzle, three or four bars or so. I rarely run the fan at 70, most of the time it's at 50 with an occasional 60. If I'm about to open the door to add wood, I turn the fan up to 80 or 90 and get very little smoke in the house. I'm sitting here right now in 2100 square feet of house, most of which is at 70-72 degrees. It's 22 degrees outside. Thus far I've burnt about 3 1/2 cords of wood this winter with no use of oil and a house that's been at 70 day and night. I have very dry wood but I purposely add chunks of wet wood especially in the evening to keep the fire going all night. What I thought was smoke coming out of the 28 foot outdoor chimney of mine is steam. Once the weather is over 40 and the chimney heats up there is nothing whatsoever coming out of the chimney. Some evenings I get up around 3 or 4 and push the wood down toward the nozzle to keep the gassification going. I like to use a few pieces of unsplit wood at night. My circ pump comes on around 156. I have the fan kick off at 165. That's plenty hot for showers.
 
Don't know for sure but your pin might have broke cause your tubes are all clogged up. I have no storage but my tubes look very clean compared to yours. You have them all clogged up and something is wrong. Just my half cent.
 
jhunter, Lots of us have had first year blues just like you. These guys will get you out of the weeds. In addition to discussing your boiler settings explain how you did your underground. My first season included most of your issues of not making enough energy, but also what I was making, much of it was getting sucked into the dirt. So understanding the whole problem, energy production and energy "leakage" as well as what your home is consuming is key to determining if the boiler is under producing it's potential or if there's a lot of energy wasting going on. As a matter of habit I slam my tube cleaning lever about 10 times at least in the morning. My first year the lever was sometimes not freely moving and not falling on it's own (with the spring) which now I know is a symptom of improper burning. If the lever doesn't freely move it's telling you something's not right with combustion. You have a good boiler now the guys here will help you debug the problem. But just so you know I had first year problems much like yours and there were multiple things going on including Danfoss bypass adjustment. Hopefully you have a throttling valve on the T side of your mixing valve. Give all the details and the guys here are like pit bulls to help sort out all the issues. And I repeat, your situation may be like my first year where you're debugging several problems. The key is to sort them out one at a time. If you're certain you're burning dry wood you're way ahead of my first year situation. But at least you can reassure your wife, you have a pretty good boiler.
 
mikefrommaine said:
taxidermist said:
Tell us some more info.....



Fan speed

shutter opening

Launch temp

How well it is heating your storage

type of wood your using



I run my 60 like a 40 with 1 fan and I always run my primary at 1" open. I have found it to work the best for me. I made mine so i could change them on the fly and watch the lower chamber to tune it.


Mine is a little different ..... so there is no blower fan behind that front panel? My shutter on my blower fan is 100% open.




Rob

His 40 should have the rear induction fan only, so are you saying have the front shutter (located on the front below the wood chamber) wide open?
http://www.newhorizoncorp.com/products/wood-boilers/biomass-combo-boiler/
 
Tennman said:
jhunter, Lots of us have had first year blues just like you. These guys will get you out of the weeds. In addition to discussing your boiler settings explain how you did your underground. My first season included most of your issues of not making enough energy, but also what I was making, much of it was getting sucked into the dirt. So understanding the whole problem, energy production and energy "leakage" as well as what your home is consuming is key to determining if the boiler is under producing it's potential or if there's a lot of energy wasting going on. As a matter of habit I slam my tube cleaning lever about 10 times at least in the morning. My first year the lever was sometimes not freely moving and not falling on it's own (with the spring) which now I know is a symptom of improper burning. If the lever doesn't freely move it's telling you something's not right with combustion. You have a good boiler now the guys here will help you debug the problem. But just so you know I had first year problems much like yours and there were multiple things going on including Danfoss bypass adjustment. Hopefully you have a throttling valve on the T side of your mixing valve. Give all the details and the guys here are like pit bulls to help sort out all the issues. And I repeat, your situation may be like my first year where you're debugging several problems. The key is to sort them out one at a time. If you're certain you're burning dry wood you're way ahead of my first year situation. But at least you can reassure your wife, you have a pretty good boiler.

Just give the details and I'll bet the forum has your boiler running like it should in 20 posts or less.
 
I think I am starting to gassify a little better with the 1" primary opening. I would have swore I tried that a couple of time before without much luck. Perhaps too impatient. I do not have underground piping as my unit is indoors. I do have a shut off valve by my danfoss. How do you adjust the danfoss? Mine just has a preset thermostat type needle. I have moved my circulating pump start to the max 170 deg. Lets see how running the unit hotter helps. I can see that hotter should make for a cleaner burn. I have not tried to see how hot I can get my storage on propane. I shut off the circulation to the storage when I burn propane and just run through heating loops. It heats those very well.

Thanks all for the continued assistance.
 
It is good to hear that your having some success with temps.
Is your boiler circulator located in the right position compared to the Danfoss valve ? Most mixing valves require that the return water gets pulled through the valve. In other words, you need to have the circulator closest to the boiler on return line and then the mixing valve.
The hot water going to the Danfoss should be set at 50% to start. It should work at wide open too. This adjustment is a fine tuning adjustment once everything is up and going well.
On the top of the boiler room there are the yellow post-it-notes... "Stickies" There are piping layouts there. Is your set up similar to any of those ?
No pictures or drawings of your layout this would be really helpful ?
Cheers... Rob
 
jhunter19 said:
I think I am starting to gassify a little better with the 1" primary opening. I would have swore I tried that a couple of time before without much luck. Perhaps too impatient. I do not have underground piping as my unit is indoors. I do have a shut off valve by my danfoss. How do you adjust the danfoss? Mine just has a preset thermostat type needle. I have moved my circulating pump start to the max 170 deg. Lets see how running the unit hotter helps. I can see that hotter should make for a cleaner burn. I have not tried to see how hot I can get my storage on propane. I shut off the circulation to the storage when I burn propane and just run through heating loops. It heats those very well.

Thanks all for the continued assistance.


The ball valve you installed(hopefully) in the bypass loop that goes from the out of your boiler into the danfoss back into your boiler should have a ball valve to control the amount of flow thru the danfoss. You should open this valve about a 1 open. If open too much it will cause your boiler to idle before your storage is charged. Opened to little it will take a long time to get your return water up to 140* to fully open the danfoss.


Rob
 
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