As many other EKO owners have done in the past I too have wondered what, if any, real benefit comes from cycling the turb's up and down on the EKO. I've religiously cycled the turb's after every load ever since I bought my EKO. But today was the first time I actually decided to see if they did anything.
I intentionally did not cycle the turb's after my last burn two weeks ago. Today I did my spring cleaning on the EKO. I removed the refractories and cleaned 100% of the ash out of the lower chamber (with the turbs locked up). I then cycled the turbs 10 or so times, locked them up again and went back around to see what came out, if anything.
Well I was pleased to see that I managed to get roughly 1/2-3/4 of a cup of fly ash back on the floor of the lower chamber after running the turbs.
This is by no means a scientific, controlled test of any kind. But it was enough to convince me that I should maintain my current routine of using the turbs after every load. At the very least it will help keep some of the fly ash in the lower chamber as opposed to heading up your smoke pipe.
I intentionally did not cycle the turb's after my last burn two weeks ago. Today I did my spring cleaning on the EKO. I removed the refractories and cleaned 100% of the ash out of the lower chamber (with the turbs locked up). I then cycled the turbs 10 or so times, locked them up again and went back around to see what came out, if anything.
Well I was pleased to see that I managed to get roughly 1/2-3/4 of a cup of fly ash back on the floor of the lower chamber after running the turbs.
This is by no means a scientific, controlled test of any kind. But it was enough to convince me that I should maintain my current routine of using the turbs after every load. At the very least it will help keep some of the fly ash in the lower chamber as opposed to heading up your smoke pipe.