Wood Gun purge timer

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muncybob

Minister of Fire
Apr 8, 2008
2,158
Near Williamsport, PA
The WG boiler has a small mechanical timer dial that you turn on for a specified period of time allowing the induced draft fan to remove gasses, etc from the burn box before opening the door. It's supposed to wind itself down and turn off the fan/stop the burn(unless temp dictates otherwise) but it has failed a few times recently. I will make sure it winds down but other family memebrs forget to do this and we risk the boiler hitting the high temp and shutting down...which I would like to avoid for obvious reasons. This is the 2nd timer I've tried(both the same type) and would like to find an electric one to take it's place but am not sure where to look or just what I am looking for......?
 
muncybob said:
The WG boiler has a small mechanical timer dial that you turn on for a specified period of time allowing the induced draft fan to remove gasses, etc from the burn box before opening the door. It's supposed to wind itself down and turn off the fan/stop the burn(unless temp dictates otherwise) but it has failed a few times recently. I will make sure it winds down but other family memebrs forget to do this and we risk the boiler hitting the high temp and shutting down...which I would like to avoid for obvious reasons. This is the 2nd timer I've tried(both the same type) and would like to find an electric one to take it's place but am not sure where to look or just what I am looking for......?

Probably what you're looking for is a "time delay relay", ideally a single shot or off delay with trigger input:


http://www.macromatic.com/support/kb/kb.php?kba=kba116tdr


There's a lot of them on ebay if you know what you want and get lucky enough to find it.

--ewd
 
Ask them for another one and keep asking 'till you get one that works.

These things are usually pretty reliable and simple. They've been making them since Lassie was a puppy. Mine was still in good working order when it went down the road after 10 years. I think you need to turn it past 10 in order to make it wind back.
 
Hey Bob,
Mine is only a few months old and I have the same issues. I was going to call them but if you have been through 2 of them, I'll just keep on doing what works for me (tapping on it until it starts ticking) a few taps right on the dial and it will take off and cycle to off. Like Fred said wind up to max than turn back to the time you want. Other than that little detail, very happy with my new Gun!
 
If difficulty getting an original, buy a spring operated timer switch, mounts in an switch box, like that used to shut off a bathroom heater. Box box hardware stores have them, they come with different maximum times. When I put a toe kick heater in our bathroom I got one of these. Probably would fit right in the control box.
 
The timer on the WG does seem to work OK when it starts out at a point greater than 6 minutes...I think even in the operator manual it says to do this. But, frequently I want to load some wood before retiring for the night and don't want it to run 6+ minutes...only want it to run long enough to allow me to load wood without a lot of smoke escaping....such as 3 minutes or so. This is where the mechanical timer fails. I guess I could manually turn the dial back down from say 10 minutes or so but wouldn't forcing the dial down harm the timer? Sometimes the tapping will get it going, but I've had situations where I can hear the ticking but the dial does not go to zero.

Jim, I think the WG timer is similar to the one you are referring to?

This is not a big deal really...esp for me, but the Mrs will forget to be sure the timer is winding down.
 
The spring timer switch I have, which is for up to 1 hour, says for short times to turn it past 15 minutes and then back to the time less than 15 minutes. I think that properly tensions the spring. I doubt you will harm the switch by doing this.
 
muncybob said:
The timer on the WG does seem to work OK when it starts out at a point greater than 6 minutes...I think even in the operator manual it says to do this. But, frequently I want to load some wood before retiring for the night and don't want it to run 6+ minutes...only want it to run long enough to allow me to load wood without a lot of smoke escaping....such as 3 minutes or so. This is where the mechanical timer fails. I guess I could manually turn the dial back down from say 10 minutes or so but wouldn't forcing the dial down harm the timer? Sometimes the tapping will get it going, but I've had situations where I can hear the ticking but the dial does not go to zero.

Jim, I think the WG timer is similar to the one you are referring to?

This is not a big deal really...esp for me, but the Mrs will forget to be sure the timer is winding down.

All spring timers are like that. It doesn't harm them to be manually turned back. Or let it run for the additional 3 minutes. An extra 3 minute burn will not change very much in terms of overheating, especially on a re-load with un-charred wood.
 
I have an old school boiler with draft induction. I run the aqua-stat to determine shut off temp and I have a timer for lighting a fire. As designed the fan would run way past the the point of used up fuel. I solved this by putting a snap disc switch on the smoke pipe. Now the fan runs when I crank the timer, when the timer runs out it needs to have a hot stove pipe and the aqua-stat to continue running. If you can not get the factory system to work maybe you could try this.
 
The Intermatic timers that worked so well and were so reliable for years are now junk. The last one I opened up said "made in Tunisia" on the box and "assembled in Mexico" on the timer itself. Hmmmmm........I wonder what happened to product quality? I'd gladly pay $50 for a made in USA version that was reliable.

Constant issues with them is one of the main reasons Garn is now delivering controls that are electronic rather than mechanical.
 
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