ASME Certified Indoor Wood Boilers

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All I know about it is that it cost me an extra $1000 for my Econburn to be ASME certified. Ouch.
Did you buy it directly from Econoburn or from a dealer?
I live in South Central, MA also. Did you know of any Wood Gun dealers around our area?
Thanks.
 
Did you buy it directly from Econoburn or from a dealer?
I live in South Central, MA also. Did you know of any Wood Gun dealers around our area?
Thanks.

I have a friend who owns an HVAC company; I bought it through him. I'm not sure they if they retail them or not. I did not really look too deeply into Wood Gun, to be honest, though I can't remember now why that was.
 
I have a friend who owns an HVAC company; I bought it through him. I'm not sure they if they retail them or not. I did not really look too deeply into Wood Gun, to be honest, though I can't remember now why that was.
How often do you fill your econoburn? Has it been working out for you?
Thanks.
 
How often do you fill your econoburn? Has it been working out for you?
Thanks.

I can easily get away with filling 2/3 full it twice a day during the coldest weather, but it ends up idling a lot since my house is very well insulated (2500 sq ft and a lot of solar exposure, plus ~600 sq ft garage). It also heats our domestic hot water (120 gallons - 4 people). I really should have storage, and some day I will get there. With storage I'm sure one full load a day would be more than adequate. My garage and much of the living space are radiant, which is perfect for storage.

After one full year, I can say I'm very pleased with the boiler's performance so far. Once I modify the turbulators for easy removal, I'll be even happier.
 
Did you buy it directly from Econoburn or from a dealer?
I live in South Central, MA also. Did you know of any Wood Gun dealers around our area?
Thanks.
The Empyre Elites are open system design and do not require storage - put a request for info on the Pro Fab site and a dealer will get in touch with you.
 
The Empyre Elites are open system design and do not require storage - put a request for info on the Pro Fab site and a dealer will get in touch with you.

You can run many boilers without storage. Even if he chose to go with an Empyre Elite. Wouldn't it still be better with storage? Every wood boiler system is better with storage. Right?
 
You can run many boilers without storage. Even if he chose to go with an Empyre Elite. Wouldn't it still be better with storage? Every wood boiler system is better with storage. Right?

IMHO, yes gasser or not. Storage allows wood to be consumed at "full bore" the most efficient way/ most available heat --> water possible.........at least with current tech.

TS
 
i also live in Mass. Just installed a Vigas without any hassle. Showed paperwork and all they were interested in was UL approved. No one asked and I didn.t offer. You do need the asme in Mass but it seems a lot of inspectors do no ye know about this requirement. If you connect it unpressurized it does not require asme certification. You can then replumb to a pressurized system if you want.
 
Here you can find all the details .... per state, Canadian province, major city
http://www.nationalboard.org/SiteDocuments/NB-370.pdf

Look for:
OBJECTS SUBJECT TO RULES FOR CONSTRUCTION AND STAMPING
All boilers and pressure vessels, except the following: ....
For Ontario resident, see this guide:
An explanation of Canadian Solid Fuel Burning Regulations with a focus on Ontario - Nipissing University
"Most residential pellet stoves and boilers do not have to conform to CSA B51 specifications. CSA
B51 states that boilers with a wetted surface area less than 2.79 m2 or with a power rating of less than 30kW are exempt from the code. These appliances while exempt from CSA B51 are required to pass certain performance criteria standards established by CSA B366.1, UL 391 and ULC S627. The performances tests ensure the unit is not a fire or electrical hazard and are required by insurance companies. Stickers are placed on the unit to inform the buyer that the necessary performance tests have been passed.
"
CSA B51 refers to ASME codes.
Trex
 
Was looking through some of these older threads and came across this one. I have to relate this experience just for the sake of information on testing and product quality.

When I went to Austria in February to visit Windhager for training on their boilers I was also able to take a tour of their factory and learn about there assembly standards for EN303-5 which is the Euro "equivalent version" of ASME.
While this is probably not the case with all the manufacturers over there, particularly those from Eastern Europe and certainly not cast iron boilers, this is what Windhager does to ensure the integrity of the pressure vessel.
The "heizkessel" in Eurospeak.

At random intervals Windhager will pull a heat exchanger/ pressure vessel off the production line and hook it up to the hydrostatic test stand. From what I understand each vessel is welded by a team of two people and their team code is etched into the vessel so it's kind of a way for the company to make sure that their teams are up to snuff so to speak. Anyway.......they will take this pressure vessel and pump it up until it fails, comes apart or is destroyed in some way. I asked at what point this usually occurs and was told that most fail at or above 20 bar which is equivalent to about 300PSI. Normal certification test pressure is about 58PSI if I recall so there is about a 5:1 margin between design test pressure and actual fail on these boilers. Normal relief pressure of 30PSI yields a 10:1 margin and at 15PSI operating pressure you have a 20:1 safety factor. Nice to know those things regardless of whether one is buying or selling as a dealer/distributor.

I certainly can't speak for all manufacturers but that is what Windhager does. I think that most of the higher quality steel boilers made in Europe are similar. For me that is plenty good but to satisfy the jurisdictions that require ASME rating, Windhager is also going to offer their equipment with the {H} stamp for additional cost.
While I can't say that the ASME rating is without merit, I will say that for most of the applications we deal with here on this forum it adds little to no value to the product.
 
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