I let the oil boiler take over today.

[arngnick]

I think what Mike meant was that if you have idle or no idle the stack temps will be the same if you have good gasification. Which will still give me low temps at the top of my 27' chimney. I have about 5 feet of pipe in the house and then a 90 outside and about 27' up. By the time it gets up there things are cooled down too much.

No screen. Long narrow slots all the way around. The creosote can build up to the point I am not comfortable with it. So I go up and clean it. No big deal. Seems like I remember seeing a unit you could buy and install on chimney that would keep the stack temperature up higher. Don't know how much electricity it would use. Doubt I would ever do that. I will have to look for it when I get a chance. Gotta go.

Agree that kind of unit would kind of defeat the purpose of burning wood in the first place...much easier to keep an eye on it and clean it.

Let me clarify with what I meant...If you idle excessivly there is no way you get "good gasification" all the time because you are starting and stopping the process meaning that you are sending unburnt smoke up the chimney at low temperatures causeing creosote buildup. If you are starting and stopping the gasification process your stack temperatures will go hot and cold even though you are reaching a max temp of 350* In-turn all caused by idling.

 

[Fred61]

I see you're suffering from a case of crap in the cap. My take on it is that whether your stack temperature is high or low, the crap up there means that there is unburned crap going up the stack. You may have indicated the reason in one of your entries above when you stated you had re-started and opened up the air supply. Since the Wood Gun needs to have sufficient air pass through the upper chamber to get secondary combustion, perhaps you haven't been getting a complete burn in addition to idling contributing to the situation.

Crap in the cap is not the worse problem you could have, but it tells me that you're not burning clean.

 

[maple1]

I'm also thinking the creosote is likely as much due to the stopping & starting of the fire as the tall chimney & low flue temps. There has to be a bit of dirty stuff go up every time it 'awakens'. I'll have a better feel for that though, maybe, when I venture up to my roof for an after-winter inspection. I'm not planning on doing that until a nice warm summer day - although I'm really very curious as to how mine looks up there after the first winter with this thing. I know I send some dirty stuff up mine once in a while getting my fire going & up to speed, especially early on when I was figuring out the best fire lighting routine for it.

 

[Gasifier]

Ya. Back when I burned in the Pacific Energy(PE) Super 27 I had no problems with Crap in the cap. Stack temps were higher. Even when I cut the air down to about half way. There is no question that burning wide open is the best. I just do not have enough storage to do that. Now that the temps are getting warmer outside though. I can burn wide open, bring boiler and tank up to max temp., and if I need to charge the basement up a bit then turn the boiler right off for the night or the day. But when it is colder out, with the size of my house and heat demand, I have to let it cycle on and off. Works good, just going to have to keep the crap cleaned out of the cap. (Say that 6 times fast!)

 

[infinitymike]

[quote="arngnick, post: 1418117, member: 26820"

I had similar issues with my previous gasser thats why I had to upgrade to my current boiler....[/quote]

What was the previous gasser you had? How long did you have it for?

 

[arngnick]

[quote="arngnick, post: 1418117, member: 26820"

I had similar issues with my previous gasser thats why I had to upgrade to my current boiler....

What was the previous gasser you had? How long did you have it for?[/quote]

Irleh 40 had it for 2 years it was a fight everyday

 

[Gasifier]

What was the previous gasser you had? How long did you have it for?

Irleh 40 had it for 2 years it was a fight everyday[/quote]

That is too bad arngnick. An occasional cleaning of my cap is not a big deal. Operating the Wood Gun is easy as pie. Just have to keep it clean. More storage would be nice though. Someday.

 

[arngnick]

Love my new boiler just a shame I had to struggle with one to get this one...I looked at wood gun but not for me

 

[maple1]

Did you have storage with your Irleh?

Storage IMO is the biggest game changer in boiler operation & efficiency issues. Depending on the boiler being used, that is.

 

[arngnick]

120 gal buffer tank was all...I dont think storage would have helped to much. It was a struggle even when it was not idling often. The design made it very hard to keep clean. Smoke was a problem too. Came home one day to a house full of smoke and CO detector going off. We were very nervous when we owned it Will never go back down that road.