Altering a seton style boiler

[nic89]

I built a seton style boiler and was wondering if any one else has an issue of smoke out top of the the stack.
I am trying to make it burn the smoke...
I can get her to stop smoking with a hot fire and both dampers 100% open.... I slow the fire down and she starts smoke'n....
I thought insulated refractory fire box would get hot enough to burn the smoke ... making it more efficient...more heat and less wood.

So I poured a refractory piece to lay on top of the side walls starting at the back of the fire box. It lays over the rear wall (rear wall is 2" lower than side walls) on a couple of 2" bricks and extends out about 12 inches from the rear wall. Over all it's 25x16. The Idea was to make turbulence. Installed it and it did make the fire path longer and may be making a hotter fire?

I Attached a little drawing ---


Yet Slow the fire down a little and smoke starts out the top of the stack.... Thought about setting a header with 5 or 6 half inch tubes to blow secondary air into the upper part of the fire box.... any one tried that?

looking for efficiency



Lovin cheap heat

 

[sparke]

I have a very similar boiler. Are you burning rounds or splits? My Greenfire - now Green Horizon burns large rounds very clean w/ no visible smoke (except start up and re-fuel). However, if I try to burn dry splits, it smokes - alot!

 

[nic89]

I am burning splits

I pulled the top refractory piece towards the door and really got a lot less smoke ... increased the flame path and slowed the air intake a little .... it did stop smoking after it got hot even dampened down to slow wood consumption...not seeing smoke...
guess that's the way it should work

 

[henfruit]

rounds or huge 1/2 rounds work the best.with that baffle you may getting less heat on you water tubes?

 

[sparke]

Try large rounds, you will be amazed how much better the boiler will perform!

 

[nic89]

I am burning splits

I pulled the top refractory piece towards the door and really got a lot less smoke ... increased the flame path and slowed the air intake a little .... it did stop smoking after it got hot even dampened down to slow wood consumption...not seeing smoke...
guess that's the way it should work

u can have clear smoke inefficiently if not enough O2 is available for stochiometric combustion. CO is clear,odorless, & a fuel! c -co = less heat than co- co2 as per oxidisation

I think I might experiment with secondary air injection intothe fire box....

 

[Dino57]

nic89

Can you give me some idea of what material you used.heat rating brand name etc. I am thinking of doing the same thing.

Thanks
Dino

 

[nic89]

Sure
I bought some 2200 degree refractory material from a local company it was called moro cast cost about $25 a 55 lb bag.

I looked online for refractory materials and found a local company that sold it much cheaper.
Seems like there are lots of companies that make the stuff...maybe a local company in your neck of the woods would be your best bet.

I think I used 20 - 25 + bags? took a fair amount -- suppose to be mixed up so you could make a ball out of it....fairly dry for concrete product. I put some cut up wire fence inside - think it was galvanized

the insulation I used was ceramic fiber If memory is right it is good to 2200 I used 2" and 1" ...top, sides, back have 3"
bottom has an inch..

Was a lot of work to set up -- I built it to take apart - proved to be a good idea.