Atmos HX

[Eric Johnson]

I'd never seen an Atmos in person until this past spring, when CT Green Heat brought a few to several trade shows that I attended. I was intrigued by the heat exchanger on the model I saw. Instead of firetubes, it's got fins welded into the exhaust channel between the back of the firebox and the water jacket. Interesting design, which the guy working the booth said is a bit less efficient than what you'll get with an EKO or Tarm or similar fire-tube downdraft gasifier. Less efficient, perhaps, but also a lot cheaper.

Overall, the Atmos is a nice looking boiler. Nice fit and finish, and you gotta love the name. Sounds like a superhero: Mighty Atmos turns pollution into energy!

 

[Eric Johnson]

Could be. There are several different models and they looked quite a bit different than the boilers I'm familiar with. Did you check out the Garn?

 

[Eric Johnson]

You should have been there when we loaded it into the van after the show ended. It was a real vaseline deal, and it moved the forklift's center of gravity so far forward that the rear wheels were coming up off the ground.

 

[SolarAndWood]

i too saw the big price diff but didnt get to chat. be nice to see comparative diagrams of different boilers.
didnt ATMOS have a downdraft & & updraft [natural draft] boiler as well?

Atmos has several different levels of build. The GS looked comparable to the Orlan, but then the price is the same or now more as well.

 

[SolarAndWood]

The one that has the added ceramic like the Orlans

 

[SolarAndWood]

They had 2 at the show in Watkins Glen. One was red, one was blue. As I recall the blue one was the GS and had a lot more ceramic in it.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Thanks for coming to the show. Next time around I guarantee the weather will be better. And hopefully, the show will be bigger.

 

[SolarAndWood]

We had a great time, the weather was to be expected. My 9 year old daughter enjoyed watching the processor with the chop saw run.

 

[sdrobertson]

They had 2 at the show in Watkins Glen. One was red, one was blue. As I recall the blue one was the GS and had a lot more ceramic in it.

When you say a "lot more ceramic", where does it have more at? Are they both downdraft gasifiers?

EDIT...now that I read the second post..if one is a downdraft and the other is a updraft, this would make sense.

 

[SolarAndWood]

They had 2 at the show in Watkins Glen. One was red, one was blue. As I recall the blue one was the GS and had a lot more ceramic in it.

When you say a "lot more ceramic", where does it have more at? Are they both downdraft gasifiers?

EDIT...now that I read the second post..if one is a downdraft and the other is a updraft, this would make sense.

I think they are nearly identical other than the ceramic. I don't think they had an updraft at the show. I believe there was additional ceramic in both the load chamber as well as the lower chamber.

 

[Hydronics]

The GS has a lower chamber identical to Zenon's Biomass. So much so that I'd bet they're made by the same manufacturer in the Chezk Republic.
The S has considerably less refractory.

 

[pybyr]

looking at some of the videos that Hansson put in the other thread just recently at:

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/19706/

Atmos seems to have some interesting ideas, such as a firewood-based boiler that has a removable side panel on the lower chamber that can accept an automated pellet-burner head. What a great idea for situations where someone may want to burn cordwood most of the time, but also have an option for something automated (while away, etc).

Some interesting info about the company, too, at their web site (I'd love to get my hands on the wood-gas-fueled 4x4 utility vehicle- which I guess is a Romanian 4x4 fitted with an Atmos wood-gas system)

(broken link removed to http://www.atmos.cz/historie.phtml?english)

 

[julien]

Model "S"

And model GS, the upper section is really different and a section have no water jacket.

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

The exchanger doesn't pick up heat like a fire tube as Eric says. Zenon sells a speed control for the fan for about $20.00 bucks that I purchased & should keep heat from going up the chimney. He also said flue gas temp needs to be monitored on these boilers. I bought a Noshok thermometer for this, Randy

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

The lower left picture of the S isn't correct, the top is, unless this was for a different market. The lower S ceramic is just a triangle shaped piece with a triangle in back to cover the flue pipe. Brake vanes are inserted under this & smoke goes forward & to the back & out. The smoke path is quite different in the S & GS(both downdraft gassers). The one that is really fancy is the German GSE with the Belimo servo motor flap that holds exit temps steady & a different smoke path than the GS adding about 5 percent efficiency, Randy