Biasi Boiler (NOT the 3-Wood)

[wapkaplet]

Hi,
New to the Forum. Has anyone had any experience with the Biasi Pirowood (not the 3-wood) Boiler?
I tried a search and turned up nothing. I recently had it installed (Short version... it was the only
boiler I could have installed in such short notice due to the flooding in our area).

Just experiencing a steep learning curve with its operation.

I have SOME seasoned wood that I have been burning. I have also been burning cut up pallets and bits of cast off 2X4.
I have noticed the burning chamber and loading door have a LOT of creosote buildup inside.
I checked the chimney and its clean.. only a tiny amount of ash... same with the combustion chamber.
Does this sound normal?
Oh, and not running with any storage.

I appreciate any insight.

 

[chewy]

Hello, is this a gasser?

Bump!

 

[maple1]

I was looking at one of those at a home show here a month ago. Pretty impressive looking unit. I also thought the 3-wood was impressive looking for a non-gasser, compared to what I have.

I THINK that sounds normal - primary chamber gets dirty since it's generating the dirty stuff, secondary burns it. You'll likely get more feedback from those who know more.

Good luck.

 

[wapkaplet]

Yes its a gasser

 

[chewy]

Ty, would you pm me the price of unit?

Chewy

 

[maple1]

Not sure if it helps, but the guy I was talking to about them was throwing some numbers around. The Pirowood was about double the cost of the 3 Wood. This was just home show talk, and not sure if this fellow was the right one to be talking prices with or not.

 

[wapkaplet]

Thank You for the replies. I'm feeling better about running it now.
I'm guessing there aren't that many Pirowoods in action... considering my units serial number is #10.

 

[maple1]

The one I was looking at was the first one bought into the province (that's what I was told) - they just got it and had yet to sell one.

 

[hhasey]

New to the Forum. Has anyone had any experience with the Biasi Pirowood (not the 3-wood) Boiler?
Just experiencing a steep learning curve with its operation.

I have SOME seasoned wood that I have been burning. I have also been burning cut up pallets and bits of cast off 2X4.
I have noticed the burning chamber and loading door have a LOT of creosote buildup inside.
I checked the chimney and its clean.. only a tiny amount of ash... same with the combustion chamber.
Does this sound normal?
Oh, and not running with any storage.


Hi, Im new to the forum as well, and I have pirowood #0000006. I comissioned the boiler in January & I love it! since last January Ive only burned 4.3 gallons of oil, and less than two cords of wood! (Ive been keeping track of the weight ; 4400lb hdwd last winter & 1400 lb mostly softwood this fall)


for me, the pirowood has been a great engineering project in my basement! let me see if I can answer some of your questions about the pirowood:
OUCH! the pirowood is not a boiler for no storage you should have atleast 500 gallons to coast with. I think that a fire should be hot, and fast. Im running a boiler temp of 195 and a return temp of 170. I run the boiler for about 4-6 hours every couple of days depending on air & storage temperatures. Please call your installer and get some storage installed. this is true for any woodboiler in my openion.
Scrap wood burns very good, fast but good. Ive been burning dried pine this fall with great luck, now that thats gone, Im back to hardwood.
dont worry about the creosote in the burn chamber.......with a correctly set up boiler, thats the only place youll see creosote.
you should brush out the bottom after every two or three fires.
I have a 600 gallon steel pressure tank thats super (duper) insulated, Im running a primary secondary piping, and radiant heating a 1200 sq ft 1879 ex-one-room-schoolhouse plus the basement.
I bet I know the guy that installed the boiler R.L.? great guy I used to work with him!
haveing never seen anyone elses installation of the pirowood Im quite interested in your setup.
I would love to trade notes with other pirowood owners.
good luck, I hope I havn't stepped on toes here. as you lured me from being strictly a lurker.

 

[pybyr]

Photos and links, please! Our Inquiring Minds want to know about this
boiler's heat exchange design, provisions for periodic heat exchanger cleaning, controls, etc!

 

[maple1]

I think I found something with a google search a couple months ago.

 

[wapkaplet]

Thanks Burnless!
Storage is not in the cards for this season... will have to wait until summer 2012.
So far it has been a learning experience... me coming from a 30 year old Simplex wood/oil/coal combo.
From everyones comments the creosote in the burn chamber no longer frightens me.

I DID have one issue with the the creosote buildup however.... it would cause the fiberglass door gasket to stick, eventually pulling out of the door. I fixed it with high temp gasket cement and spraying the door with silicone after it cured. No issues since.

I am finding it a well constructed unit. Running with the B-10 for oil backup I'm keeping my house a LOT warmer so far.

 

[hhasey]

hello folks, yes I can & will post more on the Pirowood when I have time. Im also in the process of writing up a scematic of operation and contolling for my system wich is unique. I wasnt statsfied with any piping diagrams that I saw for how I wanted the system to work.....long story short....I repiped my whole heating system to primary secondary. as soon as the pirowood is up to temp after building a fire (30 minutes+/-) I can start heating my house.....any excess heat (and theres alot of it) gets pumped into the storage tank. I had some issues with pumping from the boiler and into the tank.....I have a taco set point pump (its a 00-vdt pump wired as a 00-vs, I spoke with tech service for taco and said that they were the same pump just marketed differently) as a boiler circulator and it doesnt start till the top of the boiler is 190. For boiler return protection, this gets tricky, I have an injection pump control that Im operating as a setpont control for feeding the storage and boiler return protection. the storage water can and will cool the whole operation drasticly, I am obtaining boiler protection by pumping more or less cooler water from the storage into the primary loop (and thus into the pirowood). it works very well for me. I think that variable speed pumps and controlers are also a great invention.

I have a problem with the bottom hinge pin on the burn chamber door working its way out. I just recently smeared some epoxy around it, & I'll see if that keeps it from coming out.
As far as cleaning, theres not much to clean. every week I'll open up the bottomand sweep out a fine dry ash that has deposited on the castiron (turn on the fan while doing this and the dust wont come into the house).
It's a prettty user friendly boiler. I dont try to extend my burn time, I dont think that you could except for maybe feeding a few peices of wood at a time, which would be quite often. the pirowood will burn an alarming quantity of wood, fast. like two buckets worth in 1-1/2 hours, but its producing a huge amount of heat. Ive had my analyzer on it and measured combustion efficiencies as high as 78% with 75%-76% being typical of what Ive seen so far.

at some point I will provide a drawing and some better description
thanks for the intrest!

 

[Duetech]

Hi wapkaplet and welcome. I don't have the biasi but I have run a gasser without storage and the creosote you are seeing is common for a gasser that idles between calls for heat. You will continue to see the creosote as mentioned above but in your case you are more apt to find it spreading to your chimney as temps get cold and the chimney begins to cool and act as a collector so get a chimney brush and rod set and start figuring how to clean your chimney with as little down time as possible. My gasser was in an unheated garage and I had to clean it about once every four weeks just because of the fly ash that settled in the pipe and the creosote that gathered at the chimney opening at the top of the chimney. The chimney was class A triple walled but condensation at the very top of the chimney collected at the top and drained back down into the chimney and would "bead up" until it would actually choke the chimney flow if left untended. An extended burn would have prevented that from happening as the chimney would not have had opportunity to cool between demands for heat. The slow smolder between calls for heat contains all the moisture you will see coming out of the chimney at full operation but it will have a longer opportunity to collect to the chimney walls at the slower speed.