blocking off a two nozzle gasifier

[barnartist]

I know there was a thread on this some time ago, but was wondering if anyone has had success blocking off one of the two nozzles in thier gasifiers.
Since my wood splitter only handles 24" peices max, when I load my Eko 60 this becomes a problem when trying to cover the nozzles. I can simply load the wood starting from the rear of the chamber, and have about 10-12" of space left at the front of the bed, so what I have been doing is putting a few pieces in sideways there. I think though this causes or can cause som extra smoking for obvious reasons.
I did some experimenting last season with this, but now that I have plummed my sytem differently this year, I might try it again.
Now the question might be which nozzle to seal up. By the way my spelling gets even worse when I take in all of this fine info on the forum this late at night.

 

[KarlK]

I have an eko 60 with 500 gal storage the 60 is oversized so I block off the nozzle by the door with a fire brick .It lets me run at full blast for a longer period of time. I did the nozzle by the door because it seems to smoke less when I open the door. I have been burning like this since october 1 and it seems to work pretty good.

 

[Duetech]

Just a thought here??? How about shortening your lengths so you can place two shorter pieces end to end lengthwise to fit your nozzles? That way you can cover both nozzles with wood and hopefully get the full potential of the boiler. It would mean more splitting, extra cutting and handling but would seem to be less frustrating than shifting wood around in the boiler to get a better burn. Or don't you have to shift the wood around in the fire box? It seems I get off sized end pieces from most every log I cut. I split them and use them like coal with some of the longer pieces that are just not long enough. Works good.

 

[barnartist]

yeah, like you said all the extra work. For the most part I also have some short lengths that I add to the front, but they usually still have to go in sideways. Seems to burn OK, but I do think it smokes more because of it. I have been curious for some time here if a 40 would have been the better fit. Last night though we got down to 10 (probably a heat wave for some of you in the uppers) and I was glad I had the extra power then.
What would be beyond cool would be a way to make this an optional change on the fly?! HMMMMmmmm.

 

[rickh1001]

barnartist,

I have been having the same quandry regarding optimal wood length for the EKO 60. The chamber is technically 30" in length. I had a load cut at 18" or so, and it was a really awkward length. If I staggered them front to back, I would get large holes in the wood loading, which would fail to collapse into coals, so I got frequent loss of gasification, usually on the front nozzle. I got another 2 cords cut at about 21-24", while the wood covered both nozzles better, it seems hard to load, as the bigger cuts are heavy and they seem to bridge more. The longest pieces at 25+" or so are just monsters to work with if they are large, and unless the wood is perfectly straight, you get holes and gaps in the fuel charge. I have the same problem with a shortfall by the front of the door. Sometimes I can fit smaller cuts in crosswise, which also tend to bridge.

I am wondering now if I might try going the other direction, and cut some up at 14" or so, and do the double row idea so that both nozzles are covered. The more or less standard 16" length is just a little too long.

 

[Dave T]

I also have 18" to 20" wood and I stack it in the EKO like barnartist mentioned with one pice sideways in the back then the next row up I alternate and put the sideways pice up front or viseversa not the best plan but it will burn down to the nozzles..
Boiler man when I load the EKO I always nock down the coals in between the nozzles (or refractory cut outs) this helps the wood get closer to the nozzles and helps with bridging, if your really having troubles your fan is blowing to hard and allowing wood to burn in the primary chamber just a few things that might help..Dave

 

[barnartist]

Lateley I have tried two different meathods of firing up. For most of this season, i simply left the unburned or powder ash along the sides of the boiler, the thought was it would make a pit for the wood to fall into to help with bridging. A week or so ago I cleaned all of that out, and started clean, then upon each load and with a nice bed of coals for the next load, pile up all the unburned coals ontop of the nozzils and then use the poker tool to make a hole in the coals through the nozzil openings.
I think I like the pit effect better but cant say for sure yet.

I think in the shoulder periods of the burning season, It might make sense to cover one of the nozzils. I wish I could test drive a 40 and see how it performs vs a 60.

 

[sdrobertson]

I think in the shoulder periods of the burning season, It might make sense to cover one of the nozzils. I wish I could test drive a 40 and see how it performs vs a 60.

My new air settings are working wonderfully - I'm going to have to work on keeping both nozzles lit also now. When we get our first thaw of the winter season, I'm going to try and close one nozzle. It seems like when both nozzles are covered with coals the stove burns extremely clean, but when one starts to become a little uncovered, the smoke likes to get really lazy and head down the unrestricted nozzle which leads to a little smoke. I'm burning really hard with all of my storage so I like the power of the two nozzles, but I'm not convinced that with the size of the sixty(larger heat exchanger and longer chambers than the 40) that using both nozzles is any more efficient. It seems to me that one nozzle always burning would be better than two sometimes burning at the same time. The problem I see with the switch between one and two is that I don't know how much you will have to change the air settings, so this is why I'm waiting till the thaw and I can live off storage for a longer period of time. What new hobby am I going to find when we have all the answers?

 

[barnartist]

Agreed Robert, this is one whale of a hobby.
I also agree 100% that it would be better to have 1 nozzile working all of the time rather than 2 working some. I see the same thing happen when one of the nozzils are not gasifing. By opening the bottom chamber you can see what is happening. It does not matter now, but I think a 40 might perform as well as the 60 in many situations.

I'll have to talk to you more about the air adjustments-I think it had a negative effect on me because I got more orange flame, but still cannot make changes to the flame by adjusting the secondary air screws.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I had good luck running my 60 with just one nozzle shortly after getting it. As mentioned, you get a longer burn with less opportunity of idle. This week may not be a good time to do it though. With the cold temps forecast and reported, I think if you've got two nozzles, you'll want to use 'em.

 

[sdrobertson]

I had good luck running my 60 with just one nozzle shortly after getting it. As mentioned, you get a longer burn with less opportunity of idle. This week may not be a good time to do it though. With the cold temps forecast and reported, I think if you've got two nozzles, you'll want to use 'em.

I'm having better luck keeping both lit now - Eric, did you have to do allot of adjusting to the air settings or did it run like before but just lower output? I'm concerned about the covered nozzles secondary air overpowering the bottom chamber or does it just burn like it does with only one nozzle lit but with no smoke out of it?

 

[Eric Johnson]

It burned fine with the two-nozzle adjustment.

You tend to get unburned wood and charcoal over the blocked nozzle, but that stuff is great to rake over the live one when adding wood.

 

[barnartist]

Be nice to work it like some of these cars that switch from 6 to 4 cylnder. However you spell it.