central boiler smoking excessively help me

[dodgetech]

hi first year burning the central 6048 in a town of 2500,it seems like i smoke the whole neighborhood out,it says that others have not had problems cb is supposed to be more efficient than others,i am thinking i made a bad choice. i have been burning for a month now keeping my fires to the front of the box and keeping live coals all the time,no complaints from neighbors yet but i think it is only a matter of time.could i be doing something wrong,i have burned wood all my life,maybe the e-classic would have been a better choice. heating a 2450 sq ft house and 2 car garage sometimes with no insulation in either one. i understand that a garn or tarm would not smoke like this and there isnt any around so i have never seen one work but now i cant just take this back and get my money i laid down and get a garn,tarm etc i would really appreciate any helpful replies

 

[sgschwend]

Dodgetech,

OWB have a bad reputation for smoking. If your stove won't run without smoking then I would attempt to send it back for a refund. I would assume you have dried wood and that you have a good air supply; certainly you need to contact your customer support with this problem.

Let us know what they say, or how you fix it.

 

[stee6043]

I've seen CB's that run "okay" in terms of smoke. Certinaly if you're feeding it good dry wood and no other garbage you shouldn't be smoking out the neighbors constantly. I'd call your dealer and ask them to check the settings. Perhaps your air isn't setup properly? Perhaps you don't have enough draft?

 

[leaddog]

Another thing that will help keep the smoke down is to not put much wood in. Only put in wood when you are going to need heat and as much as will take care of the heat load for a FEW hours. To keep the smoke down you need to burn hot and if you put too much in it will smolter when it idles. If you burn hot when you first put it in it will burn off the bark, and moisture, When you get to the charcoal stage you will get heat off but not as much smoke when it is idleing. In the shoulder seasons it is hard to regulate wood burning.
leaddog

 

[kenny]

Anytime you try to stifle a wood fire from burning you are going to get smoke and creosote. It cannot be helped. Once the creosote coats the heat exchanger you will have less heat transfer and your BTu's go up the stack. This is how outdoor wood burners work! Garn is the exception. That's "why" they work.

 

[dodgetech]

so maybe a draft inducer may help i know the wood may be a little wet i cut most of it early last winter.
even if i put two sections of stack on there do you think 8 foot is going to help that much.
ideally my wood should be dried and stacked nicely,well i had a lot going on this year.
i appreciate any feedback so i can make this better.
it seems like it takes along time to get going witch intacates wet wood to me, but i have heard of people burning even green wood? do they have super big coal beds built up to do that?yes i know i asked a lot of questions but i need to figure this out,it could be "shoulder season" as they say hard to regulate such a large beast. thanks you for reading . chet - dodgetech

 

[flyingcow]

Sounds like a little of everything mentioned, especially shoulder season. I've got 2 buddies, one that has E-classic, and the other 6048.(they just fired theirs up, and it's a day to day thing, still have warm days)They both smoke pretty good, but both will smoke a lot more if it's the shoulder season. No big demand. But it would be worth your time grumpin' at your dealer.

 

[Gooserider]

so maybe a draft inducer may help i know the wood may be a little wet i cut most of it early last winter.

Wet wood can be a part of the problem for sure. NO boiler or stove will really work right on wet wood. A draft inducer might help get it going, but will probably increase your wood consumption.

even if i put two sections of stack on there do you think 8 foot is going to help that much.

It probably won't reduce the amount of smoke significantly, other than by what condenses inside the extra stack, but it WILL get the smoke higher in the air, which will give it more of a chance to dissipate, and probably make the neighbors a bit happier.

ideally my wood should be dried and stacked nicely,well i had a lot going on this year.

True, but excuses don't make wet wood burn any better... (sorry...) Might want to think about building a woodshed or two for next year, and definitely get your wood cut and stacked sooner - you should already have NEXT years wood cut and drying...

i appreciate any feedback so i can make this better.
it seems like it takes along time to get going witch intacates wet wood to me, but i have heard of people burning even green wood? do they have super big coal beds built up to do that?yes i know i asked a lot of questions but i need to figure this out,it could be "shoulder season" as they say hard to regulate such a large beast. thanks you for reading . chet - dodgetech

"You can even burn green wood" (and garbage, old tires, telephone poles, animal carcases, etc...) is one of the biggest lines of crap that the OWB burners try to sell... Yes, it will burn, badly, and without putting out much heat, and while making lots of smoke... Having a big coal bed will make it easier to burn green wood but you still won't get much heat out of it, as one must dry the wood before it will burn, and you don't get any heat from the BTU's that go into drying the wood...

A nice breakdown from Heaterman, one of our "in the industry" members

Looking at it another way…...let’s assume that you use the unseasoned wood in a typical outdoor wood burner that runs about 40% efficient itself (real world number not factory hype)

A: Starting with 100% of the heat stored in the wood or 10,500 btu’s deduct the 4000 wasted by evaporating the moisture and you have 6000 btu’s available for heat transfer to the water. An average efficiency number for any OWB is about 35-40% so multiplying that 6000 btu’s remaining by 40% leaves you with 2,400 btu’s available to heat your house. That equates to a LOT of wood burned over the course of the winter.

B: Now if you start with seasoned wood, say 20% moisture content, you’ll have about 8,000 btu’s in the firebox. If you burn it in a modern design gasifying boiler your combustion efficiency is an honest 80% which leaves you with 6,400 btus instead of 2,400 in the first scenario.

Can you envision hauling cutting splitting stacking and loading 3 times as much wood in scenario A vs scenario B? Not saying you should look a gift horse in the mouth and turn down the OWB your dad is giving you ...........just trying to prepare you for what you’re getting yourself into.

These are the kind of numbers that make us such strong supporters of the gasifier approach...

Gooserider

 

[barnartist]

Like most others have said, it has been very mild and your boiler will cut off the air to the fire so your boiler will not overheat. It will get slightly better for you when it gets cold, but then this is where you will find out how much wood it will probably take. Unfortunately, it will always smoke.

 

[603doug]

Look up owb forums, there are a couple of good sites where folks have your boiler and can explain how they manage. I have an owb gasifier and burn it year round without any issues. I am not sure if I can post their address so pm me

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

The only real solution is to stop loading the unit. Once the fuel finally is gone, the smoke will cease.

If your neighbors are near by, and you bought a smoker, you have yourself a situation, sorry.

I would recommend getting a cord of good dry wood, then have your dealer come over, and make the beast run as good as it can. Then have an honest talk with your neighbors about your situation. Unfortunatly most OWB are sold based on 'keeps a fire for 97 hours' as if that's important. Assuming you have no storage, you should never build fires that go more than 8-10 hours.

Burn only good solid wood. I know you do already. But . . .you don't. No one does the first year.

Jimbo

 

[dodgetech]

well i think i may have the 6048 manageable,got dry ash and added one 4 foot stack extension,seems to help alot,now im loading larger logs and the smoke is minimal even with the wood that wasnt seasoned very long. i still may go with the draft inducer route,i think it was like 150 dollars so i can put it on when i run into wet wood.
It seems like it would have shorter cycle"smokin" times with a blast fire. thanks everybody

 

[glacialhills]

Dodgetech, dont take this the wrong way but....

your statement "now im loading larger logs"

Um this leads me to believe that you are burning unsplit wood and I am sorry, but you could have 5 year cut wood and it will still be way too wet to burn well if it is still in "log" form. I am not trying to be confrontational, but burning unsplit wood in any wood burning device will make excessive smoke no matter what you do. If you have close neighbors, you need to really do some reading on how to season wood correctly and try to be responsible or you will add your area to the growing list that bans outdoor wood boilers. We all started with not so seasoned wood our first year, but burning unsplit logs in a outdoor wood boiler with close neighbors is irresponsible and is just asking for trouble. Splitting and stacking wood is a lot of work, and the #1 reason why many choose not to be "woodburners". But you will find that when you have good seasoned wood you almost cant get much smoke out of it for more than a few minutes unless it is idling. Just think of the work as a free health club membership that pays your heating bills as a bonus. Do the right thing and dont ruin your area for other woodburners.

 

[eco-one]

HAVE YOU LOOKED INTO THE ECO-ONE FROM AQUA-THERM LOT LESS SMOKE AND FASTER RECOVERY!!HEARD UP TO 25-30% LESS WOOD USAGE

 

[barnartist]

Well, it is easy to tell the guy to get something else by writing it on this forum. Dude is in a tough spot.

 

[dodgetech]

thanks for the replies,it isnt smoking more than my wood furnace i had in my garage anymore.
i can drive around the block and cant even tell that it going.my problem was lack of a good coal bed it seems. i think i just had to learn the tricks to make it run good,i wasnt adding enough wood and letting it get low then adding wood. now i keep more in there,and just add a few logs on top of whats burning then when that fresh wood starts to burn it is charred enough and lights right up. planning on some type of wood storage for next year. i had 1 add a furnace in basement,1 add a furnace in garage and a englander freestanding on the other side of house. now i can load just 1 unit without running around keeping all those going and its heating my hot water too, house is at 76 very comfortable.I did the install myself.thanks chet"dodgetech"