Draft Induction Kits

[trumpeterb]

I am going to be installing a draft induction kit with my new EKO 40...my questions are, does a draft induction also act as a damper by any chance, and is the draft inducer automatic, or must I manually turn it on and off?

 

[Gooserider]

No, the inducer is essentially just a fan to suck the smoke out of the boiler and get it moving up the chimney. You will probably need a barometric damper as well.

The inducer itself isn't automatic, it just runs off AC when plugged in / turned on, though I think some do have variable speed controls on them. Depending on the boiler and controller it might be possible to control the inducer automatically with the boiler controller, but I don't know the details... The other option is that it probably wouldn't be terribly hard to rig up some autmatic switches to turn the inducer on when opening the bypass flap and / or loading door...

Note that except for those units that are designed to use the inducer for forced draft, you mostly don't use the inducer during normal operation, only when loading the boiler or getting it fired up.

Gooserider

 

[trumpeterb]

Thanks for the feedback. The unit is here, including the draft inducer. I am about to begin installation, and I will most likely be posting MANY quesitons as I run into problems...here is the first. Does anyone have the draft inducer that Eko includes with their boilers installed? If so, how do you install it onto the unit? The "flange" for a lack of a better term on the inducer fits over the exhaust in the back of the boiler, but it almost seems too big...it spins and falls off if you don't hold it. There are no instructions with with unit for it's installation, and I don't want to do it incorrectly. Is there a correct way of fastening the inducer to the boiler?

 

[pybyr]

Thanks for the feedback. The unit is here, including the draft inducer. I am about to begin installation, and I will most likely be posting MANY quesitons as I run into problems...here is the first. Does anyone have the draft inducer that Eko includes with their boilers installed? If so, how do you install it onto the unit? The "flange" for a lack of a better term on the inducer fits over the exhaust in the back of the boiler, but it almost seems too big...it spins and falls off if you don't hold it. There are no instructions with with unit for it's installation, and I don't want to do it incorrectly. Is there a correct way of fastening the inducer to the boiler?

I have not seen, first-hand, the draft inducer that comes with or is an accessory for the EKO. That said, the usual approach to installing flue pipe is to hold/ brace the two fittings that you are trying to connect in proper orientation, then drill several small holes (ideally at least three, spaced at least approximately evenly around the diameter) and install self-tapping sheet metal screws.

Or, in a situation in which you anticipate needing to remove the pipe periodically (for cleaning out ash as you will probably want to do with a gasifier), get some long worm-gear type stainless-band hose clamps and put several together so that the resulting combined clamp is the right diameter to go around the flue pipe- you may then have to cut a perpendicular slot in the flue pipe so that it can be clamped to something smaller. This arrangement is easier to remove and re-install than the usual approach of sheet metal screws through the pipe (which can be hard to re-align the holes for later). If you use the clamp approach, be sure that the overall arrangement is set up or braced so that something else besides the clamp [such as a length of perforated metal strap] is also holding the flue pipe joint from pulling apart if the clamp works loose (best to have a "belt and suspenders" so that there is no risk of the joint coming open when there's fire/ combustion gases in the flue pipe)

Some other thoughts-- if you are installing a barometric draft regulator (which is probably a good thing to do), I would put the barometric damper between the boiler and the draft inducer, so that the inducer comes after the barometric on the way to the chimney -- that way the inducer pulls from the damper, rather than creating a scenario where the draft inducer might, under some draft conditions, potentially push smoke out through the damper.

 

[Medman]

I have installed the fan on my EKO 25. The flange is too big for the boiler flue outlet. What I did was wrap the outside of the boiler flue collar 3 full turns with 5/8" fiberglass rope gasket, using the gasket adhesive to glue it to the collar. Once the glue was dry, I carefully slid the draft inducer on the flue collar over the gasket. I drilled through the inducer and flue collar at the center of each of the 8 flaps on the flange and secured using self-tapping stainless screws. I then filled the gap between the flange and the collar on the inside of the inducer with high temp silicone (this wasn't easy, as my hands barely fit into the outlet of the inducer.

Now that the inducer and chimney are back together, I will try to get some more pics up. You can get an idea of my setup from my previous pics in the EKO draft fan thread.