EKO 25 Not Maintaining Temp

[ElkCountry]

Hi

I am near the end of my first season of burning with my EKO 25, and I have not had any hiccups until today. I will start out by saying I did the entire install myself with the help of this forum. I am running without storage.

The boiler ran fine all last night, but when I went to fill it this morning I had underestimated the cold last night and did not give it enough wood so the temp was around 145, I had it set at 175. The bypass damper was a little stuck so I had to lean into it a bit to get it open, but it did open. I threw some chunks of wood in and closed her up and started it. There were enough coals so I did not have to start another fire.

I left for work and figured I would check on it when I get home. Well I got home around 3-4 and the temp was only at 155 and it had been running for 5 or so hours at this point. The firebox was not empty and it had a nice bit of coals in it. I threw a couple pieces in and started it back up and realized the secondary is not firing, zero gasification. Which I know my wood is good, was seasoned for at least a full year outside and I had been getting good burn with it prior to this. I poked around in the firebox to see if the nozzle was blocked for some reason, which it was not. So I shut it back up, press start to see if it would gassify but still nothing. I let it go for a few more seconds then I hear a clunk and instantly it starts gassifying...

After about 20 minutes it was right back up to temp. Now I am glad that it is working but what may of caused this? The fact I heard a clunk before it started to gassify worries me. I am pretty much at the end of my burning season, but I do not want this happening next year when it is 20 below outside.

 

[Nofossil]

On mine, that 'clunk' (I'd call it a 'thud') seems to be a sudden transition from burning purely in the primary chamber to secondary burn. I *think* what's happening is that if you have enough flames in the primary, the leftover flue gas doesn't have enough combustibles to ignite, even though it's passing through hot coals. At some point it reaches a flammable ratio and ignites with a bit of a thump.

What are the deposits like on the side walls of your lower chamber?

 

[ElkCountry]

A thud is probably a better description of what it sounded like. If that is all that was happening that would be great, I am going to keep an eye on it the next few days to make sure everything is working properly. Just seemed weird that it was not holding temp, never had it happen before.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Nofossil]

A thud is probably a better description of what it sounded like. If that is all that was happening that would be great, I am going to keep an eye on it the next few days to make sure everything is working properly. Just seemed weird that it was not holding temp, never had it happen before.

Thanks for the input.

No problem. The reason I asked about the side wall deposits is that it sounds like it might not have been achieving secondary combustion for a good part of the day. Bridging can cause that, and there could be other issues. If that's happening, the lower chamber will have dark sooty deposits.

 

[woodsmaster]

Only time I've had a nice bed of coals with no gassifying is when the nozzle is plugged. I simply open the bypass, open the bottom door and run a poker up the nozzle and threw the coal bed. Shut the door, close the bypass and good to go.

 

[ElkCountry]

No problem. The reason I asked about the side wall deposits is that it sounds like it might not have been achieving secondary combustion for a good part of the day. Bridging can cause that, and there could be other issues. If that's happening, the lower chamber will have dark sooty deposits.

Sorry, I completely missed the deposit question in your first post. Nothing much for sidewall deposits, at least no more than there has been throughout the winter.

 

[ElkCountry]

Only time I've had a nice bed of coals with no gassifying is when the nozzle is plugged. I simply open the bypass, open the bottom door and run a poker up the nozzle and threw the coal bed. Shut the door, close the bypass and good to go.

It seems possible that could have been the issue, it was just coincidental that within a minute or so of poking at the nozzle it starts gasification. I am banking on this being something simple, but just wanted to be sure.

 

[ihookem]

Sometimes I have too many coals and it cloggs the opening on the bottom. Other than that it always gassifies unless I get log bridging.