We are having major smoke issues with an EKO 60 basement installation at work. The chimney is unobstructed with a good draft. Additionally, I installed a Tjerlund draft inducer fan on the flue pipe which creates quite a suction. However, the boiler still pours smoke out the door whenever it is opened. There must be some kind of thermal loop in the doorway itself. My though is to weld a 3" wide steel plate across the top of the opening at a 45 degree angle. This would slightly reduce the height of the opening, but the advantages seem to outweigh that. Has anyone tried this? Currently the opening is higher than the flue exit which may be part of the problem. Why don't they put the smoke pipe on the top of these things?
EKO 60 Big smoke signals
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Stupid question here - but have you tried opening the upper door and leaving the lower door closed? I have good draft as well, no inducer, but if I open the upper door without opening the lower door I get almost no smoke (bypass open of course). If I open the lower door and the upper door I almost always get smoke.
Certainly for me the true key to no smoke is to wait until there are only coals left at the bottom. For me that is almost exactly 4 hours from the time I threw in a full load...
Certainly for me the true key to no smoke is to wait until there are only coals left at the bottom. For me that is almost exactly 4 hours from the time I threw in a full load...
That seems to be a problem for some. I think the best solution is to install a smoke hood and either vent it into the chimney or outdoors. An old kitchen range exhaust hood would work, as would a hood cobbled up from an old fluorescent light fixture and a $20 inline heating duct booster fan. In my years of experience with various wood-fired boilers and furnaces, sometimes you get smoke, and sometimes you don't. The EKO 60 is no different.
I don't know your dimensions or upper chamber layout but here is something I use to control smoke while loading my EKO40. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/33925/ . Instead of the speed screw though use a 1/4" self tapping bolt as bumping the upper bracket a few times with a chunk of wood is more than the speed screws can take. If you look at the pictures you can see where a little more bending of the 3" flat stock pieces will give you more flexibility in loading. But hey,,,welding works though it's not flexible.
What you describe sounds like negitive air, next time you load open a door or window in the boiler room a few minutes before you crack the loading door open and see if this makes it way better I would suggest make up air of some sort..
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Dave
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