EKO 60 install with PRIMARY AIR modifications

[dzook]

Yesterday i had some free time and took some photos of cooking a bird https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/31866/ in the boiler as well as some general photos of my system including a primary air modification that has been working well.

The eko 60 I purchased was one of a number that were made exploring the viability for sale for outdoor use, more like you would think of a normal OWB. The units were not able to have a price point that making them a viable business venture. A stainless frame was built to hold the boiler and the all insulated shell surround and roof. It had a 100 gallon tank with expansion and circulating pump inside as well. All a peson had to do was connect electric to one place and hook up plumbing to two points on the internal tank and you were good to go. I used it as an outdoor configuration for a season until I got the barn built. The unit replaced a Heatmor that I had found a buyer for after finding out about wood gassifiers. After the barn went up the 100 gal. internal tank was replaced with an external 250 gal. insulated propane tank and the expansion tank installed inside boiler shell. Another 500 gallon storage tank is located in the house located 100 ft away from barn.

When I built the barn this year I made an opening the shape of the face of the unit and pulled it flush with the outside wall. Aluminum flashing seals and makes the connection to the wood siding in the forbay area where its installed. I like it because I can load with having to worry about smoke issues etc. I can treat it more like I did my OWB with the exception of the dry wood diet needed for the gasser.



First a general view of the Eko installed in the forbay of the barn. The boiler is behind the grey doors in the lower right hand side of the photo, you can also see the chimney exiting the roof. Also a closer up showing the boiler behind the doors.
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These photos show what it looks like inside the barn. The one photo shows the boiler enclosure with the insulated removable side panels off and installed. There are removable panels on the opposite side identical as to the ones showing on this side and doors on the back side like the ones covering the front loading area. In the center on the open panel picture is a draft meter mounted on the side wall of the boiler. I have been experimenting with different draft control as I had lots of trouble with too much draft. How i'm currently configured is working well. without the draft meter Dwyer Mark II i would'nt have known what was going on.
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Going back to the front of the boiler it shows a view with the pressure fan cover closed and removed.
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Here are some closeups of the actual primary air modification. It's a 1/4" rod bent in a L shape 7"x 2 3/8" welded to the existing slider. The slider bolts are loosened and two set rings are placed on ends of the adjuster rod. Indicator marks are made after the rod has been installed. I find rod sometimes needs to be tapped with a hammer if the boiler idles much as it can collect some creosote buildup.
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My secondary tube had also worked it's way out at one point. I made a little piece of angle and sheetmetal screwed it together after tapping back in place. Also the cover where the pressure fans are mounted was kind of flimsy so I fastened a small angle across the back side to stiffen things up.
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[leaddog]

Thanks for sharing. It's posts and ideas like this that make this site so helpful. the more minds working on a problem the more solutions we come up with.
leaddog

 

[leaddog]

what are the settings you use? do you change them often and under what conditions. With the different draft settings how did it make a differance?
Thanks
leaddog

 

[Kemer]

Dean Looking at the back of your cover looks a little like the idea I had about seperating the fans. One for primary and one for the secondary and making adjustments with the fan covers.Do you think that the angle iron that you have for a brace can be affecting the air flow ?
Harry

 

[Duetech]

Excellent configuration Dean. That's a well thought out design that looks rugged, durable and with few moving parts but able to give the finesse in variable adjustment the primaries need. Certainly cost effective, practical and less labor intense than what I came up with. To roughly quote TacoSteelerMan "you would think that with all the thought that EKO put into their boiler they could have come up with something like that. Especially since they are the ones that recommend the necessary changes in settings."

 

[Eric Johnson]

I remember that OWB conversion. Seems to me the dealer in Eastern PA was selling those. John Albright, as I recall. Nice guy.

I was lovin' Cave's elegant primary air control device, but yours is--really--way cool as well. Simple and effective. I'm giving you both A+ on the assignment.

To echo leaddog's observation, the utility of this site has really improved as the number of creative and motivated members has increased. And it was pretty good to begin with.

I've been talking to Craig about adding some brand-specific subforums in the future--you know, the "EKO Chamber," "Garn Barn," etc. Cute titles, but the go-to place for questions and ideas on specific models.

Anybody else like that idea?

 

[Dave T]

Awsome creativity both effective userfriendly additions..
Eric I like the idea of a boiler specific section but I would hope postings would have to be in the open boiler room like they are now.
Dave

 

[dzook]

I'll answer some of your questions.

what are the settings you use? do you change them often and under what conditions. With the different draft settings how did it make a differance?

leaddog- I have been using the primarys at 3/8 to 1/2" which is close to what the manual says. the secondarys are 4-8 turns. I run both the fan openings about an inch at the widest but anywhere from 3/4 to 1 1/2" i have had good results. Most of the time the variable speed fan is set to 80%. when i burn kiln dried shop scraps i can make the primarys adjustment smaller. if I make them too small 1/8- 1/4 I can end up with a load of charcoal in the morning.

My chimney initially went into a 12x12 junction box with a ring to accept the 8" insulated chimney and straight up 28 ft.

I experienced times before I got the draft under control that i couldn't get it to gassify and i knew i had the right wood and the same settings i used the day before. I got a dyer mark II about 35$ and hooked it into the chimney and i was getting 1 to 1.5 draft some times and other times it registered .4 to .8 as the manual requested. My first problem with draft had to do with the cap, there was a wire mesh that had filled with soot and was limiting draft. I removed the mesh and that fixed the low draft. I had very strong draft and it was hard to get settings tweaked to gassify nice, as hard to set as if i had too little draft. fist i removed the 8" side cleanout and noticed that the draft would moderate and stay close to the .4 - .8 level. i put a draft damper at the hole in the clean out and it worked but when i got a puff when using too dry kilned wood i'd get puffs thru the damper, so i put an elbow and a short piece of straight pipe down and mounted the damper there. i have not noticed smoke or puffing out since that mod although its just in a barn so im not as particular as if it was in the house.

To summarise what I found. Too much draft can throw settings for a loop as quick as not enough draft. The draft damper eliminated the wild swings in draft and allows me to stick to my settings.

Looking at the back of your cover looks a little like the idea I had about seperating the fans. One for primary and one for the secondary and making adjustments with the fan covers. Do you think that the angle iron that you have for a brace can be affecting the air flow ?

Harry- I hadn't really intended the approx 5/8" angle piece to separate flow ,but to stiffen up the flimsy cover. I didnt notice any adverse affects or changes in how i make my settings. Changes in my draft had more affects. there is still a good amount of space behind the angle strip. I wondered myself how it is affecting the air flow but im not sure how to check it other than removing testing and vice versa.

I remember that OWB conversion. Seems to me the dealer in Eastern PA was selling those. John Albright, as I recall. Nice guy.
I was lovin’ Cave’s elegant primary air control device, but yours is--really--way cool as well. Simple and effective. I’m giving you both A+ on the assignment.

Eric - Yes that was where I initially learned about these home gassifier boilers. John and Matt of Total Energy Solutions. They have since gone out of home units and are into commercial gassifiers. They have a real killer model in production and a few installs.

Our cabinet shop at that time were installing a commercial unit gassifier from Zenon a 700K BTU goliath to burn ground wood waste. the second unit of its kind in the US.

Credit where due. I would like to take the credit and should have made it clear earlier, but the primary air mod was made by the machine shop that was making the conversion kits. One of the reasons for the adjustment was to see what all it could gassify so an easier way to move the settings was needed. This was one of the experimental models.

 

[barnartist]

Dean, looks like you are a R/C model plane owner. I recognize the wheel clamps anywhere.

Does anyone think a temp gauge for the secondary chamber to measure the gases would be worth the expence? Or simply measure the lenght of the burn or how the upper chamber wood load behaves?

 

[Nofossil]

Great threads. I was catching up on forum traffic and saw cave2k's most elegant solution and I though "Dang - no excuse not to do this!"

This one looks easier to build. I'm thinking that maybe I'll run a rod all the way through with right hand threads on one end and left hand threads on the other so that turning the rod opens or closes both together.

Thanks for the inspiration.

 

[sdrobertson]

Ok -where to start. My father and I just completed this primary air control with the bent rods just like pictured in the first post. I have only had my stove running again for 1 hour but all I can say is wow. Being able to move the primary's while burning is unbelievable. In 30 minutes I have made more advances than I have all year so far. I'll start a new post with all my changes for the old style EKO's after I've burned for a while but this post is a simple and excellent way to change the settings.

Thank You very much Dean!!

 

[barnartist]

Eric or mediator,

We have two similar threads here, I don't wan't to miss any of them. Any thoughts of combining them?

Keep me informed boys. I want to say wow.

 

[sdrobertson]

Pictures of the outside of boiler with external primary air adjuster (hey, how about-EPAA) on a EKO with the original skins still on. I am not using indicator marks but instead I'm measuring from the end of the rod to the boiler frame to make my adjustment. Much easier to do a little math for me than to try and mark the boiler with settings. I'll probably make a cheater block that I can just place under the rods with the settings on them down the road. The rod on the left side of the boiler is tight against the green cover and its held in place by friction. To move the rod, I just have to put pressure on the cover to release the pressure on the rod and move it. The right adjustment setting is not against the cover and moves easier but I would make it tight if doing again as this would prevent accidental movement. I think this will work best with storage and running it without idling allot as this will keep the sliders clean and not gummed up with creosote but with yearly cleaning, it should work for everyone.

EDIT: I forgot to mention - the tape is to seal up the fan cover as the older stoves only have one screw holding the sides and it likes to blow out air and the tape prevents this. Fast and cheap fix without having to drill and tap for more screws.

 

[88rxn/a]

great idea guys!
but why not just notch out the rods where you want (match up to the markings you made) and lift and move them in or out when needed? no need for marks or anything of the sort?

 

[Duetech]

The idea with the hole is air control to make notches would require slots i.e. a bigger hole. Not really a problem with the output of the blowers but also if a change of mods is desired then the hole versus the slot would be easier to fill.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I notice that Dean Zook's sliders are turned around opposite of the way mine are configured. On mine, the beveled sides are facing the center of the boiler.

 

[leaddog]

I see what you mean eric. On shannons we flattened the angled part to give more room to weld and put it so the edge would close off the primary completely if we wanted. That will give you a full range of adj.
leaddog

 

[dzook]

I think when mine was welded it was flipped because the distance from edge of slot was longer on the beveled side and it allowed it to close further that way. now when I close completely I have about a 1/8" gap.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Well, I'm intrigued. The way Dean has it set up, "fully closed" would still allow some air into the primary inlets. That makes sense, I guess, in that you would probably never want to close it off completely.

I'll have to play around with mine when it warms up a bit. I got the new controller hooked up and working (long story), and now I'm going to try to get longer burns, a la Cave et. al. But that's probably not happening with 20mm primary openings.

 

[Duetech]

Well, I'm intrigued. The way Dean has it set up, "fully closed" would still allow some air into the primary inlets. That makes sense, I guess, in that you would probably never want to close it off completely.

I'll have to play around with mine when it warms up a bit. I got the new controller hooked up and working (long story), and now I'm going to try to get longer burns, a la Cave et. al. But that's probably not happening with 20mm primary openings.

Glad to hear that you have the new controller working (and the boiling was not serious), but I thought I would comment about closing the primaries all the way. I don't know if there is an extra port somewhere or not (I don't think I have seen one) but I can turn my primaries down to closed and still pressurize the upper chamber and get a weak gassification. My blower really moves air and that makes it really hard to get a good mix ratio when you don't have absolute control. But being flexible with the primary still brings about a reasonable flame.

Back to your controller. You may not have to worry about full closure with adjustable fan speeds. To build in flexibility though you can weld like Dean has done but just put in enough length so you can close all the way then just use the locking collar adjusted to your minimum preference of opening. I am burning catalpa now and my primary air is at about 4mm.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Actually, I like your design better, Cave, primarily because I don't have any clearance to speak of on the sides of my boiler, so it wouldn't work to have adjusting rods poking out the sides. A device like yours with a handle mounted in the center of the front panel that could be easily turned would really be sweet. That's assuming you wouldn't ever want to adjust them independently, which I doubt.

 

[leaddog]

Actually, I like your design better, Cave, primarily because I don't have any clearance to speak of on the sides of my boiler, so it wouldn't work to have adjusting rods poking out the sides. A device like yours with a handle mounted in the center of the front panel that could be easily turned would really be sweet. That's assuming you wouldn't ever want to adjust them independently, which I doubt.

With the rods they don't have to stick past the sides. Shannon's were fully closed in the pic and then you move them in. remember 10mm is only about 3/8in so you don't need much sticking out. You have just enough room to drill so that the rod will just clear the sides and the cover. The only thing I can see to do diferent would be to use a spring under the washer on the cover to act as a tensioner and that would help with keeping the plates in place.
leaddog

 

[barnartist]

Eric is probably thinking about the drilling part of the project though.

 

[leaddog]

Eric is probably thinking about the drilling part of the project though.

Thats no problem as you can drill when you have the cover off and reach both sides within the boiler.
leaddog