First Burn Tarm Complete... but shutting it down...

[Birdman]

Whoa... where to start.

1. Always remember to install the doors of your tarm 40 using the Stovex goop to be sure you have sealed the doors tightly.
I however... did not do a good job using this stuff and had to stop using the Tarm 40 directly after the first burn. The smoke was coming out a little bit near a bolt that attaches the door. Not good. Did it over last night when it all cooled down. Hoping I did it better this time.

2. When I first started the system( first burn )... there was smoke everywhere... a little coming out near the elbow in pipe... a bunch coming out from the metal cap plate over the heat exchange tubes .... which we tightened up as much as possible after noticing they were a little loose. I think the main issue is... it does not like to be started up with a cold flue. The HT chimney is on the outside of house. When the chimney warmed up things were fine. Although.. every once in a while i get a puff back through teh dfraft control. Question? My draft control is on a 45 degree pipe? Is this horizontol or vertical? I think the setting may be off? help.

3. The plumber did a great job. All his work was top notch. Electrician too.

4. Bioheat USA has great technical support. We called them at least 6 times in the 4 hours before start up to be sure everything we had done was correct. My plumber called during install many times too. A big shout out to Morty... give him a raise Bioheat!

5. After running the system for 4-5 hours ( smoke issues stopped almost completely) the water temp stayed high. I think I got gasification about half the time. When i did see the gasification flame on the bottom peep hole.. it was very orange. I went outside to look at the chimney.. and i still saw some smoke coming out? Does that mean I did not have full gasification?( or optimum gasification) It was whitish looking smoke? Not alot.. but I thought I wouldn't see any during gasification?

6. Temp in house. I turned up all 3 zones in my house... it was 64 at the moment i did this. I have a 2000 sq ft log cabin with a drafty door and some high heat loss... and a cathedral ceiling. We put 35 ft of high output baseboard in cathedral area with 2 fans pushing heat down. The temp went up to 68 in all areas of the house in 4-5 hours. Is that good? I thought the temp would rise faster? I had them all turned up to 75. It was cool to watch all zones calling for hot water.... first time ever for my house taht I saw all 5 zones with red lights in the on position on my control box. ( We have been using wood stove for years) Also.. I am sure it depends on the temp outside too. At this time it was 34. My guess is that once the house gets up to temp... say 70 which is where the sife wants it... it will be able to maintain it? Intead of all zones working so hard to get to that temp?

7. Amazing... I only filled the tarm box up with some small pine kinlin.. a few small chunks of dry pine and 2 pieces of seasoned maple. It produced all of that heat in 4-5 hours... and when i went to shut it down..... it still had good sized chunks of the 2 partially burnd maple left with a nice bed of hot coals. I took out the 2 chunks( a smoky job ) and took them outside with water. I am thinking I may get a burn longer than 8 hours when i fill this thing up? It did idle about once or twice an hour? The fan shut off automatically as the temp got to its shut off point. It did not idle for that long... maybe 15-30 minutes? I didn;t time it. However... that water does stay warm for a long time.

8. Very cool to have all zones getting heat and not once did the oil boiler kick on. Turned the oil boiler down to 110.

9. I already want storage... would rather this thing just burn all out and not idle.

10. Can't wait to get home to fire it up again..

 

[Gene C]

Item 6-- It sounds like you may still have air in the system. If the Tarm is up to temp and going into idle cycles with 5 zones open, you have a bubble somewhere. I would suggest closing all zones but 1 and bleed individually until all air is gone and then move on to the next zone. I experienced the same problem when I installed mine. Once I rebled the system the automatic bleeder installed at the high point of the system was able to do its job and remove any remaining bubbles. Now the house heats up much faster from a cold start and boiler doesn't go into idle cycles until zone valves start closing.

Good Luck! You will love the Tarm once you get thru the "Learning Curve"

 

[55Razor]

Item #2: I had the same problem with smoke coming out from the tube cover plate; turned out to be a weld BB on the flange not letting the plate sit flat. You may want to check this.

 

[Birdman]

I will check that out..(bb on plate) . Also... to respond to the bubble issue. All of my zones are hot... so why would it be an issue of air in the zone? They are all getting heat...

 

[Gene C]

Birdman: The "bubbles" was an issue I had with mine when I initially started mine up and seen the same problem you are seeing. Maybe I spoke too soon, so lets start over. With your oil boiler, how long did it take to raise your house temperatures under the same conditions? If it took much less time with 5 zones open than is does now with the Tarm at temp (and occasionally idling) then there may be a bubble problem. If the time is about the same, then there is no problem.

Just another question: Why are you using a draft control on a Tarm wood boiler?? Is it simular to the one you used on the oil boiler? Now I'm confused and need help. I've seen draft injectors used but not barometric draft control (If I interpeted what you wrote correctly) This device would probably cause some of the smoke problems you mentioned.

 

[Birdman]

I just had a new zone put in the cathedral living area... so I can't compare it to last time before I had the Tarm. However.. it does seem that the other zones were getting hotter with the oil burner than the Tarm ane they did heat up quicker. I will try your bleed suggeastion of air.... can't hurt I guess? As far as the barometric dfraft control, I thought this was the proper application? It helps to control issues when it is windy? If I am wrong in putting it in.... please let me know.

 

[slowzuki]

Generally barometric dampers are not allowed to be used on solid fuel devices...

 

[groch]

I too had a small weld BB on the top of the Flue access. Only took a few minutes to file it flat -- once I figured out the issue.

 

[pybyr]

Generally barometric dampers are not allowed to be used on solid fuel devices...

that was the prevailing norm on pre-gasification technologies- but my Econoburn manual specifically refers to and recommends use of one- and I even called them to discuss and confirm. I think I've seen reference to using them in one recent Tarm manual that I looked at, too.

search the topic here and it seems that, with gasifiers' general absence of creosote, and otherwise more efficient combustion, the old rule no longer applies, and also that use of some draft regulator is beneficial to a gasifier's efficiency

[PS, I just wish I could come up with a simple way to reliably moderate and regulate the stack draft without so much already-heated air going up the flue- including when the boiler is not running, as is inevitable with a barometric damper]

 

[Birdman]

Trevor. I did install the barometric draft control. It is in a pipe which has a 45 degree angle... which is neither horizontil or vertical. It does nott seem to work well....Is there a way to adjust for a 45 angle?

 

[pybyr]

Trevor. I did install the barometric draft control. It is in a pipe which has a 45 degree angle... which is neither horizontil or vertical. It does nott seem to work well....Is there a way to adjust for a 45 angle?

put the damper in a tee of some sort of it is not already.

If you used the tee-adapter "snout" accesory that often comes with the dampers, make sure it has a tight fit where it meets the main pipe.

make sure that the tee is rotated so that the center leg of the tee comes away from the stack at a straight, level horizontal departure angle.

then make sure that when the barometric damper is installed in the tee, it is located in such a way that the hinge pivot is precisely horizontal and level

then, and only then, will you be able to actually adjust the setting on the damper using the adjustable weight that you'll see on the damper-- and to do that right, you'll need to find out what the proper draft for the Tarm is (ask them)

then get hold of a draft gauge to set it up.

unfortunately, the official draft gauges are expensive. perhaps you can borrow one (know anyone in the hearing trade?) to set up your damper. or, here is something at a good price, even though the scale is still a bit non-ideal for the very low draft pull you'll probably want to try to dial in:

http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?UID=2008111307204236&item=21-1623&catname;=

 

[Birdman]

Trevor. the damper is in a T. The T is set up at a 45 angle. Are you saying take it apart and hook it up horizontally? I thought my pipe was not supposed to go horizontal?

 

[pybyr]

Trevor. the damper is in a T. The T is set up at a 45 angle. Are you saying take it apart and hook it up horizontally? I thought my pipe was not supposed to go horizontal?

correct- the pipe should slope uphill from the combustion unit to the flue

re: damper, focus on the place where the damper is mounted in the tee.

the face of that opening of the tee, where the damper goes, should be vertical

then the damper needs to be installed so that its center hinge is level from side to size

after that, it's all in the adjustment of the damper's control

is that making more sense than my other explanation?

 

[Birdman]

I guess i still don't get it. My draft control is installed in a T. The T is at a 45 degree angle. In the directions it says how to set it up in a pipe that is straight up and down( vertical ) or in a pipe that is across ( horizontal ) however I am setting it up in a pipe that is neither. I do have it set up on a horizontal axis in the T. But the T is not horizontal nor vertical. I guess maybe I am asking the wrong question. How about this. How do I know if the barometric draft control is working?

 

[Birdman]

Update:

1. Smoke issue is really not a problem anymore. I have learned how to load the Tarm. I think smoke would only be issue if the Tarm was cold. I am keeping the temp up so smoke is no longer and issue. I took the draft control out... replaced it with staight pipe. Works much better.

2. The system has had to be tweaked.. turn this aquastat up or that one down etc. Open this valve a little.. so forth

3. I am still tweaking to meet needs of temp to house and water temp etc.

4. I achieved gasification early on.. it has been very orange. However.. this am.. i must have done something right... I have the sweetest bluish whitish flame ever!

5. The smoke coming out of plate has not happened if the loading directions area followed exactly. It still could come out because it is not sealed 100 percent. Tarm told me it is not supposed to be sealed. Why i don't know... I would feel better if my whole exaust piping and plate was sealed... this would mean no smoke in my basement if something happens. All smoke would exit via the only place it can... up the stack.... ANyone have comment on this?