Getting ready to replace the main ceramics in the Wood Gun.

[Gasifier]

Hi guys. Hope all is well at Hearth.com, in the boiler room, and with you and yours!

Eight seasons in with the Wood Gun E100 and storage tank. So far so good. Nice, steady, even heating! I have replaced the nozzle in the boiler three times if I remember correctly. The last time was with their new nozzle bricks that bridge over the the center blocks if your shelf is breaking up. They worked well for me last season. Now it’s time to do the large, main ceramic blocks. These all have specific curved shape and house the tubes or tunnels and the shelves. I’m hoping it won’t be too hard of a job. I don’t have much experience with ceramics so I’ll need to be careful with them. They cost me dearly. Ugh! Any advice from Wood Gun owners or other boiler owners you could give from your experiences would be appreciated. I’ve reached out to one fellow Wood Gun owner I know who has done it in the past. I’m sure there are more.

How did you break your old ones up to get them out? (I’m thinking of hammer and a mason chisel I have.)

How did you place the new ones in? Certain order?

I have a new blanket to install as well?

Very warm temperatures here for end of September!

Thank you for your time.

 

[hobbyheater]

The refractory looks very rotten.

I used a sledghammer to brake it up was tougher to do than what I expected . If you don't have room to swing a hammer an air chisel should work well.

 

[Gasifier]

Mine are in smaller pieces.

I moved them down to the basement a couple at a time earlier this morning.

I may find the time to get the old ones out this weekend and see if I can get the new blanket and these new ceramics into the boiler as well.

 

[maple1]

Good luck!

 

[Gasifier]

Thank you maple1.

 

[Drewby]

I’m just curious, about how much wood was burned through yours? And did you ever try to build them back up with some high temp cement to extend the life of them?
I just recently acquired a used wood gun and was considering putting it into service in my shop after I install a few new parts on it.
Let us know how it goes.
Thanks
Drew

 

[Gasifier]

I’m just curious, about how much wood was burned through yours? And did you ever try to build them back up with some high temp cement to extend the life of them?
I just recently acquired a used wood gun and was considering putting it into service in my shop after I install a few new parts on it.
Let us know how it goes.
Thanks
Drew

I burn about 9-10 full cord a year through the boiler. Depending on temperatures and when I start and stop burning. So in 8 years that would be 72-80 cord during those years.

I did not try to build them back up with high temp cement.

 

[Gasifier]

I’ve been busy with one thing after the other but did get the old ceramics out of the boiler and cleaned it all out. I tried placing the new blanket in the boiler and then go with the new ceramics. But the blanket was not making sense to me. The pieces were not fitting correctly. So I called AHS and told them what was going on. He had me measure the pieces I had and tell him the sizes. It looks like someone made a mistake and they are sending me another piece. So I’ll have to wait until I get that on Friday or Saturday.

 

[Gasifier]

New blanket and ceramics installed.

Now. Where to fill in with trowel-ease? Not many gaps that are that wide.

 

[muncybob]

Looks good! Why do you expect to use trowel-ease? How did you break up the old stuff? 9+ cords/year...seems like a lot to me. We only go through about 4+.

 

[Gasifier]

Looks good! Why do you expect to use trowel-ease? How did you break up the old stuff? 9+ cords/year...seems like a lot to me. We only go through about 4+.

The trowel-ease is just used to fill cracks/spaces. I used it along the tops of ceramics on sides of boiler, and back and front walls to help seal the ceramics up. Probably not necessary, but I did it anyway.

Old stuff was broken up with my hammer and a mason chisel. I have two widths of those. The old ceramics broke up fairly easy.

9+ cord a year IS a lot of firewood. I heat my house of about 4200 square feet, my attached garage of about 900 square feet to 45-50 degrees, and our domestic hot water for showers, baths, dish washer, all for five people (3 female, 2 males) living in said house. Some take longer showers than others and have to be told to get out. (Teenagers!) LOL The insulation value in my house is decent in some areas, not so good in other areas.

If I burned the equivalent in oil(kerosene) it would be about 1350 gallons of oil. At 3.50/gallon oil(kerosene), that’s about $4725. I spent about $1,000 on some good hardwood for this season. The other I cut Ash and Pine off our property. So saving about $3725 this season.

 

[maple1]

I think I was in the 9 cord area too for quite a while, with my old boiler. Or maybe 8. You're heating a lot more space than I was (trying to).

Some glad those days are long gone.

 

[muncybob]

Yep, that's a lot of area to heat. Wish my garage had some heat other than a portable kero heater.

 

[Gasifier]

The in-floor heating I had put in the concrete floor in the garage when I remodeled it is awesome.

 

[Highbeam]

The in-floor heating I had put in the concrete floor in the garage when I remodeled it is awesome.

My 1800 lf of radiant tubes are sitting unused in the slab of my 1800 SF insulated shop. It makes me sad to hear from folks like you about how great it is to heat that way.

 

[Gasifier]

My 1800 lf of radiant tubes are sitting unused in the slab of my 1800 SF insulated shop. It makes me sad to hear from folks like you about how great it is to heat that way.

Why is this?

 

[Highbeam]

No boiler, the cost of equipment to get hot water into those tubes is excruciatingly high when compared to just about anything else.

 

[maple1]

Electric equipment is pretty cheap.

That's not to say the electric costs to run it is too though.

Pretty sure from what used things I see around here being sold pretty regularly, I could get a used wood boiler and small pumping/mixing setup up and running for around $1k, installing in a garage. Push it to $2k and I could likely add in some storage too. Chimney & insurance situations dependant.

 

[Gasifier]

I think I was in the 9 cord area too for quite a while, with my old boiler. Or maybe 8. You're heating a lot more space than I was (trying to).

Some glad those days are long gone.

I was thinking about this again this morning when moving firewood. I need to keep this in mind when talking about how much firewood I go through. I usually burn somewhere between 30-40% White Pine. Simply because it is all over my property. This firewood obviously burns away faster and does not have the BTUs of the other wood I burn. The other is generally 10-20% White Ash, also from my property, and then better quality hardwood I buy all cut, split, and delivered. Usually Beech or Maple.

 

[Highbeam]

Electric equipment is pretty cheap.

That's not to say the electric costs to run it is too though.

Pretty sure from what used things I see around here being sold pretty regularly, I could get a used wood boiler and small pumping/mixing setup up and running for around $1k, installing in a garage. Push it to $2k and I could likely add in some storage too. Chimney & insurance situations dependant.

Electric wall hung was 750-1000 plus near boiler stuff is about the cheapest way to go. Already have a permitted wood stove in the shop so a chimney exists for whatever.

zero used pellet or wood boilers on the market here. Seems to be an east coast or Midwest thing.

 

[maple1]

Some guys around here are heating their garages with infloor, piped to a simple electric DHW tank heater. They're likely just keeping it above freezing a bit.

 

[Highbeam]

Some guys around here are heating their garages with infloor, piped to a simple electric DHW tank heater. They're likely just keeping it above freezing a bit.

At just 4500 watts, that’s not enough heat to bother with and the wall hung boilers include the relays for turning on pumps based on the millivolt thermostat. I would only want to maintain 45-50 degreesbutwe can get single digit F temperatures here.

I’ll write up a whole thread if I ever do it. It’s so cheap just to burn wood in the stove but it takes a lot of time in an outbuilding to keep it warm that way.