How to start gasification faster...

[BrownianHeatingTech]

Supposedly, the Froling wood boiler can start gasifying in about five minutes from ignition.

Kindling, then a full load of wood, and close the main door. Open the ignition door (small door between the upper and lower doors), add and light some paper. Switch it on and is self-starts.

(broken link removed)

That's the claim, anyway. The other "extra" door is the door at the rear of the boiler, which allows you to empty ashes without having to use a long scraper to pull them forward.

Have I mentioned how cool these things are, and how much I want one? Sadly, I have to wait until next year, since I need to build an addition to house it, first.

Joe

 

[steam man]

Is that the addition for the new baby? Sure it is..... Congratulations.

Mike

 

[BrownianHeatingTech]

Is that the addition for the new baby? Sure it is..... Congratulations.

Thanks. One of these days, I'll get some sleep. Honest!

But no, the addition isn't for the baby. We already have a nursery/kids' room. When they get older, the loft over the garage will be weatherized and finished as the kids' rooms. The master bedroom is at the opposite end of the house from the attached garage.

The addition is specifically to allow for a boiler room, some additional storage (old farmhouses are short on closet space), and a humidity-tolerant sunroom for a wooden hot tub. Basically, the ability to put in the boiler, thereby saving money on heating costs, pays for the other rooms which are for convenience.

Joe

 

[jebatty]

Supposedly, the Froling wood boiler can start gasifying in about five minutes from ignition.

I'd love to have a Froling also. At the same time, fully satisfied with what I have.

Entirely feasible, I believe. With moderate care, the Tarm can achieve this also (5 - 10 minutes), using very dry kindling to get fire started (damper open, firebox and gasification champer doors cracked open, draft fan on), then dry small splits or wood scraps (I do about a 1/4 load), and when that fire is blazing, shut doors, shut damper, and usually immediately a roaring blast exits through the nozzle. I let that burn down about 1/2 way before fully loading the firebox, which allows for fully heating the firebox and the gasification refractory.

I would call this more of a high energy secondary burn at the start then full blown gasification. It takes just a little longer, as heat builds up, to turn that blast into an orange/blue gas burn. And then towards the end almost invisible roaring "flame."

 

[Nofossil]

Since I start a fire almost every day, reducing the associated time and smoke has been a big goal for me. My current technique gets me to gasification in under six minutes almost every time. My record is four minutes.

I place a split on either side of the nozzle, leaving a 4" to 6" trough in the middle. I crumple one sheet of newspaper and one handful of dry kindling in the trough, then successively larger logs starting at 1" going up to about 3", with the firebox about half full at the end.

Open the bypass damper and secondary door, and light with handy piezo-ignited propane torch.

Keep upper door cracked a couple of inches (greatly reduces smoke up the chimney) and watch that it doesn't puff any smoke. After four to six minutes, you have a roaring fire. Close the doors and bypass damper and turn on the controller.

I've tried building upside down fires and starting them using the EKO blower, but no luck at all. I think the blower need to run much more slowly to start fires.

 

[deerefanatic]

My boiler takes about 20 mins from start to full gasification. It's imperitave on my unit that there be a good thick coal bed or I get low combustion temps and output from the boiler.

I start my fires with newspaper, cardboard box, and small pieces of wood, with firebox door closed and gasification door open with bypass open. Lets the smoke up the chimney. After stack temps hit 300 or so, I fire up the fan, close the gasification chamber door and the bypass and let her rip. From that point, it usually about 20 mins before I hit 1100 F at the heat exchanger. I add wood slowly as the fire builds before loading it up all the way.

 

[kevindauch]

I have a Tarm Solo 40 and use a similar procedure that nofossil uses, but I use more newspaper, about 8 sheets. This seems to be the fastest way to get things going about 5-7 minutes. I've tried Tarms suggestion for starting a fire by closing the door and turning on the fan, but it doesn't work so sell for me.

 

[Nofossil]

I have a Tarm Solo 40 and use a similar procedure that nofossil uses, but I use more newspaper, about 8 sheets. This seems to be the fastest way to get things going about 5-7 minutes. I've tried Tarms suggestion for starting a fire by closing the door and turning on the fan, but it doesn't work so sell for me.

This may get into differences between brands. I've found that with mine if I keep the primary door closed, the fire doesn't get enough air and it smokes horribly. Only six minutes, but it's obnoxious and embarrassing. With the primary door cracked open, more than one sheet of newspaper makes too much fire too quickly, and I'll get smoke and puffing out the primary door.

Still experimenting, but now it's almost all fine-tuning.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I find that leaving the primary door cracked open can be the only way to get the fire going initially, but at some point in the process, it helps to close the door and let the fire roar up from below. Knowing when to do that is the trick. Once I get a good roaring fire in the primary chamber, after a minute or two, it's ready to begin gasifying. Typically, it starts with some smoke and small flames coming down through the nozzles. After about 5 more minutes, the smoke goes away and it's all flame. If not, then kicking things around with the poker is usually all it takes. Lately, I've been wrapping up the whole process (from a cold start) in about 10 minutes.