I can feel vibrations/rumbling sometimes

[muncybob]

There are times during a burn that sitting in my comfy recliner, which is situated almost directly above the WG in our basement, that I can feel a rumbling in the floorboards and thru the chair itself. Last night it even made the lamp on an end table next to me shake a bit.

What's going on? If you look at the boiler or pipes it does not appear to be vibrating. Too much air into the burn box...or maybe, not enough? This was the first burn of the year so the boiler started out in clean condition.

 

[Gasifier]

Bob,

I have had one instance of what I call a big breathing sound from my Wood Gun. And that was also during my first firing. What others have called "Puffing" I guess. It has not happened since then. I did not however feel it upstairs. My Gun sits on the basement concrete floor, and I imagine yours does as well. Is that correct? So I am curious as to what would make it go through the wooden structure of the house? I am curious about your set up. How airtight is your room in the basement, the entire basement, the entire house, that the boiler is in? Is there good circulation for it to draw air in? How was your first burn besides that? A good feeling to get fire going as the temperatures slowly drop.

 

[bpirger]

Puffing in a Garn is a very noticable event! Essentially you have too much fuel and not enough oxygen to sustain the burn. There is an excessive amount of fuel, no oxygen to burn it, and then the oxygen reaches and there's a big "suck" of air. Did you have an unusual amount of surface area to volume into the wood? I.e. lots of dry pallets, kindling, or similar? This tends to cause the problem in the Garn I've read...though I have only seen hints of it myself. BUt I always burns cordwood and not super dry pallet materials. FOlks who do burn such things in a garn have apparently learned to bundle them in tight bunches, which helps to cut down on the surface area exposed, and reduces the problem.

Are you sure it isn't air in the pipes? Sounds like puffing, but air in pipes can make all sorts of noise too....just checking.

So was there anything abnormal with your load of wood?

 

[thecontrolguy]

Are you sure it isn't air in the pipes? Sounds like puffing, but air in pipes can make all sorts of noise too....just checking.

SNIP .. I would also be curious about the air in the pipes, thing, but more importantly I have heard something like you say in boiler systems when there was steam being formed. In a non-steam boiler, any steam formed has no proper place to go and so 'burps' through the pipes until it cools and contracts back to water. Sounds like low frequency rumbling and can shake the hell out of any piping. Perhaps you are very sure there are no hot-spots on the water side of your heat exchangers, and the water flow through your boiler is at least to the minimum spec'd for the fire rates you anticipate.

Last year we had our smallest hot- water water-tube boiler fracture 2 tubes and make a hell of a mess out of our large boiler room (at work). This was due to somewhat blocked water tubes at the end of the primary fire chamber. Water 'popping' into steam in this location eroded the pipes (a form of cavitation erosion) and caused the pipe walls to become weak and then rupture. Woo wee!

Cheers and safe firing this winter to all ..

 

[muncybob]

A few answers to the questions and then my observation today.
Yes, it's on concrete(entire basement floor is concrete), basement is not well sealed. As a matter of fact, I had the interior doors of the basement that lead to the exterior doors above grade open and a window was cracked open too. "Old" part of the house is not sealed as well as the newer part, my chair that I referred to is in the old part. I burn only cord wood and nothing unusual about the loads I've had in there this weekend. I don't think it's the pipes. I can feel the rumble slightly if I put my hand on top of the boiler. The thing about the "rumble" is that you can feel it but can't really hear it until you enter the basement and even then it's very faint.

So, my observation?? I went to the boiler when I felt the "rumble" today and played with the fresh air intake damper. The rumble seems to subside and then go away if I close the damper all the way...almost the opposite of what I thought would happen.

 

[NNYorker]

Rumbling as in the sound similar to a jet taking off is normal with my Econoburn. With good gasification going I can hear it in my house ----furthest room from my boiler. It's a nice rumble though....... Could it just be you are getting a really good burn/gasification?

 

[muncybob]

The rumble description is meant to refer to the vibration I can feel...it's not really a rumbling "sound". The only audible effect is when I go down to the basement and then it's very slight and almost seems like the air pressure in the basement is fluctuating.

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

My Atmos can do that too. Last year when my splits were too small it was more common. Try some larger wood in that WG & see if that helps Bob, Randy

 

[Gasifier]

So, my observation?? I went to the boiler when I felt the “rumble†today and played with the fresh air intake damper. The rumble seems to subside and then go away if I close the damper all the way…almost the opposite of what I thought would happen.

Bob, I have been leaving my damper open about half way. I am surprised that your fan can get enough air flow into your fire. I know the actual damper is smaller than the pipe itself, but it will be interesting to see if you get hot enough temperatures as fast as you did before. I am pretty sure I read on hear that someone else with a Wood Gun said he keeps his damper shut as well though. How is the burning going now? We have had some cooler nights here, but still little heat demand. It has been warming up to high fifties in the afternoon still. Not that I am complaining about that. Less wood burnt that way.

On a different subject. Are you thinking of trying storage in the future with your Wood Gun?

 

[muncybob]

AHS had told me that if my heat load is not large then running completely closed is fine. Our heat loss is way under what the E100 will put out so I'm going closed and we'll see as this seems to have remedied the situation.

Regarding storage, the shoulder season is about the only time I wish I had storage. Fortunatley I did get the WG with the 4 hour cycle timer and this helps a lot but I'm sure I'm burning more wood than necessary and storage is the remedy to that. It's something that's "on the list" but it's down the road a bit.

On another note, I took the fresh air inlet disc out this summer to give it a good cleaning as it didn't seem to swivel much and also to clean out the tube into the boiler a bit better. After only 2 heating seasons the metal part of the disc facing into the boiler has deteriorated substantially. AHS sells the rubber/silicone part on it's own for about $9 each and also sells the complete disc assembly for......$52! I thought I mis heard him, but no...that's the price. I bought one and I hope it's the last one as I have a friend that is going to see about fabricating some for me. He thinks they have the exact same rubber type material where he works and can cut me the metal parts in SS so all I'll have to do is put them together.

AHS gets parts to me reasonably quick but they are expensive!