Jetstream

[Buck1200]

I went to look at a Jetstream tonight. It's hard to say what shape it's actually in since according to the current owner it sat for 20 years in the original owner's barn, never used. He made a go of it last winter, but never really got his system working well, so states that it was never actually used very much once finally installed. Of particular concern is that the system did not have a properly sized expansion tank for the 600 gal welded steel storage tank (!), so at one point blew a weld (in the tank, not the boiler). The solution then was to run it as an open system. Not good. Nor did it have low temp return water protection that I could find.

Heartening was the enthusiasm with which the guys at Kerr (they own the design now) received his inquiries for manuals and parts (had to rebuild the inducer fan).

Is Slowzuki the only current forum member with one of these boilers? If so, how's it running? I understand they make quite a lot of noise...

I'm on the fence about buying it... as yet have no place to put it, nor radiator system to tie it into (next winter, hopefully). Mostly worried that this one season might have done irreparable damage.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Slowzuki is your guy. I think he has three of them. He checks in every once in awhile, but you might try emailing him for a quicker response. Busy guy.

 

[slowzuki]

Hello Buck,

I do have three of the monsters and even own one that was over pressurized (did he have a relief valve on it?) Did he have any corrosion protection in it while it was run open? Most boilers can live a few years open with no protection but it surely does some harm each year.

I wouldn't worry about the low temp return for the short use it had. Depending on the tank plumbing detail it could have helped protect the boiler. The Jetstream has a bit of wiggle room on condensing too, so his chimney may have borne the brunt of the condensation and not his boiler.

The original vacuum motor draft inducer was very noisy. The 2nd generation belt driven fan was much quieter. Currently I have part numbers for an even quieter direct drive DC (variable speed capable) fan that a gentleman in Canada tracked down. The new fan is a direct replacement as the belt driven one was used for cooling harddrives or something similar in computer farms.

If it is a newer model, they had additional ties through the fire tubes holding the sides together and were rated for low pressure steam use, although you had to pay for the ASME stamp to get them certified in most places.

 

[Buck1200]

This one is a 120S built by Hampton. I did not hear it run but the owner did say that it was pretty loud, though to be fair he has it positioned almost within his living space. He had rebuilt the fan box when he replaced the inducer. Were I to take it, I'd be very interested in this variable speed drive unit.

What sort of stack temperatures do you typically see with these boilers? Is the efficiency comparable to the modern day Tarm and EKO downdraft designs in your opinion? He stated how strange it was that it took an awfully long time for the stove pipe to even get hot once he started a fire. I presume this means that he had the pump running from the first minute, flushing the water jacket with cold tank water, or later, water right out of his uninsulated floor slab. I also noticed a little liquid creasote leaking out of the stove pipe onto the fan box housing- could have been just black condensate as well, but he did run it some without the storage tank, so I assume the boiler would have hit its high limit and shut down during the burn and then started smoking. Would there be a particular spot on the water jacket where I could check for weak metal (ala the current Aqua-therm thread) resulting from long duration condensation?

 

[slowzuki]

Yes sir, I'd be interested to see the serial number, if it is a Hampton, it is actually a 1980 or 1981 model. I have serial number 20 in my collection as well as a later 120SB. My early one has almost a square combustion chamber while both the later models it is rounded.

The stove pipe would take a long time to heat up, shouldn't get over 300 F in normal clean fire tube conditions. Sounds like he has the pump running too though. The liquid creosote means it must have idled on the high limit for quite a bit as the combustion is all in a refractory unaffected by the water temps. Normal flue condition for a jetstream is light coloured ash only.

Running direct to the slab must have been hard on the old girl, definitely not a good idea.

A good spot to check is over the fire tubes, where the smoke box collects the output, condensation would have sat there.

A desireable feature is on the SB's where the refractory plug can be removed on the lower back area of the unit. This lets you replace the combustion tunnel without tearing the whole unit down.

The efficiency was about 85% which compared favourably to todays gasifiers. The good thing about the Jetstream is it will burn fairly wet wood without complaint. Some gasifiers take a while to light off without good wood to start the load. The efficiency does drop though.

 

[Buck1200]

Thanks for the info. Part of me wants the thing for the novelty aspect, as well as the possibility of getting me into a gasifier for very little money. I'm just wary of rotten water jackets, cracked refractories, and being stuck without a reliable parts supplier. It also puts out a good deal more heat than I need, which complicates my thermal storage options (I have a serious space problem where I live). An 18kW boiler would be perfect for my place once the insulating project is complete.

How much wood do you burn and how much storage do you have? Are the rumors true that Kerr is going to attempt to bring the design back into production? This was told to me by the current owner...

 

[slowzuki]

Kerr is looking at bringing the design back I've talked to one of their engineers a few times. Almost all parts are still available anyways. Cracked refractory is patched easily but minor cracks are no big deal. The rotten water jacket would be bad but they are substantial, easily removable from the base (the thing shipped in parts).

The too much heat could be an issue. I've looked at trying to scale it back to make the burn longer so less storage or smaller hx to the storage. Not a real easy way to do it that would work for sure.

I've not burned any of my own yet, but I have 800 gal storage and have visited several functioning Jetstream installs. The complaints I hear are there can be a booming of the top cover of the smoke box under some conditions so most have a brick on top and if you don't seal your chimney extremely well, you get flyash leaking out joints due to the pressurized exhaust.

I suspect I will burn about 1/3 less wood than with my wood stove. I will be keeping the heat up more often so the huge increase in efficiency will be offset by waking up to it being warm in the house.

 

[Buck1200]

Keeping the heat "up" is a primary goal of mine as well. I currently heat mostly with a not-quite-big-enough Hearthstone Heritage supplemented by an oil furnace and I have to say I'm about ready to awake to warmth for once, as well.

I think I'm going to let this old girl go... I'm not ready to take it on, and it's too big anyway. Thanks for the info, slowzuki, and if anyone in the vermont area wants this Jetstream, it's listed in this issue of the trading post and located in Wolcott.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Man, don't tell slowzuki that. He'll be down there trying score that thing instead of working on the three he's already got!

 

[slowzuki]

My wife would kill me! I've just got done working two months in one so hopefully I'll have some time to finish getting everything ready.

 

[ladyfire]

Slowzuki,

I see that you own 3 Jetstream wood boilers...could you please tell me how much a storage tank costs and where I could find one? I am In Pictou, NS. I would like to purchase a Jetstream for my home (2.5 story; 3000 sq ft; 100 year old Victorian home; cast iron rads; currently 4 heating zones with oil fired boiler; some insulation but not definitely not to today's standards= high oil bills!). We had installed a non-energy efficient New York Thermal WF200 and it's 100,000 BTUs were not sufficient to properly heat our home. The oil boiler had to constantly cut in to help the wood boiler. We spent just as much money on both wood and oil as we had on oil in the previous year! Can the Jetstream be hooked up to work in combination with our oil boiler? Do you know if the Jetstream my be sufficient to heat our home? What kind of home do you currently heat with the Jetstream (age; insulation/no insulation; sq footage; # of heating zones; # of stories/levels)? How many months of the year do you run the boiler and is it continuously running during these months? How many cord of dry wood do you usually burn per season? What do you keep your thermostat(s) set at during the day and night? Do you have an installation manual that we could give to a boiler technician? Could you possibly recommend an installer who knows the proper way to install this boiler? Do you know if the parts are easily replaced, and where we would obtain them? Do you have an approximate cost of what it would be to install everything to our current system (complete hook-up including piping, parts, etc)? Any and all information would be greatly appreciated. We are really looking into this option but need a lot of info, including the potential cost of everything installed (including a 1000 gallon holding tank), and we definitely need to know that it will heat our home adequately. The New York Thermal has been disconnected and sold and we need an alternative soon. The winter is fast approaching. I am pregnant with twins, am not allowed to work, as my pregnancy is high risk, and we are down to one income. We understand there will be an initial investment, but we require something to alleviate $4500 oil bills per season...we are hoping that a Jetstream will pay for itself in oil savings in just 2-3 seasons, so long as the initial investment isn't outrageous! A prompt reply would be greatly appreciated. We have a lead on only 2 Jetstreams and they probably won't last very long. Also, do you know of any Jetstreams for sale? Thanks so much, in advance. Cheers and kind regards, Ladyfire!