Newbie has questions ...

[mcdonals]

Hello all. I'm new here - this is my first post.

We have plans to get a gasification boiler in the near future.
The information in this forum is VERY useful.

Our heating loads will be :
In the garage: cement slab 4" thick x 500 sq ft.
In the house: DHW-family of 5, water to air heat exchanger-1700 sq ft ranch + basement in existing forced air system.
Seasonal: swimming pool, small wood drying kiln, small greenhouse.

A few questions:

Brand: Eko Orlan and Econoburn brands get most of my interest so far, and get favourable reviews
What parts typically need to be replaced on these? How often? At what cost ?
Is PAXO an Eko product? Differece from Orlan product? Does anyone here have one?
Is the 25 year Econoburn warranty a realistic offering? It seems far beyond what the competition offers. How long have Econoburn boilers have been made?
Water storage: Our boiler will be installed in a garage, 150' from our house. Can the water storage be put there, or does it need to be in the house, where most of the heat will be used?

Thanks for your comments,
Steve

 

[pybyr]

Hello all. I'm new here - this is my first post.

We have plans to get a gasification boiler in the near future.
The information in this forum is VERY useful.

Our heating loads will be :
In the garage: cement slab 4" thick x 500 sq ft.
In the house: DHW-family of 5, water to air heat exchanger-1700 sq ft ranch + basement in existing forced air system.
Seasonal: swimming pool, small wood drying kiln, small greenhouse.

A few questions:

Brand: Eko Orlan and Econoburn brands get most of my interest so far, and get favourable reviews
What parts typically need to be replaced on these? How often? At what cost ?
Is PAXO an Eko product? Differece from Orlan product? Does anyone here have one?
Is the 25 year Econoburn warranty a realistic offering? It seems far beyond what the competition offers. How long have Econoburn boilers have been made?
Water storage: Our boiler will be installed in a garage, 150' from our house. Can the water storage be put there, or does it need to be in the house, where most of the heat will be used?

Thanks for your comments,
Steve

In any gasifier, the ceramic 'target' for the flame, in the bottom chamber, will need to be replaced periodically (which may vary with make, use, etc)(but likely every year or two) and the actual refractory/ nozzle that joins the upper and lower chambers may need replacing at some point (probably not for 5+ years, I am told).

Paxo is made by the same folks as EKO- the Orlanski company (family owned) from Poland; owners of their products seem pleased with their experience.

Econoburn itself has been around for several years, but it is a business endeavor within Dunkirk Metal, which has been building boilers since about 1946. The company is very established and very experienced with boiler fabrication. The Econoburn design takes some relatively 'tried and true' basics of gasifier designs that have evolved over time, and then uses its own approach to some construction and control details that (in my opinion) make those details particularly simple and sturdy. 25 years for a warranty does not seem unrealistic.

Storage can go in a detached building-- various people here have done that with success-- but if you can located it in the house, then you have the advantage (assuming that you live in a place where you need heat more often than cooling) that heat lost from the tank (in spite of insulation) will help warm the living space.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Welcome to the Boiler Room, Real Maple. I think Trevor pretty well covered all the bases. I'm entering my third heating season with an EKO 60 and my ceramic "flame catchers" are still in good shape. Econoburn has a new, very simple design for their ceramic flame catchers that looks really interesting. I'll probably try one of those when the time comes to replace mine.

I can't think of an indoor gasifier that has a bad reputation. All are basically the same design, and it's simple, with very few moving parts. As our friend Nofossil likes to point out, they put a lot of fancy engineering into a product that looks deceptively simple.

The main thing to remember with any gasifier is that they require very dry wood to work properly. I gather from your handle that you have access to maple. If so, that's good. My boiler really kicks butt when I feed it hard maple. I get really fine, white ash, which is an indication of complete combustion.

Anyway, I don't think you can go wrong with any of the popular indoor gasifiers on the market. Be sure to check out our sponsors (top and lower banners). In addition to all our fine members, they're keeping this site going strong.

 

[hkobus]

Welcome RealMaple,

I have the older style Eko-40 (not super) and have had it running for a few seasons now. You'r welcome to have a look at it sometime as you may not be far away. PM me and we can set up a time to check it out if you wish.
I am happy with the unit and with help from all on the forum here have been able to overcome some of the little things one needs to learn to effectively operate gasifiers.
I have not installed the storage system yet, but is planned to be in the basement, where the boiler is 70 ft from the house.

Good luck for now.

Henk.

 

[mcdonals]

All - thanks for your responses.
Things are becoming clearer .

Steve