Now….a Garn…

[Patti]

Well, I tried a pellet boiler, a Benjamin boiler, a Tarm Solo Boiler, and now finally a Garn (used but well cared for).
It’s my last ‘kick at the can ‘ - If it doesn’t make my life a whole lot easier than it has been with these other boilers, then I’m done with boilers and I’ll heat my house with a cookstove! 😊
So…a few questions for all you experienced folks!….
1) I have a 1200 gallon, 1/4” steel, insulated buffer tank inside my shop. The Garn holds about 2000 gallons I believe.
Can I/should I use the buffer tank as well as the Garn? (The less I have to stoke a fire the better!! 😉) It will be hooked up to a domestic hot water tank and (eventually) a hot tub and pool. I’d ‘like’ to think that I could get maybe three days before I’d have to stoke it again. Thoughts? Has anybody hooked up additional water storage to their Garns? If so, how much and how did it work? Also, I’m not quite sure how this would all mesh together because the buffer tank is a pressurized system whereas the Garn isn’t, so 🤷‍♀️.

2) How does one know if an air handler is the correct size? (I can’t find anyone that will do a heat load calculation, so that’s not an option. It’s. 2500sq ft (1857 log cabin) I close the loft and only heat about 1600 sq ft. The insulation is good, need new windows though. The Garn is 200,000 btu. In-floor heating in a 14’x14’ stone floor. Are air handlers measured by cfm? What size of air handler SHOULD I have? (I’m not sure off-hand what I have right now, but it’s pretty big 😊). I burn soft wood if I’m out working in the shop and can stoke it regularly, but usually it’s good dry hardwood (10% moisture content).


3) what is the best product to use to FLUSH the system to get rid of hard water build up and/or rust? Do you use the same treatment product to leave in the boiler as you do to flush the lines? Even though my Tarm was pressurized, I don’t think it was cleaned properly when it was installed, so on some of the clear piping along the lines you can see that it’s completely rusty.
4) I’m always hearing about flue gas measurements. I’ve never done them (or had them done) but I’d like to, so I know that I’m running it as efficiently as I can. Is there a tool for this (that isn’t crazy expensive!) ? Or does that kind of thing have to be done by a WETT certified HVAC guy? (I’m having trouble find a WETT certified person near me).
5) if you own/have owned a Garn, I’d like to hear about your experience: sq footage? Construction material of the house? Insulation? Heat loss? do you have multiple heat zones? Where you live and how often you have to stoke it in the throes of winter? (I’m in the Snowbelt - off of Lake Huron in Midwestern Ontario, with lots of -25°C stormy weather.) temps you keep your heat at? (I’m 66-68°) Domestic hot water? Hot tub? Radiant heating? How many cords of wood you go through a year (and if you burn winter & summer or just winter).

Is there anywhere to get Garn parts in Ontario or does everyone order from the States? I need some new door gasket material.
Any input, advice, or suggestions are all greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Patti

 

[hobbyheater]

If your Garn is 1500/2000 gallons you should not need any more storage !

 

[PassionForFire&Water]

I would not add the additional 1,200 gal thermal storge.
I'm pretty sure this Garn model is not designed for this additional capacity.

Reach out to Garn and hear what they have to say.
Not sure if they are still in business.

GARN® Products | HY-C®

Want to save money and heat your building with wood? GARN® Wood Heating Systems are made with decades of experience to deliver clean, cost-effective heat…

www.hy-c.com

 

[mynx]

Well, I tried a pellet boiler, a Benjamin boiler, a Tarm Solo Boiler, and now finally a Garn (used but well cared for).
It’s my last ‘kick at the can ‘ - If it doesn’t make my life a whole lot easier than it has been with these other boilers, then I’m done with boilers and I’ll heat my house with a cookstove! 😊
So…a few questions for all you experienced folks!….
1) I have a 1200 gallon, 1/4” steel, insulated buffer tank inside my shop. The Garn holds about 2000 gallons I believe.
Can I/should I use the buffer tank as well as the Garn? (The less I have to stoke a fire the better!! 😉) It will be hooked up to a domestic hot water tank and (eventually) a hot tub and pool. I’d ‘like’ to think that I could get maybe three days before I’d have to stoke it again. Thoughts? Has anybody hooked up additional water storage to their Garns? If so, how much and how did it work? Also, I’m not quite sure how this would all mesh together because the buffer tank is a pressurized system whereas the Garn isn’t, so 🤷‍♀️.

2) How does one know if an air handler is the correct size? (I can’t find anyone that will do a heat load calculation, so that’s not an option. It’s. 2500sq ft (1857 log cabin) I close the loft and only heat about 1600 sq ft. The insulation is good, need new windows though. The Garn is 200,000 btu. In-floor heating in a 14’x14’ stone floor. Are air handlers measured by cfm? What size of air handler SHOULD I have? (I’m not sure off-hand what I have right now, but it’s pretty big 😊). I burn soft wood if I’m out working in the shop and can stoke it regularly, but usually it’s good dry hardwood (10% moisture content).


3) what is the best product to use to FLUSH the system to get rid of hard water build up and/or rust? Do you use the same treatment product to leave in the boiler as you do to flush the lines? Even though my Tarm was pressurized, I don’t think it was cleaned properly when it was installed, so on some of the clear piping along the lines you can see that it’s completely rusty.
4) I’m always hearing about flue gas measurements. I’ve never done them (or had them done) but I’d like to, so I know that I’m running it as efficiently as I can. Is there a tool for this (that isn’t crazy expensive!) ? Or does that kind of thing have to be done by a WETT certified HVAC guy? (I’m having trouble find a WETT certified person near me).
5) if you own/have owned a Garn, I’d like to hear about your experience: sq footage? Construction material of the house? Insulation? Heat loss? do you have multiple heat zones? Where you live and how often you have to stoke it in the throes of winter? (I’m in the Snowbelt - off of Lake Huron in Midwestern Ontario, with lots of -25°C stormy weather.) temps you keep your heat at? (I’m 66-68°) Domestic hot water? Hot tub? Radiant heating? How many cords of wood you go through a year (and if you burn winter & summer or just winter).

Is there anywhere to get Garn parts in Ontario or does everyone order from the States? I need some new door gasket material.
Any input, advice, or suggestions are all greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Patti

Welcome to the Garn journey. I have the same model as you do and I like it. I had some serious headaches due to poor maintenance by the prior owner, but things are good now. It is a great system. First off, I would not add extra thermal storage. Your water tank holds 1900 gallons of water. Assuming a heat drop of 40° (heating to 175, refiring at 135), you have 608,000 BTUs to play with. You can figure out how long between firing pretty quickly based on how long it takes for the tank temperature to drop. I live in the upper peninsula of Michigan with winter lows anywhere from -20 to + 20°F. My home is 10 years old and exceptionally well insulated. I heat about 5000 ft.² with a hydronic system. The house stays 70 to 72° all winter long. I don’t intend to keep it that warm, but the house is set up to take full advantage of the sun we get so that heats it up. Having said that, I burn approximately 10 cords of well seasoned hardwood per year my guess is you will be someplace Around five or six chords per year.

Maintenance is everything on a guard. Managing water chemistry is critical. You need to test annually. There is a specific place to send your water sample to that. Does all the guard water testing. You can find it on their website. The problems I had when I first bought this house five years ago or related to absolutely no water testing, no water, maintenance, and a rust out in the bottom of the tank where the ant had dissolved into a clump on the bottom. Once your water chemistry is correct you don’t mess with it. It’s a closed system. If you find that you’re having to add water , that’s a sign of a problem. It’s very important to brush out all of the tubes at least annually. When you do that, you should replace the gaskets and I use the gaskets savers as well. Make sure you keep the dust blown out of the blower motor. I replace , broken fire brick every year, but that’s not all the fire brick. Make sure you get the right fire brick pad when you change them. I had the distinct pleasure today of changing the front reaction chamber. What that boils down to is an hour crawled all the way in the firebox, scraping out the old piece and inserting the new one. Not a huge deal.

Check online. There are a lot of good how to videos that. Martin Lunde, the inventor, produced. Martin sold his company last year to. Hy-C in St. Louis but I have not had any trouble getting parts. They are very good to work with. Martin is also very willing to chat live with any questions you have. These are his baby. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a message. Good luck.

 

[Patti]

Welcome to the Garn journey. I have the same model as you do and I like it. I had some serious headaches due to poor maintenance by the prior owner, but things are good now. It is a great system. First off, I would not add extra thermal storage. Your water tank holds 1900 gallons of water. Assuming a heat drop of 40° (heating to 175, refiring at 135), you have 608,000 BTUs to play with. You can figure out how long between firing pretty quickly based on how long it takes for the tank temperature to drop. I live in the upper peninsula of Michigan with winter lows anywhere from -20 to + 20°F. My home is 10 years old and exceptionally well insulated. I heat about 5000 ft.² with a hydronic system. The house stays 70 to 72° all winter long. I don’t intend to keep it that warm, but the house is set up to take full advantage of the sun we get so that heats it up. Having said that, I burn approximately 10 cords of well seasoned hardwood per year my guess is you will be someplace Around five or six chords per year.

Maintenance is everything on a guard. Managing water chemistry is critical. You need to test annually. There is a specific place to send your water sample to that. Does all the guard water testing. You can find it on their website. The problems I had when I first bought this house five years ago or related to absolutely no water testing, no water, maintenance, and a rust out in the bottom of the tank where the ant had dissolved into a clump on the bottom. Once your water chemistry is correct you don’t mess with it. It’s a closed system. If you find that you’re having to add water , that’s a sign of a problem. It’s very important to brush out all of the tubes at least annually. When you do that, you should replace the gaskets and I use the gaskets savers as well. Make sure you keep the dust blown out of the blower motor. I replace , broken fire brick every year, but that’s not all the fire brick. Make sure you get the right fire brick pad when you change them. I had the distinct pleasure today of changing the front reaction chamber. What that boils down to is an hour crawled all the way in the firebox, scraping out the old piece and inserting the new one. Not a huge deal.

Check online. There are a lot of good how to videos that. Martin Lunde, the inventor, produced. Martin sold his company last year to. Hy-C in St. Louis but I have not had any trouble getting parts. They are very good to work with. Martin is also very willing to chat live with any questions you have. These are his baby. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a message. Good luck.

Hi Mynx Thank you so much for that detailed response! I really appreciate it. Sorry it’s taken me so long to respond… I’ve been a ‘little tied up’ on a very steep Learning Curve 😂 Holy Nelly is there a lot to learn 😂 I’m getting there, slowly but surely. I’ve watched a lot of the videos and I’ve actually talked to Martin a number of times at length (Lordy he is a PATIENT man 😂😂) He has been SO INCREDIBLY HELPFUL- which is SO nice after pretty much having to fly solo on my Tarm. I am going to forego the extra storage because it is a vertical tank which would mean pushing water from the Garn up to the inlet, and if there are any air locks, the garn will overheat and over flow, so nope, that’s out! it’s just being cleaned thoroughly from top to bottom, and I’m just putting an order together for some new bricks, gaskets, chemicals etc etc . Apparently, Martin said he knew right away that the previous owner had put the wood to close to the front because the heat shield was completely mangled, and there are a few cracks in the collar, but only one needs some welding. I am soooo hoping that this beast kicks out the heat I need and that I won’t burn a million cords of wood a year or have to go to the shop to stoke it a million times a day (and I hate winter at the best of times!) The details you gave me about the square footage etc will be helpful for comparison once I get it running. Did you/do you test the flue gases? Did you do it or get a W.E.T.T guy to do it? Did you vent vertically or horizontally? It would be very easy to attach to the vertical chimney I have there right now, but I think we’re going to go horizontal out the wall beside it. It will be a lot easier to clean than a 18 or 21’ chimney (🙄ughhh I dread doing it- it’s a such a gross dirty job! 🤢😂 but…has to be done. 🤷‍♀️ I want to do a little more research just to make SURE the heat exchanger I have right now is the right size for the Garn. Do you get your chemical from PrecisionChem? I’m just a ‘wee bit concerned’ about getting these parts and chemicals shipped from the States… because they HAMMER us with duties and taxes, and the exchange is brutal, things are held up for WEEKS at the border, and who knows if they’ll even ALLOW the chemical across (we can’t get flea treatments of or cats or fly spray for horses, so I can’t see them allowing this…but 🤷‍♀️we’ll see! Thanks again for your input…. I might be bugging you some more down the road (if that okay!😊) I find it so helpful to talk to people who deal with the same thing on a daily basis as I will be!! Going to look for some wood now… usually I’m a good year in advance (I cut and split and bring it into my shop to stack - and have done about 40 cords a year for the last few years ) but this year… I just didn’t have it in me 😞(well, having two bone-on-bone knees that are awaiting replacement didn’t exactly help either ! 😂 ). So I only have a few cords done…which is worrying me, but I have to get the 1200 gallon buffer tank out before I put any wood in….but I think I hear my plumber friend out there working on that right now, so I better get out there and give him a hand!! Thanks again! Patti

 

[Patti]

If your Garn is 1500/2000 gallons you should not need any more storage !

I decided to forego it because the buffet tank is vertical so it would mean pushing water up to the input. That could mean air locks - overheating and an overflowing Garn, so nixed that idea! Thanks for your input! Patti

 

[Patti]

I would not add the additional 1,200 gal thermal storge.
I'm pretty sure this Garn model is not designed for this additional capacity.

Reach out to Garn and hear what they have to say.
Not sure if they are still in business.

GARN® Products | HY-C®

Want to save money and heat your building with wood? GARN® Wood Heating Systems are made with decades of experience to deliver clean, cost-effective heat…

www.hy-c.com

Hi! Thanks for your reply. I spoke with Martin Lunde (Dectra/Garn) and he’s been incredibly helpful. Decided against the buffer tank- see my explanation below. Thank you for your input! It’s very appreciated! Patti