Old, old member, new build

[sdrobertson]

Hello everyone. I hope so of the older members remember me lol. I have a sticky posted along time ago about fine tuning a eko 60 with 2000 gallons storage. I have not burned this unit for 6 years as I hooked up to natural gas and to be honest it was foolish not to use that lol. I shut the boiler and storage down and there it sits. I have decided to move from my present residence out into the country and the only option is propane. I'm not going down that road so I have a decision to make. I can pull my eko and 2000 gallon storage and take it with me and set it up at the new house or go a different route with a new boiler. I have been out of the game for years and at the time I was active it was eko, garn, tarm, and the old outdoor boilers. I always wanted a garn but I am pretty handy and building my system with 4 propane tanks for storage was fun. Dissembling it will not be lol. I had to tinker with my old eko allot till I finally figured it out and I don't want to spend as many hours as I did when I started out. What improvements have been made in storage and boiler systems have been made in the last 12 years.

 

[TCaldwell]

My quick thought would be, keep your storage, circs, valves ect, and get a newer boiler. There are a few used ones with newer technology in the for sale thread. Taking your old system won’t be as hard as you think to disassemble.

 

[sdrobertson]

TCaldwell, thanks and good to hear from you again. What do the new boilers have that are improvements?

 

[TCaldwell]

Today’s gasification boilers have automated combustion Controlls, adjusting the primary and secondary air to maintain a residual o2 in the fluestream. This allows a more efficient burn across wood types without much manual tweaking, it’s more of a controlled burn.
Also some boiler controllers also manage supply water temps, outdoor reset and domestic hot water. A few brands that come to mind would be froling and effecta, I’m sure others will chime in with more information

 

[maple1]

I will throw the Varmebaronen name into the ring.

 

[stee6043]

Man...I'd be hard pressed to walk away from your EKO if you're going to propane. That sucker is paid for by now! Starting over on ROI with a new boiler (and lower LP prices than we had 10 years ago) would be a hard pill to swallow.

Put me in the "move the EKO" camp. She's a great boiler, though not as sexy as the new rigs for sure.

 

[Gasifier]

Is the new place your moving to an existing house? Will boiler system go in the basement, garage, outdoor building?

Best of luck. We will be watching. We need pics!

 

[dogwood]

Nice to see your name on a Boiler Room post sdrobertson. I've not been on this site for quite a while and it seems like the people who've responded to your post are all "old-timers" who were posting years ago. I read lots of all their posts and probably all of yours while designing and installing my own system a few years back. If you can afford it, a Garn or a Froling with a Lamda would sure be nice, and a maintenance upgrade from your Eko.

Make it easier to deal with the wood gathering aspect too as these newer units can adjust their burn to whatever you have on hand to throw in the burn chamber. I got a couple of free pick-up loads of cut, split and dried pine only last week. Couldn't turn it down at that price with all the work already done. It would be nice if my Tarm Solo Innova had a Lamda unit to regulate the burn on that extremely dry softwood. I'll try to throw it in a little at a time mixed in with locust to avoid an inferno. If affordable, get yourself something nice. You surely deserve it. A Garn or similar Switzer would sure be great too as they can use larger splits, cutting down on your labor and wood splitting, all important as you get older. Good luck with whatever you decide to do and enjoy life out in the country. It can't be beat.

Mike