Older HS Tarm, Seeking Info

[Block Inlay]

Hi all. I'm brand new to the forum and pretty much a newbie on the subject of burning wood to heat a home.

My wife and I recently bought a house that has an older HS Tarm wood boiler, as well as an oil furnace. I'm looking to get more information on the Tarm. I haven't been able to figure out what model it is. I believe it's from the 70's or early 80's and is not capable of smoke burning/gassification.

Basically, I'm looking for an information dump! Advice, precautions, quirks, etc.

I've used wood stoves in the past but not a boiler. I had a plumber check things out and he said it looked good but is in need of a good cleaning. The previous home owner had at least one chimney fire, after which a metal liner was installed in the chimney. We have an excellent chimney guy that is coming to assess this thing but he's not available until early December. In the meantime, I'm just gathering info.

The previous home owners left us a ton of good firewood so we should be set for this season and possibly the next. Appears to be mostly maple and oak and is already split and seasoned.

Here are two pics (note, the stuff near the boiler will be moved before we fire things up!)

Thanks in advance for any help. I'm looking forward to browsing the forums!

 

[flyingcow]

I think you should be able to get some info from (broken link removed to http://www.woodboilers.com/discontinued-boilers.html)


or call them direct. easy to talk to.

 

[Trout]

Hi all. I'm brand new to the forum and pretty much a newbie on the subject of burning wood to heat a home.

My wife and I recently bought a house that has an older HS Tarm wood boiler, as well as an oil furnace. I'm looking to get more information on the Tarm. I haven't been able to figure out what model it is. I believe it's from the 70's or early 80's and is not capable of smoke burning/gassification.

Basically, I'm looking for an information dump! Advice, precautions, quirks, etc.

I've used wood stoves in the past but not a boiler. I had a plumber check things out and he said it looked good but is in need of a good cleaning. The previous home owner had at least one chimney fire, after which a metal liner was installed in the chimney. We have an excellent chimney guy that is coming to assess this thing but he's not available until early December. In the meantime, I'm just gathering info.

The previous home owners left us a ton of good firewood so we should be set for this season and possibly the next. Appears to be mostly maple and oak and is already split and seasoned.

Here are two pics (note, the stuff near the boiler will be moved before we fire things up!)

Thanks in advance for any help. I'm looking forward to browsing the forums!

Hi, I had a Tarm like this for many years and it heated our house well. I finally sold it and replaced it with Tarm gasification unit.
What questions do have?

 

[Jeff S]

Looks like you are missing the chain between your draft regulator and damper door .Any small light weight chain will work and you will need to experiment with the length to find that sweet spot .

All though these natural draft boilers are not as efficient as a gassifier they are still very enjoyable to operate.

 

[woodsmaster]

Looks like the pressure relief valve may be leaking ? I'd replace that before using if that's the case. Make sure the door seals are good, replace if necessary. Enjoy ! Keep a couple of years ahead on the firewood.

 

[Boil&Toil]

IIRC, the model number plate may be "under the lid" (top piece of red/orange steel should lift off) on the top of the actual boiler-plate core.

In any case, congratulations, you have a creosote factory (not a slam, just the nature of the beast, having fired a few and owning two, one a bit more intact than the other). My MBO40 is pretty similar, and there are a lot that look like this out there as they were one of the few indoor wood boilers available in the 1970s/80s.

As with their cleaner-burning friends, it will work better if you provide some heat storage. Poke around the forum and read, that will be come more obvious.

 

[Block Inlay]

Thanks for the responses! It's great for a total noob like me to have a good resource like this site and community.

Trout: I'm just happy to hear any sage advice that folks might have, experiences, lessons learned, war stories, etc.

Woodmaster, are you referring to the bucket under the valve? That bucket has been bone dry, the valve and pipe too. I think it's just an ancient bucket with old water stains on it. Currently, the bucket is home to a good layer of dust and a spider or two. I've been keeping an eye on it.

I've had the boiler up and running since Sunday (today's Friday). There's definitely as much art as science to getting this guy operating as desired but I'm having fun and keeping notes. I must have overloaded it with wood Sunday evening. I woke up around 1AM and it was almost 80 degrees inside the house! Since then, I've pulled back on the amount of wood and I'm getting a sense of where to set the damper and the circular vent in the door (is that called a damper too? or is it a vent?). The water temp has been holding steady, between 170 and 190, and the pressure stays around 20. The oil boiler has only kicked on for a few brief times, which feels like accomplishment to me.

I think maybe the chain was off for some reason when I took the pics. It's on there now and is working great. Haven't had the fire go out on me yet, though twice it has gotten down to few hot coals in the morning. We have two small kids so the boiler isn't getting as much attention at times! I named it "Woody" by the way.

I agree with you about the creosote factory, Boil&Toil. The previous home owner had a chimney fire at one point, and the firebox is well coated. My chimney guy recommended an anti-creosote spray which I still need to pick up. I agree that some form of heat storage would be wonderful. I'll have to look into this but I think in the short-term, we can't afford it yet.

We have more than enough high quality, seasoned hardwood to get us through this winter and probably a decent chunk of next winter. I just ordered a truck load of green hardwood logs that will be delivered this weekend. I've never operated a chainsaw before (!) and the only wood splitting i've done was very basic small-scale camping type stuff. I have a lot to learn (and a lot of toys to acquire) but I also have some great local resources to help me out (and this site). I'm looking forward to cutting and splitting the wood myself. I haven't been able to carve out any exercise time since my daughter was born.

 

[flyingcow]

sounds like you're enjoying the new toy.you've already started to figuring out how the load the boiler and how much wood you need. which by the way you will over shoot and overheat the house every once in awhile. Part of the fun.

make sure you buy the proper equipment for your personal protection when you're cutting firewood.chaps good boots even headgear. Well worth the investment.

 

[Block Inlay]

sounds like you're enjoying the new toy.you've already started to figuring out how the load the boiler and how much wood you need. which by the way you will over shoot and overheat the house every once in awhile. Part of the fun.

make sure you buy the proper equipment for your personal protection when you're cutting firewood.chaps good boots even headgear. Well worth the investment.

Overheating the house is fun for my wife, who's always cold. For me it's torture! I ended up sleeping downstairs next to an open window. It was about 30 outside!

Proper PPE is definitely worth the investment.

 

[Block Inlay]

Another question: how do folks typically stack up their wood in the boiler? I try to lay things in neatly, back to front. Should I be piling it in more loosely? Packing it in more densely?