Orlan 25 :: best settings

[David Nicole]

I'm an owner of this boiler (Eko Orlan 25) for about a week and some.
My douts about it since I never used one are:
1. there seems to live behind in the burning chamber something black and sticky witch blocked two times the rear output. I thought I needed a hammer at the time but it was solved with patience. It was running on 67-69 C downto 61-62. Reading last night once again the manual I understand that is best for it to work in 70-80 C interval, so I modified the histerezis from 5 to 3 degrees C.
2. How should I operate it in terms of temperature on the boiler, bypass pomp termostat, histerezis, jet time, jet brake pause time, vent power, ....
I'm trying to achieve best results with this boiler: longer periods for higher charging times.

Thank You

 

[WRVERMONT]

The moisture content in your wood may be a bit to high...causing creosote. Do you have return water temp protection. Water returning to the boiler should be at minimum 140 degrees F. Even with return temp p. "wet" wood can make for low boiler temps.

 

[Nofossil]

I'll agree with the comment on the moisture content of the wood, and I'll add another possibility: If you don't have enough of a heat load, the boiler will 'idle' a lot. That means that it has reached it's maximum temperature and the blower will shut down. If this is happening too much, you'll be less efficient and you might see more creosote buildup in the top chamber.

 

[David Nicole]

The wood is not wet - no question of moisture - and is thin (~3 in) and of higher essences. Next week I'll might buy some serious wood. I have it for at least 3-4 years in a deposit nearby the Orlan chamber.
I have a thermostat on the return pipe witch runs the bypass pomp till reaches 40 C. I guess I should raise this temperature to at least 55 C (60C=140F) The return water with the bypass water should make it at least 60 as you recommend. I'll try this today.
What that means, heat load ? (I do not speak so well english) The top chamber I fill it at full load with wood. Last night I fill it up at 21:00 and in the morning at 8:00 still was there some jar at a constant temperature of 23 C in the house and the boiler temperature dropped down from 73 C (set) to 64 C. Also yesterday I changed histerezis to 2 so from 73 C in inertion it raises to 78 and then drops to 70 and blows again to 73. The jet-brake I slowed down to 15 seconds with brakes of 15 minutes, because the wood is dry and there is no chance to stop.
In the startup sewuence in settings presing the stop/starty button for at least 3 sec there is the last setting with 2 signs oposite. What that means ? In the manual writes something about the power in percents from 2 to 10 x 10%. What affects this setting ?

 

[Nofossil]

I can't help with the controller. Mine is the older version.

'Heat load' refers to the radiators or baseboards - wherever heat is delivered to the house. If your house does not take enough heat from the boiler, the boiler will idle most of the time. This could cause some of the problems that you are having.

It might work better when the weather is colder.

 

[David Nicole]

Then I'll try a setting with the power of the jet blower down to 20-30% just to keep the boiler on running most of the time. A lower speed of the fun won't affect the gaseification process ?
I understand that the boiler ideal is to be on jetblower 100% of the time.
But than again, this won't eat my logs faster ??? if it stays under fire all most of the time.
Is there any chance to make an automatization just to adapt the speed of the jetblower to keep the boiler on fire ?

@nofossil
Could you share your settings & results, please ?

 

[Nofossil]

Then I'll try a setting with the power of the jet blower down to 20-30% just to keep the boiler on running most of the time. A lower speed of the fun won't affect the gaseification process ?
I understand that the boiler ideal is to be on jetblower 100% of the time.
But than again, this won't eat my logs faster ??? if it stays under fire all most of the time.
Is there any chance to make an automatization just to adapt the speed of the jetblower to keep the boiler on fire ?

@nofossil
Could you share your settings & results, please ?

I have the old controller which has only one setting - outlet temperature. I set that for 80 degrees.

I think that too low a fan setting might reduce gasification efficiency.

I have heat storage so I can run at 100% for a few hours. I eat my logs with high efficiency, then I let the fire go out.

If the boiler makes much more heat than you need, then it will not be as efficient. Maybe try letting the house get a little cool, then build a small fire and burn very hot for a little while. Shut off when house is warm but still a few coals remain. Wait a few hours and repeat. This may give better results.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I agree with nofossil. I think you're putting too much wood into the boiler for the temperatures outside. If your boiler reaches the target temp and the fan shuts off frequently (a lot), then you're idling too much, which will result in decreased efficiency and creosote formation. Like nofossil says, just try making smaller fires and see what happens. You might also have to adjust your primary and secondary air settings.

Do you get good gasification when the boiler is running?

Does it get up to temp and stay there?

Is it heating your house?

These are pretty simple machines to operate. I think you may be over-thinking the process. There's probably a simple fix to your problem.

By the way, where did you buy the boiler? Can you get some help from the dealer or distributor?

 

[David Nicole]

Outside the temperature is 4 C.
How do I adjust primary and secondary air sett ? The Orlan doesn't have those settings.
The gasification with the power of the blower set to 30% is good. There is a big fire downthere.
The temperature set is 73 C and it reaches there and in inertion raises to 78 and falls to 70 (histerezis 2) atfer a while 15-20 min.
The house is heating very well - 23 C for at least 8-10 hours.
The machine is simple but these parameters make it or not.
The parameters are:
default/my set: histerezis 5/2; pomp start 65/65; dt 10/10; power 100/30%; pause 5/3 min; blower 20/30 sec
also the bypass termostat mounted oin the retunr pipe was set to 40 and I raised to 55 as you said to ensure a 60+C on the retunr in the boiler.

 

[Eric Johnson]

You can set the primary and secondary air, but if you're getting a good flame, then there's no need.

Where did you buy the boiler? Where are you located?

For your specific questions, I'd recommend talking to Zenon Pawlowski, the guy who imports these boilers into the United States. That's if you live in the U.S. If not, I'd suggest talking to whoever you bought the boiler from.

Your best bet for optimum boiler performance would be to add hot water storage. Something like 1,000 gallons. Then you could run the boiler at peak efficiency and recover the heat when the house needs it--not when the boiler produces it. You would eliminate idling and the resulting creosote.

In my experience without storage, you need to fire the boiler according to your needs, not according to its needs. That takes some time to learn.

 

[David Nicole]

I found another thing a few mins ago.
Sometimes when the blower runs, at a time it hears a slap inside like a clap that cuts the air because imediatly I do not have gasification. The blower runs and in the down chamber there is only heat pomping. There is no fire. Still produces heat because the temperature is raising, but lacks of fire.
Is there any clap inside for the air because at the top chamber there is air flow on the outlets inside. My guess is it cuts the air for the down chamber and can't burn the gas from the wood.

Where can I set the primary and secondary air ?
I live in Romania/Europe.
1000 gallons means like 3500~ liters in our units. It's prety big and expensive but I'll consider it for next year.

My local dealer said to let it on default settings, so I guess he is not even near a professional quality advicer.

Thank you very much for your patience and help.
Please help me understand what's happening and make it a better system.
In our country this wood boiler trend is at the begining and there are few specialists - at least no one in my area.

 

[Nofossil]

There are primary / secondary air adjustments behind the plate that the fan is mounted on. You have to remove the screws around the edges of the plate. On mine, the primary air adjustments are two sliding plates that are all the way open. The secondary air adjustments are two small screws just below the fans. You don't have to remove the plate to adjust them, but removing the plate helps you to understand how they work. The factory adjustment is 3 1/2 turns out, though some have reported better results with a bit more secondary air.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Sounds like perhaps the gasification is shutting down because of an air flow problem. Here's a couple of pictures of where these air adjustments are located. Note that I have the Model 60, which has two blowers instead of one. And I put special handles (wire nuts) on my adjustment screws so that they would be easier to adjust. Once I got them set up right, however, I never had to adjust them again. As nofossil suggests, I'd try opening them up one turn to see what happens. Don't expect immediate results--it seems to take awhile for some reason. You might want to open the primary air vents a bit as well. The factory seems to ship these boilers with the primary air vents not open enough.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Here's the photos.

Note that in the picture on the right, the blower mounting plate has been removed. Also note that the secondary air tube on the left is poking out farther than the one on the right. That was a manufacturing defect that I fixed. The tube was moving forward, making it impossible to set my secondary air correctly. Yours should be firmly tack welded into place. Also, notice how the air adjustment works--pretty simple.

If gasification is stopping during the burn, then you'll probably get creosote in your heat exchanger tubes and chimney outlet. It's the fire that burns that stuff up when the boiler is gasifying. The gas may still be hot, but it's burning incompletely.

When you get a chance, tell us a bit more about Romania. I'd like to know how you get your firewood and what kind of wood you burn. I'm guessing beech. That's what I burn.

 

[David Nicole]

The back of my boiler isn't like that.
Let me show you some materials with my boiler (pictures&video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gcpLbk03Ik
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H00qIkgh-Vg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_SLxhEnp8U
Today worked fine. I changed something to the thermostat on the bypass. As it was it stoped at 40 C. Now I switched some wires and it'll start from 40. So when the boiler is cold in start up and at end the bypass pomp won't work ans will help the returning water to be at least 60 C

If you can log in here
http://forum.softpedia.com/index.php?showtopic=455648&st=0&gopid=5410030ntry5410030;you'll see a lot of pictures with my gear.
Now is too late bat tomorow I'll put them here too.

 

[Nofossil]

I noticed that you are putting some wood in 'crosswise': side-to-side, so that both ends are resting in the top of the sloped refractory. That's probably not a good idea. Try loading the wood lengthwise: front-to-back. That way it will stay in contact with the coals below.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I agree. Wood placement and location in the firebox is essential for good operation. Front-to-back is the way to do it.

We have all noticed that it takes some time (2 or 3 weeks) to learn how to operate one of these boilers correctly. It looks to me like you're on the right path.