Orligno 200 EKO 25kw troubles

[NSDavid]

Hello, I’ve been lurking around this forum for a while now trying to troubleshoot my boiler issues with no avail. So I’m going to attempt to explain my situation here.

I have a Orligno 200 25kw boiler that I bought unused from an estate sale. It is manufactured in 2012 but hasn’t been installed before I did 2 years ago. I found out quickly that no plumbing and heating contractors in my area were familiar with gasification boilers, and I only found one company that was willing to attempt it.

They installed the boiler with a circulation pump that only kicks on after the boiler reaches 150 degrees in lieu of a laddomat or similar setup. The routing and circulator pump setup they used is fairly confusing to me. I’ll attach a few pictures. There is a small 100 gallon stainless accumulator tank that was used in the previous boiler setup, and a small electric boiler setup in conjunction with the wood boiler, but the electric boiler is not used.

The problem I have is the boiler is constantly choking, or “chuffing” or experiencing small internal explosions for lack of better terms. It ends up blowing smoke out of the flue pipe seams. Sometimes it’s strong enough to blow open the damper flap at the back of the wood chamber. There ends up being a lot of chunks of ember blown into the lower chamber. It’s alarming and dangerous to have this thing acting up in our basement of our home.

The stove pipe is connected to a 25’ clay lined chimney, 6”x10”.

Wood is stored in the basement with the boiler and is very dry.

Any help would be appreciated. I’m close to scrapping this thing so I don’t burn my house down. Thanks.

 

[salecker]

I did not read about any storage hooked into your system.A gasafication boiler needs it to run properly.
I get a lot of puffing right after i reload.I used to get more when my splits were smaller.I increased my size of the split wood to bring down my flue temps.All i burn is dry spruce and i feel it off gases quicker than the hardwoods the boiler was designed to burn.The puffing did calm down with the bigger splits.
Try a fire with larger splits of wood and see if that helps you.
Seeing you have a gasification unit,i would not scrap it,get it hooked up right with storage and you should be happy with it.
With storage the boiler will run wide open till the wood is gone.Without it theboiler will throttle down when the load is met which can produce the puffing as the boiler has shut down the air as there is no demand for heat,so the boiler will puff as the fire uses the avalbale oxygen,then goes out till the level of oxygen builds to the point of sustaining fire again which starts with a small explosion.

 

[NSDavid]

Thanks for the reply. I do have a small storage tank hooked up. Only 100 gallons.

After Burning some kindling to get a good coal bed, my hardwood is in fairly large pieces. Mostly loaf of bread sized.

I do find it acts up when it’s getting up to temperature, from startup to about 160 degrees. I wonder if it’s taking too long to reach gasification mode? The circ pump wired to the boiler to not kick in before 150 degrees doesn’t stop the other pumps hooked to the heating loops from moving water through the boiler a bit.

 

[Woodman1]

100 gallons of storage really isn't going to help all that much for your boiler to run full throttle through a load of wood. Somewhere buried in the logic of your controller you can adjust the frequency and duration of purge cycles when the boiler is up to temperature. I guess I would start there. The puffing has nothing to do with the circulator temperature settings. It looks that may be your only form of return protection.

 

[maple1]

Has this problem been going on for 2 years now? Since you installed? Or is it a new issue?

If your return temps aren't kept above 140 you will get creosote buildup. Not sure your pump control scheme is accomplishing that. The problem might be more a function of fan control, not pump. 100 gallons is definitely not enough storage for good all around performance.

 

[hobbyheater]

Huffing is caused when a fire generates more smoke than there is oxygen to burn the smoke. The fire goes out for a second or two then reignites with a small explosion. Your wood could be split to small or your fan is not pulling enough air into the boiler.

 

[NSDavid]

Has this problem been going on for 2 years now? Since you installed? Or is it a new issue?

If your return temps aren't kept above 140 you will get creosote buildup. Not sure your pump control scheme is accomplishing that. The problem might be more a function of fan control, not pump. 100 gallons is definitely not enough storage for good all around performance.

It has been happening since being installed. I agree that the pump system is not accomplishing that. There is a thin coating of creosote lining the firebox.

Do you think better controlling the return water temp would fix my issue? I’m hesitant to reinvest in reconfiguring the boiler because overall it seems to be of poor quality. Just a step above homemade. I already had to weld a new handle on each of the doors, fabricate a new hinge for the lower door and replace the capacitor on the fan.

Does anyone know of an experienced gasification boiler contractor in NS?

 

[NSDavid]

Huffing is caused when a fire generates more smoke than there is oxygen to burn the smoke. The fire goes out for a second or two then reignites with a small explosion. Your wood could be split to small or your fan is not pulling enough air into the boiler.

My firewood is split into big chunks other than the starting kindling. I wonder if some airway or passage could be blocked by the huffing sending ash or coal into it?

 

[NSDavid]

Hi again.

Since the setup my plumber has devised to aid in the boiler getting up to temp quickly does not work, I’m wondering if slow rise to 170-180 degree boiler temperature could cause the huffing and explosions. It seems to stall out in temperature gain around 150 degrees and it really blows smoke and ash at this point. Once it finally reaches 165+ degrees it runs fine.

Would adding a mixing pump thing like a laddomat that would aid in constant and higher temps in the boiler help my cause?? I’m thinking so.

I’ll attach a video of the action.

 

[maple1]

I'm more apt to think there is an airflow issue of some kind. That could be anywhere from the draft fan to the chimney and all passages in between. It might be doing ok above 165 because by then the chimney is warmed up enough to be presenting enough draft to make it do ok. I doubt the boiler water temp is causing this. I start from cold every day and don't experience these issues. Takes around 20-30 minutes to get up to temp. The only time I have had a puffback is when I had too much firestarter stuff in there when starting up. But you want to make sure return temp is 140 or above. Can you raise the setpoint of this pumping setup? Say from the 150 I think you said it starts at, to something like 170-180? Thinking it should be controlled by an adjustable aquastat but don't really know what you have going on there.

 

[NSDavid]

I'm more apt to think there is an airflow issue of some kind. That could be anywhere from the draft fan to the chimney and all passages in between. It might be doing ok above 165 because by then the chimney is warmed up enough to be presenting enough draft to make it do ok. I doubt the boiler water temp is causing this. I start from cold every day and don't experience these issues. Takes around 20-30 minutes to get up to temp. The only time I have had a puffback is when I had too much firestarter stuff in there when starting up. But you want to make sure return temp is 140 or above. Can you raise the setpoint of this pumping setup? Say from the 150 I think you said it starts at, to something like 170-180? Thinking it should be controlled by an adjustable aquastat but don't really know what you have going on there.

The problem with my setup is that it takes 2-3 hours to get up to temp. It is circulating and heating all of the water in the system even though the one pump setup to only circulate at 150 is not pumping. There are other circ pumps working away.

 

[maple1]

Sounds like you might have some control issues also. And that you have extended periods of low return temps. Which might have creosoted up air passages somewhere. The rest of your pumps should not be starting until your boiler is up to a decent temp either.

 

[salecker]

You should have something for boiler protection, which allows the boiler to reach operating temp before your loads slowly are mixed into your operating boiler.

 

[brenndatomu]

You should have something for boiler protection, which allows the boiler to reach operating temp before your loads slowly are mixed into your operating boiler.

This ^ ^ ^

 

[maple1]

This ^ ^ ^

Yes. A loading unit/laddomat makes that easy. It should be plumbed between the boiler and storage/buffer. Then the system should draw from and return to the storage/buffer. I can't follow flows in the pics. Or see the buffer. I think the whole system might be handicapped by inadequate design and control. And the wood boiler and buffer wasn't plumbed in the way it should have been. But also think that does not have anything to do with the boiler not working right. Except maybe to cause some creosoting that has messed up airflow. If it's burning right, it should pump out more heat than the house can absorb. Something isn't right, in the air inlet/fan operation, air or flue gas passages throughout the boiler, or the chimney/smoke pipe. Sounds like it isn't gasifying.

 

[pettibone]

I think it's air, gas builds up in the firebox but not enough air to burn it until there is and then starts same process over again. Like burning a wood stove with the draft barely open and opening the door quickly

 

[ihookem1]

I also get puffing , but mostly when I have a very hot fire and I add wood. That's cause I have a lot of heat, and the smoke (gas) comes out and it basically explodes when it get enough air to explode. I suspect you are over filling it , but maybe not. It seems like you are not getting enough air for the amount of fuel ( SMOKE? GAS) , but then it heats up enough an POOF!. Happens to me a lot, but mine is outside. Its an EKO 25. The new ones now days detect it needs more air and adjusts . Mine is stuck on whatever I set it at and air flow stays the same till I adjust , and that is never.