Sequoya E3300 is in!

[MyOutdoors]

Well, my Sequoya was delivered Saturday morning and my plumber and I installed it yesterday. Last night was the 1st time I had a chance to run it. I woke up this morning and the temps were down in the house and the boiler was at 120. OOPS! I was trying to heat my 2700 sqft home as well as run a 155,000btu modine in my uninsulated barn. I guess I expected to much out of the boiler and was too ignorant to figure out that I was wasting more heat in the barn than it would to heat my entire house. I spoke to Rick over at Sequoya, who by the way, answers the phone just about everytime I call. he got a chuckle when I explained what I was trying to do and he explained that the E3300 will hold around 300lbs of wood which equals around 1.8 million BTU's and I was pushing over around 1.5 mill with the modine running constantly. Lesson learned! Tonight I shut the modine fan down and will let the pump just circulate and see what I end up with in the morning.

I'll post some pics and a full review in a few days.

 

[sdrobertson]

Sounds good - are you going to insulate the pole barn or start just having the heat on when you are using it? Can't wait for the photos.

 

[MyOutdoors]

I've spent so much money between the barn and boiler, my wife might just make me live out there! Next season, I'll probably insulate. I'll just flip the fan switch for now when I'm in there. What a difference it made by shutting that thing off. I just went to fill it up for the night and it really didn't take much. My 2 1/2 year old son and I took a jacuzzi bath and half way thru the fill we would usually have to wait for the boiler to catch up on the hot water...constant hot water now! It's going to be warm for the next few days so I'm noticing some more smoke while it's idling. I probably should not have loaded it it as much so it wouldn't sit. I'll get the hang of it.

 

[paulchace]

E3300 up and running well.......what fun.....nearly free heat.......and lots of it!! Man, am I glad I/we did this. It is warm today but the stove is making 200* water and 200* in my cellar at the heat exch. Cellar is warmer, domestic water is warmer, most importantly my betrothed and child are too! I get a little workout here and there. Congrats to Rick Davis at Sequoyah and his crew. Yup, happy customer. More later, Paul

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

Pics please!! Maybe one with your happy bethrothed next to the install? Mine's not so happy at the mo, so I wanna remember what happy looks like ;-)

 

[paulchace]

Soon very soon, thanx........Paul

 

[DoubleNickel]

MyOutdoors and p_ray_cha:


We need a report :exclaim: How are things going :question: Tell us everything :exclaim:

 

[paulchace]

Yes, we all know it is alot of work, however I am glad we can heat our own home as we see fit and not get ripped off every time the boiler kicks on by some greedy oil peddler. Thank you for your interest, pix next...........................Paul

 

[MyOutdoors]

I'll post a few pics before it was up and running. I promise I'll take a few while it's going and with the back panel off. The pics below will show the hole I had to cut in the middle in order for the insulated pipe to come through. For whatever reason the manufacturer has 2 separate holes on either side but the pad dimensions show everything in the middle? The other pic shows the plain and simple squirrel cage blower which is hooked to the aquastat.

The unit is a very simple design with a front door which is 24x24 and a 30x30 firebox. The firebox bottom is all fire brick as well as the 1st layer abutting into the boiler side walls. There is a "blow" hole in the back wall of the boiler. There are 2 bottom doors giving access to the firebrick maze and for ash removal. A long stainless ash pan is given which you slide in and remove the ashes from the firebrick maze. The manual that came with the boiler is a little funny...looks like it was run on a printer running out of ink and only a few pages with little info. To be honest though, this boiler is so simple, there really isn't much to describe.

So far, the only problem I've had was what I posted earlier, a rumbling and shaking boiler that sounded like a locomotive chugging away. The problem was the wood I was trying to burn,ie: 1x10 wet barn board scrap from the barn I just built. Each board was damp and as I layered them on top of each other, I basically laminated a big wet log. This boiler doesn't like wet wood because it prevents it from going into it's full gasification phase. If it doesn't go into gasification, it smoked like a regular OWB and rumbled. Lesson learned. Now that I've got it that figured out, the boiler takes a few minutes once the fan kicks on and goes right into gasifying and has very very little smoke emitting. It holds 160 gallons of water so it doesn't take long to heat up. I'm playing with the temp settings now to see what works best. I'm at 175* with a RO setting of 5. Now that I know what was causing the rumbling, I'll try a longer RO time. More pics to follow.

 

[rickh1001]

MyOutdoors,

Please keep everyone posted. I came "this !! close" to buying the Seqouyah, then after thinking about our site and adding up the cost of the underground piping, decided on an indoor installation with an EKO 60. I would be interested to know how it works out. It looked like a nice unit and well built. I chose it over the Central Boiler EClassic unit, until I decided on putting one in our basement instead.

 

[DoubleNickel]

Happy New Year's Everyone :exclaim: Nice pictures and info. Keep on posting.

 

[MyOutdoors]

Here are a couple of you tube videos I took last night, not the best lighting, but ok.

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[larry4406]

Do you have a link to the manufacturer's website and what was the retail cost if you don't mind my asking? I googled for it but could not find it.

 

[paulchace]

Sequoyah is in Mauston, Wisconsin........Rick Davis is the owner, be prepared to off load your stove when, and if, you decide to go that way. The pad eye on the stove is about 12' off the ground when it is on the truck. Approx 10K for the e3300 and 11,5K for the e3400. They do have a model e3300B also. Ask about the differences ! Heat exchanger, circulator pumps,plus the underground insulated pipe, $ 13 per foot or so for the "flexsulseal",plus the plumber, electrician and some for the cement pad, excavation material under pad....maybe a stack.....a light fixture...150 Watt Metal Halide on a 4x4 or somn like that. Oh don't forget the underground wire.......10 gauge x ?' is not cheap. And fuel, do you have access to lots of wood or will you purchase it locally. If you have it delivered they'll make a mess of your lawn near the stove. Have lots of kindling too. Sometimes the fire goes out when the logs dont rest on the floor of the firebox...........Dont forget to add the rust inhibitor. There are a lot of things to consider.......ask your plumber to install a temperature sensor well in the piping and buy a remote location gauge to install so the gauge is in your living room, that way you can monitor the temp at the heat exchanger,( IN from stove), it'll save energy, yours, so you dont have to go down cellar to observe the temp. I did and I LOVE IT! Lotta work, but no oil bill and great excercise..............Paul

 

[paulchace]

And................it's 33*outside and a little windy, my house is 73 *.................when I open the firebox door the smoke goes in my face, blah! &*!@#*&. Position the stove so the prevailing wind carries the smoke away when you open the door. Putting the stove down wind of the house is not enough.........don't make my mistake if you can avoid it !! Terrific stove, STILL very glad we did this............I was just talking to my betrothed, she is happy, and warm and so am I.

 

[MyOutdoors]

I agree with opening the stove and getting a blast of smoke while reloading it. I wish it had a bypass. I'm not a big fan of the double door system on windy days as well. The doors when closed do give it a more finished look though. I'm very happy with the stove and like everything, I'm going through the learning curve of burning wood in an OWB. Today I removed the rain cap I had and put my 3rd section of SS pipe on. The cap was definitely causing creosote dripping and forcing any smoke downward.

 

[ryan4703]

I have just purchased one of the e3300's and haven't got it all hooked up yet. I was just wondering what parts are required to put a chimney on this unit. Also pics of any hook up on this unit would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[MyOutdoors]

Sorry for the late response, I was on Vacation for a week. I now have 3-4ft sections of pipe. The 1st section basically sits on top of the existing/attached flue. I then added the second section and clamped the seam with the supplied bracket. I purchased a adjustable support bracket that attaches to the pipe and my barn. Without that it would not be stable enough to support the extended pipe. Without a nearby building, you would have to use some type of cable support.

 

[AOTO]

I haven't put any extension on my E3400 and don't really see a need. Did Rick recommend one or did you do it to get it up over the house? Something else I found out was that, if the unit isn't level and it's higher in the front, the creosote runs into the fan chamber in the rear, catches fire and it'll burn the wiring on the bypass air door.

 

[MyOutdoors]

I needed the extension due to the boiler being so close to my barn. I wanted it above the roof. I'll take the door off mine and check the rear fan, but I believe I'm ok. Have you ever experienced any shaking with damp wood? I've experimented and found these stove do not like anything wet. It causes too much smoke/steam and will not go into gasification mode which causes the boiler to chug and shake like a freight train.

 

[AOTO]

Yes, mine chugs too. The first thru third load of new wood chugs pretty good, but after that, it's pretty clean. I am trying some newer maple and pine next week. Here is my load of wood, twice a day.