smoke coming out of fan

[stoney28]

Hi again.

My EKO 40 has quite a bit of smoke coming in from where the fan is when the fan isn't blowing. It just started today (as far as I know), and disappears once the fan kicks back on. Any ideas on what the problem is?

I've noticed quite a bit of ash in the bottom chamber, and even quite a few coals. From what I've read on this site, it shouldn't be that much. Any ideas on that too?

Also my temperature is set for 180, but the boiler reads 186 when it goes into its rest phase, is that normal?

 

[Eric Johnson]

The smoke coming out of your fan is from the gasification chamber or the primary combustion chamber. I'm thinking maybe your wood is a little too dry. It's just backing up through the fan hole opening. Once you get good combustion it should go away. Does it happen when the fan shuts down because the boiler reaches the high set temp, or is this while you're getting a new fire started and before you turn on the fan?

If you're burning a lot of wood, you're going to get a lot of ash. It should be powdery and maybe white. The color depends to some extent on the wood you're burning and its moisture content. I find that with beech, I get gray ash while I get white ash when burning hard maple. Coals are not uncommon, though most coals that fall through the nozzle are reduced to ash eventually from the gasification flame hitting them. It kinda depends on what which part of the cycle they fall through. If you have wet wood, you'll get a lot of unburnt coals in with your ashes. Dry wood, not so many.

You've got the new controller, so I'm not familiar with exactly how it works. However, overshooting by 6 degrees is no big deal. You might also find that once the boiler goes into idle, the water temp will rise a few degrees if there's no load on the boiler, which is why it probably went into idle in the first place. I have the older controller and my boiler will go into idle when it hits the setpoint, or 80 degrees C. But the fan won't kick back on until the temp gets back down to 76.5 degrees.

Overall, I'd say you don't have any problems. Just relax, learn how to operate your boiler better through experience and enjoy the cheap heat.

 

[stoney28]

Yeah, it happens when the fan shuts down after reaching temperature. I figured out it had to do with draft. When the door to the boiler room was open the smoke would come out. When it was closed it wouldn't. The wood is pretty dry. I got it from a lady who sold her house and she had already had it for at least 2 years, I don't know when it was cut. Thanks for the response.