Smoked out of the house!

[free75degrees]

I made my first morning fire today. Before today it was warm enough that I only had to do 1 fire per day so I did them in the evening. I made the fire this morning the same way that I have been, based on some of the posts here - a couple logs, some newspapaer between them, some wood kindling on top, then some small logs on top of that. I lit it with my trusty blow torch and left both doors a crack open. It seemed to have started like it had every other time so I went upstairs. When I went back down 5 minutes later, the whole basement was flooded with thick smoke! I ran into the Tarm room to deal with the issue by opening the windows and adding more kindling to get the fire to switch from smoke mode to fire mode. I could barely get it done though. I basically had to run to a clear corner of the basement, get a lungful of fresh air, hold my breath, then go back to the boiler. Even with the windows open the smoke took forever to clear and ended up setting off the smoke alarms. So I had to open windows and doors throughout the house and get the baby boy dressed and go play outside for 15 minutes until the smoke cleared and the alarms stopped. This morning sucked! I guess I need to work on my fire starting routine.

 

[Dave T]

Free75 I am not sure about your weather in Boston but here in NY we are getting snow and melt off then more snow and melt off.. Is it possoble that some ice coated your chimney cap and didn't allow proper draft and the smoke felt it was easier to fill the house, then after you got the fire started the ice melted off to allow proper draft again?? Just a thought..Dave

 

[Sizzler]

Not good.... Did the loading door swing open while you were upstairs perhaps? I had a former habit of starting my fires and then going upstairs for a cup of coffe. That was until one afternoon I returned to the garage to find my flue pipe glowing a nice bright cherry red :>(

I'm in a similiar situation in regards to needing two fires each day. I've been burning along about one level wheelbarrow of wood (about 4.5 cubit ft) from 5pm-9Pm each evening. Typically, this brings my storage tank from 140 up to about 180 give or take a few degrees. My baseboards and DHW could easily live off that stored heat in the tank for 24 hours until we dipped into the Mid teens this A.M and only a high temp of around 30 for the day. Wondering if it's worth the effort of building muliple fires or just letting the EKO idle some.

 

[WoodNotOil]

In my experience you only want one of the doors open at a time. If my fire door and my ash door are open at the same time, smoke comes out of the fire door. I leave only the top door open a crack and once the fire is going close the damper as far as it will go without closing the door and let it burn like that with most of the exhaust going down into the lower chamber. When it looks like it will gasify I turn the draft fan on and close the door all the way.

 

[Nofossil]

Two things that I do for safety:

1) I always start a 6 minute kitchen timer when I light the boiler. That way if I get sidetracked, I'll get reminded.

2) I stay with the boiler if the top door is cracked. That's why it's so important to me to get the start time as short as possible.

If I have to walk away, I'll close the top door but leave the kitchen timer running. With the top door closed, it takes an additional couple of minutes and smokes out the chimney more.

 

[barnartist]

So far, I seem to be burning similar to Sizzler. Cept I bought a 12 hour wall timer, I am getting familiar for how long it should take for the wood to be consumed, and then I turn this timer to X amount of hours. My Eko is powered from this timer, thus it shuts down soon enough to leave me a nice bed of coals for the next fire. Seems to allow for a painless restart with minimal smoke. Now I'm not saying this is a good practice, just one that is working for me. It probably does not get you the most complete burn, but I can get it going within Nofossil speed.

 

[MrEd]

Two things I have done for safety:

1. I have a smoke detector installed in my boiler room....so far it hasn't gone off but even if there is no real "fire", I still want to know if something is smoking when it shouldn't.

2. I have a 8" long piece of 3/4 copper pipe that slides over the damper handle on the tarm...that way I can leave the top door open for fire starting, but it can only open so far. I will sometimes leave the tarm when a fire is starting, and don't want the door swing all the way open.

I like nofossil's timer idea. As someone that has more than once put a pot of tea on the stove to boil, only to boil away all the water and then melt the tea-pot to the burner - even though I always "plan on coming right back" - I sometimes forget. (My wife makes me use the teapot with a whistle now)

I also never open my bottom door for fire-starting - seems counter productive in my fire-starting routine.

 

[free75degrees]

Free75 I am not sure about your weather in Boston but here in NY we are getting snow and melt off then more snow and melt off.. Is it possoble that some ice coated your chimney cap and didn't allow proper draft and the smoke felt it was easier to fill the house, then after you got the fire started the ice melted off to allow proper draft again?? Just a thought..Dave

No ice or snow here yet.

 

[free75degrees]

Not good.... Did the loading door swing open while you were upstairs perhaps? I had a former habit of starting my fires and then going upstairs for a cup of coffe. That was until one afternoon I returned to the garage to find my flue pipe glowing a nice bright cherry red :>(

I'm in a similiar situation in regards to needing two fires each day. I've been burning along about one level wheelbarrow of wood (about 4.5 cubit ft) from 5pm-9Pm each evening. Typically, this brings my storage tank from 140 up to about 180 give or take a few degrees. My baseboards and DHW could easily live off that stored heat in the tank for 24 hours until we dipped into the Mid teens this A.M and only a high temp of around 30 for the day. Wondering if it's worth the effort of building muliple fires or just letting the EKO idle some.

No, the door didn't swing open. It likes to stay pushed against the boiler when it is unlatched. There's still enough of a gap to let a lot of smoke out.

I use a similar amount of wood as you do and also use a similar range of tank temps - 140 to 180. My guess is that 2 fires with no idling would be more efficient, but maybe not. 2 fires would avoid the idling which is bad, but also requires more start up time which is also lower efficiency. Probably not a huge difference between the two.

 

[free75degrees]

I like the timer idea, I'm going to get one of those this weekend. I also think I'll install a spare smoke detector near the tarm - probably not too close or it would go off with every little puff coming out of the open door.

I just tried starting a fire by opening the bottom door a crack and closing the top door. I was thinking the fire should pull air in through the bottom and all smoke goes up and out of the flue. After a minute like this the fire was still going so I left it for another several minutes. When I came back the fire was no longer flaming and was giving off a ton of smoke, but none of it in the boiler room. I then opened and left the top door cracked for a minute until it got good flames again, closed both doors, turned on the fan, closed the damper and gasification started promptly. So this technique seemed to work so I'll have to try it again tomorrow...

 

[NHFarmer]

I have been starting my fires with both doors shut and the blower running,bypass open.It seems to work for me and I don't worry if I forget to get back to the boiler.Once things look good I load and close the bypass.This has worked good so far,I do however have a 35' chimney and have a really good draft.

 

[free75degrees]

I have been starting my fires with both doors shut and the blower running,bypass open.It seems to work for me and I don't worry if I forget to get back to the boiler.Once things look good I load and close the bypass.This has worked good so far,I do however have a 35' chimney and have a really good draft.

I did that the first few times and then tried with the blower off and the door cracked based on suggestions here. It seems to get the fire going a little quicker, but maybe I shouldn't worry about how quick it starts since I really just want to be able to start it, go get a coffee, then go back and close the bypass 10 or 15 minutes later. I guess this is what the manual meant when it said I'd figure out my own method for starting a fire eventually.

 

[Sizzler]

I might give the timer idea a try also. I like the fact that my fans and circs wouldn't need to run all night draining heat back from the tank if I'm not there to shut them off.

A safety feature In the works is a fire sprinkler system above the boiler. I have a 1/2" Pex line running across the ceiling directly over my EKO that feeds a hose bib on the far wall of the garage. I picked up 2 brass 155*F fire sprinkler heads that will be installed on each side of the boiler for external fire protection. Would the Pex tube break down before the sprinklers trip?