smoking issue

[Wood-guy]

I am a newbee to the wood boiler thing and have had a Tarm excel 2000 installed. I am having an issue with the doors smoking, yes they are closed! But still leaking smoke. Tarm has told me to try a few thing but still smoking. The chimney is an ext. 2 story flu. I have heated the flu for half an hour before closing the damper to get the most draft going as possible. The towel i had covering the barometric damper started to get sucked in i had so much draft and yet the doors still leaking smoke. Any ideas???

 

[Tony H]

Well it sounds like lack of draft is not your problem. Do the doors close tightly and evenly it's amazing how a little opening can produce so much leakage with a positive pressure system.
What do they give you for door adjustment ? Sometimes when they ship the units the doors are not adjusted or after firing a few times they leak. When the boiler is cold and you close a paper in the seal can it slide out ? I know there has been some threads before on sealing doors on the EKO and others and in some cases RTV sealant has been used in places to improve the sealing of the doors. It's also possible to have a defective gasket are there any unusual dents , creases, or tears in the gasket materials ?
good luck

 

[Wood-guy]

There is about a 16th of an inch gap where the two ends of the gasket meet on the top door. If all i need to use is RTV i can try that. There are no real adjustments on the doors, the door flange is cast along with the hinges. Tarm keeps telling me to line my flu i don't think they believe me i have draft unless someone else is aware of another reason.

 

[ohbie1]

One other possibility........Make sure you have a source of fresh air coming into your basement(if that's where the boiler is), or you could be creating a slight vacuum in the room by burning up its oxygen content.

 

[Wood-guy]

I have a garage connected to the basement (boiler location) under my house and the doors are open to get rid of the smoke and smell. Negative pressure was my first thought also. Thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[ohbie1]

If your gaskets are looking satisfactory, here are a few other experiments that might tell you something:

I don't have your model, but I assume you have a downdraft fan that you can turn on without building a fire.

Turn on the fan.

Suppose you close(lock) both boiler doors; open the top door a little bit, and see if you are feeling a suction (You could even light a match or lighter and the flame should be blown out from the suction)

Then close and lock the top door and try the same test with the bottom door.

This will tell you if you have the draft in each chamber.

One more thought........before you do the above test, leave both doors locked and put the fan on. Listen around the perimeter of the doors for air rushing in. If you don't hear any, try the match/lighter test, and see if you get any movement in the flame. This might ID the trouble spot(s).

 

[pybyr]

I'd suggest similar tests to what ohbie1 said-- except get an incense stick and light it and slowly/ gently "trace" around the perimeters of your doors- a tiny amount of air movement will make the smoke respond, and then that'll give you a sense of where things can be escaping/ in what direction.

 

[stee6043]

Since nobody else has said this - WELCOME to the leaky door gassifier club! If you do a little searching on this site you'll find countless threads addressing this issue. For me the challenge was pretty constant last year with my upper door. It was never that big of a deal for me but something I wanted to get squared away. Several of us EKO owners are trying new gaskets this year. Mine is in and patiently waiting for the first burn of the year....

I've said this a bunch of times on the board - a quick and easy stop-gap for this situation is a $20 bathroom vent fan from Lowes and 20' of flexible vent tubing. Find a vent to the outside of your house and situate the fan on top of your boiler. Works great until you can fix the actual problem...

 

[ohbie1]

The incense stick is a great idea! The smoke will be more sensitive to any air movement, and while you're burning you can chant a prayer to Hari Krishna, in case he knows anything about smoking gasifiers.
Prayer is below:



Hare Krishna Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna Hare Hare

Hare Rama Hare Rama

Rama Rama Hare Hare

 

[Bad Wolf]

I have the Tarm Excel 2000 as well. Is it leaking at the door or where the frame meets the furnace? Which door is leaking? I had problems with the upper door not latching all the way. Does the handle go all the way down? On mine I had to grind some material off before the latch would engage all the way. There was a tech bulletin for this.

I'm up in Colchester if you want to look at my rig.

Greg