Tarm: Comments after two months

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penfrydd

Member
Jul 7, 2008
80
Western MA
www.penfrydd.com
It's a Solo 140 with 850 gal non-pressurized storage.

It all works fine, though bridging of fuel is rather frequent, seemingly no matter how small I split the wood. Why don't boiler makers taper the walls out just a bit as they go down? This would be such a simple solution.

The boiler definitely prefers good dry wood, though, of course, I'm burning junk dry wood just to get rid of it.

I still think the owner's manual could use a little rewriting here and there, especially regarding the balancing valve before the Termovar. The manual says adjust as needed, but never states what the goal is.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the unit and would recommend it to anyone.

Spring seems to have arrived. That last little snow (two weekends ago) was rude. I corrected papers and drank all day... (and I don't grade easier with more drinking...).

penfrydd
 
I can't think of the brand , but there is a boiler that has tapered walls. maybe the vegas ? I had considered buying it when I was in the market.
 
Even though you should not have too... Making your own taper would be pretty easy with firebrick or a poured triangular refractory pieces.
 
Effecta has tapered the firebox so it's wider at the bottom!
 
Initially I also experienced a fair amount of bridging with my Solo 40, but now it is rare. Smaller splits can help, but moderately sized splits work well too. What seems to work best is to leave a good ash bed in the firebox, which also likely contains some unburned coals, and that aids a very fast fire start.

I originally cleaned out the ash frequently, now I only do it when it really builds up several inches high, which is after lots of burning. The ash bed tends to result in an increased taper from the walls of the firebox to the slot, and also, I think, provides a well-insulated bed for the burning coals. It is those hot coals that help sustain good gasification, in my opinion, and reduces to nearly 0 any short-term bridging. The Tarm has been around for a long time, and I don't think that modifying the firebox would be the productive route to take.
 
jebatty said:
Initially I also experienced a fair amount of bridging with my Solo 40, but now it is rare. Smaller splits can help, but moderately sized splits work well too. What seems to work best is to leave a good ash bed in the firebox, which also likely contains some unburned coals, and that aids a very fast fire start.

I originally cleaned out the ash frequently, now I only do it when it really builds up several inches high, which is after lots of burning. The ash bed tends to result in an increased taper from the walls of the firebox to the slot, and also, I think, provides a well-insulated bed for the burning coals. It is those hot coals that help sustain good gasification, in my opinion, and reduces to nearly 0 any short-term bridging. The Tarm has been around for a long time, and I don't think that modifying the firebox would be the productive route to take.

+1, although I think I would put more emphasis on a good bed of carbon coals. With a sufficient amount of glowing coals the gasifying wood can still bridge a lot, but it is exposed to so much radiant heat from below that it just keeps burning nicely until it collapses.

And to help maintain a good bed of coals, a few of us have found that shutting the unit down sooner rather than later in the burn cycle can really help. Some guys use an inexpensive thermocouple in the flue neck to control the draft fan when the flue temperature starts to drop, others have had success with a simple timer set to stop the draft before the fuel runs out.

With a peck of charcoal leftover from the previous burn the next fire lights up very fast. Just start the fan and get the fringes of some of the coals glowing by passing a propane torch over them for a few seconds, then pile in the fuel. Usually the nozzle is roaring withing two or three minutes.

--ewd
 
And to help maintain a good bed of coals, a few of us have found that shutting the unit down sooner rather than later in the burn cycle can really help.

Excellent point. The Solo 40 has a lo-limit dial thermostat under the top cover on the control panel that shuts the Tarm down based on smokebox temperature. I have storage and set this at 100C (be sure the probe is in the correct location). This leaves some nice charcoal in the firebox to get that next fire started pronto.

I also wired a relay into this control circuitry so that when the Tarm shuts down, it also shuts down whatever else doesn't need to stay on when the Tarm has shut down.
 
The vigas is tapered at the bottom. I find if you don't lock the wood in to tight it will stop the bridging, and bigger splits have more weight per piece to collapse inti the bottom.
 
I don't think i've had much problem bridging. But i start the fire and fill the boiler and leave, generally don't go back to it unless it needs more wood. Burns the load of wood in 3 to 4 hours. The unit I have is the Innova, but pretty much the same unit.
 
Hansson said:
Made in turkey? According to Tarm staff they have quality problems. I wold wait to buy a tarm boiler :)

What kind of problems ? I thought Tarm was supposed to be top of the line.
 
nrford said:
Effecta has tapered the firebox so it's wider at the bottom!

Yes that is the one I was thinking of.
 
jebatty said:
And to help maintain a good bed of coals, a few of us have found that shutting the unit down sooner rather than later in the burn cycle can really help.

Excellent point. The Solo 40 has a lo-limit dial thermostat under the top cover on the control panel that shuts the Tarm down based on smokebox temperature. I have storage and set this at 100C (be sure the probe is in the correct location). This leaves some nice charcoal in the firebox to get that next fire started pronto.

I also wired a relay into this control circuitry so that when the Tarm shuts down, it also shuts down whatever else doesn't need to stay on when the Tarm has shut down.

Could you or would you control the circ in this fashion? Would basically shut off the pump when the fire is out, a poor man's diff controller?
 
The way the vigas is controlled when the stack temp drops below the set point that you have it set for, the boiler fan shuts off as well as the pump.No need to rewire any of the controls it is a nice efficient system.
 
henfruit said:
The way the vigas is controlled when the stack temp drops below the set point that you have it set for, the boiler fan shuts off as well as the pump.No need to rewire any of the controls it is a nice efficient system.

FWIW- so is my Innova
 
Could you or would you control the circ in this fashion? Would basically shut off the pump when the fire is out, a poor man’s diff controller?

That's what I have done.
 
sweet, summer time upgrade.
 
EricV said:
sweet, summer time upgrade.

Here's an example of a controller that will operate a relay based on thermocouple-sensed flue temperature. Although it is a PID controller it has an 'alarm' mode that can be programmed to close a relay at some hot temperature and then open the relay when the temperature has fallen to some programmable not-so-hot temperature.

http://cgi.ebay.com/PID-Temperature...ultDomain_0&hash=item3cb790e187#ht_5120wt_938

The internal relay is pretty dinky, so a bigger external RIB or a socket-mounted relay would probably be a good idea.

Also to keep the fan running until the flue temperature rises enough you need an override switch or better yet a mechanical bathroom-fan type countdown timer.

--ewd
 
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