Varm owners

[Rob186]

Hey need some input my ceramics and secondary chamber are almost shot after a year and a half the secondary chamber has a u shaped section gone and what's left is brittle I have a testo 330 combustion analyzer but need the specs of what I should be reading my thoughts are that their is not enough secondary air so the flame is too hot my stack really gose above 200 unless it needs to be cleaned witch i do at least twice a week at this rate the chamber will be shot by February

 

[Floydian]

Hey Rob,

My ceramic is still in very good shape and my secondary combustion tunnel is pretty good. I have burned just under 4 cords between last season and this one so far.

Any chance you can post some pics of what is going on?

How many cords have you burned in the last year and half?

Not to be a jerk but a little punctuation goes a long way in understanding what you are trying to say

Noah

 

[maple1]

I have a Varm but the 37 & 40 have their differences down there. I've got somewhere around maybe 8 cord thru mine between last year & this one. My bottom chamber still looks like new. The top front ceramic has a crack in it running from the door back to the burn hole, but I haven't done anything about it. Aside from that, no noticeable wear. I keep a layer of ash over all horizontal surfaces. Also put a small thin firebrick right under the nozzle in a thought to help reduce erosion but not sure it does anything. That brick is showing some wear though, it's thinner on one end now. If there is not enough secondary air, wouldn't that cause a cooler dirtier burn? Plus I think you should regularly see temps above 200 if it's too hot down there. Can only think off the top of my head of a couple other things that might cause a problem - that's firing too hard from the get-go, and maybe wood isn't seasoned enough?

 

[Coal Reaper]

hey rob, where in NJ?
did you do small break-in fires when you first got the boiler to get all the mosture out of ceramics? my ceramic has small crack running from nozzeel to front as well but no other wear, only 5 cord ran through it so far tho. your stack temps are spot on. i have my fan set to shutoff at about 150*C. my air settings are at recomened from varm, round holes half open and glass about 3/16" gap. and when i play with these setting nothing seams to change with regards to the burn. are you getting lots of ash? it should be light grey and maybe a little very light brown. i also leave some ash on ceramic after cleaning once a week and make sure to sets the splits in gentle when loading. my tunnel is discolored but not eroding.

 

[maple1]

Describe your wood to us - might be a factor, might not.

 

[Rob186]

I burn all hardwood under 20% moisture I have no cracks in the ceramics but the hole is getting oblong around the sides where the air is injected I'm thinking I had not enough secondary air the flame hitting the secondary chamber would be blue I have a feeling that and my chimney being really tall might be pulling way to much air in and leaning out the flame to much I think I'm going to call smokeless and see if I can get some combustion specs to be sure

 

[maple1]

The manual for the 30 specs 10-20pa or .04-.08" H2O of draft. Also says a 11.5' chimney. How tall is yours? That might be a problem. I've got a manometer to check mine, and a barometric damper to control it. But with my baro closed, my 30' chimney gives 0.1" when burning - wind really kicks it up though, I've seen it bounce to 03" with gusts. My hole was oblong to start with, when new - not sure about the fan units.

 

[arngnick]

Mine does not have the stainless U shaped trough. I remember discussing this type of problem with Dean when I was purchasing mine. If I remember right it may be due overfiring or fuel quality.

 

[maple1]

I burn all hardwood under 20% moisture I have no cracks in the ceramics but the hole is getting oblong around the sides where the air is injected I'm thinking I had not enough secondary air the flame hitting the secondary chamber would be blue I have a feeling that and my chimney being really tall might be pulling way to much air in and leaning out the flame to much I think I'm going to call smokeless and see if I can get some combustion specs to be sure

Are you burning any oak?

 

[Rob186]

Some oak I did a combustion analysis and came up with 11% oxygen 1011 ppm of CO 110% excess air 9.4% CO2
For an over all efficiency of 81% I'll post some pics of the trough tomorrow

 

[Rob186]

 

[Rob186]

You can see how much it melted during the burn that thing glows orange

 

[Rob186]

 

[arngnick]

Wow that thing is wore out! I would see if that could be covered under warranty and if not I would ask the dealer for advice on how to prevent it. (I assume your dealer is smokelessheat.com)

 

[Coal Reaper]

Yeah mine looks nothing like that, yet...