# Windhager Biowin 260 install with photos



## Paste (Feb 24, 2014)

First, we want to thank everyone for the wealth of information on this forum.

Last spring, we decided to install a pellet boiler to move away from propane for heat and DHW. We spent a few months reading reviews and contacting dealers to see which system would best fit our needs. We looked at Okofen, Froling, MEsys, Harman, Kedel, and Windhager. In the end, we chose the Windhager because of its features, ease of use/maintenance, price, and Marc Caluwe's service.

While price wasn't our primary concern, its important to note the Biowin with the bulk feeding system cost us $3-5K less than the competition. Likewise, we found quite a disparity with regard to dealer responsiveness to questions or price quotes. My wife contacted one dealer several times for a price quote and they finally returned her call over 2 months later.

Marc was great to work with before, during, and after installation. Additionally, while the Biowin deserves my recommendation, Marc's tech support and knowledge far exceeds the product, and we appreciate his quick and honest responses to call/emails.  Buy with confidence!

We took part in the NH pellet rebate program and I was delightfully surprised how quick we received our rebate. From the day I mailed the application to the state, it took less than a week to be approved and receive the check. I encourage anyone in NH getting a pellet boiler to take part in the program. If you have any questions about the process please let me know and I'll do my best to answer them. Also, Barbara, the state employee who works with the rebate program, was friendly and quick to answer any questions.

If you have any questions or want me to take a specific photo of the system please let me know. Thanks everyone!






Lowering into the basement




Uncrated and ready for electrical and plumbing












Tied into existing system




Up and running




Bulk pellet delivery from Maine Energy.  They're great to work with!!




3+ tons of pellets




Cleaning the boiler is very easy and takes about 15-20 mins. I only took a few photos of this process. Ash bin at 2+ tons burnt




Inside boiler




Burn pot




Inside the burn pot after the cone, air pin, and grate are removed for cleaning. The Biowin includes a handy tool to easily remove the cone and scrape off the residue.




Clean burn chamber




Clean cone, air pin, and grate


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## Tennman (Feb 25, 2014)

Very impressive Paste. I'd love to see a pic of how pellets get from the bag to the hopper. Since there is no storage does it shut the fire down after pellets in the cone are consumed? How does it avoid idling like my wood non-storage boiler. I think Heaterman explained this before but I forget. Also it looks like a small flue that isn't a high temp, double wall. Pretty attractive if for whatever reason I can't process wood in my future. Congrats, impressive.


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## Paste (Feb 25, 2014)

The pellets are transferred from the 3 ton bin to the boiler hopper via suction.  The boiler hopper holds around 100+lbs with the turbine installed (or if you remove the turbine it holds 330 lbs if you want to just dump bags of pellets in like DanaB).  The suction turbine turns on for 30 seconds about once a day as we consume about 80-90 lbs/day this winter.  The boiler has an auger that feeds the burnpot from the boiler hopper and the boiler can modulate from 30-100%.  Windhager specifies the flue to be UL-103 rated; flue temps range from 160-220 degrees.  We're really happy with the system and we got lucky with the timing; we'll save over $2600 on fuel this year when compared to propane.

Suction probe inside the pellet bin.  The lower tube is for return air and the upper tube transports the pellets.




Left hose is return air, right hose is for pellet transfer.




Suction tube entering boiler hopper




Suction turbine on top.  I removed the panel on the boiler hopper, so you can see the pellets inside.  The boiler auger and ash bin are below.




Boiler auger and ash bin.  Copper tube is for the built-in fire suppression system.


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## Tennman (Feb 25, 2014)

I get it. Pretty impressive piece of engineering. Rough numbers that bin gives you a little over 2 months of heat during this exceptionally cold winter. And apparently your paying for fuel to show up much like buying propane (pic of loading thru the window). Burning wood would still be cheaper for me unless I add what my time's worth, then I'll bet the Windhager looks pretty good. Congrats


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## GENECOP (Feb 25, 2014)

Nice setup.....


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## BoilerMan (Feb 25, 2014)

Tennman said:


> Burning wood would still be cheaper for me unless I add what my time's worth, then I'll bet the Windhager looks pretty good.


I think this is always true.  Wood is the cheapest heat, but the most time consuming.  Bulk pellet storage and delivery is as close to the ease of oil/gas as one can get.

FWIW: I'd have a Windhager in a heartbeat if I had a rental (which I had to heat) or was unable to burn wood at my home.  The pellet machine of choice!

TS


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## Trout (Mar 1, 2014)

Paste said:


> First, we want to thank everyone for the wealth of information on this forum.
> 
> Last spring, we decided to install a pellet boiler to move away from propane for heat and DHW. We spent a few months reading reviews and contacting dealers to see which system would best fit our needs. We looked at Okofen, Froling, MEsys, Harman, Kedel, and Windhager. In the end, we chose the Windhager because of its features, ease of use/maintenance, price, and Marc Caluwe's service.
> 
> ...


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## Trout (Mar 1, 2014)

A really nice looking boiler and set-up.  I'm looking at getting a BioWin come spring and, like you, using a 3 ton bag.  Has this worked well for you?  Does the vacum system get most of the pellets out of the bag?  I would appreciate your thoughts on your set-up.


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## hyfire (Mar 1, 2014)

Tell us why you did not choose the Froling unit, was it a cost issue?


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## Paste (Mar 3, 2014)

Trout said:


> A really nice looking boiler and set-up.  I'm looking at getting a BioWin come spring and, like you, using a 3 ton bag.  Has this worked well for you?  Does the vacum system get most of the pellets out of the bag?  I would appreciate your thoughts on your set-up.


Thanks Trout. We've been really happy with the biowin and Marc's service. I get about 95% of the pellets out of the bag, then I use an old dog bowl to scoop the pellets toward the probe from the edge of the bag.  I wanted to see how long I could get 3 tons to last and determine how effective the probe was on a flat surface.  Moving forward, I'll refill pellets before it gets that low for convenience.  The bags are easy to fill with bulk pellets via someone like Maine Energy, or you can use 40lb bags and blow them in yourself with a leaf blower.  Blowing in pellets


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## Paste (Mar 3, 2014)

hyfire said:


> Tell us why you did not choose the Froling unit, was it a cost issue?


We were going to purchase the Okofen or Froling, then by chance I found this site and read about the Biowin.  While the Froling is a nice unit, the biowin offered the same features we were looking for (bulk feed, high efficiency, user serviceable, self-cleaning, built-in safety mechanisms, and great customer support) at about half the cost.  In fact, the Froling would have cost about $9,500 more than the biowin after install.  For our home, that is 5 yrs worth of pellets.


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## hyfire (Mar 3, 2014)

Wow I did not realize the cost difference on the Froling, you made a wise decision, and the efficiency is very comparable with the Biowin.


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## DZL_Damon (Mar 3, 2014)

Paste said:


> We were going to purchase the Okofen or Froling, then by chance I found this site and read about the Biowin.  While the Froling is a nice unit, the biowin offered the same features we were looking for (bulk feed, high efficiency, user serviceable, self-cleaning, built-in safety mechanisms, and great customer support) at about half the cost.  In fact, the Froling would have cost about $9,500 more than the biowin after install.  For our home, that is 5 yrs worth of pellets.


 I concure. Although I did not stumble across the Windhager yet when I was doing my research last February.... the Froling was my choice but about $10k more than my Kedel. Had I heard of Windhager back then it would have been my closest consideration over the Kedel, they seem like very nice, affordable units with lots of people happy with them.


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## DBNH22 (Mar 20, 2014)

Great to see your thread on the install.  For some reason that picture of Bruce lowering the boiler down into the bulkhead gives me a sense of deja vu.

My unit  has been working great too.  The only issue I have had is slight hard ash buildup several times in the burnpot.  However Marc and I have been working on this to determine what the issue is and it appears to have nothing to do with the boiler but the fact that I had sealed up my rim joists with spray foam and my basement ceiling with great stuff.  The effect of this was basically to throw off the draft and combustion of the unit so that it was not performing optimally.  I think the solution to this may be to port in a little outside air.  It's important to to understand that whether using the Windhager or any other heating appliance, they are not operating in a vacuum. There is a lot of physics and other variables that affect the system as a whole.

Your bulk feed solution looks great.  I've been bag feeding all season long and will continue to do so.  I don't mind it at all.  This being my first season heating with pellets did cause me to get caught a little flat footed though.  I only pre-bought 4 tons thinking I'd be able to get what I needed as time went on but there's been a shortage of the bagged pellets for the past month and I've been having to buy ten bags at a time as the stores are rationing them.  What brand of pellets does Maine Energy deliver in bulk?  Is it a blend, softwood or hardwood?

Also if you don't mind my asking how large is your home, how many tons have you gone through and what are you paying per ton for bulk delivery?  My home, excluding the unfinished basement and an unfinished bonus room, is 2300 sqaure feet and I've gone through 4.9 tons since the middle of last October as of this morning.  I'm also using my Biowin for DHW during the heating months but will switch back to oil for DHW during th enon heating months.  What do you use for DHW?  I'm estimating 5.5 tons for the season.  I had been paying $250 a ton delivered for Maine Wood Pellets but having to buy by the bag is costing me a little more now.

I created a spreadsheet of my oil use/costs since 2010 to see how much I would save this year with pellets.  Here are a few numbers:

Heating Season (From July 1 to Following June 30)                    # Gallons Oil Used                       Total Spent on Oil

2010/2011                                                                                      976.8                                             $2755.66

2011/2012                                                                                      891.5                                             $3237.84

2012/2013                                                                                      809.9                                             $2873.03

Three Year Oil Average = 2955.51


Keep in mind that these numbers take into account not only heating with oil but using it for DHW as well.  I will continue to use oil for DHW from roughly April through mid early to mid October but for DHW only the oil will go much, much further.  I expect that 150 gallons of oil will last me a couple of years.

I don't have the exact numbers yet for the pellet costs for this heating season but I'm expecting the total cost to be around $1500 and I'm certain I can improve upon that number next year with proper planning and pre-buying.  So I'm looking at a rough savings of $1373 with pellets this year over oil last year.  Lets say I factor in 50 gallons of oil to use for my DHW in the spring/summer  (I probably won't use that much) at 3.59 a gallon which would be on the high end for unit cost during summer which is the only time I will buy oil from now on.  That would cost 179.  1373 - 179 =  $1194 or 41.56 % savings in total energy costs from last year to this year by switching to pellets from oil as my home's primary source of energy for heat and domestic hot water.


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## chken (Mar 20, 2014)

Thanks for the great writeup of the install! I'm surprised that the Biowin was that much less than the Kedel, I got the sense that the two were about equal in price.

What does the unit exhaust into on the outside of the house?


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## NE WOOD BURNER (Mar 20, 2014)

Paste said:


> the Froling would have cost about $9,500 more than the biowin after install.  For our home, that is 5 yrs worth of pellets.



Paste: was this cost difference apples to apples or did your Froling quote include installation? Just curiosity seems like a large number.


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## DBNH22 (Mar 20, 2014)

Are you using external combustion air for the boiler?


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## DZL_Damon (Mar 21, 2014)

chken said:


> Thanks for the great writeup of the install! I'm surprised that the Biowin was that much less than the Kedel, I got the sense that the two were about equal in price.
> 
> What does the unit exhaust into on the outside of the house?


The Kedel and Windhager are similarly priced, the Kedel a bit less actually. The comparison was to a Froling P4 unit.


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## chken (Mar 21, 2014)

DZL_Damon said:


> The Kedel and Windhager are similarly priced, the Kedel a bit less actually. The comparison was to a Froling P4 unit.





Paste said:


> We looked at Okofen, Froling, MEsys, Harman, Kedel, and Windhager. In the end, we chose the Windhager because of its features, ease of use/maintenance, price, and Marc Caluwe's service.
> 
> While price wasn't our primary concern, its important to note the Biowin with the bulk feeding system cost us $3-5K less than the competition.


Oh, It was a bit confusing because the OP made a pricing comparison twice, the time you mention with the Fröling which was $9500 more, and the first post where he mentions all of the units he compared including the Kedel which presumably cost more. Don't worry, I'll get my own prices, but I thought it was odd, because of all the great info I've already gotten from you and others, I expected the Kedel to be in the same general range as the Windhager.


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## Paste (Mar 23, 2014)

Dana B said:


> snip...



Hi Dana.  Great to hear you're staying warm and saving money with your Biowin!  We're getting MWP blend at $249 bulk delivered.  Our home is 2900 sq ft not including the unfinished basement.  We've burnt 5.7 tons since Oct. and we're expecting to burn 7 tons this year.  We're using the Biowin for DHW, too.


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## Paste (Mar 23, 2014)

chken said:


> Thanks for the great writeup of the install! I'm surprised that the Biowin was that much less than the Kedel, I got the sense that the two were about equal in price.
> 
> What does the unit exhaust into on the outside of the house?


You're welcome.  We're happy to share our experience and answer questions for others looking at pellet boilers.  The Biowin with sourced 3 ton storage was $10.3K and the Kedel with 3 ton storage was $13.8K, not including install.  I think the base boiler price is $8.5k Biowin and $9.7k Kedel, but I don't recall exactly because I needed bulk storage.   Exhaust is thru a class A chimney.


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## Paste (Mar 23, 2014)

NE WOOD BURNER said:


> Paste: was this cost difference apples to apples or did your Froling quote include installation? Just curiosity seems like a large number.



The 9k+ difference was comparing both units installed.


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## chken (Mar 23, 2014)

Paste said:


> You're welcome.  We're happy to share our experience and answer questions for others looking at pellet boilers.  The Biowin with 3 ton storage was $10.3K and the Kedel with 3 ton storage was $13.8K, not including install.  Exhaust is thru a class A chimney.


Of course that's after you already took the NH rebate off, right? Was it $6k?


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## Paste (Mar 23, 2014)

DZL_Damon said:


> The Kedel and Windhager are similarly priced, the Kedel a bit less actually. The comparison was to a Froling P4 unit.



DZL_Damon is correct, I was comparing the Froling P4.  Sorry for not being clear.  When I got quotes the Kedel  was more than the Windhager for systems with 3 Ton storage, which I needed to qualify for the NH pellet rebate.  The Kedel is a good unit and I enjoy reading your posts about it.


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## Paste (Mar 23, 2014)

chken said:


> Of course that's after you already took the NH rebate off, right? Was it $6k?


Edit to clarify.  The boiler and my bulk setup was 10.3k and after the NH rebate it was 7.2k.


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## sinnian (Mar 24, 2014)

Dana B said:


> Are you using external combustion air for the boiler?



X2


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## DBNH22 (Mar 24, 2014)

Paste said:


> Hi Dana.  Great to hear you're staying warm and saving money with your Biowin!  We're getting MWP blend at $249 bulk delivered.  Our home is 2900 sq ft not including the unfinished basement.  We've burnt 5.7 tons since Oct. and we're expecting to burn 7 tons this year.  We're using the Biowin for DHW, too.




That's exactly what I was paying for the MWP blend when buying them by the ton from Benson's Lumber in Londonderry.  I just passed five tons burned last week so I'm guessing I'll be at max six tons when it's all said and done for this season.

Now that I have my external combustion/draft issues all sorted out I think I may try burning the Home Depot pellets again to see how that works out.  They're only $219 a ton.

One other thing I forgot to ask.  Is your dip switch set for 21kw or 26kw?  Mine is set to 21kw and it hasn't had any issues keeping up at all during this terrible winter.  Marc told me that you gain efficiency at the lower setting.  That's nice to know.


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## sinnian (Mar 24, 2014)

Dana B said:


> Now that I have my external combustion/draft issues all sorted out



What did you have to do?


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## DBNH22 (Mar 24, 2014)

sinnian said:


> What did you have to do?




Well I wrote about it on some other thread but I'll give you the back story in case you didn't see it there.  I started using the Biowin in mid October last year and everything was going great until the end of the year.  I still remember the day.  it was the Sunday morning before New Year's.  I went down to check on the pellets in the morning and the LCD was red w/ "Shaker grate/ash removal defective," error message on the screen and the boiler had went into a standby state where it was cooling down.

Marc and I thought it might be the pellets but I tried a number of different pellets over the next two months but the problem would recur intermittently.  One thing we overlooked was the fact that right before the issue happened for the first time I had had my rim joists in the basement spray foamed professionally. I had also foamed all the air leaks in the basement ceiling myself with Great Stuff.  The basement was made significantly tighter after this.   In discussing this with Marc and observing the behavior of the barometric damper on the unit we were able to determine that the boiler was pretty much getting choked.  I've had the basement window ajar several inches for the past week. The issue has not recurred and the barometric damper is operating more smoothly and consistently whereas before it would swing forcefully and erratically.  So I'm fairly certain that I can say problem solved.

It was not due to any fault or defect in the boiler but rather the physics of my basement.  I plan on drilling through the basement joist and bringing a 6" pipe down toward the floor to provide a  uniform, consistent source of combustion air.   Once this is done I'm hoping that I can again try some of the Home Depot pellets and if they prove to be cost effective without hindering the boilers performance I might burn a lot of them next year as it would be additional cost savings.


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## sinnian (Mar 24, 2014)

Dana B said:


> Well I wrote about it on some other thread but I'll give you the back story in case you didn't see it there.  I started using the Biowin in mid October last year and everything was going great until the end of the year.  I still remember the day.  it was the Sunday morning before New Year's.  I went down to check on the pellets in the morning and the LCD was red w/ "Shaker grate/ash removal defective," error message on the screen and the boiler had went into a standby state where it was cooling down.
> 
> Marc and I thought it might be the pellets but I tried a number of different pellets over the next two months but the problem would recur intermittently.  One thing we overlooked was the fact that right before the issue happened for the first time I had had my rim joists in the basement spray foamed professionally. I had also foamed all the air leaks in the basement ceiling myself with Great Stuff.  The basement was made significantly tighter after this.   In discussing this with Marc and observing the behavior of the barometric damper on the unit we were able to determine that the boiler was pretty much getting choked.  I've had the basement window ajar several inches for the past week. The issue has not recurred and the barometric damper is operating more smoothly and consistently whereas before it would swing forcefully and erratically.  So I'm fairly certain that I can say problem solved.
> 
> It was not due to any fault or defect in the boiler but rather the physics of my basement.  I plan on drilling through the basement joist and bringing a 6" pipe down toward the floor to provide a  uniform, consistent source of combustion air.   Once this is done I'm hoping that I can again try some of the Home Depot pellets and if they prove to be cost effective without hindering the boilers performance I might burn a lot of them next year as it would be additional cost savings.



Sorry you had issues ~ I was the guy that said you may.


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## DBNH22 (Mar 24, 2014)

sinnian said:


> Sorry you had issues ~ I was the guy that said you may.




Yeah it's not a huge issue.  The piping and actual work for the external air should be fairly cheap and quick.  I'm an IT guy by trade and switching to the pellet boiler has been a very enjoyable learning experience for me not only about the boiler itself but also about the construction and physics of homes.  I'm going to get the airway done this summer and have six tons in my basement come October so next year should be smooth sailing.


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## velvetfoot (Mar 24, 2014)

Will you just have the pipe discharge in the area of the boiler, or is there a some kind of positive connection?
oops-read previous post.  Sound like in vicinity.

Do you have an oil boiler?  Has it been operating normally?


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## DBNH22 (Mar 24, 2014)

velvetfoot said:


> Will you just have the pipe discharge in the area of the boiler, or is there a some kind of positive connection?
> oops-read previous post.  Sound like in vicinity.
> 
> Do you have an oil boiler?  Has it been operating normally?




I will do the work myself but I spoke to the plumber who installed it to get his advice.  I am going to bring it in through the joist into an elbow and then down behind the back of the boiler.

I have an oil boiler that I left in place but I haven't run it since the rim joists were spray foamed.  Prior to having the rim joists spray foamed I had no issues with the pellet or oil boiler though.


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## Paste (Mar 25, 2014)

sinnian said:


> X2


We are not using external combustion.


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## Paste (Mar 25, 2014)

Dana B said:


> That's exactly what I was paying for the MWP blend when buying them by the ton from Benson's Lumber in Londonderry.  I just passed five tons burned last week so I'm guessing I'll be at max six tons when it's all said and done for this season.
> 
> Now that I have my external combustion/draft issues all sorted out I think I may try burning the Home Depot pellets again to see how that works out.  They're only $219 a ton.
> 
> One other thing I forgot to ask.  Is your dip switch set for 21kw or 26kw?  Mine is set to 21kw and it hasn't had any issues keeping up at all during this terrible winter.  Marc told me that you gain efficiency at the lower setting.  That's nice to know.



I used HD pellets when we first got up and running.  They worked just as well as the bulk MWP in the Biowin; we noticed no difference.  Buy cheap and stack them deep.

Yes, we're set to 21kw and, like you, we haven't had any issues with keeping up with demand.  My wife had her family Christmas here and we had the house at 78 degrees for the older people.  The biowin worked great.


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## Trout (Oct 6, 2014)

Paste,
  I don't know if you remember, but earlier, I asked you how your feed system was working, etc.  Another question-- do the feed and air pipes hold up with 3 tons of pellets pressing down on them?  I'm in the process of installing mine, much like your setup and thought I would check.
  Thanks, Trout


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## Paste (Oct 6, 2014)

Trout said:


> Paste,
> I don't know if you remember, but earlier, I asked you how your feed system was working, etc.  Another question-- do the feed and air pipes hold up with 3 tons of pellets pressing down on them?  I'm in the process of installing mine, much like your setup and thought I would check.
> Thanks, Trout



The Windhager feed and air tubes work perfectly, no deformation.


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## velvetfoot (Oct 8, 2014)

Paste,
Do you think the concrete blocks are necessary under the bag?  I am thinking of just using some xps foam sheet.
Thanks.


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## Paste (Oct 8, 2014)

velvetfoot said:


> Paste,
> Do you think the concrete blocks are necessary under the bag?  I am thinking of just using some xps foam sheet.
> Thanks.


I'm not sure if the xps foam sheets will hold up to 3+ tons of compression or prevent the bag straps from sliding as the bag weight shifts.  I'd use 4x8x16 blocks and some scrap plywood for a base.


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## velvetfoot (Oct 8, 2014)

Ah yes, I forgot about those straps.  Do you hang it from the ceiling?  There are no straps for that.


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## Paste (Oct 10, 2014)

There are 2 loops on top of the bag to hang it.  I use 2 bicycle wheel hooks becuase they make it easy to unhook the bag and gain access to the door on top.


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## velvetfoot (Oct 10, 2014)

Thanks.  I have to take a closer look.


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## velvetfoot (Oct 11, 2014)

Paste,
Is that your hose and curved metal fitting in the photos, or MES'?
I might be able to use a fitting like that
You don't ever load pellets from bags into that top door, do you?


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## Paste (Oct 12, 2014)

The hose and attachment are from Mes delivery.  In the past, I've filled the bag through the top door with 40 lb bags.  I prefer bulk because it's cheaper,  time effective,  and I don't have to carry a single bag.


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## velvetfoot (Nov 19, 2014)

Are you keeping warm?  My boiler system is running great, far as I can tell anyway.

I put together a 4x4x4 box, put the vacuum pickup in there, and loaded it up with bagged pellets.  It runs great!  Next up:  set up the bag.  
Paste, what do you think of securing the straps down with screws into the concrete floor, maybe with a plywood washer for each strap?

Edit:  Answered my own question, again, lol.  I called MES and they said my plan was good.  I like the idea of more uniform support under the bag.  The foam I put under the box is holding up.


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## Trout (Nov 19, 2014)

Velvetfoot, glad your system is running well.  Because of dampness in my basement, my bag is on plywood and 3 in blocks.  The straps are screwed to the plywood.  
  Good luck!


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## Paste (Nov 21, 2014)

Your box looks nice; great work.  I agree with raising the bag off the floor if water may be an issue.


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