# kerr tw2000



## stratton (Mar 13, 2012)

is boiler protection a must??? my return temp drops to130deg for 5 min before getting back above 140.


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## woodsmaster (Mar 13, 2012)

For the longevety of the boiler water return shouldn't drop below 140. Protection is cheap compaired to a new boiler.


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## stratton (Mar 13, 2012)

J.T.
thanks


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## maplewood (Mar 13, 2012)

I replaced my TW 2000 with a new Econoburn 150 two winters ago. Best move I ever made to heat my house.
The TW was undersized for my heat load (my fault).
It has a very slow heat recovery rate. For that reason alone, you should control the return water temp with a mixing valve.

I found when it couldn't keep up, the draft was wide open and I was throwing a lot of heat up my chimney.
So I installed a 10 minute timer in my damper motor circuit, and usually had it set for 7 minutes. So when the house was calling
for heat, and the damper was wide open, it would get the fire all hot and bothered for 7 minutes, then it would close the damper
for 3 minutes and shove all the heat into the water, instead of letting it mostly roll up the chimney. I found it gave more BTU's to
me instead of giving it back to Mother Nature.
I also had a lot of coals build up by the back wall of the fire box. I toyed with the idea of a second draft in the back, and to alternate
between the two drafts (factory one in the front and my addition in the back) but I never got around to it.  I was always raking 
coals to the front.  When it was really cold out (-20 C), and I was force feeding the boiler, it couldn't burn up the coals fast enough.  I'd
have to take a lot out in the ash pail just to put in more wood.

Eventually I had 3 bolts rust off, two by the door frame and 1 in back by my dhw exchanger. I saw the writing on the wall and 
upgraded to the Econoburn. What a difference! My new boiler is the right size for my house, and makes heat like a boss. The
only negative things I'll say against the Econoburn are (1) it frequently burns out its fire and I have to re-start it a lot, where the 
TW2000 always had a bed of coals left. And (2) the Econoburn's fine ash blows out of the boiler and into the smoke pipe and
chimney, even though I clean the bottom gasification chamber at least every second or third day, meaning I have to clean out my
chimney twice a winter. 

But man, can my new Econoburn make hot water! I'm burning the same volume of wood that I used to burn in my TW200 and a
second stove (14-15 cord) but now I'm burning half softwood, which is free for me. So I'm saving the cost of 7 cord of hardwood per
winter, and I'm only burning in one device, and I'm keeping the house warmer easier. And when I add storage, I'll be even better!

Good luck with your TW2000. Have fun cleaning the baffle plates and then putting them back up. (Actually, I'd just wait until the end
of the season, then take off your stove pipe and manually reach in from the top and clean most of the ash from that angle. Don't take
the plates down - you'll not gain much from the cleaning perspective, and you'll be forced to mumble a few swear words as you try
for the 4th or 5th time to get them back up in place....)


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## stratton (Mar 13, 2012)

hello,eco 150
how many yrs did you run the tw2000?
how many cords per yr
how many soft were you heating?
I would love to hear your thoughts
                                  thanks stratton


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## maplewood (Mar 14, 2012)

stratton said:
			
		

> hello,eco 150
> how many yrs did you run the tw2000?
> how many cords per yr
> how many soft were you heating?
> ...



I used the TW2000 from 1994 to 2009.
I burned about 12 cord of hardwood (mostly red maple) in it each winter, and about 2-3 more cord of hardwood in a Pacific Energy stove.
(We have 3500 sq. ft. of house, with 8' and 9' basement ceilings, 7.5', 10' and 22' celings in the main floor, 2nd story and cathedral living room.
We didn't burn any softwood then, because it was all we could do to keep the house warm when it was cold out (-15 to -25 C).
The TW2000 would peak its heat output about 0.5 - 3 hours in its 6-8 hour burn cycle. When it was cold out, I shortened the cycle to about 4 hours.
There was always a ton of coals in the back of the boiler. I would rake them forward for the next fire, or just to move them towards the fresh air flow
to burn them out.
The two big problems I had with it was that it was undersized for my heat load, and it was very slow to make hot water.

The Econoburn is perfect to heat the whole house - I don't use the Pacific Energy at all now. Well, maybe for the short shoulder seasons, or
for ambiance on a winters night. It has no problem keeping up its temperature for at least 6 hours on a burn, with only 60 gallons of buffer / storage.
I expect when I get 1000 gallons of pressurized storage heated up, I'll be able to go for 10+ hours after starting a fire, even when it's cold outside.


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## stratton (Mar 14, 2012)

Maplewood.thanks for info I love the hearth.com very helpful
This is my situation,
I only have 1200 sqft to heat .I have great cast rads in my house. the main reason for the tw2000 was the size. it was the only boiler i could get down cellar stairs
burned 7-8 cps this season 
you can't complain with 15yrs of service.
                  thanks again 
                   talk soon


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## maplewood (Mar 14, 2012)

stratton said:
			
		

> Maplewood.thanks for info I love the hearth.com very helpful
> This is my situation,
> I only have 1200 sqft to heat .I have great cast rads in my house. the main reason for the tw2000 was the size. it was the only boiler i could get down cellar stairs
> burned 7-8 cps this season
> ...



Hope you have great success with it!
One other thing I did:  I removed the high temp blowoff that went into the firebox.  (Maybe they don't do that any more?)
I had a 30 psi blowoff leak on me, and filled the firebox with water.  What a mess.
I changed my controls to turn on my biggest demand loop (basement floor for me) when the temp went above 210F.
I made the blowoff just dump into a 10 gallon pail.
Check your chimney mid season to make sure it's creosote clear.  Burn seasoned wood or else you'll have a lot of creosote build up.
Glad the comments are helping.  This is a fantastic site!


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