# Empyre Elite 100 Pounding out the heat



## willyswagon (Jan 4, 2013)

It is nice to see some cold weather to watch the boiler do it's thing.
I've been sitting on the end of my seat since I put this thing in this fall.
The cold weather showed up just before New Years.

The first real test was New Years Eve.
Filled the boiler at 5pm as we left for the night.Outdoor temps were -12* C (10*F),winds were NNW at 40KPH( 25 MPH).
I returned New Years Day at 8 am to find the house still at 20*C (70*F) with a nice pile of coals left in the fire box.
I was impressed with that, 15 hrs of heat and didn't burn out

I 3/4 filled it last night, at about 6pm. There was no wind so I didn't bother to top it up when I went to bed.

I stayed in bed a little longer than planned this am.
Went to the garage at 720am to find the boiler down to 156*F, opened the door to find the load had bridged. There were a nice bit of coals, so I stirred them around and threw in about half a load of splits.
I just looked out and it has come from 156* to 173* in exactly 1 hr.

So far I'd have to say I'm happy with the cold weather performance.


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## muleman51 (Jan 4, 2013)

Glad you are getting that kind of burn times, because I sure am not getting anything more than seven hours out of mine. So far my Elite seems to take a lot of wood. Last weekend when it was below zero I thought maybe I should put a cot by it so I could keep it full.


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## willyswagon (Jan 5, 2013)

muleman51 said:


> Glad you are getting that kind of burn times, because I sure am not getting anything more than seven hours out of mine. So far my Elite seems to take a lot of wood. Last weekend when it was below zero I thought maybe I should put a cot by it so I could keep it full.


 
Wow that's quite a difference. There is a big difference in the temps if you are using *F.
You would have been a full 10* colder than here.
It was -5*C (24*F) here last night with about 10-15 mph winds. I filled the fire box to about half. Just went out at 815, 2 pcs of wood left. I threw in 6 or 7 splits, that should get me through the day unless we do alot of laundry.

How big is your house? I've been burning since mid Oct and have gone through just under 2 cords(no oil).
I was talking to a buddy of mine thursday night and he has gone through just over 2 cords with his Wood Gun.


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## muleman51 (Jan 6, 2013)

willyswagon said:


> Wow that's quite a difference. There is a big difference in the temps if you are using *F.
> You would have been a full 10* colder than here.
> It was -5*C (24*F) here last night with about 10-15 mph winds. I filled the fire box to about half. Just went out at 815, 2 pcs of wood left. I threw in 6 or 7 splits, that should get me through the day unless we do alot of laundry.
> 
> ...


 My house is about 3000 feet but I only heat the basement and first floor. I go through about one of my wood pallets a week. They are 6x4 feet stacked at least 4 foot high. Seems to be pretty hungry. The house is well insulated.  Just the joys pf cutting wood.


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## willyswagon (Jan 6, 2013)

Wow that does seem high.
I used a little less than 1/2 a cord from when I put it in (early Oct) until Nov 20th
.75 cord rack Nov 20th - Dec 17th
I will finish off the second .75 cord rack in the next day or two,so the 17th of Dec - Jan 8 th.
I'll then take advantage of the warm temperatures forecast for Tuesday to put in another 1.5 cord.
That on top of the 2 1/4 that I have left in the garage should be more than enough for this winter.


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## Burning Alaska (Mar 27, 2013)

willyswagon, have you continued to be pleased with the performance of your elite 100 through the rest of the winter? How many cords did you end up going through? What is the typical size of the wood you’re loading? Does your unit stay pretty clean? How often do you have to clean out the tubes?

Thanks!


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## willyswagon (Mar 27, 2013)

Burning Alaska said:


> willyswagon, have you continued to be pleased with the performance of your elite 100 through the rest of the winter? How many cords did you end up going through? What is the typical size of the wood you’re loading? Does your unit stay pretty clean? How often do you have to clean out the tubes?
> 
> Thanks!


 
I'm going to be into it for 4.25 cords by the end of the month. I'm thinking less than 5 cords if the weather stays like this until the end of April. It is right around the freezing mark for daytime highs, slightly under for the lows. We are presently surrounded by ice so it takes a while for things to warm up in the spring.

So far I'm happy with the way the unit is operating. I clean the tubes every week since it only takes about 5 min to do it. There are a couple of maintaince updates that have come out on the units since they have first been produced. Once again nothing major. You'll find a couple of other threads on here which highlight that.

As far as load sizes go, I load for the projected temps. Last night ( 10 pm) I threw in 6 splits(4 - 6" dia), when I went out at 630 there were two left that were char coalized but un burnt, I rolled them over the nozzles, and let them burn down until about 10 am. I threw in three more splits to get me through till after dinner(5 pm).


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## mkhopper (Mar 27, 2013)

Pictures?


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## muleman51 (Mar 27, 2013)

I sure am glad that you like yours bcause I am certainly disappointed with mine. Unless its above freezing mine is most always out of wood unless you can feed it every 4 hours. You are right they are easy to clean, if they aren't plugged with charcoal. The mod on the air gate helped but I have a lot of ash. I think I burn at least a half cord a week. At this time I would not give it a good recomendation


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## willyswagon (Mar 27, 2013)

muleman51 said:


> I sure am glad that you like yours bcause I am certainly disappointed with mine. Unless its above freezing mine is most always out of wood unless you can feed it every 4 hours. You are right they are easy to clean, if they aren't plugged with charcoal. The mod on the air gate helped but I have a lot of ash. I think I burn at least a half cord a week. At this time I would not give it a good recomendation


 

What wood are you burning? I wouldn't have had 15 gal of ash since I started in Oct. In fact a couple of my buddys drop in each time I empty it because they can't believe how little ash there is.

I'm burning Maple and some birch, the odd piece of beech.


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## BoilerBob (Mar 27, 2013)

WOW,
half a cord of hardwood per week is around 15,000,000btu at 75% eff.
Good thing you don't burn oil, you would need approx. 150 gallons a week at 75% eff

You must have a BIG house or your btu's are disappearing somewhere.


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## maple1 (Mar 28, 2013)

BoilerBob said:


> WOW,
> half a cord of hardwood per week is around 15,000,000btu at 75% eff.
> Good thing you don't burn oil, you would need approx. 150 gallons a week at 75% eff
> 
> You must have a BIG house or your btu's are disappearing somewhere.


 
+1 - something sounds off somewhere in the setup.

Have you checked your flue draft? That's very large wood consumption - unless you are heating very large spaces.


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## chewy (Mar 28, 2013)

maple1 said:


> +1 - something sounds off somewhere in the setup.
> 
> Have you checked your flue draft? That's very large wood consumption - unless you are heating very large spaces.


Muleman51 did you ever check what your serial # on your elite 100 is?  

Erin


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## chewy (Mar 28, 2013)

logger6644
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joined: Jan 30, 2013
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muleman51 said: ↑
I've had my elite 100 since last March. I ran tried to run it with storage last year to no success. It just couldn't get ahead. I was told by the dealer and factory rep to disconect the storage and heat exchangerand run it as a open system. If the temp is in th 20s it keeps up pretty good. This week sucks by the time I get back from work its cold and takes until 10pm to catch up. It's only up to 165* right now been burning strong since 630, itwas down to 1468 when I got home. The boiler was up to 180* and refilled at 9am this morning. Not real happy with the burn times. I am burning 3 year old oak. Don't get much help from my dealer or factory. Jim
Hi Muleman51, I bought my first elite 100 in December 2010, but did not install or run it until September 2011. Last three digits of my serial number was 223. I to had trouble from the start. In fact it failed this January due to creosote corrosion. See Empyre Elite Boiler Corrosion thread on this web site. The Elite has gone through several design changes since it's early days and the company has not been open about these changes.To a large degree your success or lack of it may be related to what version you have. What is your serial number? In March of 2011 they changed a part called an air gate which regulates the split of air between the upper and lower chamber. Since mine was built before this, I was running with an improper mix which started my problems. These ducts also require cleaning to maintain performance. I did get procedure from the factory for the upper one when I continued to have problems, but was not even aware of the location of the lower duct until creosote and air at this duct location caused a leak. The wall had corroded from .130 inches to .020 inches in this location. I just received a replacement boiler from the factory on three days ago. They honored the warranty because they had not told me of the changes or the cleaning procedures in a timely manner. My replacement boiler has serial number 629. The replacement is not the latest version however, the latest one has the door modification willyswagon mentioned as well as clean outs for the lower duct. They have advised him to add clean outs and sent him a cleaning procedure. I strongly advise you to check under the side bricks near the front hinge side and check the condition of the duct and the adjacent wall. Also check with the factory and see if your boiler has air gate drawing number 817405 or the old version 815812. Your boiler was not operating properly and I believe may have a serious problem! I do not believe storage is a problem but that is topic for further discussion after you get past this first concern. I fear you are on the same path I took.
logger6644, Feb 19, 2013 ReportBookmark#44LikeReply

Muleman51 did you read this post?


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## chewy (Mar 28, 2013)

Bump


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## muleman51 (Mar 28, 2013)

The wood I burn is everything I can find, oak, elm, maple, pine, boxelder, black walnut, ash,. The house isn't that big under 3000ft.  I do have a low serial number and I have modified the airgate. I have had conversations with several people on this and lots of ideas but not a lot of results. Only thing I haven't done is check the lower air passages but air is coming out of them. My wood pallets are 6x4x3 and I go through one of those a week and they are piled higher than the 3ft. All I do is cut wood on weekends, its dry wood, not wet. I certainly would like to get to the bottom of the problem. What really stinks is without my storage I have no cushion. Jim


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## chewy (Mar 29, 2013)

Muleman51,  sorry to here that.  I know where you are coming from.  I burn about 1/2 to 3/4 of a cord a week.  I don't heat my shop at night just when I'm in there.   Last fall I gutted the exterior of my house and had 2" closed cell foam sprayed and sheeted and wrapped, new vinyl siding,  all new windows.  It has helped a lot,but I think I still shouldn't be burning this much wood.  I cut standing dead and fallen dead mostly, but I'm sure it's not fully dry so that's part of the problem.  By the time the winter is over I'm spent trying to keep up with it.  I see all these guys who burn 5 cords a year and I'm jealous.  I'm dragging my feet on getting my gasser bc i don't want to make a 10k plus bad investment.  It would be nice to pin point my situation before I upgrade to try and avoid future problems.

Do you have that cleaning tool for the flu pipes that was talked about?  What did pro fab tell you to do?  I had heard how great they were with customer service and how they have the best warranty in the business.  Sounds like its all talk.  I had my mind made up about the elite 200.  I know my local Empyre dealer who I also buy my lumber from.  He said they had problems early on with them but had fixed the problems.  He is a good guy and wouldn't treat me wrong, but it sounds like the dealers are only privy to certain info from up top.  My ramble is over,  hope you get this figured out.

Erin


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## maple1 (Mar 29, 2013)

I'm thinking that if you're cutting wood on weekends - you're burning wet wood? That would cost a lot of potential heat.


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## willyswagon (Mar 29, 2013)

Mule man, how much oil were you burning before you switched to wood?
That's the conversion I did when I was thinking of making the move. I figured my entire year of burning worked out to about 5.5 cords. I have 4.25 burnt since Oct. It is going to be pretty close to what I had estimated by the time I get back to Oct. I'll burn small batches from here till the first of May, then rely on the solar panels for both heat and DHW.


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## willyswagon (Mar 29, 2013)

maple1 said:


> I'm thinking that if you're cutting wood on weekends - you're burning wet wood? That would cost a lot of potential heat.


 
I missed this post at first, but I'm thinking Maple may have nailed it. I haven't cut anything for over a year now. I did take down a standing dead thinking that it would be ready to go. It was dead for two years now. When I split it I found the MM to be @ 26%. I threw it on the pile for a year of seasoning.

I'm having a tough time thinking why the unit isn't working well for you as the 4 units that I know of up here are all doing the job for their owners.


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## BoilerBob (Mar 29, 2013)

muleman51 said:


> I do have a low serial number and I have modified the airgate


 


muleman51 said:


> Only thing I haven't done is check the lower air passages


 
?????   I believe logger had to correct these issues to improve output.


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## chewy (Mar 29, 2013)

Willyswagon,  are the four units in your area basically setup like yours?  Or is there major differences and they are still having good luck?  I really wanted the 200 bc it just seemed easier to use and install and from my understanding it is similar to a (dare I say owb) In that it can idol with no inefficiency issues.  

 I think it's ok for pro fab to jump in the gasser market and have design issues,  but if they find something that isn't right with the design they should at least tell you what to do to fix it.  And really this should be a warranty issue.

Maple1 I agree that wet wood could be the issue but standing dead under 30% shouldn't cut the efficiency in half.  Especially if he's not having a creosote problem.   There is something else wrong here.  

Erin


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## muleman51 (Mar 29, 2013)

It doesn't matter if I'm burning my three year old oak orThe dead standing or year old dried. I do not have a creosote problem either. I have burnt wood for 39 years now so I have no idea how much propane it would to take to heat completely with gas at this point. This is my third boiler and it seems to going down hill from the first.   I just wish the boiler would perform the way it was sold.   Jim


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## chewy (Mar 29, 2013)

Have you contacted pro fab?


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## willyswagon (Mar 30, 2013)

muleman51 said:


> It doesn't matter if I'm burning my three year old oak orThe dead standing or year old dried. I do not have a creosote problem either. I have burnt wood for 39 years now so I have no idea how much propane it would to take to heat completely with gas at this point. This is my third boiler and it seems to going down hill from the first. I just wish the boiler would perform the way it was sold. Jim


 

I don't know what to tell you Jim. I'm burning wood that was cut last Jan, blocked in March, split in April. I have had some build up in the boiler tubes, but the flue active tool has rid me of that problem.

I'm heating 2700 sq ft to 70* F, and a 660 sq ft garage to 65*F. All of my piping is insulated from the wood boiler into the oil boiler(52' run), then from there to the first rads in the loop. The walls are only 2x4 construction, attic is R52, 12 year old windows with Low E and Argon, foamed the ridge plate with 3" of spray foam.

I just stirred up the coals left over from last night, put in two 6" spilts. I'll add one more split as we leave for the day at 8am. That will hold it over until we get back at 5pm, as it will be in the mid 30's F and sunny this afternoon.

We are in a warmer zone than you for sure, but even when we had our coldest weather of the year, it was no problem to fill the boiler and get 10-12 hrs out of a load.


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## muleman51 (Mar 30, 2013)

I have had conversations with ProFab, have had some help, no real long term solutions. the boiler burned a full load last night and it was 38* this morning, at least there were enough coals so I only needed kindling and a little torch to get thing rolling. I have not purchased the flue active tool as I feel they should supply it with the boiler as it seems that the build up problem is their problem( my problem) and they don't care. I understand that tools wear out and I need to pay for replacements but they should supply the first ones with the boiler. The charcoal issue has pretty much gone away from plugging the tubes after i changed the airgate but now I get alot more ash under the nozzels, I actually cleaned the center out on Wed this week also as it had almost filled the center same as this morning. I miss my old Aqua therm it burned alot of wood but it was pretty much maintanence free and would hold a fire for 18 hours or longer if you filled it. It's raining today so no wood cutting today I guess I'm going to have to buy a load of wood this week to get by.That stinks when you have woodd of your own.  I wish all of us user were not so far apart so we could get together.  Have  a Happy Easter,   Jim


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## chewy (Mar 30, 2013)

Jim,  I would buy the tool in case by some miracle it will work.  If it doesn't work you could still use it to clean it in the future.  Is this tool for the flu pipes or to scrape around the nozzles?  I wouldn't let pro fabs lack of customer service discourage you from trying to figure out how to burn effiecently.

Erin


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## willyswagon (Mar 30, 2013)

I just got in the door after being away all day. There were just enough coals to relight the kindling I threw on top.
So the three splits that were there at 8 am lasted till 1040pm before burning out. The house is at 69*F the boiler was down to 150*F. 15 min later the boiler is back to 164*F. The first of the nights showers is about to begin.
If you are not using the Flue active tool your tubes are not clean, and you are not getting the proper heat transfer.
Mine was running along good before using the flue active tool, now it runs Great!

Update It is now 1110,15 min shower complete. boiler running at 175*F and climbing.


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## muleman51 (Apr 2, 2013)

Today I got home at 5;30 pm left at 5;45am, as usual boiler was out (154*) filled and relit an hour later it still had not shut off or gotten to temp. I'll refill it now and hope it makes morning. Still burning over a wheelbarrow load a day. Does anyone have pictures of the flue active tool.   Jim 
             Does anybody know what happened to the spell check that used to be on here.


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## willyswagon (Apr 3, 2013)

Hey Jim there is a pic I posted in another thread( 2nd posting down). It is worth it's weight in Gold!
I found it works best when I operate the drill in reverse.
It must be your tubes, I'm going through 6 - 10 splits a day. It is about 30*F with Westerly winds at 30mph today.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/keep-it-clean.105710/#post-1375435


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## maple1 (Apr 3, 2013)

I'm at the same climate - this evening I burned about a load & a half, or maybe 5 cu.ft.. We had some load draw today so my storage was down to 120 at top, it's back at 175 now & not burned out yet. That'll do me until same time tomorrow.

You're losing heat somewhere, plain & simple. Putting that much wood through it, it is either going up the stack to the outdoors, being lost to getting the moisture out of wood that is too wet, or getting distributed somewhere via your system or large piping heat losses. Too bad everyone is so far apart - this place is lots of help, but sometimes there is no substitute for being there. I am sure some on here could nail the problem down if they were at your site to have a look at things in operation.


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## Dino57 (Apr 4, 2013)

I have using the Elite 100 for three years now. I have found the best way to track the performance is to watch your stack temperature. If it goes above 300 -350 f then your tubes need cleaning. If it drops below 300 you are not burning hot enough. either wet wood,size or the air vents need cleaning.


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## maple1 (Apr 4, 2013)

Good point.

There are two pieces of information or data that might help, that I don't think I've read yet.

Your actual stack temperatures (internal with a probe thermometer), and your draft - measured while in full burn close to the unit.

Those are fundamental measures in helping to assess boiler performance.

MM readings of a freshly split piece of your fuel could be added to those also.


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## muleman51 (Apr 4, 2013)

I'll take stack temps. Today was one of those days. ait was 28* this morning the boiler was up to temp. I filled it at 5 and 6:30 when I went to work got up into the mid 40s this afternoon, came home expecting a good set of coals, but instead it was cold no coals and down to 146*.  It took over an hour to get the boiler back to temp.Had a conversation with my dealer and he was of verylittle help, he will come look at it for a fee since he didn't install it and feels he has no obligation to do anything about the poor performance. I wouldn't recommend him to my worst enemy. He told me they had done the mod on the airgate again today, which I know he did not because I did it. This is just frustrating. I ordered new brushes to try and clean it better.


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## chewy (Apr 4, 2013)

Muleman,  do you have install pics?   It might help the higher ups here diagnose a possible problem.  Did you do the install?

Erin


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## willyswagon (Apr 5, 2013)

muleman51 said:


> I'll take stack temps. Today was one of those days. ait was 28* this morning the boiler was up to temp. I filled it at 5 and 6:30 when I went to work got up into the mid 40s this afternoon, came home expecting a good set of coals, but instead it was cold no coals and down to 146*. It took over an hour to get the boiler back to temp.Had a conversation with my dealer and he was of verylittle help, he will come look at it for a fee since he didn't install it and feels he has no obligation to do anything about the poor performance. I wouldn't recommend him to my worst enemy. He told me they had done the mod on the airgate again today, which I know he did not because I did it. This is just frustrating. I ordered new brushes to try and clean it better.


 

Brushes will not get the tubes clean. I was doing mine every week, and thought I was doing great work.
When I used the Flue Active tool and saw what is being left behind I don't even bother with the brushes anymore.


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## WV Mountaineer (Apr 7, 2013)

muleman51 said:


> ...It's raining today so no wood cutting today I guess I'm going to have to buy a load of wood this week to get by.That stinks when you have woodd of your own. I wish all of us user were not so far apart so we could get together. Have a Happy Easter, Jim


 
I registered just so I could comment on this. If you are cutting wood on the weekend and burning it through the week, you will be burning green wood and the majority of your heat will be used to simply dry the wood.

You have also commented on the amount of ash you are getting. This also points to wet wood as the temperature is not getting hot enough to burn off most of the ash.

Are you seeing the gasification when you open the bottom door? It would be great if you could open that door and video it for us.

A few things to check as mentioned by others here as well.

1) Measure your stack temps during a full burn and post them.
2) Get a wood moisture content meter and test your wood and post the results.
3) Video the bottom chamber during a full burn and link the video on this thread.

My dad loves to burn wet wood because it last longer and he thinks he will use less wood overall. Sadly his mind is made up by years of experience with less efficient stove designs he has used and there simply isn't anyone alive that can change his mind. With the Empyre Elite that simply isn't the case as the wood has to burn more and longer to simply dry out the wood and you can't get the heat out of it to properly start gasification. By using dry wood, 15%, you are letting the wood focus on heating your water and then the fan will shut down once the water is hot and it won't burn much at all until you need to raise your boiler temp again.

I would not be surprised if you get a ton of creosote out of your tubes as well. Just buy the flu active tool and save yourself the frustration and wood usage.

Willyswagon, maybe you could video yours gasifying and link the video? It would give muleman51 something to compare it to if he lacks the ability to post his results. Videos can be found on youtube but I'm not going to link anything without knowing the forums policy on it.


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## pelletdude (Apr 7, 2013)




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## chewy (Apr 12, 2013)

Muleman,  just wondering how you are getting along?  Did you get a chance to try the flue tool out?  Got any pics of the setup or videos?

Erin


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## chewy (Apr 12, 2013)

pelletdude said:


>


Pelletdude,  can you tell me your thoughts on the the elite 100?  Does it smoke when the stove idle?  How does it stop and start a fire?

Erin


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## muleman51 (Apr 13, 2013)

When my 100 is burning it looks just like that picture. ( I haven't figured out posting pictures yet.) Cleaned it this morning  about three gallons of ash for one week. My setup is nothing special just two lines hooked to the house like it has been for the last 20 years. And I am not giving them $80 bucks for a cleaning tool that they should supply to clean their boiler. Ithink that is pretty poor on ProFabs part to even suggest that you have to purchase it. If they gave me the first one and I used it up, certainly I should have to pay for a replacement. We are never going to be rid of winter here. still burning over a wheelbarrow load a day. Bought wood last week that has been cut and split for over two years. By the time I get time to get two years ahead on my wood. I'll be to old to cut it. Guess I'll be hoping for spring soon,but doesn't sound like this week yet.   Jim


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## muleman51 (Apr 14, 2013)

Just bought the $8 version  ( side cutter head for a roto rooter) of the tool at Menards today, in todays snow storm. Will mount it on a piece of hydraulic hse and have at the flues this week. Jim


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## mikefrommaine (Apr 15, 2013)

Just read through this thread. As others have said, *it's the wood*. If you are cutting on the weekend to keep the boiler fed there is no way the wood is dry enough. Unless the wood has been *cut, split and stacked* for a minimum of 9 months it has no business going into a gasser.


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## maple1 (Apr 15, 2013)

I'll add that even if it's not the wood now, and maybe you're burning good wood & have been for a bit, if you did burn unseasoned or not-seasoned-enough wood in the past for a time you likely would have coated up your exchanger tubes then to the point they would need a really good cleaning. Burning dry wood will not remove existing prior buildup - except maybe some close to the point of hottest temps (close to secondary chamber).

There has to be an answer for this - I haven't been keeping tally but I think so far the large majority of Elite owners we've heard from or about have been happy with their heat output.


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## pelletdude (Apr 15, 2013)

chewy said:


> Pelletdude, can you tell me your thoughts on the the elite 100? Does it smoke when the stove idle? How does it stop and start a fire?
> 
> Erin


Erin,

The fan comes on and ignites the fire in the primary chamber and then proceeds to send the flame into the secondary chamber to gassify. When the water temperature gets to the set point the fan shuts off and waits to cycle again. There is no smoke when the fan is not running. The Elite does not IDLE (smolder), the fire is snuffed out due to lack of air. This is the reason the boiler uses such a small amount of wood. Most customers of the Elite 100 burn between 4 and 5 cord per year. The Elite 200 between 5 and 8 cord.


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## pelletdude (Apr 15, 2013)

muleman51 said:


> When my 100 is burning it looks just like that picture. ( I haven't figured out posting pictures yet.) Cleaned it this morning about three gallons of ash for one week. My setup is nothing special just two lines hooked to the house like it has been for the last 20 years. And I am not giving them $80 bucks for a cleaning tool that they should supply to clean their boiler. Ithink that is pretty poor on ProFabs part to even suggest that you have to purchase it. If they gave me the first one and I used it up, certainly I should have to pay for a replacement. We are never going to be rid of winter here. still burning over a wheelbarrow load a day. Bought wood last week that has been cut and split for over two years. By the time I get time to get two years ahead on my wood. I'll be to old to cut it. Guess I'll be hoping for spring soon,but doesn't sound like this week yet. Jim


If you are burning over a wheelbarrow a day then the heat is either going to the ground or in the attic or out the window. If you need to produce 80,000 BTUs  you need to burn 100 lbs of wood. Wood is on average 8000 btus per lb.- that is good wood between 14- 16% moisture. Everyone should purchase a moisture meter - relatively cheap at $25.00. As for the flue active tool, if you swab out the heat exchange tubes once a week from the first day you will not have a problem. This boiler needs to be cleaned just like a pellet stove once a week.


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## chewy (Apr 15, 2013)

pelletdude said:


> Erin,
> 
> The fan comes on and ignites the fire in the primary chamber and then proceeds to send the flame into the secondary chamber to gassify. When the water temperature gets to the set point the fan shuts off and waits to cycle again. There is no smoke when the fan is not running. The Elite does not IDLE (smolder), the fire is snuffed out due to lack of air. This is the reason the boiler uses such a small amount of wood. Most customers of the Elite 100 burn between 4 and 5 cord per year. The Elite 200 between 5 and 8 cord.


 Do you have storage?  what is your heat loss?  what are your burn times? 

erin


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## maple1 (Apr 15, 2013)

pelletdude said:


> If you are burning over a wheelbarrow a day then the heat is either going to the ground or in the attic or out the window.


 
Or up the chimney.


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## maple1 (Apr 15, 2013)

pelletdude said:


> The fan comes on and ignites the fire in the primary chamber and then proceeds to send the flame into the secondary chamber to gassify. When the water temperature gets to the set point the fan shuts off and waits to cycle again. There is no smoke when the fan is not running. The Elite does not IDLE (smolder), the fire is snuffed out due to lack of air.


 
It think I'd call that idling.

Sorry, couldn't resist.


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## arbutus (Apr 15, 2013)

Does anyone have the electric backup option with the Elite or have you seen one in operation?

A local dealer has an Empyre Elite XT 100 display model at what appears to be a good price.


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## muleman51 (Apr 15, 2013)

I appreciate everyones concern about the wood. I have burned wood for 40 years. I know not to burn wet wood. For the first 4 months this year I had wood that had been split and racked for over a year. I do not cut any live trees in the first place. I tend to only cut dead wood that has lost its bark. Most of it is as dry as bowling pins. I have cleaned this boiler every Saturday morning since I have owned it. I will get the tubes polished down this weekend. There is not a creosote build up in the boiler. And I have not chopped up the interior of my boiler yet to see if it has plugged passages. If Pro Fab knows this is a problem, in the new ones do they have acsess ports already in the boilers or do you have to butcher a new boiler. My boiler just does not perform the way it was sold to me.,   Jim


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## muleman51 (Apr 27, 2013)

Used my new tube cleaner this morning, it worked great. An 8dollar cutterhead from menards and 4 feet ot sealtite and a cordless drill. polished the tubes right up. ther was much less in them than I expected. May light a fire tonight just to see if it helped at all.  Jim


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## chewy (Apr 27, 2013)

muleman51 said:


> Used my new tube cleaner this morning, it worked great. An 8dollar cutterhead from menards and 4 feet ot sealtite and a cordless drill. polished the tubes right up. ther was much less in them than I expected. May light a fire tonight just to see if it helped at all.  Jim



Sweet!!  Keep us posted.

Erin


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## muleman51 (May 1, 2013)

chewy said:


> Sweet!! Keep us posted.
> 
> Erin


Had to light the boiler tonight. It's SNOWING, already have at least three inches, supposed to snow for the next 48 hours. this is some kind of a cruel joke. Last year I had my corn all planted by now. I can't even drive on the fields yet. Staying right around freezing for the next three days. I was hoping not to even start the boiler again.


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## chewy (May 1, 2013)

Muleman,  man that sucks.  48 hours of snow in may??  I hear ya though about the corn, we can't get in the feilds yet either.  Haven't even knifed the anhydrous yet.  What a difference a year makes.  We had like 5 days in the 80s in feb 2012!  

Erin


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## muleman51 (May 2, 2013)

Weather Update. At 5am 12inches wet snow on deck, still snowing hard even now. 8 inches of snow on 5/4 deck rail. Snow is so heavy that I'm putting on my small bucket on my tractor to plow snow, not a small tractor either (90 hp 7635 NH front wheel drive) . My boss has told everybody to just stay home and I just work in the shop don't even go out with the crews. Called my seed dealer neighbor and told him I wanted to change my corn (joking so far) he said he wanted to also. He doesn't have power (REA) , I do (NSP) . He had seed semi's coming this morning said they got them stopped before they got out of Iowa. This will be with us a little while.  The boiler is churning out heat , one good thing this morning.  Jim


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## arbutus (May 2, 2013)

Do you think polishing the tubes helped?


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## chewy (May 2, 2013)

arbutus said:


> Do you think polishing the tubes helped?


+1


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## muleman51 (May 2, 2013)

Pretty hard to tell as it is 38* out now and was only 31* last night and down to 32* tonight. I hope it helps but as I said there really wasn't that much in them. The snow has collapsed but still all here. Should be a wet weekend. Supposed to hit 51* .   Jim


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## arbutus (May 3, 2013)

How much heat do you Empyre owners estimate is lost through the shell of the unit?  Enough to warm its own small space, a garage, or near none?


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## muleman51 (May 3, 2013)

The Elite will heat a very small space. It does a very good job of retaining heat. My boiler room is 8x20 and stayed in the forty range this year.My old boiler would be well over 100*.


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