Skidsteer and Lubeguy
I've been dealing with gopherwood's Econoburn 100 for a while now and have come to a few conclusions. Number 1 is that good dry wood makes all the difference in the world.........I said
ALL.......the difference in the world. Gopher has been using red oak that for the most part has been standing, dead timber, recently felled and split. Some other stuff he's had has been dead wood again (gypsy moth) but cut and split within the last 6-9 months. When you look at a piece you would think that it's dry.......it's gotta be dry............it's been dead for 5 years. Right? ...........Wrong.
I tested it with a moisture meter and found that on the outside it runs between 15-25%. Good..........Right? ..........Wrong again
I split a few pieces of the already split wood and stuck the meter in it again. Now I saw readings from 30% to over 45% moisture content. In a nutshell this means that a good share of the heat produced is being used to evaporate the water out of the wood before it will actually burn. It also means that gasification can't take place due to the lowered temperatures caused by the amount of vapor in the exhaust stream. You use water to PUT OUT fires as I recall. So even though there's a fire in there and the wood is being consumed there is very little heat left over that can actually be transfered into the water. All the BTU's in the wood are in fact being generated, but are wasted or lost in the process of evaporating moisture instead of being available to heat his water.
How do I know this? Because he got his hands on some good dry wood. It tests at 13-22% in the middle of a freshly split block. WHAT A DIFFERENCE
!
His Econoburn is now able to pick up his storage tank along with driving the heating system for the house. This morning it was -2* here at around 6:30AM. Little bit of a North breeze. Pretty much design conditions. He had his 500gl tank up to 160 last night when he fired the boiler before hitting the hay. This morning the boiler and the tank were still at 135* with the fire out. He fired it at about 7:15 and called me about 9 to tell me about the difference in the way it burned the last couple days. I went there at about 9:30 and checked his boiler and tank to see how it was picking up. The boiler was at 164* and the tank had picked up to 148*. This is at 0* outdoor temps and the house was being heated besides. We have NEVER been able to make this happen until he got this last load of wood which is good and dry. All other parameters of the operation and the system are the same.
The only difference is the wood I need to say that again............ The ONLY difference is the wood.
I had suspicions about it before but was never able to confirm what I thought was going on until I got a good moisture meter and stuck it in the wood. The stuff he had LOOKED good but obviously was pretty marginal.
A secondary item that we found helped out a little bit was to insulate underneath the boiler. They lose a fair amount of heat out the bottom of the secondary burn chamber, which I would guess is a fact of life with any other brand also. The Econoburn has a water jacket underneath the secondary chamber to absorb heat but the bottom is uninsulated as built.
We also found that how you fire the boiler makes a big difference. The best method when starting from a cold firebox is to build a small fire with some kindling and small pieces then let it burn down to coals. When that's taken place (20 minutes or so) load your normal amount of wood in the box and let it get established before you close the draft diverter. It seems that the firebox needs to be at a pretty good temperature to get a larger fuel load gasifying. Once you get it up there it will again initiate gasification when the draft fan cycles on/off. If you take the time to get the box up to temp before filling the boiler it makes the whole burn function better.
Running a gasifier is different than just heaving a huge load into an OWB. They are
all more of a thinking man's boiler regardless of brand and I think you'll find that you'll have the same issues regardless of whose piece of equipment you're running. Do yourselves a favor and hang in there while you learn the ropes because I have a suspicion that you'll encounter the same issues with another brand, whatever that may be.
As far as the mechanical problems with the agitator handle and/or leaks go, please work with the factory or the dealer you bought the unit from on them. I have found Econoburn to be well above the industry average when it comes to addressing issues that arise with their product.
Keep us posted.
Ya, its like I said earlier in this thread, that since I am out of oil, I am really feeling the pain. Just hope I can get the house warmed up before the wife wakes up.
