EKO 40 up and running. A few observations and questions

[Gary S]

Well I lit the first fire in my EKO 40 (it’s in an out building, no storage with force air and side arm) Friday night. So far I would say things have gone well. I have some observations and questions.

Getting the air out was a pain but that is now in the past.

I have read about oiling the door gaskets. That leads to three questions. What do you folks use for oil? How often do you oil the gaskets? How much do you use?

The Chimney flapper likes to, stick sometimes worse the others. I read the thread on the a few days back, does anyone have any updates that help this problem?

Smoke cannot figure out if it wants to flow out the door when I load it or go up the chimney. I have 9 feet of Chimney. I’m just looking for suggestions.

9 hours is the most burn time I’ve gotten so far but it seems to be getting better.

The gasification is working well when I reload it takes right off. At least I think it is gasification.

I run my blower fan on a T-stat from the run switch of my oil furnace T-stat. I was thinking about putting in a cheap (snap disc $16) temperature switch in the T-Stat line so the fan does not run if I run out of wood. I was planning to just strap it to a fitting. Has anyone done this and has it worked?

I also plan on putting a remote read thermometer in the house. What are your opinions on the value of this?

I would also like to thank everyone on this site. I have read it much more than I posted. So many of you have been so much help without even knowing it I really appreciate it.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I don't think I've ever oiled my door gaskets, even though the manual says they'll last longer if you do. You can use regular motor oil or drain oil, or I think somebody said WD-40. I guess when I finally get around to it I'll soften them up with the WD and then paint some drain oil on them. Supposedly it keeps them more flexible and working better.

As I said in the other thread, all I did was turn the firebox door handle around so that you can open the door with the damper closed. Then just poke it open with a stick. If yours is like mine was (it doesn't do it anymore), then it only sticks on overnight burns, so there are only coals or nothing in the firebox when you need to open the door to get at the damper.

On the smoke issue, try opening the bottom door a minute or two before you open the door to load a partially-burned fire. You'll get some smoke no matter what you do, IME, so you want to figure out how to only load the boiler when it's burned down to coals if the smoke is a problem. In an outbuilding, it shouldn't be.

Burn times vary widely depending on heat load, storage, etc. Nine hours sounds good to me. On a typical winter night, I can load it up at 11:00 and have a nice bed of coals left at 7:00 a.m. and a warm house.

If you're not getting much or any smoke out the stack and you have a nice flame in the lower chamber (and a rumbling sound), then you're gasifying.

I'm a little unclear what you're trying to do with the fan. The EKO controller shuts off the fan when the water temp drops and stays that way for a set time period. Some people put timers on their blowers because they think the blower stays on for too long. I guess that includes you, although with the new controller, you might be able to set that up the way you want it. I'll have to check. I have one of the new controllers and I've been trying to decipher the manual before I hook it up. But just offhand, if you hook the blower up to an aquastat or surface-mount stat, it will shut off when the water temp drops and never turn back on, since the heat will never come up without the blower. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you're saying.

A remote thermometer will give you limited information. Somebody around here had the brilliant idea of mounting a webcam in the boiler room, aimed at the controller. Then you'd really know what was going on.

Anyway, sounds like you're off to a great start.

 

[Gary S]

Eric thanks for the reply.

The snap disc temperature switch I was talking about is for the furnace (forced draft) blower. Not the EKO fan. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[pybyr]

I have read about oiling the door gaskets. That leads to three questions. What do you folks use for oil? How often do you oil the gaskets? How much do you use?

somewhere (my Econoburn manual, maybe? not sure) I read a recommendation about using silicone grease on the door gaskets, as it can take temps way above petroleum compounds (it's officially rated for 400F but I think from what I have seen that it can probably take more)

I'm going to probably try some Dow Corning silicone insulating grease #4 that I got years back from McMaster Carr for insulating and waterproofing ignition wires without deteriorating the rubber like petroleum compounds would.

I've used it since for all sorts of high-temp situations where petroleum stuff would just scorch, and have found it to be good stuff.

Still working on my original honkin' big tube of it- a little bit goes a long way.

 

[mstar-tech]

I been having a lot of problems with my damper sticking. I like what Eric solution: "As I said in the other thread, all I did was turn the firebox door handle around so that you can open the door with the damper closed. Then just poke it open with a stick. If yours is like mine was (it doesn’t do it anymore), then it only sticks on overnight burn". I like KISS solutions. Much better then hitting the damper rod with a hammer.

 

[Eric Johnson]

I wouldn't hit the rod with a hammer. At least not on a regular basis. It's not designed for that.

All you need to do is drive the pin out of the handle assembly with a nail set, turn it around, reinsert the pin and you're done.

Hey Beef Rancher, are you getting some snow up there on the plateau? I biked up there a bit this summer (Lyons Falls, Boonville, etc.) and plan to do a lot more next summer. However, now I'm in the mood to ski, and you guys got some snow. I work in Old Forge, and there's about 6 inches on the ground there, but the other day on my way to work I saw cars coming down Route 12 with about 2 ft still on the roofs. So maybe I'll head up your way over the Thanksgiving Holiday. Osceola or some such--if we don't get a whole lot more down here in the valley.

 

[Gary S]

I did turn the handle around on the loading door and that is working well. The flapper opens rather easily with a stick. Thanks for the tip.

I did put and adjustable snap disc (90-130 deg.) in the thermostat line and it works exactly like I wanted it to. I'm very happy with it. No wasted electric if the boiler runs out of wood. :coolsmile:

I still would like more feed back on what everyone does as far as oiling the door gaskets.

The smoke issue when loading is getting better (still not good) as I learn more but I still may add 3 feet more chimney.

It has now been almost 2 weeks and I have my burn time regularly up to 9 hours and I'm still not burning my best wood.

Overall I am very happy with way thing are going but the cold weather is still not here. The coldest so far this year has been 12, I regularly see -20 in this valley in Dec. Jan. and Feb.

 

[Eric Johnson]

With no storage, these things work best in cold weather, since they don't idle very much. You burn more wood, obviously, but probably more efficiently. And they produce a lot of heat.

 

[Tony H]

I did turn the handle around on the loading door and that is working well. The flapper opens rather easily with a stick. Thanks for the tip.

I did put and adjustable snap disc (90-130 deg.) in the thermostat line and it works exactly like I wanted it to. I'm very happy with it. No wasted electric if the boiler runs out of wood. :coolsmile:

I still would like more feed back on what everyone does as far as oiling the door gaskets.

The smoke issue when loading is getting better (still not good) as I learn more but I still may add 3 feet more chimney.

It has now been almost 2 weeks and I have my burn time regularly up to 9 hours and I'm still not burning my best wood.

Overall I am very happy with way thing are going but the cold weather is still not here. The coldest so far this year has been 12, I regularly see -20 in this valley in Dec. Jan. and Feb.

I have a similar setup and also have 8 to 10 hour burn times on a load the temp here was about 20 last night. I have not oiled my door gasket and did have the damper sticking and reversed the door lever , funny thing now that I have been running a few weeks the damper has net been sticking the last few days ?
I have also run into the smoke out the door issue because I some times have to reload because I will be gone when it's due to run out and I am planning to add 2' more chimney to help the draft --- if you leave your forced draft unit running would that pull it out?

Could you tell me a little more about the snap disc temp switch and how it works , I was wondering if I could use one to shut off the
fan in the forced air furnace when the wood boiler is cool -- but the fan still needs to run on command of the gas thermo

 

[Sizzler]

Mine was leaking smoke/creasote from the top corners of the loading door so I carefully removed the gasket with a flat screwdriver and soaked it in drain oil for about one hour. I wiped the gasket off with towel and reinstalled it backwards from the factory install. Very simple procedure. The oil softened the gasket nicely and seems to have sealed the leak however, during my next burn I had to deal with the smell of smoking drain oil in the boilerroom (garage). I would not recommend this for anyone who has a boiler located in the basement since it creates quite an upleasant situation during your next burn with the hot oil dripping off the freshly soaked gasket. I just opened my garage door and let the smoke exit.

 

[pybyr]

I still would like more feed back on what everyone does as far as oiling the door gaskets.

Dow Corning Silicone Grease #4 from McMaster-Carr-- why would you want to use oil, which is combustible, and volatile at low temperatures, when you could use something that's more or less non-combustible, and that is good to 400F?

 

[Gary S]

Tony,

The snap disc is a switch like every hot air furnace has. It's the switch that lets the furnace get up to temp before the blower fan kicks in and than runs the blower after the burn goes off.

I put in a second t-stat on the run wires on my oil furnace blower. I than put a snap disc in one of the lines from that t-stat. I cut hole in a piece of foam insulation for the button on the snap dics and just wire tied the snap disc to the copper pipe. I set my at 125 deg. You can buy the from Grainger an MSC. Be sure you get a close on rise snap disc. Aqastats (sp) can do the same thing but at a much higher cost.

What this does is cuts out the t-stat for the wood boiler any time it is not up to 125 deg. The oil furnace run normal as backup.

I don't type well so if you have more questions be ask. By the way where in N Il are you? I live about 45 minutes sw of Madison.

 

[Tony H]

AC-D14 - I get it ,that should work for me . I am near South Beloit probably not too far from your location. What city are you in / near.

 

[mstar-tech]

Eric,
I agreed that hitting the rod with a hammer is a bad idea, but I could not figure out another way to get the door open. I’m going to turn the handle around this weekend.

Yes, we have been getting a lot of snow. Awaking up to 3 feet of snow in front of my door in October is just plain bad news. Good news for me and the beef cows is that it went away. At this time I have maybe one inch or so. The “real” snow is down by Turin and C-ville.

And again thank you for having a solution to my sticking damper.

 

[Gary S]

Tony, I live northwest of Monroe.

Pybyr, Thanks for the tip on the Dow Corning Silicone Grease #4, I found it in my McMaster Carr book today. I"ll give it a try.

 

[mstar-tech]

Eric,
The door handle has been turned around. Works very well. I know that my wife will like this way of doing business much better then hitting the rod with a hammer. Thank you for your time and wisdom.
Beef Rancher

 

[Eric Johnson]

I know that my wife will like this way of doing business much better then hitting the rod with a hammer.Beef Rancher

Mine sure did!