First cleaning of Wood Gun - 1&1/2 weeks in and little heat demand.

[Gasifier]

I cleaned out the Wood Gun today while it was cooled down to about 125 °F . Not a lot to clean right now. Some ash, especially in the ash tray on the bottom of the cyclone. A little "black tar", but not much. I have been burning once a day for about 4 hours to keep the tank nice and warm and bring us hot water. Hard to believe how little ash there is with these gassers compared to a wood stove. Very happy with how it is working so far. Suppose to start to cool down starting tomorrow. It has been unseasonably warm this past week and a half. Kind of worked out nice though. Gave me some time to start to get use to this thing.

 

[maple1]

Where was the tar?

 

[Gasifier]

A little bit just inside the door, on the inside of the what I will call the flange, I guess. Upper right hand corner on the side wall seemed to have a little more deposited their. Scraped it off with a putty knife. The tubes were pretty clean. Some ash just inside the lower door when opened. A little more in the front then in the back. Seems to make sense. I will have to check it more often when I start burning more. Will need to keep any build up of ash at bay.

 

[muncybob]

My experience has been that the center tube under the nozzle will have most of the ash/debris that did not make it to the cyclone drawer. The tar you mention may be creosote? The entire loading chamber walls, with excpetion of the actual ceramic firebrick material, will be coated with this and it will tend to burn off once a hot fire gets going....only to reaccumulate again when the unit has cooled. Be sure your doors are properly sealing to avoid any of this dripping onto the exterior of the WG. Keep an eye on the fresh air intake opening for creasote build up...I just push it into the loading chamber to burn off on next fire.

When I perform my weekly cleaning I also find a fair amount of ash sitting on the bottom ledge of the rear and front door area. I remove this ash before cleaning any tubes to avoid a mess. Actually the cleanng is much easier than I had expected and now takes all of about 10 minutes.

 

[Gasifier]

I do like the easy access for cleaning on the Wood Gun. When the cold really gets here it will be interesting to see how much more work it is. How about you other guys. How often do you clean your Gassers? Is it pretty much a weekly thing for everyone to keep them going at the most efficient burning?

 

[Gasifier]

Bob,

Thanks for the information about the cleaning of the gun. I appreciate it. Anything else you can think of for advice for a new Wood Gun owner would be really appreciated. I am still using the smoke guard thing that hangs inside the loading door. Seems to work alright and help to keep the smoke in when you have a small to medium size fire going. But I can see where it would get in the way when you have a good size fire going and want to load a few more pieces on the top if you are going to be gone away for a while. Although I hear most people take it right off. What do you do? Did you get the smoke hood with the fan? I can't remember if you were one of the ones that said you did or not. Thanks again for the information.

 

[muncybob]

Bob,

Thanks for the information about the cleaning of the gun. I appreciate it. Anything else you can think of for advice for a new Wood Gun owner would be really appreciated. I am still using the smoke guard thing that hangs inside the loading door. Seems to work alright and help to keep the smoke in when you have a small to medium size fire going. But I can see where it would get in the way when you have a good size fire going and want to load a few more pieces on the top if you are going to be gone away for a while. Although I hear most people take it right off. What do you do? Did you get the smoke hood with the fan? I can't remember if you were one of the ones that said you did or not. Thanks again for the information.

AHS actually talked me out out of the smoke hood saying see if you can live w/o it since it's just an add on piece. I too thought the smoke flap was in the way so I did initially take it off.....mistake! Too much smoke escaped the loading chamber w/o it. I did buy some large pins to keep the plate in place and also added some fender washers as I found the plate was falling off if I hit it continually with wood when loading. Now it stays secure no matter what beating I give it.

The real trick to smoke management is being able to reload at the right time...which is when you are down to mostly coals. I can keep the loading door open all the way and relaod when only coals and no smoke at all. Easier said than done but under normal circumstances in the true heating season it works out fairly well. I wish the loading door had at least a peep hole so you could tell what's left w/o opening the door.

I also found that I burn less wood with the fresh air damper 3/4 the way closed than fully open which is what I think AHS told me originally. My heat load is not real big so this may vary from user to user.

 

[Gasifier]

AHS actually talked me out out of the smoke hood saying see if you can live w/o it since it’s just an add on piece. I too thought the smoke flap was in the way so I did initially take it off…..mistake! Too much smoke escaped the loading chamber w/o it. I did buy some large pins to keep the plate in place and also added some fender washers as I found the plate was falling off if I hit it continually with wood when loading. Now it stays secure no matter what beating I give it.

I put my smoke flap in with the pins that came with it. It seems to work pretty well. I use a small stick of wood to prop it up at about 45-50 degrees. I am going to set up some kind of hood with a fan though and vent it out the wall which is only about 5 feet away. You are right about loading when down to coals. I have my damper closed about 1/2 way. I am burning a little wood, probably wasting a little to keep my storage tank warm right now, but the oil boiler does not turn on at all anymore. :coolcheese: And plenty of hot water from the Triangle Tube Smart Indirect Storage Hot Water Tank. Love that set up!

 

[mark123]

I never clean the back door on my 180, I find the ash builds up to the bottom of the fire tubes and no higher as it just keeps going to the cyclone. Also on the front lower door I never clean the ash from along the bottom, it doesn't impede the path of the gases/flames and can only help protect the door seals. I have never installed the flap, I made up a smoke hood which which uses a 450cfm fan and no smoke at all escapes.

 

[Gasifier]

Mark,

Where did you vent your smoke hood out to? I am thinking of making one up myself or buying the one from AHS. Going to decide this week and get it done. What did you go with for your hood? I am looking at a basic premanufactured piece of register duct work (6"x14"x6"), some piping and an in-line fan that is 530 cfm. Won't look as nice as AHS's hood but would probably get the job done.

 

[mark123]

The first fan I made up used an inline blower with plastic propeller, it lasted about a year but the plastic eventually failed. This fan is one used in hydroponics, I did some googling for different types of fans etc... and bought a squirel cage type blower, it is actually 465cfm. After receiving it I had to do some modifications and in hindsight an inline type would be much simpler although they cost more. Mine has one rectangle outlet and 2 seperate 4" inlets so I had to make up a Y shaped adapter which is ducted to the smoke hood. I had a local sheet metal/duct work shop make my actual hood which is similar to what you are thinking, I just couldn't find anything off the shelf that was 14" wide . I will try and get some pictures for you if you want. It works great, I can leave the door wide open with any type of fire and no smoke escapes. One thing I did with mine was that I made 2 small inlets in the duct work and used copper pipe and high temp silicone to supply fresh air to the motor for cooling. I felt that smoke filled air would eventually kill the motor if it was used for cooling.

 

[muncybob]

Interesting....pics would be great.

I've thought about leaving the door ash in place but just wasn't sure...maybe I'll try that as it seems it would provide some door seal protection.

 

[Gasifier]

The first fan I made up used an inline blower with plastic propeller, it lasted about a year but the plastic eventually failed. This fan is one used in hydroponics, I did some googling for different types of fans etc… and bought a squirel cage type blower, it is actually 465cfm. After receiving it I had to do some modifications and in hindsight an inline type would be much simpler although they cost more. Mine has one rectangle outlet and 2 seperate 4†inlets so I had to make up a Y shaped adapter which is ducted to the smoke hood. I had a local sheet metal/duct work shop make my actual hood which is similar to what you are thinking, I just couldn’t find anything off the shelf that was 14†wide . I will try and get some pictures for you if you want. It works great, I can leave the door wide open with any type of fire and no smoke escapes. One thing I did with mine was that I made 2 small inlets in the duct work and used copper pipe and high temp silicone to supply fresh air to the motor for cooling. I felt that smoke filled air would eventually kill the motor if it was used for cooling.

Mark,

Thanks for the info. Did you just vent out the wall? Yes, I would like to see some pictures. Always interesting to see other boilers/systems and how others have done things to improve in general. Thanks again.

 

[mark123]

Here are some pictures

 

[Gasifier]

Thanks Mark. So the smoke from your hood is vented to where? Does it go out the wall or up your chimney? I appreciate your time and the pictures.

 

[mark123]

It goes out the wall, I have a walk out basement. Home depot has 6" plastic outlets that I used on the outside of the house. The other duct work in the second last picture is my 6" intake which draws air from outside, the main reason I did this was due to smoke entering the room when it starts "chugging" . I made the square covers for the flue end caps for easier opening, before it was a pain trying to remove the whole end cap sealed with silicone. After a full year of burning there was barely any accumulation.

 

[Gasifier]

Thanks for the tips Mark and Bob. I really appreciate it. Now Bob and I have the E100. Mark. What are you heating with a 180? Small school system? Small Church and home for the priest? The local brothel and bar. Large home and your neighbors home? What?

 

[711mhw]

I never clean the back door on my 180, I find the ash builds up to the bottom of the fire tubes and no higher as it just keeps going to the cyclone. Also on the front lower door I never clean the ash from along the bottom, it doesn't impede the path of the gases/flames and can only help protect the door seals. I have never installed the flap, I made up a smoke hood which which uses a 450cfm fan and no smoke at all escapes.

Me 2, I don't even open the back door until the end of season cleaning & inspection.

 

[Gasifier]

Good to know about the cleaning routines guys. Thanks. That picture of yours is cool 711. Where did you get that guy?

 

[711mhw]

Found it on www some where. "Back in the days" it used to be my fav. tee shirt. (keep on trucking)