Gasification issue? Definitely a question and concern

[maple1]

Who knows if I did it correctly or not, but it makes sense to me.

I put a T coming out of the boiler and another T directly under that with my baro on it and a clean out under that.

My thoughts were it cannot get gummed up with creosote this way.

I drilled two holes in my stack. One for a thermometer and another for a probe for my Dwyer manometer.

Not sure what kind of manometer you have I just used one hole and left the manometer open to the atmosphere.

With the Dwyer you have to hook it up backwards since it is made to read positive readings.

I drilled my hole about 6" above the top of the boiler flue entry to my stack.

I keep a piece of aluminum tape over the hole when I'm not measuring draft.

As far as setting it up, my baro can be open 100% at a full burn and I will be around -.05 or -.06 draft. Rarely have I seen more.

I can't get it any less than that

I'm not clear on the above - do you have your manometer hooked into your pipe between your boiler & the barometric damper, or between the barometric damper & the top of your chimney?

It needs to be tied in between the boiler & barometric damper. Mine is just a few inches outside of the boiler. The draft will be significantly different (more) downstream of the barometric damper, than it will be at the boiler outlet. So you might not have your baro adjusted right and your boiler might not be seeing enough draft. How tall is your chimney? Mine is 30ft, and with my baro fully closed I see 0.12" of draft at full burn. That's with no wind. If the wind is blowing at all, my baro is flapping with it. (Natural draft though).

On the tanks - have you checked all the scrap yards within driving distance? I found a huge mountain of them at a scrap yard an hour away from home. They still weren't dirt cheap, but were a lot less than you're looking at - ended up somewhere around 1.25/gallon for 2-330's and one 110.

 

[BoiledOver]

I can't find any 500 gallon propane tanks for anything less than a fortune around here or I would have storage. I want it bad but can't fathom spending 3000 dollars on tanks

Decommisioned propane tanks at Fischer LP in Wellston. Call and ask to speak with the owner, Mark Fischer. They have hundreds in all shapes and sizes.

 

[Cornell3786]

I'm not clear on the above - do you have your manometer hooked into your pipe between your boiler & the barometric damper, or between the barometric damper & the top of your chimney?

It needs to be tied in between the boiler & barometric damper. Mine is just a few inches outside of the boiler. The draft will be significantly different (more) downstream of the barometric damper, than it will be at the boiler outlet. So you might not have your baro adjusted right and your boiler might not be seeing enough draft. How tall is your chimney? Mine is 30ft, and with my baro fully closed I see 0.12" of draft at full burn. That's with no wind. If the wind is blowing at all, my baro is flapping with it. (Natural draft though).

On the tanks - have you checked all the scrap yards within driving distance? I found a huge mountain of them at a scrap yard an hour away from home. They still weren't dirt cheap, but were a lot less than you're looking at - ended up somewhere around 1.25/gallon for 2-330's and one 110.

That's a crude drawing of how it's set up. What do you think?

My chimney can't be any taller than 15' total

As far as tanks I found a few that were a few hours drive away and they were well over 1000 dollars each.

Makes me toss around the idea of unpressurized storage, but not really what I want to do.

 

[Cornell3786]

Decommisioned propane tanks at Fischer LP in Wellston. Call and ask to speak with the owner, Mark Fischer. They have hundreds in all shapes and sizes.

Ill check them out they are about 2.5 - 3 hours from me.

 

[maple1]

That's a crude drawing of how it's set up. What do you think?

My chimney can't be any taller than 15' total

As far as tanks I found a few that were a few hours drive away and they were well over 1000 dollars each.

Makes me toss around the idea of unpressurized storage, but not really what I want to do.

I don't think you're getting a good draft reading of what your boiler is seeing, with the manometer hooked in there. Look at it this way - the chimney is drawing upwards a 'full draft'. That's what your manometer is seeing. Below the T, the draft is split so some is coming through your boiler & some is coming through your baro. So I think your boiler is seeing a lot less than your guage. I'd move it to just outside the exit collar of your boiler. Also, relatively speaking, that's a fairly short chimney so I'd suspect (seat of the pants) you won't want your baro to be open much at all, except maybe when the wind is blowing.

 

[Cornell3786]

I don't think you're getting a good draft reading of what your boiler is seeing, with the manometer hooked in there. Look at it this way - the chimney is drawing upwards a 'full draft'. That's what your manometer is seeing. Below the T, the draft is split so some is coming through your boiler & some is coming through your baro. So I think your boiler is seeing a lot less than your guage. I'd move it to just outside the exit collar of your boiler. Also, relatively speaking, that's a fairly short chimney so I'd suspect (seat of the pants) you won't want your baro to be open much at all, except maybe when the wind is blowing.

Yeah that makes sense. I'm out of town for work for two weeks ill have to play with it when I get home.

Thanks for the clarification

What about my T placement. I kind of just slapped it in there. Is it ok being below the boiler outlet or does it need to be upstream in the chimney

 

[NCFord]

This is a good post. I'm glad I read it earlier in the week, since the same thing just happened to me last
night, though mine was more like thumping, and each time it thumped it blew some smoke out of the damper and around the door seal. The thing was it would not go away, it would just continue till I turned off the blower. I waited for a while then opened the
door and stoked the wood a little(it was a little "bridged") It still did not help. This was in the middle of the night
so I just left the blower off, then this morning I turned it on and all seemed better

I too just this week switched to some dry poplar and sweet gum(about 16-17%mc) so I guess I will mix in some
oak with this wood. Would you ever want to mix in some freshly cut wood? Like poplar at about 30-40%mc.
Cornell my Barometric damper is set up exactly like yours and I have seen at least a few set up with the
BD below the boiler output. I too have about 15' of chimney.

 

[goosegunner]

This is a good post. I'm glad I read it earlier in the week, since the same thing just happened to me last
night, though mine was more like thumping, and each time it thumped it blew some smoke out of the damper and around the door seal. The thing was it would not go away, it would just continue till I turned off the blower. I waited for a while then opened the
door and stoked the wood a little(it was a little "bridged") It still did not help. This was in the middle of the night
so I just left the blower off, then this morning I turned it on and all seemed better

I too just this week switched to some dry poplar and sweet gum(about 16-17%mc) so I guess I will mix in some
oak with this wood. Would you ever want to mix in some freshly cut wood? Like poplar at about 30-40%mc.
Cornell my Barometric damper is set up exactly like yours and I have seen at least a few set up with the
BD below the boiler output. I too have about 15' of chimney.

I have had issues with the back puffing at times. It is usually when I load too full after a start. I believe it is caused by too dry of wood and maybe too much surface area from small pieces. I have started using some bigger pieces and it seems to help. If you can get a few years ahead on wood supply I think bigger splits are beneficial.

gg

 

[NCFord]

Thanks, Goosegunner, good timing on splitting as I have about 3 cord that I am about to split and stack for
next year and I will split on the larger side.
I just read your post on cleaning your 200. Mine without storage is the opposite of yours. After only a
month of running I cleaned just the chimney and it was very dirty, just soot no creosote and my spark arrestor on the top
was just about clogged. I can't wait to get my storage up and running!
I

 

[goosegunner]

Thanks, Goosegunner, good timing on splitting as I have about 3 cord that I am about to split and stack for
next year and I will split on the larger side.
I just read your post on cleaning your 200. Mine without storage is the opposite of yours. After only a
month of running I cleaned just the chimney and it was very dirty, just soot no creosote and my spark arrestor on the top
was just about clogged. I can't wait to get my storage up and running!
I

I ran mine one year without storage. It worked but I tried to put in small amounts of wood. In the shoulder season it really needed to be attended too much.

When I would do overnight loads even on cold nights it would develop a lot of creosote. The door would like to stick and there was a thick layer on the ledge. Once I started using storage it all melted off and burned away. I simply can not explain how much better it is running with storage, it is remarkable.

gg