Trouble starting Econoburn 300

[MickMorley]

I need to clean the turbulators in the next few weeks. I’m looking for the materials to make the cutter head , I don’t have any broken bandsaw blades to work with , but I’ll come up with something. 8 in double wall pipe 20 ft . Thanks Mark

I was telling @cumminstinkerer the other day, I just use a whole saw bit in my turbulators to clean them. I did make a long extension out rebar and it cleaned very well. After this season I will clean them again and write down the size whole saw bit.

 

[mark cline]

I have some steel banding that’s used to secure heavy items to a pallet , that I was going to use . When cleaning the turbs are you going all the way into the gasification chamber? Or does the heat exchanger curve into the chamber? I want to avoid a cutter that could get stuck in the heat exchanger tubes , what is the total depth of cleaning? Thanks

 

[salecker]

On the 200 the tubes are straight 2"
How wide is your banding Mark?
The stuff i use is close to 11/2 wide.
I changed the bolts holding my turbulators to the shaker linkage with pins and clips.
I need to do my cleaning soon.Was going to at the beginning of this row of wood,but life decided to make me wait.After today i will be caught up enough to think about it again.

 

[salecker]

@salecker - what are high temps and what are they down to this year?

The highest i have seen this year is 600 after reloading most of the time when i look befor reloading it is sitting around 400.Befor the mods seeing above 600 was pretty common.

 

[mark cline]

My banding is about 1” wide , I would like to find something wider though

 

[airlina]

Honestly, my whole problem was that I didn’t understand how the boiler gasification process worked, after research and reading the Eko sticky, I realized that the coals need to be covering the nozzles . This loading and firing technique, has increased my efficiency, tremendously. One full load of wood gets my storage from 130 up to 185-190. My goal was to just load , light and go , but I learned that you need the coal bed , in order to get good gasification. Left knee replacement surgery is scheduled for March 17 . I need to clean the turbulators in the next few weeks. I’m looking for the materials to make the cutter head , I don’t have any broken bandsaw blades to work with , but I’ll come up with something. 8 in double wall pipe 20 ft . Thanks Mark

Mark, if you need some blades for your turb cleaning tool I can throw some broken sections in an envelope and mail them to you. Bruce

 

[mark cline]

Wow, that would be awesome . Thanks Bruce . I’ll send you a pm with my address.

 

[MickMorley]

I have some steel banding that’s used to secure heavy items to a pallet , that I was going to use . When cleaning the turbs are you going all the way into the gasification chamber? Or does the heat exchanger curve into the chamber? I want to avoid a cutter that could get stuck in the heat exchanger tubes , what is the total depth of cleaning? Thanks

Yes tubes are straight and my piece of rebar was like 36" long and went all the way down. It was too long and I'm going to fab up something better to hold the hole saw after this season is over.

 

[salecker]

Yes tubes are straight and my piece of rebar was like 36" long and went all the way down. It was too long and I'm going to fab up something better to hold the hole saw after this season is over.

Could you send a pic of your tool?
Are you able to get the flu clean to metal from top to bottom with the saw?
And how long do you spend on each flue?
Thanks

 

[MickMorley]

Could you send a pic of your tool?
Are you able to get the flu clean to metal from top to bottom with the saw?
And how long do you spend on each flue?
Thanks

Yes, if I come across it I will send a pic, I do not know where I put it. It was a quick get it done type thing for the initial install.

This year I will make a better one, but yes. The whole saw was the best solution for me because it cleaned to the metal - top to bottom.

nick

 

[SSweet9c1]

Jumping in late in the game.. :D
With my 170-200 I crumple up paper, roll up pieces of cardboard over the paper, then put 15-20 kindling bits, then a layer of small splits, or small branch rounds, like 5-10 pieces, with the paper and cardboard underneath this fills the chamber about 1/3-1/2. Light from the lower chamber with propane torch up through the nozzle... (wearing gloves, as sometimes I get a puff back.. :D
Then I turn on the blower while closing the lower chamber... Sometimes this gets a decent puff and can kick a puff of smoke out the draft control, but this method gets the fire going fairly fast... Then I leave the draft control open till the stack reaches 350-400* then close the draft control and hear the whooshing, and I watch the stack temp to make sure it climbs to 400+ then I know the gasification is really rock'n... Then after 20-30 minutes I come back and fill the fire box to the top. and come back in 4 hours for reload. Or if it's a weekend I load smaller loads more frequently, I feel this makes the wood go farther.. ?

Also if I load the whole chamber before lighting the fire I have to wait for my stack temps get to 450+ to close the draft control or it can smolder and not get up to gasifying for a while and it smokes... I call it indigestion. lol

 

[mark cline]

I used to load this way but I wanted to eliminate a trip out to the boiler shed. Lately I’ve been loading like you mentioned , maybe putting in up twice the amount of smaller splits , then I load right to the top with regular to very large sized splits . Overall, it comes out to 180 lbs to 200 lbs , which fills my 300 to the top. I then light the wick in the lower chamber close the lower door to about 1” open , let the fire heat up to 200F stack temperature, then close the door , bypass , then turn on blower , the fire takes right off with a roar , the stack temperature starts to rise and then I don’t have to touch it for 5 hrs. At the 5 hr mark I may throw in 3 splits if it’s lower than say 15F outside or else I’ll leave it alone for it to burn out at about 7 to 7 1/2 hrs and storage is at 185-190.

 

[salecker]

Hi Mark
Hows the healing going?
Glad to hear yours is cooperating with you now.
I too load right full at fist start.I am going to assume that most of the flue build up happens on the first load fire.
Maybe when i have a different schedule i will try a couple months of starting with a small load to get a coal bed before filling the box.

 

[mark cline]

Hey , the right knee is feeling good after the surgery but the left is killing me . That will be taken care of March 17. Still didn’t get to the turbs, if I can’t get it done soon , I would have to wait until April. I’m really impressed by the amount of wood I’m using . A lot less than what I had expected.
I may add another pump to move the heated water to storage when I’m getting to the upper limit of my storage temperature (190F). A PID controller to turn on the second pump at 180F to pull off the high temperature water off the top of the boiler . My storage tanks are about 160 at the bottom when the top gets near 185F. Something to think about this spring.

 

[salecker]

Sounds like you are in a good frame of mind about the surgeries.
A friends wife is a hypochondriac, and hasn't gotten relief from her surgery.Knowing her as long as i have it's in her head .
When my storage approaches max for me 185 it is even top and bottom.With the aquastat there is no more usable temp range and the boiler shuts down.
So you noticed a difference with just the fan and air tube modifications?
Thanks

 

[mark cline]

I was able to cut my stack temperature down to 550f on a reload and will hold about 450 -500 for most of the burn . Full load of 200 lbs of mixed hardwoods is 7 hrs. I usually check at about 5 hrs and toss in a few splits if the temperature might not reach 185-190.
My storage consists of 3 vertical 500 gallon tanks plumbed with a reverse return, when I hit about 190 , my lower thermometer is about 165, my storage pump can’t move the water away fast enough to prevent an overheat situation and shutting down the blower. I’m thinking a second pump that kicks on at 180 will move more water away from the boiler and not going into the upper shut down limit.