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[slimjim]

Thanks for helping me get out early this morning Jon, I just now got to Houlton, Me. 463 miles on the Magic Liberty Bus today including stopping at the house to load Hoardac's G 200 that's not bad when you consider starting northwest of Bennington, VT. Right about on the NY border up over Hogback mountain, to the house and load then 300 miles north east to the Canadian border, the old girl got a good workout today and never skipped a beat!

[Jon_E]

Richard, glad to hear you made it way up to the border in good shape.

A few comments on the new boiler so far:

It's obvious wood use will be way down.  Yesterday morning I had to leave for work before I could check the boiler, but Richard and Mike were still at the house and were ready to fill the firebox and add boiler conditioner, and take a water sample.  I assume they filled it up before they left.  So, yesterday afternoon when I got home (about 4 pm) I went out to have a look.  Opened the bypass, cracked the door open, waited a few seconds, and looked inside.  First think I noticed was a pretty substantial coating of creosote on the door frame and door.  It was almost the consistency of glue.  I scraped a lot of it off and put it back in the firebox, on top of the wood.  Wood was totally charred but still whole, and the level was down to the bottom of the door frame.  The water temperature was at 179* and holding.  I added three small pieces (2-3" dia.) and closed it up for the night.

This morning, 6 am, went out to check it before work.  Water temp still at 179*.  I opened the firebox and saw that there was about 2" of small hot coals at the bottom of the firebox, and the nozzle (slot) in the bottom was wide open.  I raked the coals around and loaded the firebox with new wood to about 6" above the bottom of the door frame.  By the time I got done loading, the wood on the bottom had started actively burning.   The creosote that was there the previous afternoon, had more or less turned to a dry brown dust coating.  The overnight heat demand consisted of water for three showers, a couple loads each of dishes and laundry, and the heating demand for 4300 sf of well-insulated house with an outdoor temperature of 19*.   

So it looks like I am getting about 24 hours of burn time with a full-to-the-top firebox.  I probably won't do that unless I have to, I will stick to twice a day feedings.  I suspect that my demand is currently too low for the system as it sits, but adding another heat zone in my house (which up to this point has never been used) and adding my garage (24x36 uninsulated) will probably be right on the money for this boiler. 

In my best estimate, I am using no more than 30% of the firewood I was using last week with the old boiler, and the outdoor temperatures are lower.  Once I add new heat zones, I will probably still be only about 50-60% of my historical wood use.  I call that a WIN!  Even if that wasn't the case, I really like all the features of this new system - the smoke bypass, the higher firebox door, the clean and accessible pump and piping area, the lack of heavy smoke, etc.  Lots of good things.

Should have done this years ago. 

[coolidge]

 

[slimjim]

Awesome Jon, Thanks for the update, everything sounds very normal, on another note, Hoardac is now fired up and operational, he seems very happy and I'm sure will update us soon, I'm back in Bangor for 2 site visits on my way home, I'll be glad to get there for a few days, it's been a great week and THanks guys!

[Jon_E]

Another update:  came home @ 4 pm yesterday and checked firebox, still full of wood just like the day before, water temp at 176*.  I'm beginning to see a pattern.... 

This morning went out @ 9:30 am, lots of coals in the bottom of the firebox, couple large chunks of unburned wood.  This time the unit was running when I went out there, although I was within 20' before I could see anything coming out of the chimney.  It was a plume of heat, just a shimmer in the air above the chimney, not even white in color.  Water temp was 176*.  I stirred up the coals, filled the firebox and within two minutes of shutting the door and closing the smoke bypass damper, the unit hit 180* and shut off. 

Noticed that the "creosote" built up on the firebox door was not creosote - it was the gray paint they put on the door, which had blackened and was peeling.  Underneath was clean stainless steel.  I suppose eventually all the paint will come off the inside of the door. 

Also must give two thumbs up to the Grundfos pumps.  After 10+ years of fighting with quality issues on Taco pumps, these little red monsters are dead silent and smooth.  No more Taco for me.

Have to say thanks again, Richard, for getting this critter installed and operational on short notice.  Hope to see you in the spring for a service visit. 

[hondaracer2oo4]

  if you are like me you'll find satisfaction in looking at the next 12 hours temps and trying to estimate correctly just the right amount of wood to get trough and leave a nice 2-3 inch bed of coals.

[Jon_E]

Yeah, I was just thinking that maybe I could start counting splits.  Gonna be bad enough just thinking about it.  I burn such a huge variety of wood that I'd have to start estimating average BTU count per loading, taking moisture content and wood volume into account. 

Just since Wednesday the G200 has eaten at least one piece each of balsam fir, white pine, black birch, sugar maple, ash, Norway maple, black locust, basswood, butternut, white oak, hop hornbeam and beech.  Might have missed a couple but I know that's at least what I put in.  All my stacks are like that, 20 to 30 different species.  I'm just happy that I am burning less wood. 

[Jon_E]

Well, this morning was a first. 

Headed out to feed the boiler before I went to work.  Immediately noticed red light on side was blinking.  Got there, checked temp, unit had shut down due to low temp and was at 130 degrees. 

Opened smoke bypass, opened firebox door and still full of wood!  Not sure why the fire went out but all it took was 15 seconds with a propane torch and the wood was lit right back up.  I pressed the cold start button, stirred it around a bit, added a few more small pieces, and babysat it for about 15 minutes.  Went up to 135 and then I had to take off for work.  I could hear it gasifying when I left, sounded like a jet engine. 

There appeared to be a lot of coals in the bottom of the firebox, and they lit up very quickly, which tells me that they weren't cold.  What would have caused this?

[slimjim]

That's an odd one Jon, perhaps your wood bridged up and burned out the coal bed directly under the wood or maybe it hit the high limit and by the time the control reset itself the fire went out.

[mlappin]

I only had one time the G400 did something like that, we were out of town over night and Father filled it for me, got home in the dark and water temp was 108. Moved things around a bit and it took off on its own, only thing I figure is he didn’t have things stacked tight enough and it might have been cold enough the low temp cutout kicked in before it took off.

[hondaracer2oo4]

I think I have had it happen 3 times so far in the past season and a half of running mine. One time was my wife who loaded it so I have no clue what happaned, I assume it was low on coals, she loaded no small pieces on the bottom and that caused it to never catch. Another time I had played with the high limit which was set to 185. I had raised the low temp cut out to 139. This caused the snap disc which is set to 190 to pop off. The snap disc doesnt cut back in until 140. By the time it kicked back in it didnt have enough time to get the fire going before it tripped the low temp cut out at 139 and shut the boiler down. I went back to the original 180 high point to keep from hitting the snap disc again. Another time the wood just simply bridged because of lack of coals.

[Jon_E]

Well it was either a bridging issue or it just didn't catch, I haven't messed with the factory settings and don't plan to, but I usually try to stir up the coals every time I load, even did it with my old boiler. 

Oh well, no harm no foul.  It was amazing with that forced draft to see how quickly the whole bottom of the firebox was glowing hot coals after only a few minutes.  Temps here today and tomorrow are in the high 40's approaching 50, so tonight's load will be a light one. 

[FrozenMongrel]

Well it was either a bridging issue or it just didn't catch, I haven't messed with the factory settings and don't plan to, but I usually try to stir up the coals every time I load, even did it with my old boiler. 

Oh well, no harm no foul.  It was amazing with that forced draft to see how quickly the whole bottom of the firebox was glowing hot coals after only a few minutes.  Temps here today and tomorrow are in the high 40's approaching 50, so tonight's load will be a light one.

I had that problem a couple times right after I fired my boiler for the first time. I changed the idle times to 60 min instead of 90 between calls for heat as the pine and maple that I'm using seems to not last that long with no airflow even though I have a good coal bed. With the warmer temps it can be multiple hours between calls for heat at my house during the day as I have a lot of passive solar heating from large windows on the south side of the house. Since I changed the idle time I haven't had the issue. It wasn't bridging or antlything else, just simply going out from lack of airflow. I haven't changed it back to 90 min with the colder weather, but if it gets cold again and stays cold I may give it a try.

[BIG AL]

If you really want to see how fast it will light , close the bypass and stick the torch down in there. If you get too close to the bottom it will suck the flame right out

[Jon_E]

Turns out my issue was neither of the two suspects.  I got home tonight, red light was flashing, water temp was around 119 and damper only at 9.4%.  Called Richard @ Mainly Custom and told him what was going on, he suspected it might be a voltage issue with the new Honeywell actuators.  Got off the phone and said to myself  ... wait a minute.....damper at 9.4%?  Calling for heat?  Damper should be at 100%, right?  Disc damper is closed all the way.  Fire is getting no air at all.   At the least it should be cracked just a little.  Turned unit off, then back on.  Watched the damper percentage rise from zero to around 11.4% and stop dead, the actuator was trying to open the damper and could not do it.  Turned out that the damper disc itself was actually stuck to the steel panel behind it.  Don't know if it was paint or creosote making it stick, but after loosening the shaft of the actuator, gently tapping the disc with a dead blow hammer and a prybar (no I did not whack it hard) it suddenly freed itself and spun.  I retightened the shaft on the actuator, lubed the disc with some dry graphite, turned the furnace off and on again, voila - it worked.  Opened right up to 100% and the fire was getting air again.   Not sure why it stuck but it will be something I keep an eye on from now on.