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yes

14 (56%)

no

11 (44%)

Total Members Voted: 25

[hondaracer2oo4]

Shavis, how many cords of wood have you gone through and when did you start up for the season? Sure the OWB is a 'load' but really should be not much of a load at all. Yes the plate works in both directions, sidearm really doesn't work well in reverse. It should be VERY easy though to maintain the boiler temp though. You don't need to sit in the kitchen all day and listen. 30 minutes would be sufficient. That would give you an average over that day. Just multiply the number of minutes it fired in that 30 minutes by 48 and that will give you the number of minutes in a 24 hour period(an average but close enough). That will allow us to calculate the amount of btus used in a 24 hour period as well as the number of gallons a day etc. Did the plate have a GPM for the nozzle on it?

By the way any way to measure your exit temps of the stack when it leaves your boiler? I forgot to make sure that you had been keeping up with cleaning the heat exchangers once a week in the owb. Having them even slightly dirty significantly reduces your heat transfer abilities and would not allow you to bring the owb up to temp and would just shoot all of the heat outside.

[Ash]

Hey Shavis! As a closeted gx10 owner I have been following your saga with painfully similar experiences.
I was going along ok earlier this season, and by that I mean we have the thermostat set to 61 and I was stretching out 8 to 9 hour burn times.  I’m into some crappier wood now (dead standing maple cut this fall) and it’s causing lots of problems.  Can’t keep the boiler up to temp and unfortunately since I work, I have no choice but to fill it up every morning and hope for a miracle.  I have a security camera pointed on it, and most days I watch from work as it smokes away like a locomotive.  Frustrated, angry, embarrassed, cold; I feel your pain (mostly in my freezing hands and feet).

To anyone out there that can help me... Should I dump the DHW?  With 2 zones running, the wife’s 15min shower will drop boiler temp from 180 down to 145.  Is forced air more efficient than hydronic baseboards? Would staple up radiant be a better solution?  Is there anything I can do to increase burn times or at least bump up the thermostat a few degrees?  In the off season we put r-60 in the attic and installed thermal shades on all the windows.  Doesn't seem to be helping much.

[Ash]

Found time to move some wood around and got into better seasoned stuff.  What a huge difference!  I’m back to quick burning cycles, less smoke, and much improved wood consumption. 

Also, one thing I did discover when trouble shooting was in the blower assembly.  The fan blades were very clogged. They had A LOT of insulation particles that were caked in soot stuck to them.  I cleaned it all out, and it is blowing considerably more air.

Being a newbie to owning a gasification boiler I have experienced a lot of problems with the learning curve associated with running the thing.  As far as the GX10 in particular, most of my frustrations come from how I was led to believe the stove would work v.s. what I actually experience.  They lead you to believe that the thing sips fuel, doesn’t smoke, and is an ease to operate.  The truth is it burns wood, sometimes a lot of it. It smokes, especially if conditions are not absolutely perfect.  And, if something is off (crap wood, plugged nozzle, dirty heat exchangers, air flow issues, etc.) you’ve got problems. 

I hate to complain too much. I will save over $7000 on heating oil this season. I just wish it could better keep up with the demands of my house - longer burn times, warmer temps.