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Topics - Jon_E

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1
HeatMaster / Blower fan
« on: September 01, 2018, 12:17:10 PM »
Been having some problems with my blower fan, it's been making a lot of noise over the past few months, especially on startup and shutdown of a cycle.  I think the bearings are shot but I can't be sure.  The fan motor spins silently if it is just spun up by hand.  The past couple days it has actually needed a "push" to get going, which is bad because I am not always around to do so.  I took everything apart this morning, cleaned the back chamber and all of the bits and pieces, took it all apart and wirebrushed it.  I put it back together and it started up but is still very loud. 

Has anyone else had problems with their fan?  I did some research and the fan is just an off-the-shelf Fasco blower motor, $150 or so, but I work in maintenance and have hundreds of fans and motors in my facility, and Fasco has proven to be straight crap.  I was wondering if anyone knew of an "or equal" motor that has the same mounting and specs and could be use in its' place.  If not, I'll just replace it and then keep the old one as an emergency replacement. 

2
Plumbing / Need help with backup system
« on: March 26, 2018, 09:21:24 AM »
Hay all, I need some help with system design.  For the past 13 years I have been heating my house and producing domestic hot water with my outdoor wood boiler.  My old boiler had a propane burner in it, so when I didn't want to burn wood (or ran out), I would switch to propane.  The current G200 boiler does not have a propane system, so I have no backup.  At all.  I have no system in my house, such as a small propane boiler or electric water heater, that will provide me with hot water during the summer or even a backup in case of a major system failure or an extended vacation. 

So, this spring I have saved up some money and I want to install a heat-pump hybrid electric water heater.  I want it to serve two functions: First, to serve as primary domestic hot water from mid-April through early September.  The OWB would be shut off completely.  Second, to act as a backup if I have a system failure in the OWB, or I want to be away from my house for a few days in the winter and just need to maintain a minimum heat level.   I want to be able to manually switch modes (if necessary) between seasons, and manually switch to backup in case of a failure or vacation.  I have a generator to provide backup power so using electric backup is not a concern. 

Currently, I have a 40-gallon indirect water tank, which is fed from the primary OWB loop in the basement, has its' own small circulator pump loop, and the hot water flows through a mixing valve to domestic use.  The rest of the OWB loop is for heating.  Compounding matters, the indirect tank has developed pinhole leaks and is out of warranty.  I want to replace the indirect tank with the electric water heater.  I do not have room for both, so I need the electric heater to function as an indirect tank during the winter months when the outdoor boiler is running, and function as primary heat for domestic hot water during the summer.  I only need the electric heater to provide minimal heating if a backup is needed during the winter, and I would like to accomplish that with some sort of valved bypass. 

So, does anyone have any photos of systems that utilize both an electric water heater and an outdoor wood boiler, or have some sketches, or barring that, describe to me what I need to do?  I am on a very limited budget, and have some reasonable plumbing skills, so as long as I have an actual plan, I can put it together. 

3
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Extending underground PEX
« on: January 16, 2018, 02:51:51 PM »
I would like to move my OWF about 10 feet in order to make a significant change in the layout of my wood heating operation.  The obstacle is the Central Boiler pex tubing which goes from the boiler to my house.  I could, in theory, just dig it up and replace it, but that's about a thousand bucks I have no reason to spend and about 85' of tubing wasted, with no other issues aside from being too short.  I would love to be able to simply extend it, but I have no clue how to do so and still maintain the insulation value of it.  Joining two pieces of PEX end to end is easy - it's the insulation and the hard outer shell and keeping it all watertight. 

Any ideas or suggestions?

4
HeatMaster / One year anniversary
« on: January 05, 2018, 10:31:40 AM »
Yesterday was my one-year anniversary of the installation of my G200.  I will publicly say that slimjim (Richard) has been a great help to me in the past year, helping me with a few problems, talking on the phone for advise, etc.  Also the rest of you guys who are members here for offering advice and assistance with the few issues I've had.  This is a great forum and I would probably not have gotten the G200 without the advice and help from all of you.

So I have probably burned about 35-40% less wood with the G200 than I ever did with the old Central Boiler.  I actually enjoy using it - monitoring, feeding, cleaning, etc.  It's a simple unit and highly efficient.  I have plans for the spring where I am going to build a new wood shed and put the front of the unit under a roof so that I can feed it without having to stand out in the snow and rain.  In the next couple of weeks when it warms up a touch, I am going to hook up the radiant tubing in my garage and give this critter more work to do.  I used to hate dealing with my old OWB to the point I was ready to give up and put in a propane boiler in the house.  Now I enjoy it again and look forward to cutting firewood.  And the more I learn, the more I hope I can help others with my experiences.

Time to send in my annual water sample.  Thanks again to everyone here on the forum.

5
Electronics / Single zone - line voltage or 24v?
« on: December 29, 2017, 01:50:47 PM »
OK this is probably a really dumb question but I am learning so bear with me.  I have a single heating zone in my garage.  One Grundfos circulator pump.   Really simple, but I cannot find a good answer to this - do I need a single zone controller and a low-voltage thermostat (like I have in my house) or can I use a line-voltage thermostat and skip the controller?  If so, what should I be looking for?  Every line-voltage thermostat I can find says that it's for electric heat.  I just want to leave the thing set at 55° and have the pump kick on if the temperature in the garage gets below that setpoint.   

6
HeatMaster / Blew a fuse - don't know why
« on: December 29, 2017, 11:19:56 AM »
OK, got a strange one for me.  I'm no electrician, so if this sounds serious, I got a friend I can call.

A couple days ago at the beginning of this cold snap, I got outside to feed the OWB and noticed it had a red light blinking.  Probably out of wood, I thought.  I pulled the smoke bypass lever and nothing happened - the draft fan usually kicks on.  So I opened the firebox door anyway and there was a full load of wood.   Water temp was down to 106°.  I pushed the cold start button and again, nothing.   After a quick read of the manual, and a phone call, and another quick read of the manual ('cus I am stoopid sometimes  :P) I found out that there is a 2A fuse that controls the fan motor.  Didn't have any 2A fuses but I had a 5A fuse, so I put that in until I could get to the store.  The 5A fuse worked fine.  I did check the fan for operation, made sure it wasn't stuck or anything, and it spun freely with no resistance. 

So here's the strange part.  Got back with the 2A fuses, put one in, buttoned it all back up, and ..... nothing.  Took it all back apart and the new fuse was blown.  I put the 5A fuse back in and everything's fine again, it's working like normal.  I checked the fuse I took out to make sure it was 2A and yes it was. 

Questions for the forum - first, what could have caused the fuse to blow?  I did have the smoke bypass open the night before while I was feeding it, and the firebox was HOT, roaring blaze hot.  I think that the flames were nipping at the fan & motor.  It allegedly has a overheat shutoff, but I am wondering if I ruined something by letting too much heat get to the fan area and that is causing or contributing to the problem.

Second - why is it working fine with a 5A fuse but it now blows the 2A fuse?  Wondering if I had a bad fuse?  They're cheap enough I can try a few of them and see if one works, but I had a similar problem on my old Central Boiler and it turned out to be a bad solenoid on the door damper.  But it was doing the same thing, blowing fuses.  A larger fuse would work but a correct fuse would not.

7
Plumbing / Manifold/zone loop materials
« on: December 13, 2017, 09:43:05 AM »
Got a question that may or may not be simple.  When I built my house, 13 years ago, I had a local plumber help me with my heat piping.  I don't know why he did what he did.  When the PEX from my OWB comes into the house, it transitioned to copper to go through my flat plate HX.  On the other side of the HX, he came out of it with copper and then transitioned to black iron for the main loop.  Yet, every zone off that main loop (there are four heat zones and one hot water zone) are all transitioned to copper with a threaded fitting, then the rest of the zone is copper.  The main loop is 1-1/4" black iron and the zones are all 1" copper.

I have never asked the guy why he used the black iron.  I know all my circulator pumps are cast iron (all Taco 007) but why build some of the system with black iron and some with copper? All the black iron is rusting on the exterior, it's ugly and looks like crap.

I am planning on installing a new heat-pump electric water heater as a backup system in the spring, and as part of that work I would like to replumb the entire thing in 100% copper and get rid of all the black iron.  Any reason this shouldn't be done?  I have looked at dozens of photos of heating manifolds and piping systems online and most of them stick to copper pipe (although some are using more and more PEX). 

8
HeatMaster / Dumb question about cleaning
« on: December 07, 2017, 08:51:01 AM »
This may be a dumb question but I want to hear from you guys with G-series boilers.  I have cleaned the ash out of the firebox of my G200 simply by raking the stuff through the slot in the bottom of the firebox and dragging it out through the door on the secondary burn chamber.  I use the little half-moon shaped tool/rake that they give you.  What I have not figured out, though, is how to clean, or even see, the section of firebox that is right inside the firebox door.  In other words the front wall and the front 4-6" of the firebox.  I can't really get in there to see if there's a lot of creosote or ash built up just inside the door. 

Does anyone have any good ideas on how to view this area and clean it out? 

9
HeatMaster / Pine
« on: January 21, 2017, 11:12:00 AM »
Last night I had a thick bed of red hot coals in the G200, and it's pretty warm here (42 deg).  I put half a dozen splits of old, dry white pine in there, full of resin.

This morning, still had the same thick bed of red hot coals and the pine was gone, nothing left but fine powdery ash coating all the coals.  It's interesting that some woods will coal up well and others turn to ash without coaling, but this provided the best actual demonstration that I have seen so far.   

My lesson learned here is - use pine or other non-coaling woods for a quick initial burn, but mix it up good with other long-burning species (black birch and black locust being most common in my wood shed this season).  Funny thing is, though - butternut, which is a very soft wood and has a BTU rating only slightly better than pine, leaves a nice coal bed.  I have a lot of that too, and I have loaded nothing but butternut in the firebox a couple times, and been pleasantly surprised.

10
HeatMaster / Remote monitoring of a G200
« on: January 06, 2017, 12:42:58 PM »
Wondering if any of you guys have set up some kind of remote monitoring system for your OWF that would send you temperature readings and other data to a smartphone or tablet?  I know that Central Boiler has their Firestar XP system, but that was not nearly enough of a selling point to convince me to buy another Central Boiler.  On the other hand, the technology can't be all that complicated.  Something as simple as a temperature monitor that would let me know what the water jacket temperature is at any given moment. 

11
HeatMaster / G200 on the way!
« on: January 03, 2017, 06:54:16 AM »
Made a big decision in a big hurry during the week between Christmas and New Year's, decided to replace my old leaky Central Boiler Classic with a brand new G200.  It arrives tomorrow!

Phase One will be a straight up swap with some temporary connections to existing plumbing and electrical.  Phase Two will be in the spring, when I can pour a new pad, rebuild my wood shed, reconfigure my layout, and get everything the way I want it.

I am looking forward to not having to worry about the possibility of catastrophic failure with the new unit.  Sadly ironic, the old OWB must have suspected it was on the way out and mysteriously slowed way down on the rate of leakage.  Too late!   ;D

12
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Now's my chance - changing the layout
« on: December 30, 2016, 10:40:49 AM »
In another post I mentioned that my existing OWF is on the way out and I am looking into a new one.  I think I already made up my mind that repairing the old one is a losing proposition.  So this gives me the opportunity to rework my OWB layout (concrete pad, wood shed, supply/return lines, etc.) to get me a more efficient system.  I am somewhat limited to my existing location as I have two sets of PEX tubing coming to the existing boiler, as well as the electrical conduit and a propane line (although propane will be removed).  I have a pad that is just a hair larger than the existing boiler, and a 16' x 8' timber-frame wood shed sitting on concrete blocks next to it. 

I am considering pouring a new pad which would have both the wood shed and the boiler on it, with the front half of the boiler being inside (or underneath) the wood shed so that in bad weather, I would still be under a roof while feeding and maintaining the boiler.  It would also help to have the wood shed sitting on that same pad, so that I had a hard flat surface to stand on while feeding.  Right now it's just a bed of wood chips.

Also, has anyone has any success with extending OWB supply and return lines?  If I could extend my lines, I could put both the pad and the boiler in a better location.  My old supply lines to the house are the old green 1" PEX inside wrap insulation and a hard corrugated shell.  This is the stuff that Central Boiler used to sell in 2004-ish.  The run to my garage is a very flexible white PEX in a white corrugated shell, from Z-Supply in Michigan.  I can easily extend the PEX, it's the insulation and shell I would be concerned with. 

Looking for best advice on how you would layout your OWB system if you had the chance to do it over.

13
Hey all, new member, first post here. 

I've been heating my home (4300 square feet of well-insulated SIP/timberframe) with a 2004 model Central Boiler CL5648.  The boiler was planned from the beginning as part of the home construction.  It is a dual-fuel model (propane and wood) and it has been running 24/7/365 since it was first put into service in September 2005.  I have 30 acres of wood and do a lot of scrounging on construction sites, so getting wood cheap or free is easy.  I only spend money on equipment and fuel for tractor and saws.  I also keep at least two years ahead by cutting, splitting and stacking in two woodsheds that hold almost 23 full cords.  I go through about ten cords a year plus burn about 300 gallons of propane during the summer.  During the winter I load the firebox about 1/3 full twice a day, during the summer it's once every two or three days.  I have no other heat source, so it has been supplying my domestic heat and hot water for over 11 years.  I also need to admit that I have not been the best at preventive maintenance, so it now has problems I don't think I can fix.

Last fall it started leaking.  Just a little drip, nothing serious.  Thought it might have been a loose fitting or maybe a pinhole.  I let it go. As of writing this, I have to put almost 100 gallons of water per WEEK back into the water jacket in order to keep it filled. I don't know exactly where the leaks are coming from, but I know there's several.  I tried some Hercules Stop-Leak in a desperate attempt to slow it down, but that did nothing.  So for the rest of the winter, I plan on continuously adding water as a major band-aid until I can address the problem in the spring. 

My initial feeling is that I should shut it down in the spring, take it completely apart and try to find a local welder who can either build me a new outer jacket, or repair the old one.  I have a feeling that the water jacket is shot, however, and a new one would be the only solution.  It would probably still cost me a few thousand dollars, but it's cheaper than a new OWB.  Of course, I still have to worry that the rest of the system can crap out on me at any time.

On the other hand, because I live in Vermont, I am required to install an EPA Phase 2-certified boiler if I upgrade.  I like the idea that I may be able to cut down on my wood use, especially since I just built a new 800-sf 2-story garage and was hoping to heat that with wood as well.  Unfortunately, with the current system, there's no way I'd be able to keep up.

So, unless you guys can convince me that fixing up my old Central would be a better idea, I think I will be looking for a new OWB/OWF in the spring and would like some feedback from users here on what they think would be a good solution for me (what I should be looking at).  I've looked at websites from P&M, Central, Heatmaster SS, and Heatmor.  I have a Heatmor dealer fairly local, although he is nearly impossible to find open, my Central Boiler Dealer is about 25 miles away and is decent but only wants to sell parts and does not offer any kind of service.  I don't know where anyone else might be located.  I would like to see anything that I am considering, in operation, before I purchase it. 

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