Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
Outdoor Furnaces - Manufacturers WITH EPA-Certified Models => Portage & Main => Topic started by: patvetzal on February 20, 2017, 08:10:24 AM
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Every so often when there is a good fire going my furnace (an old ML36) will start to do its steam engine thing. I tell my wife that it is just trying to get up steam to move to a better location :thumbup:
This doesn't seem to effect anything and I suspect that it just needs more draft for the size of fire...
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I get the same effect on my Optimizer 250 when I load too many small dry splits. Not enough supply air for the speed that the small stuff wants to burn.
I turn my supply air up for loads of small stuff and down for loads of bigger stuff. Gasifiers are a little more sensitive to the type of loads than the conventionals.
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Sometimes it's too much secondary air, not enough primary. There's not enough air coming through the coal bed to send a steady jet of flame up into the firebox. Then it flashes- chugs along a bit- flashes again. Intermittent ignition. Small very dry wood makes a rich fuel mixture which like was said requires much more air.
There's nothing like a good "huff" to clean out the flues tho!
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So how thick a coal bed should I have in the bottom of my old furnace? I don't even remember if the supply vents are in the top of the grate or the bottom......I just figure that if the smoke increases when I open the ash door then it is getting more air, which must be coming up thru the coals and as long as the water stays at the set point then the fire is burning OK.
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The ML is a very simple conventional, you could be not getting enough air or some obstruction like creosote in the chimney or heat exchanger, does it clear up after its first cycle from being loaded?
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To me, it is burning fine for the wood it is getting, wet frozen maple that was cut last week.
If we get a good fire going and feed pieces of wood in every few hours while we are in the area then it burns them fine and the water stays 180. If we leave it untouched all day, then fill the box with frozen wood then the fire dies down, and the water drops to 90F . My "fireman" tells me that this is caused by all the ashes in the bottom stopping the air which causes the fire to die. He solves this by shoveling out most of the coals and sure enough, by morning the fire is burning fine again and the water is back up to temp.
This way he only has to fill it with wood twice a day and the ice in the driveway gets covered with ashes daily. :bash:
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On the other side of the coin, the father and 25yr old son have started in the rabbit raising business.They have two pair so far but it seems that their two big males have taken to fighting so they scheduled a death and offered me some fresh rabbit meat. Since I haven't had rabbit in years I said yes. This afternoon the son brought one over and then explained how he was cooking the other one..... ???
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Lol