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[pintopaul]

anyone else having a problem with the air inlets melting? the reaction chamber last year melted. its not mine its the one we heat the town garage with . we only burn dry hard wood. 1 st year it worked great this will be our 3 yr. thanks paul

[martyinmi]

Paul,

   PM Dean186. He'll walk you through any issues you might have with the CB gassers.

[MTJAG]

Dean 186 must be gone for Christmas.  I do know that the e2300 had some problems with melting the air inlets.  What model is yours? 

I will send Dean a message

[pintopaul]

i will look tomorrow when i go to work been off the last 2 days sicker than a dog.

[MTJAG]

Sorry to hear you've been sick. Hope you get to feeling better.

[Dean186]

The early E-Classic 2300s had problems with deformation and cracking of the fusion chamber.  I believe the fusion chambers were replaced under warranty with a modified version.  If it is not very badly deformed or cracked, it won't effect performance and one could wait until end of season to replace it. 

I have not heard of any problems with fusion chambers on other models.

[pintopaul]

it is the eclassic 2300 the reaction chamber was burned up and replaced under warranty but now the air hole along the lower part of the fire chamber are all like melted (rotted). still works but not as good.

[pintopaul]

has anyone else had this problem and if so what did they do to fix it. we called our dealer and he said it was out of warranty glad they spent so much money on this piece of cr-- .

[dwneast77]

I just found this site last night and I've spent a fair amount of time today reading.  Mostly about Wood Doctor as I've picked up a used one and I'm about to set it up.  However, I have been running my E-Classic 2300 since Dec. of 2008.  I usually run it until the end of May before summer shut down.  I too replaced the fusion combustor early in the second season.  Then, last year my air channel really started cracking pretty bad and even seperating from the side wall.  I was given the go-ahead to call in a welder to repair it.  I was also told that Central Boiler, at a cost of $200 to me, would take the unit back to the factory and give it all remaining updates as well as new, "straight" sidewalls, filling in where firebricks were shipped in the sidewalls.  This was Jan. of 2011.  My dealer told me to call him in the spring and we'd make arrangements.  When I called in July, I felt like I got the run-around, but being in business I was too busy at the time to pursue it.  Recently, I had noticed that one of the patches on the air channel (left side) is in really bad shape.  I have a hole approx. 1" x 2 1/2".  I have also always had trouble with build-up inside the air channels which makes airflow difficult to maintain.  I can't believe they don't give you any way to get in to clean out the channels.  I also developed a small leak in the firebox.  I have had a welder come in and take care of that.  Central Boiler will cover that cost 100% as long as it's not corrosion related.  This leak was right in a corner weld that went bad.  So far, that is holding.  With regard to the air channel, my dealer did call Central Boiler about that again and forwarded on my pictures.  I was told they would do 1 of 2 things.  Either send me a new air channel kit and pay up to $400 for a welder to install them or we could arrange to send the unit back at some cost to me.  I hope to have all of the details on that Monday.

There is a lesson I've learned here.  Buying the 1st model year of anything is a bad idea.  I will say that overall my dealer and Central Boiler has been pretty good to me.  I only wish the 3200 model was available when I bought this one as I heat greenhouses with it.  It is a challenge to keep my water temp up during that time.  Hence why I picked up the used Wood Doctor unit.  The price was right.

Hope this info helps.  Any questions I'd be happy to try to help.   - Jeff

[pintopaul]

this thing has really let us down , being a town highway garage we are trying to burn clean but now wish we would have gotten something differant. i feel this thing isnt worth the money . i have an old outdoor wood boiler wood master 434 thats working great and to be honest burns just as clean as the central boiler and i old paid 2000.00 for it, not like 10,000 for the central boiler.

[dwneast77]

pintopaul -  I've been pretty disappointed in the performance of this unit as well.  Has never really burned clean on a consistant basis.  Manual says not to operate the unit with the combustion chamber open so I never dared to open it while in operation,... that is, until last season.  That's when I realized that it wasn't always even gasifying.  I grant you I don't always have the dryest wood.  But sometimes I would be smoking like crazy, open the door and have a rip-roaring blaze inside.  I couldn't figure it out.  Now I monitor the combustion chamber regularly, leaving the outer door cover off all the time for quicker access.  I've found that sometimes opening the damper door for a few seconds and then closing it will ignite the gases.  With regard to the air channels,  I'm having a welder come back and "repair" them, ie. get rid of them.  I've looked at several different models (including the Wood Doctor that I am in the process of installing as we speak) and determined that having the air come in along the bottom sides like it does is not necessary.  Wood Doctor brings it in at the door.  I, myself, am following Portage and Main's design on their Optimizer 250.    http://www.portageandmainboilers.com/index.html   I suggest watching their video of the 250 in operation.  My CB has never had a flame so hot and consistent.   My welder and I have come up with a plan to use 3" square channel straight up from the inlet hole, actually let it rest on the floor for support and drainage of creosote, go all the way to the top and elbow over to another channel which will follow the roof toward the door.  We plan to just weld hangers from the ceiling  with a pin going through or under the channel to hold it.  That way it is quickly and easily removable for cleaning/repair/replacement.  I don't think it will ever need replacement as will be up and away from the extreme heat.  And the build-up us ash and creosote that I've dealt with inside my air channels will become a non-issue allowing a more consistant, non-restricted flow.  Maybe I get a better and cleaner burn out of it finally.  We'll have to wait and see.  I hope this is useful info for you.

Jeff

[pintopaul]

thanks jeff

[dwneast77]

Let's try this again, somehow I just deleted what I was writing.

Pintopaul -

I wanted to let you know that my new air channel design is a huge success.  This unit has never burned so hot.  I may actually have to lower that solenoid a little and restrict it down.  I even told my dealer what I did and he was all for it being removable for cleaning.

Here's what we did:

Cut out the back portion of the air channel.
A 2" nipple will fit into the air inlet pipe perfectly which is 2 1/2" inside.  So we came into a 2 1/2" T.  Now I screwed a Nipple into the T and cut off the excess and we welded a 2" nipple into the 2 1/2" nipple in the T.  We then added a nipple to the bottom of the T and cut it to fit, resting about 2/3s  on the refractory brick but leaving a place for drainage of creosote.  Then simply pipe up to the roof to a 90* elbow.  I added I think an 8" nipple to another T blowing the air to either side.  I would say, given the extra air flow that I am getting you could save a step and a little money and do the whole thing in 2".  For support we just welded two pieces of flat stock to the wall just under the bypass damper and I put a 1/2" x 4" hitch pin through them.  The entire assembly slides right out with the removal of just that one pin if needed.

I feel like this is the first time seeing what thing has been capable of for the last 3 1/2 heating seasons.  It has never been smoke free.  Many days I've been embarrassed by the amount of smoke coming out of it but never knew what I was doing wrong or could do to help it.  Now, it is virtually smoke free.  maybe 30 seconds or so on startup but it quickly dissipates.  The only really notable point to mention is that my fire is favoring the back end so I just move the pile back which makes up for most of it.  Shorter sticks of wood would help there also.   

Anyway, my dealer still told me to submit my bill, labeled "air channel repair" and Central Boiler would cover some or all of it.  The representative my dealer spoke with said they had payed upwards of 3 to 4 hundred for air channel repairs and I was given the verbal go ahead to get a welder in to do the job.  I had no intention of fixing the old design again, I just did that last year. 

Hope this can help you or somebody else out.

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[gsilus]

Thanks a lot dwneast77 for sharing your story and modification of the E2300, the picture is really great, showing exactly what you did.  I may consider doing this for my E2300.

[dwneast77]

gsilus -  Glad to share.  Unit is still working good.  I have not had to clean the ash out of the firebox since I did this.  I've taken a little out here and there juse because I felt I should but usually just breaking it up with the cleaning rod or crowbar does well enough.  I do have to clean out the reaction chamber more.  Only because the force of the bigger fire pushes the ash and coals against the door, so If I open the door to check the fire it falls out forcing me to clean it in order to get the door back in place.  Also, no point in using 2 1/2" pipe.  I'd stick with 2".  I'm considering a couple of other designs but I'm still on the fence.  It works so much better already.  Note that once I did get a buildup of ash in the firebox my fire is burning more uniform, not favoring the back end so much.  Also with regard to my warranty, my dealer has told me to submit my bill for the welders time.  I paid for the parts used and I will not get re-embursed for those parts because I did not re-build it to the way it used to be.  So my total expense for parts was $125 out of pocket.  I'll get re-embursed the $330 for the welders time.  Not bad.  I'll take it.