Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
Outdoor Furnaces - Manufacturers WITH EPA-Certified Models => Central Boiler => Topic started by: Roger2561 on October 27, 2017, 03:15:04 AM
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Hi all, Well, I think I'll be firing up the E-Classic 1400 tomorrow. I find I have to run the oil burner a little each day when I get home from work to break the chill in the house so I might as well keep the money in my pocket and get her going. This is by far the furthest I have gone into the fall before firing her up, usually it's at the beginning of Oct. I'm entering my 7th season with it and that seems to be the time when people have been experiencing leaks, etc... with them, so I'm praying this thing stays together for one more season. Over the past 6 seasons, other than the occasional hiccup, it has run flawlessly.
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I'm shooting for Nov 1. It's been a great October as far as weather goes.
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I was hoping for another week but I got chilly in the shop yesterday so I lit it up about 3pm yesterday. There's 2" of snow on the ground and about 40mph winds this morning though, sure glad I did
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10 day forecast showed highs in the 30's and 40's so I fired ours up yesterday. In all my years of doing this the 3rd week in October seems to be a pretty typical start up date so were right on schedule.
Sure is nice having the house toasty, the garage heated, and the endless hot water again.
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Yeah I am with you on the third week in october. Some years I make it closer to Nov 1 sometimes closer to second week in Oct.
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Love not hearing the oil burner coming on, and stay in the shower a little longer, sweet!!!!
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The wife just broke, fired her up at 1045 this morning because the 66 degree house house is obviously an ice box.
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Just clicked off at 180. 54 -180 in 2 hours and 2 mins. Not bad.
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Just clicked off at 180. 54 -180 in 2 hours and 2 mins. Not bad.
With a load on?
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Love not hearing the oil burner coming on, and stay in the shower a little longer, sweet!!!!
I guess it's the small things in life we look forward to; not hearing the oil burner run, not waiting which seems like forever for the hot-water to reach the shower head and those nice HOT showers...oh, and a cold bottle of beer following a hard days work. Roger
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Well, she's up and providing heat to house and DHW. I ran into a bit of a hiccup though, it was my own fault. After about an hour or so of getting the water up to temp, I had been keeping close tabs of how she has been operating. I could hear one of the solenoids making a loud buzzing noise so I open the back panel where they are located, tap the offending solenoid and then attempted to close the panel door. Well, there are 2 locking tabs that hold the door close. When I tried to pull and turn them, they both broke. I had no way of keeping that door closed. So, to the basement of the house I go looking for a solution. I found some self tapping screws and installed them. I went inside to have lunch and when I came outside the digital display was showing "HI" (I doubt that it was a greeting), meaning that water had reached over 200 degrees and she shut herself down. So, to the rear panel I go looking for the problem. I found it immediately; when the tabs broke that holds the rear panel door closed, it left 2 holes that neglected to seal shut. To the basement of the house where I found my silicon sealant and filled them in. Problem solved and she been running like a charm. I hope she keeps it up throughout the winter. Roger
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Yup, stay warm Roger. Glad you found your problem.
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Just clicked off at 180. 54 -180 in 2 hours and 2 mins. Not bad.
With a load on?
Zero load.
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I usually place the biggest load I can on mine when first starting, gets a coal bed established faster.
Turn the heat off in the house so it drops a few degrees, the wife doesn’t squawk much about that as she can have it as warm as she wants the rest of the winter within reason. Lot the 450 gallons of water in the shop boiler drop a bunch as well, when you start heating 650 gallons of water or so it tends to run longer ;-)
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Just clicked off at 180. 54 -180 in 2 hours and 2 mins. Not bad.
With a load on?
Zero load.
For real? I figured it'd have been faster than that. I fired my C375 on Thursday and granted it holds a little less water, but I went from 50 to 175 in somewhere between 1.5-2 hours with mama washing clothes and a couple blower cycles in the furnace. I'd guess it was closer to 2 hours as it was only at 153 when I checked at 1.5. The wood was all small ends and slivers from the firewood processor though, so that probably had some effect as well. Kindling let's say lol
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Once they are actually hot and have the coal bed established they actually recover pretty quick depending on the load. Don’t forget as well the closer they get to 180 the less air the controller lets em have to make the burn as long as possible. Usually mine is around 52% on the damper before shutting off.
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When your starting from scratch in the gasser and don't have a coal bed to break down the wood to wood gas and then heat it up and light it off you aren't going to have those extreme temps yet coming out of the nozzle. If we had a reaction chamber thermo couple I could prove that theory. You can't tell though by watching the gasser flame that it's not gassing like it does on a good coal bed.
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Ya, gasifiers can be a little slow to get going without a coal bed. This year i thought I'd try something to get the stove up and gasifying quickly. Last spring, I saved the remaining charred logs and charcoal chunks from when the fire went out. Tossed them in the ash can and they kept dry over the summer. I used them as a coal bed "starter", and the stove was up and gassing in about 10 minutes. Reaction chamber temps were still on the low side for 1\2 hour or so til the wood load got up and burning good. 200 gallons went from 50 to 185 in about 1 3\4 hours.
Still, it seems as though it just takes a couple days to get a good coal bed established. Started it up Thursday pm and temps are still climbing but becoming more consistent. Now getting consistent reaction chamber temps over 1000.
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Makes sense, now I know! Gassers are still foreign technology to me
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Yeah, that coal bed makes all the difference. And some ash to insulate it.
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Ya, gasifiers can be a little slow to get going without a coal bed. This year i thought I'd try something to get the stove up and gasifying quickly. Last spring, I saved the remaining charred logs and charcoal chunks from when the fire went out. Tossed them in the ash can and they kept dry over the summer. I used them as a coal bed "starter", and the stove was up and gassing in about 10 minutes. Reaction chamber temps were still on the low side for 1\2 hour or so til the wood load got up and burning good. 200 gallons went from 50 to 185 in about 1 3\4 hours.
Still, it seems as though it just takes a couple days to get a good coal bed established. Started it up Thursday pm and temps are still climbing but becoming more consistent. Now getting consistent reaction chamber temps over 1000.
With the Edge 750 I leave the bypass open for a while when first firing up and on a totally fresh fill. This way the fire is burning up through the wood and gets burning well. When I shut the bypass handle down to now go through the reaction chamber, the fire is blazing.
The reaction chamber temps fly this way.
I feel Central did a real disservice to the smaller models by not having that addition.
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benp - Where you located? Is the Edge 750 the titanium unit they're selling? How long have you had it and do you like it? Sorry for the questions, I'm seriously thinking of changing to something like the Edge 750. I have the E-Classic 1400. It's a pretty good unit but a pain in the neck (and I mean that literally, I have degenerative disk disease) to keep the air channel open, they'e non-removable. Roger
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benp - Where you located? Is the Edge 750 the titanium unit they're selling? How long have you had it and do you like it? Sorry for the questions, I'm seriously thinking of changing to something like the Edge 750. I have the E-Classic 1400. It's a pretty good unit but a pain in the neck (and I mean that literally, I have degenerative disk disease) to keep the air channel open, they'e non-removable. Roger
Hi Roger,
Northern Minnesota.
This is the model. Click on the 750.
https://centralboiler.com/products/classic-edge/
Going on it's first year of service. I like it a lot. We are heating 10000 sq feet with a high, very high, and extremely high heat load, which i feel is bouncing off the upper capabilities of the stove. Heat load is determined what frozen, snow covered piece of equipment is brought into the shop.
Extremely high heat load is when we pull in a frozen dump truck with trac hoe and trailer that all have a foot of snow on them.....when it's -15 out. I watched the shop temp dump 15 degrees in 20 minutes because of that.
That being said, I can get a full 8-10 hrs out of a fill at heavy sub zero temps. Normally it's 12 hours from zero on up.
Weekly cleaning of the reaction chamber and heat exchangers takes under 10 minutes even in sub zero. Every 2 weeks I include popping off the back chimney cap, cleaning that and running the chains on the heat exchangers.
I pull 3-4 gallons of ash at the 2 week cleaning and 2.5 at just reaction chamber cleaning.
I guess I am not familiar with what you mean by the air channel on the E classic.
Everything on the Edge is accessible from the front of the stove. Firebox, air intake and reaction chamber.
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Have you had any problems with the solenoids prematurely dying? I visit another site where someone purchased one of the Edge 750's and he was going through them left and right until he found the problem. There's a plate which sits on a elbow. When the OWB calls for air, the plate is lifted from the elbow opening via the solenoid allowing air to enter into the firebox. The problem was a film of creosote was collecting on the ridge of the elbow opening so that when it cooled, it hold the plate down, not allowing it to open, this causing them to burn out. I believe his solution to the problem was to affix a film of high temperature grease to the ridge and I believe he no longer has the problem. Roger
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Have you had any problems with the solenoids prematurely dying? I visit another site where someone purchased one of the Edge 750's and he was going through them left and right until he found the problem. There's a plate which sits on a elbow. When the OWB calls for air, the plate is lifted from the elbow opening via the solenoid allowing air to enter into the firebox. The problem was a film of creosote was collecting on the ridge of the elbow opening so that when it cooled, it hold the plate down, not allowing it to open, this causing them to burn out. I believe his solution to the problem was to affix a film of high temperature grease to the ridge and I believe he no longer has the problem. Roger
I've had no issues with that.
That being said I do take the main intake elbow off once a month and clean it out.
I can see how that would be an issue because that elbow does get some build up in it.
Next time I have it out I will do the grease trick. Sounds like good insurance.
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The air channel is a series of holes along both sides and back of the firebox where the air enters the firebox to get the fire going again after idle. The air channels in the E-Classic 1400 are welded in place, not removable like those in the Edge line. It takes some patience and about 15 minutes once every 2 or 3 weeks to make sure they remain open. Like you, once a month I remove the elbow to clear any creosote build up. Roger
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Have you had any problems with the solenoids prematurely dying? I visit another site where someone purchased one of the Edge 750's and he was going through them left and right until he found the problem. There's a plate which sits on a elbow. When the OWB calls for air, the plate is lifted from the elbow opening via the solenoid allowing air to enter into the firebox. The problem was a film of creosote was collecting on the ridge of the elbow opening so that when it cooled, it hold the plate down, not allowing it to open, this causing them to burn out. I believe his solution to the problem was to affix a film of high temperature grease to the ridge and I believe he no longer has the problem. Roger
I've had no issues with that.
That being said I do take the main intake elbow off once a month and clean it out.
I can see how that would be an issue because that elbow does get some build up in it.
Next time I have it out I will do the grease trick. Sounds like good insurance.
Sounds like your running it hard enough it doesn’t see a lot of idle time, that helps a lot to keep any boiler clean.
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I saw that one. Wonder if how he's loading it. Sounds like an idling/moisture issue. It's a good sized unit.
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One of the things I saw on 750, there's a spring where one end connects to one edge of the plate, wraps under the elbow and then connects to the other edge of the plate (I'm referencing the primary elbow and plate that goes over the opening). I wonder, what's the purpose of this spring (my guess is it holds the plate down) and what would happen if the spring was to be removed, would it be detrimental to the operation? Roger
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One of the things I saw on 750, there's a spring where one end connects to one edge of the plate, wraps under the elbow and then connects to the other edge of the plate (I'm referencing the primary elbow and plate that goes over the opening). I wonder, what's the purpose of this spring (my guess is it holds the plate down) and what would happen if the spring was to be removed, would it be detrimental to the operation? Roger
My guess is to hold the plate down tight to eliminate risk of an air leak. I want that sucker locked down tight when it's off so personally, I would not remove it.
Also on our stove I have the air pulse set down to every 15 minutes for 50 seconds.
In my head I head have 2 reasons for this.
1. It really doesn't give the stove a chance to sit and fester. There is always something going on. Especially during warmer times.
2. It kind of keeps a little life in the coals.
I also dropped the water temp differential to 7 degrees. That has made a huge difference. When the stove was kicking on at 175 the water temp was getting crushed due to the heat load being greater than the stove's heat output at the time.
I would see maybe low 160's before it would start to recover. Coming on at 178 I may see high 160's before it starts climbing.
If I am home during the day I'll go out and just poke the stove at 180-181 to get the process going.
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Started ours yesterday. Here in Masshole land we have had warm temps. I fired up yesterrday for the season 1st. In this weather the pex line going across the basement is enough to heat house so no real demand for heat other than hot water. I clean the primary tube once a season and blow out the side air inlets with 140 psi air. This year may be tricky, we will be burning pine mostly with some hardwood added for coals. Not sure it is up for the season yet, tomorrow is going to be 65*. I hope the pine works, funds were low to buy cord wood and the guy I buy hardwood ends from left me hanging this year, " oh yea I'll have that next 2 weeks" :bash:
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Yeah for the cost of around $100 per cord from the log length guy I just buy a load once a year and I don't have to worry about if I have wood or not.
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Same here.......I hear all of the horror stories of leaking wood furnaces and I get worried......
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Stove is putting up big numbers today!!!! ;D
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benp, That's so cool. Can you monitor it from the comfort of being inside your home too? I wish CB had that available for my E-Classic 1400. My CB dealer said the ones made for today's units are not compatible with the older ones like mine. Roger
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benp, That's so cool. Can you monitor it from the comfort of being inside your home too? I wish CB had that available for my E-Classic 1400. My CB dealer said the ones made for today's units are not compatible with the older ones like mine. Roger
Roger,
That’s a screen shot from my phone.
You can monitor from anywhere as long as cell phone signal or Wi-Fi access.
That’s too bad. I find it to be an invaluable tool. You really learn a lot about the stove and how it functions.
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To me this is the most important part of that program that you learn the most. The history page.
I can tell if cold equipment was brought in the shop, if the wood is bridging or needs tamped down, if the heat exchangers need cleaned, or ahem if someone left the bypass open.
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Ya, that firestar wifi monitoring is bar none the best option out there. I have it on my 550 and its awesome. You learn a great deal about the stove being able to monitor reaction chamber temps. You can even set it up to text or email you if your running low on wood, high or low water temp, or if your fire goes out.
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pointblank - How do you like you Edge 550? How long have you had it and is it running okay for you? I visit another site and a person there has the Edge 750 and for a while it had been eating up solenoids left and right. I believe he may have found a solution to the problem. Does the 550 come with the titanium stainless steel like the Edge 750? Roger
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pointblank - How do you like you Edge 550? How long have you had it and is it running okay for you? I visit another site and a person there has the Edge 750 and for a while it had been eating up solenoids left and right. I believe he may have found a solution to the problem. Does the 550 come with the titanium stainless steel like the Edge 750? Roger
This is year number 3 with my 550 and so far the stove has ran good. No problem with the solenoids, their still original. In fact, my previous boiler was a cb 5648 (same solenoid as the Edge series) that I ran for 13 seasons and still had the original solenoid when I sold it. Only complaint is I've had to clean the primary air channels out each year once mid season. This requires shutting the stove down. Im trying a couple different things this year and hopefully get by the whole season without shutting down. And ya, I'm pretty sure the 550 is now available in stainless.
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I agree with benp that the XP is an awesome tool. Wow 1,700 degrees, that's a great burn! The highest I've ever seen on my Eclassic 2400 XP chart is 1,470 degrees. I really like all the easy removable air passage channels on your Edge. Can't complain about my 2010 E2400 though, been a great stove, still using original solenoids and pumps. Upgraded my Firestar in 2012 so could put on the XP. So far so good.
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Stove is putting up big numbers today!!!! ;D
I did not get the wi fi option on my E 1450 but I can see where it could be coo. l just plug along like the dinosaur that I am. I don't even have my cell phone on except to make calls and I have no use for face book twitter ect. Hey if my cave is warm all is good.
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Yeah for the cost of around $100 per cord from the log length guy I just buy a load once a year and I don't have to worry about if I have wood or not.
Around here log length is getting harder to find at a good price. Now they process it all and sell it out in the burbs outside of Boston for a primo price. No need to sell it in log length anymore.
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Try some tree companies if you are in the inner city area. Not many places for those guys do easily get rid of bigger wood.