Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
Outdoor Furnaces - Manufacturers WITH EPA-Certified Models => HeatMaster => Topic started by: BIG AL on February 10, 2017, 04:11:51 PM
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Maybe a coincidence but I just happened to hit a place in the wood pile where I have mostly rounds 2-5" diameter. So I tried putting a couple splits in the middle and the rest rounds when I loaded the stove the last few times. It has been cold here the last couple days and the wind has been howling , usually takes a toll on trying to heat my drafty old house. Seems like my wood is lasting longer and boiler is recovering faster in burn cycles? anyone else ever notice that is the case with their boilers?
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I think split wood gasifies quickly, rounds not as fast. Would possibly make the unit run leaner and more efficient. Rounds roll down on the nozzle better.
It's hard to compare tho. Species of wood, how fast it grew... Lots of variables.
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I heated with nothing but ash tops from October till I ran the processor the first week of January. All rounds, if it need split I left it for the processor, picked the straightest pieces of rthe bottom and the ugly stuff went on top. Not sure about recovering faster but they do burn slower no matter the application.
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Yeah I'm burning all hardwoods cherry , oak , maple at least 1 year dry and covered. Tried loading the same way last night with mostly all rounds again. Boiler went 13 hours under cold windy conditions and I didn't put any extra wood than I normally do. I do think it runs leaner and possibly more efficient. I think this year I will try to mix more rounds in with the splits when I stack the wood so I will always have some of each when I go to load the boiler.
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I know u guys generally don't care what someone like me says because I'm new and don't have a heatmaster but for as long as I've lived my father and now I run rounds in our owb as big as we can fit them through the door. I've lofted some 15" 3 foot long rounds that have been drying for 2 years usually 3 at a time and can see upwards of 24 hour burn times. Only thing is if I don't have a good hot coal bed it takes a long time to get them burning and I'll loose 20-30 degrees before it catches back up. No way have I ever been able to accomplish that with splits.
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Do the same with my C375. Wood splitter hasn't been on the tractor for over a year. But they burn half the wood with those G series units, but I burn junk and make smoke. If it goes in a 24" door and 40" long it doesn't get split.
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Aarmga- glad to have you. And everybody. I've learned in working with the intricacies of a wood boiler, never ever throw away another person's idea or way of approaching an issue. It's so complex there are always surprises.
So keep posting!
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I've seen small splits in an updraft grated unit run very very rich and smoke like crazy. Big rounds won't.
But a down draft units needs the smaller wood to keep the coal bed.
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UPDATE , don't get to cocky when you think you have a great idea. I thought I was really on to something when I was burning almost all rounds and getting longer cleaner burn times. BUT last night I let the boiler go a little too long without filling it and burnt up all my coal bed , just a few hot coals left. Raked them into the middle and put a few small splits on top then some bigger splits and a couple rounds and figured it would be all set. Nope! sucked the coals down the nozzle and went out before it ignited the new wood , and at 11 p.m. my low temp alarm went off. :bash: :bash: Spent the next hour out there getting it going again. I think I will get my coal bed built back up and try a good mix. Splits seem to make good coals and rounds burn longer. Good mix of both should work best. :)
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So your longer burn times were due to the coal bed burning away and generating the extra heat?
I usually put rounds on top when loading. I never noticed much difference with rounds or splits.
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wood was lasting longer with 90% rounds , but I had a nice coal bed before and when it burned up , the rounds didn't replace it. I think the splits make a nicer coal bed because they break up better , but they burn faster too. Good mix seems to be best , I agree rounds on top is probably a good choice.When the nice coal bed is gone and the rounds are the only wood left they burn slower and the coals dissapear faster.
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UPDATE , don't get to cocky when you think you have a great idea. I thought I was really on to something when I was burning almost all rounds and getting longer cleaner burn times. BUT last night I let the boiler go a little too long without filling it and burnt up all my coal bed , just a few hot coals left. Raked them into the middle and put a few small splits on top then some bigger splits and a couple rounds and figured it would be all set. Nope! sucked the coals down the nozzle and went out before it ignited the new wood , and at 11 p.m. my low temp alarm went off. :bash: :bash: Spent the next hour out there getting it going again. I think I will get my coal bed built back up and try a good mix. Splits seem to make good coals and rounds burn longer. Good mix of both should work best. :)
Yep, came close to the same thing happening a few times when I was burning all rounds from ash tops, if the coals got low enough I grabbed a maul and split some of the larger rounds up.
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Just got the most recent e-letter from Heatmaster and they recommended using 6-8 inch rounds for greatest efficiency. I use smaller pieces, round or split to get the coal bed going if necessary or just to fill in (I don't waste firewood, even small stuff).
Pieces I do split I split in much larger sizes, equivalent to the size of 6-8 inch rounds. The more surface area exposed the faster the wood gasses and all the gasses may not burn completely. This was evident when I was burning slab wood. Trying to burn very large pieces makes it hard to have the moisture content in the center of the pieces at the proper level.
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If you watch your coal bed and moisture level you'll be fine. Every species of wood coals differently. As long as you pay attention to the results and adjust accordingly you can burn quite a variety of fuels.
I don't waste anything either. In the stove it goes!
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Schoppy , I got that e-letter too and saw that they now recommended larger pieces when before it was smaller pieces. I found larger splits work great as long as they are dry. I have some oak that I consider too dry and it burns much faster than the stuff I split last year. I split a bunch of the cherry rounds I had the other day that were 6" and they burn better. It's funny that the diagram for loading that comes in the stove manual seems to work very well , and I agree paying attention helps a lot and anticipating heating needs per loading leads to 99% problem free.
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I know u guys generally don't care what someone like me says because I'm new and don't have a heatmaster but for as long as I've lived my father and now I run rounds in our owb as big as we can fit them through the door. I've lofted some 15" 3 foot long rounds that have been drying for 2 years usually 3 at a time and can see upwards of 24 hour burn times. Only thing is if I don't have a good hot coal bed it takes a long time to get them burning and I'll loose 20-30 degrees before it catches back up. No way have I ever been able to accomplish that with splits.
I built all of my boilers (when I was still building boilers) with 20x30” doors, I’ve had a few pieces I had to let fall back out and take the chainsaw to knock a few high spots off so they’d roll thru a 30” tall door, get it in, roll it towards the back then make sure it had plenty of smaller stuff not as not to loose the coal bed. THEN I outgrew young and dumb and built an inverted log splitter for the big stuff. A 30” round of burr oak or something is mighty heavy…..
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:post: I used to think bigger is better too now with my back injury and a little wiser I try and cut down the stuff that needs to be split once or twice.I will be building a boom with a winch or a log lift for next season too on my splitter. Thank god for chiropractors and back braces.
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:post: I used to think bigger is better too now with my back injury and a little wiser I try and cut down the stuff that needs to be split once or twice.I will be building a boom with a winch or a log lift for next season too on my splitter. Thank god for chiropractors and back braces.
Haven’t used either yet. Muscle relaxers for spasms and keep up on my exercises my cute little physical therapist showed me. I’m actually more flexible now than before the accident, before the accident I could bend over and place my hands flat on the ground, now on a good day I can do the same put place em flat on the ground by or even behind my ankles.
I’ve seen a few splitters with a small jib boom and a electric winch, that’s the way to go in my opinion. I’ve seen a lot of the vertical splitters and never figured how either bending over that far to get the piece in or working on my knees to do it is any better than just picking it up.
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My splitter has the vertical option and found the same, awkward moving a big piece in just to have it only split one side. Then have to spin it around to finish the job. Now if I have something that I can't lift, I split with the Fiskars axe.
Any pics of your therapist Marty? ;D
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My dad has a jib boom on his with an electric hoist and he likes it. I was thinking I might try and see if I could use the boom from my wood trailer either next to the splitter or make it so I could move it between both pieces. Or find another piece of pipe and make another one or box tube and make it way easier to fab. Only reason I used pipe last time was I found a 20' length of 3" galv pipe at a farm down the road and he gave it to me for $20 and my buddy let me use his big band saw to cut the angles.Otherwise in my opinion box tube is much easier to work with.
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I know u guys generally don't care what someone like me says because I'm new and don't have a heatmaster but for as long as I've lived my father and now I run rounds in our owb as big as we can fit them through the door. I've lofted some 15" 3 foot long rounds that have been drying for 2 years usually 3 at a time and can see upwards of 24 hour burn times. Only thing is if I don't have a good hot coal bed it takes a long time to get them burning and I'll loose 20-30 degrees before it catches back up. No way have I ever been able to accomplish that with splits.
I built all of my boilers (when I was still building boilers) with 20x30” doors, I’ve had a few pieces I had to let fall back out and take the chainsaw to knock a few high spots off so they’d roll thru a 30” tall door, get it in, roll it towards the back then make sure it had plenty of smaller stuff not as not to loose the coal bed. THEN I outgrew young and dumb and built an inverted log splitter for the big stuff. A 30” round of burr oak or something is mighty heavy…..
You're right that is mighty heavy! 15" around is about all the bigger I go. If I can't loft it in through the door then it gets split. I refuse to fight a long in a burning hot firebox that won't quite fit and we all have been through that at some point.
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The size of my pieces are determined by my wife. She says if she can't lift the pieces she's not tending the boiler when I'm gone.
I bought a 31 ton vertical/horizontal splitter from a friend of mine who moved to Arizona. $400 and he threw in a platform he made that is about 2'x3' and is cut out to fit around the end of the splitter when it is in the vertical position. It's the same thickness as the end of the splitter and has a 1/4" thick piece of plastic attached to the top so when you are splitting large rounds you can easily slide the pieces back into position. Not nuts about big pieces but won't waste them either and this makes handling them a lot easier.
Making some log cradles for it now for less bending and lifting on the medium size pieces. I will be doing a lot less splitting for me but enough to keep the wife happy when I'm gone. May have to keep a wood pile inside just for her.
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Yea schoppy I split my wood Amy size to keep the wife from hurting herself.