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[justinb]

For the life of me I cant get my boiler to stay lit.  Everyday it will at some point go out.  Ive received great pointers from folks on this site, but Ive still failed.  I've been burning only small pieces of wood in order to get a good bed of coals.  I had great burns for the last 24 hours.  When I woke up to a cold house this morning, I knew it had gone out again.  Is it possible that theres something wrong with the unit?

  Ive experimented with temp settings, and I'm curently set at 180 with a differential of 5.  I have friends who have different brands of boilers, and they cant seem to figure it out either.  I'm ready to put it on craigslist.  Any thoughts??

[AirForcePOL]

What type of wood are you burning?  Do you have any idea what the moisture content is?  What is your combustion air set at on the back of the stove?  I feel like we already talked about this but they say to set it at 100% on the E models. 

If I had to take a guess I would say it's your wood that's causing it to go out our maybe the way you are stacking it?  When it goes out is the wood bridging or is all the wood just sitting there exactly how you stacked it and there's no hot coals or flame?

Hopefully you will figure it out, I'm sure it's aggravating to have issues this soon. 

[justinb]

Im burning standing dead oak that I split this fall and a bit of dry pine.  I burn this same wood in my fireplace with no problems.  Fan is at 100%.  The unburned wood does tend to form a bridge and not slump down, but not always.  Its frustrating because it seems like it should be simple.  Ive heated previous homed with indoor wood stoves without issue.  All I can do is try again today. 

When I stack the wood in the boiler, I just it in so that it sits tight.  They all lie parallel to each other.

[hondaracer2oo4]

I am going to guess that you have wet wood. What size are your pieces? You need to get a good bed of hard wood coals built up. If you are building your coal bed out of pine that could be the issue. The coal bed burns up before it burns the moisture out of the oak. Even standing dead oak holds its moisture content for years. I would guess that if you cut it this fall and split it that you are looking at 40-50% moisture content. I know that if I burn rounds that are anything above 30-35% the stove needs a really good coal bed to cook off the moisture out of the logs. If not the coals well burn up and the wood will not be able to burn because of the lack of heat and remaining moisture content. My suggestion is to build up a hard wood coal bed 5-6 inches thick. Then throw your oak on top of that with the rounds not being over 8-10 inches.

[Chas]

I too think wet wood is part of the problem. The thing I have also seen with mine is with only a 5 degree deferential,  the fire barely gets going and it's up to temp and shutting down again. With a little wider spread the fire has a chance to get bigger which should in turn gets a coal bed started quicker? Just a thought.

[hondaracer2oo4]

I would agree too about the differential. I run mine at 10. 185 off and 175 on. Works well for me all season.

[aries9245]

Your wood is to wet standing dead oak is not dry enough it needs to be split and seasoned.. Try getting a small load of seasoned dry hardwood to get your coals going then throw a few pieces at a time on the coals but make sure you split the standing oak small enough to extract the moister while your burning don't over load it with unseasoned or it will go back out.

[justinb]

Ok..thanks guys.  I have a pile of split wood that I cut 3 years ago.  Im going to give it a go with this older wood.  Should I cover the bottom of the boiler with coals, or just make a small fire the length of my wood.  Wood is 24".

[AirForcePOL]

I think it works better if you pile the coals up just a little bit bigger than the space your wood will take up.  I've noticed if I spread my coals up towards the front of the stove and I don't put wood on top of it they will burn up.

[oaky]

What has been working for me the last 15 years is allowing the coals to build up 2-3 inches & not raking the coals for a few days. Been doing this with my old Aqua-Therm, now started the same with my new boiler this fall. My wife & I do like our T-stat set in the upper 70's.

[justinb]

I've had a continuous fire going for 48 hours, and I see coals in the belly of the boiler now!!!  I was concerned getting through yesterday as it was in the 60's and 50's overnight.   I purchased a cheap moisture meter, and the wood that I was burning had a reading of 25-30%.  The wood I'm currently burning is 20% or less.  I was also given a tip to drill a small hole below the fan damper to allow air circulation to the coals.  When the fan kicks on, I get an instant fire now.  Currently set at 170 with a diff of 10.   

I feel like I'll be in good shape with all the knowledge I've gained from this site.  Thank you for taking the time to help me out. 

[AirForcePOL]

Glad to hear that it's working for you!  It should only get easier to keep a fire going as it starts to get colder.  Those moisture meters are handy.

[Roger2561]

justinb - what works well in my e-classic 1400 is not to stack the wood too tight; I always leave a small gap between the pieces to allow for better air circulation around each piece.  I also mix the larger pieces with the smaller pieces.  The smaller will help the larger catch quicker and have a better burn.   Also glad to hear you've figured out what works for you.  Stay warm.  Roger

[victor6deep]

I am running 160-170 and its the best setting for these conventional stoves.

[aries9245]

I luv seeing the coals after a good burn the heat that comes off them is crazy..