Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
Outdoor Furnaces - Manufacturers with NON EPA-Certified Models Only => Empyre => Topic started by: Belknap on December 01, 2014, 07:08:34 PM
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I started my Pro 400 up the last week of September and it had been going great. How is everyone else doing?
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My 200pro has been running from Sept 8th to now.
Zone A
- Domestic Hot water
- X-changer in furnace plegnum
- 3 X 200' loops under main floor of house
- Cast Iron Radiator in Great room
Zone B
110,000 BTU dragons breath in 40X80X15 Insulated shop.
My house gets about 9-10 hour burn times on the relatively small firebox a 200 series has. If I fire up the dragons breath handler I am down to about 5-6 hours burn time. This is only if the ambient air temp is below -10C. If it hovers around 0 It keeps up perfectly with 8-10 hour burn times. I can get 12h times with just the house if I use quality hardwoods.
For the record I have had only two bridge outs. And both were my own fault and ignorance on effective stove loading. Other than that .....
Very fricken happy.
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Good so far. Started mine the second week of october. I just fill enough this year to get me by for 10-12 hours. Been working good so far. I only put in about 5 chunks a day. Love the way it just sipps wood. Heating hot water and 1 year old 1500 sqft ranch with full walk out basement and 9 ft tall ceilings in basment and cathedral (sp)? up stairs.
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Started my Pro 200 November 1st and its been doing well this is my second year. I had a sticky air box last year from overloading it this year Im loading it for about 8 hour burn times and its working great no flapper getting stuck this year so far. Getting some water at the lower door but I think my gaskets need replaced I can see smoke coming out of the loading door at times, not alot but enough I think that it needs replaced, any you guys try replacing gasket while the stove is running? Im running the stove at 184 with a 5.5 degree swing what temps are you other guys running?
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I am running mine 180/170on. Seems to be working for me..
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I am running my Pro 400 at 180 with 5 degree differential. I asked the factory about bumping it up to 185 or 190 and the recommended not going over 180. Not sure why. In the fall I would get a few drips of water out the door but I just think it was from not having to run much. I am also seeing some smoke around my door at time. I think I might try putting more silicone on the gasket in the spring.
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I am also seening smoke out of my top door at times. I tried adjusting the door without any luck. 170 on and 180 off. 10* diff
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Yeah at times Im getting some smoke out of the bottom of my top door Im going to try some of the gasket already in silicone if I can get it. Just not sure about changing it while the stove is still running. My door is adjusted all the way too.
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I started my Pro 200 for the season in mid Nov and it's been burning great so far. Heating 3400 ft2 along and DHW with no trouble getting 16 hour burn time if I need it in SE PA. This is my 4th year with the stove and I've been running at 180 with 10 degree differential. I've been leaking smoke from the loading door since early last season. Adjusting the door didn't seem to help. I may replace the gasket if it gets too bad but not too much of a problem for now. My blower motor failed for the first time near the end of last season and I had to repair several broken bricks in the center section of the firebox this year which have pretty much been the extent of my problems. I have had some issues with creosote blockage of the air inlet channel and have learned to clean that really well after each season. I figured a 3 year payback when I installed it and it feels good this year to be in the green from a financial perspective.
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were did you get your replacement fan? Mines starting to make noise.
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I usually buy my empyre parts from Ecomfort. My fan made noise when I first got mine. check and make sure the set screw is tight on the shaft. Mine loosened up and once tightened it has been fine.
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I've purchased all of my parts through Profab. The 1st fan I purchased was through my local dealer who is no longer in the business and after using that first backup I purchased another direct from Profab. I'm trying to order some replacement bricks right now from Profab direct and am having some problems so I'm not sure what's going on there.
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I am thinking I will have to replace some bricks in the spring. Let me know how you make out.
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It was in the mid 40's today. Is going to get really really cold this week so I decided to clean the boiler really good. Took the fan off the back and creosote was level with the bottom of the draft door :o. Took me about a hour to clean out that nasty goo. the draft holes were still open but had just ran all that nasty stuff back into the bottom of the draft box.
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I was thinking about pulling my blower off this weekend but ran out of time. I will do it next weekend. Let you know what I see.
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I cleaned the boiler today. I removed the blower after 3 months of running. I had noticed that when the blower was not on that I was getting some smoke out of the stack. When I removed the blower the flapper was stuck open with creosote. In the air box there was very little creosote. I scraped it out and ran a piece of pex down the air channel and everything was clear. I hadn't cleaned the tubes for almost a month and there was a fair amount of ash put nothing was plugged. Spent about 30 minutes cleaning and now up and running again.
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I removed mine yesterday for its bi-weekly cleaning to see if anything was building up. Because of the milder weather in the fall I was thinking there must be some creosote build up of some kind.
I remove the two 10mm head screws, placed the motor to the side and then removed the bracket that holds the motor on.
the flap is very clean and swings easily. I can't see very well in the chamber as the flap only goes back about 30 degrees or so. It looks clean, albeit impossible to rectify if it did become plugged... I watched the DVD the other day again and they mention the chain cleaning method but I don't see how this is possible in the middle of the winter, with one person. I am really happy with the stove but I am concerned about this design....
Speaking of cleaning where does one get the air tube brush? MIne is just about worn out...
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http://ecomfort.com/empyre-elite-xtprodeluxe-flue-brush-92364.html (http://ecomfort.com/empyre-elite-xtprodeluxe-flue-brush-92364.html)
Here is a link for the place where I buy my empyre products.
When you remove the motor can you then remove the plate that has the flapper attached. I remove that then you have a 4x4 hole that you can get into the air box and clean the air channel. There is no way you could use a chain to clean the air channel while the boiler is hot. I take a piece of 3/4 pex attached to my vacuum and run that down the channel to loosen any creosote.
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My configuration does not look like that. You remove two screws for fan and two screws for airbox. The flapper is not serviceable?
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http://ecomfort.com/empyre-elite-xtprodeluxe-flue-brush-92364.html (http://ecomfort.com/empyre-elite-xtprodeluxe-flue-brush-92364.html)
Here is a link for the place where I buy my empyre products.
Holy Sheet. I went to order the flue brush and shipping was calculated out to 245.00. I am going to call them today.
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I clean my tubes once a week and have had the blower off twice so far this year to check it. Last year I got lots of gooey stuff in there but this year it seems to just be hardened creosote and it is a pain to clean out, Im getting more than I would like but it comes out once loosened up and it isn't all sticky plus my flapper door hasn't gotten stuck yet like it did last year.
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This is my 7th year with my aspen outdoor wood boiler made by pro fab and I can say so far it has been the best year. The first few years i struggled with a lot of things but i have
found that by using marvel mystery oil on my blower from time to time it works much better. It does not condensate in the blower box since i removed the flapper kit as well. I also
followed the direction sent to me by pro fab on how to re seal my front door and that works well. I also have found that you don't want to stir the ashes to much or the slots at the bottom plug
up. i simply scrape the sides and re load it. I also use a 1/2" copper pipe once per month to clean the flue chambers in the back. I put a 3/4" female adapter at the end of the copper
to push the ash out the front. Much easier than a brush. I use a flex brush for the vertical tubes. I also have found white ash to be the best wood for me here in maine.
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woke up this moring at 4 to a 62* house. Went down and the fan took a crap on the blower ::) I can't win for loosing with this thing.
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Not only has my boiler draft fan broke but no one will return my calls :bash:
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My blower quit last weekend. Check and see if your fan will run if you give it a spin by hand. I can tell you by personal experience there has to be very little resistance in the bearing or the fan won't get rolling. A few drops of oil near the bearings and mine has been fine. I am going to source out a replacement this summer...
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Did you get the blower going?
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Yea, Its all but toast. Don't know how long it will last. It howls like crazy. The bearings are shot. I jump started the capacitor with my volt meter and it kicked on. Im def on barrowed time. I ordered one off of wood furnace parts. Prob won't have it until wed. Sucks I spent 10 grand on a fookin boiler that I have to work on all the time :bash: :bash: :bash:
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Empyre has a 1 year warranty on ALL electrical parts. I have to eat the blower fan. I'm so glad that I can bank on spending 170$ every year to year and a half on a blower.
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Empyre has a 1 year warranty on ALL electrical parts. I have to eat the blower fan. I'm so glad that I can bank on spending 170$ every year to year and a half on a blower.
My blower stopped again last night. Funny how it can't stop in the middle of the day. Has to be 3am-5am for some reason. Quickly took motor off and put a drop or two of oil on each end of the shaft and its good to go. I ordered a new fan from AltHeating this morning and a few other doodads.
I smashed my thigh off a tree snowmobiling yesterday and can barely walk without looking like I am 90. Its a pretty nasty deep bruise but I guess I am lucky I didn't break my leg. I should have put up a video camera of me taking the blower motor off this morning at 4am. Dog knocked screws into snow, dropped the marretts, dropped the screws several times. It would have been hilarious.
The fan from Altheat was 7 bucks more than from Ecomfort. I have used Altheat before and the shipping is really fast so I think its worth the 7 bucks.
I am not all that upset about the fan. I don't have any creosote build up in air channel, no water leaks from water jacket and no bricks appear to be broken. I know some people are having trouble with their units and I usually bite my nails when something seems out of sorts with the water temp but overall I am still happy. I have been burning a continuous fire for 5 months now. Gone through about 7-9 cords of quality hardwood/ash/willow/pine and junk wood. I didn't pay for any of it and I am easily 3000.00 bucks ahead of the gas/oil guys at this point and I have 7 or 8 cords of hardwood left and two more heating months.
I figure I am at a 3.5 year rate of return for my whole install.
If the thing sheets out even though I try to look after it I will move it to the back corner behind my shop, gut it and make a chicken coop out of it. If it lasts 10 years I will buy another one.
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I installed my first WBF in October 1992 and my present Empyre Pro 200 is my fourth WBF.I won't go into that history because I may be able to help some of you fellas from my recent experience.What I'm going to tell you may be worthless information because I'm still experimenting and can't say for sure exactly what is fact and what is fiction.I just shut down my Pro-200 after my second heating season and went to propane for two reasons.From now to warm weather we will have 60 or 70 degree days and then it will drop to near freezing for a few nights with 50 degree days.My WBF can handle that but not as efficiently as it handles consistently cold weather.My second reason for shutting down is I'm out of wood.I wanted to burn some old wood to get my wood pile back to the best quality possible and this seemed to be a good time to do that.------The first year I used this furnace was a perfect heating season and we were comfortable.During the 2nd heating season,the blower failed in late December and my supplier botched my order for a blower and it took 10 days to get one which was finally shipped from the factory in Tennesee.The bearings in the old blower failed and this could have been from a leak in the gasket around the big ,heavy cover over the 32 boiler pipes.If fly ash could get into the fan's bearings,that could create the problem.The new fan was $150 since it was outside the 12 month warranty by a few months. Experiment #1-----For 2 years I've been adding powdered lime to my fire box to neutralize the corrosive effects of wood ash on all metal.It does have some desirable effects.The 32 boiler pipes show little rust and are easier to clean.I believe a cup of powdered lime thrown into the fire box every second day may be the proper amount.I clean the 32 pipes sometime between the 1st and 10th of each month depending on weather and any other factors.I started out cleaning pipes weekly,then twice a month and then monthly.A 40LB. bag of powdered lime costs me $4.00.Experiment#2------After trying several settings for starting the blower,I finally decided that starting at 169 degrees and stopping at 180 degrees was best for my situation.I seldom see any vapor rising from the boiler water gauge and seldom add any boiler water.Also,keeping the boiler water level at least one mark below full will not waste boiler water in vapor at my temperature setting.Experiment #3--------Each month when I clean the 32 pipes,I first remove the blower and take it into my shop for cleaning with 100#pressure air.After cleaning the pipes,I take my leaf blower and blow out all the dust from the back pump compartment of the furnace.Then I reinstall the blower and wire it up again.Experiment#4--------Before I reinstall the blower,I clean as much crud as I can from the air box.On the last cleaning,I got a quart of black hard and soft crud and there was more I couldn't reach.Also,I put about 1/4" of lime on the floor of the air box to try to neutralize the crud so it won't rust out the air box.Unless I see a reason not to put lime in the air box,I'll continue to do it each time I clean the stove.-------------I bought a spare flapper valve thinking I would keep a clean flapper to make the change quicker.My old flapper was all steel and the new one was stainless.It is such an improvement over the old valve I won't use the old one again.No more clapper noise when I load the stove.------------I hope someone benefits from the above.Feel free to ask if you have a question.-------shorman
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Thanks shoreman, great info!
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shorman, maybe try applying some Fluid Film to the inside of the airbox and see what happens, I've been using Fluid Film around the farm for years now and it's simply one of the best anti corrosive things I've found, I even use it in place of Never Seize now as well.