Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Username: Password:

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Messages - slimjim

Pages: 1 ... 352 353 [354]
5296
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Water heater
« on: April 29, 2013, 05:44:19 AM »
Did you install a sidearm heater on the tank, if you did and it is not plumbed properly then no matter how hot the tank gets the hot water will pull at least a portion of water from the bottom of the tank, also be sure that you bleed the air out of the sidearm or it will not thremally siphon.
       Richard @ PM

5297
I  agree with the condensation explanation, you may however  be able to reduce that condensation by checking and sealing any air leaks around door gaskets or any air infiltration during the dormant cycle of the stove. The easiest way to recognise leaks is simply watch for any smoke leakage right after you fill the stove and turn it on, if you see leakage try to adjust your door gaskets or you may be able to seal them with high temp silicone. In the off cycle the fire is pulling fresh cold air into the stove that has moisture in it adding to the problem.
             Richard @ PM

5298
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Need Advice on OWB - New User
« on: April 23, 2013, 07:46:18 AM »
We have a 3 year old home about 1750 sq ft main level and same in the basement, along with a 900 sq foot garage (12' ceilings).  The house is currently heated with a NTI Ti 150 propane boiler, forced air for the main level of the house, radiant floor for the basement and garage.  The boiler also does the domestic hot water (we have a 60 gallon holding tank).  The house is fairly well insulated (R-40+ Attic, R24 exterior walls house and garage).   We live in northern Ontario Canada climate and have lots of wind exposure.  Propane bills are getting expensive, so I am looking at a OWB to save money in the long term.  At this point I am thinking of sticking to a non-gasser stove, to have the ability to burn anything and to keep the stove simple.

I can easily get a Portage and Main, Central Boiler or Heatmor boiler (so far).  I was looking at the Portage and Main BL28-40 (new model), the Central Boiler 5036, or the Heatmor 200 CSS.  Any opinions or experiences with any of the above?     I can comment on the new Portage and Main brick lined models but I will tell you that I sell them so there is no confusion. what I like about the new models is the impressive amount of firebrick and refractory cement to help insulate the fire from cold water temps, this helps the fire get hotter and burn the smoke then the hotter exhaust gasses go through 2 more passes in the water jacket to extract more heat resulting in less wood consumption. Another thing I like about the BL is that it is a modular boiler meaning that it can be easily broken in half and welded if it ever developes a leak in the firebox, More expensive to build but if you have ever had to weld a boiler from inside the door you would understand, it is not fun, we realize that someday all boilers will fail from corrosion or cracking and we simply wish to make repairs as easy as possible.

The new Portage and Main model looks impressive with the brick lined fire box and its claims at burning a high efficiency rates without being a gasser.   But it is a new untested model, not sure hoe different it is from the old ML-30.

BL28-40 Outdoor wood furnace by Portage and Main

The Central seems to be a tried and true design.  A good friend has had one for 10 years and swears by it.  It seems to be an old and proven design, but maybe inefficient.

The Heatmor is stainless steel which sounds good, but then the competitors say that stainless has cracking problems.

How much smoke does a non-gasser produce?  Does the chimney's on these hae to be higher than the house peak if the unit is close to the house?  We have strong winds, and the location I am thinking will have the house down wind (generally) from the stove.  The garage is on this side and is very tall.

I am sure I will have lots more questions as time goes on, looking forward to some discussion.

5299
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Smoke
« on: April 23, 2013, 07:07:43 AM »
Wow, so glad I went with a gasser from portage and main.  Have never seen smoke like that coming from mine and rarely get a smoke smell on me while loading
           WOW thanks for the plug thats what I sell and service, if you ever need advice or parts keep me in mind, that flame down below will someday produce power, can you imagine heating your home and producing power as well while still burning half the wood as a conventional boiler, what a great boiler they build,not cheap but great value.

     Richard

5300
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Smoke
« on: April 23, 2013, 06:59:00 AM »
Check this one out, it's smoking like this all the time


                   Look at what it is, it's just a box inside a box and filled with water so the fire never gets hot enough to burn the smoke. When I see that I think of all the wasted energy (smoke ) going right up the chimney, this should be reburned and turned into real heat as the newer gasification boilers do and let me say the claims of burning half the wood can be very accurate, I am certainly not a tree hugger but why cut more wood than you have to. Maybe I'm just lazy or I don't like to aggravate the neighbors, that same brand at one time was the #1 priority boiler on my states DEP hit list,  it was installed 15 feet from the neighbors property line (a large catholic church) and ran for years but they removed it last year.

5301
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Anode Rod...Good Idea?
« on: April 23, 2013, 06:27:35 AM »
I am building a OWB and was wondering if it would be a good idea to put in an anode rod?  I have a couple spare 1/2" and 1" bungs to poke something in, if needed.

Here in the MO Ozarks we have karst topography, lots of limestone and caves, and hard water. 

I am planning on filling the stove with my untreated, unsoftened well water. and using boiler treatment, of course.

Do any/some/most factory built OWBs have anode rods?  And if I was to put one in...magnesium or aluminum?
         I have been selling, installing and repairing OWB's now for ten years and in my opinion the anode rod is a total waste and just another reason for some manufacturers to void their warranty, all of the boilers that I have seen rot out have done so from the fire side of the water jacket and in my opinion is caused by moisture ( condensation) mixing with ash and creosote, I think you would be far better served by running your boiler as hot as you can without causing steam out of the vent and paying more attention to return water temps, keep the delta T as close as possible ( never more than 20 degrees ).Good luck and keep us posted.      Richard

5302
I noticed on my temp gauge in the basement that it is 5 degrees less than the stove gauge after we have a extremely heavy rain. Before the rain I wasn't loosing any heat on the pex. All I can think is the saturated soil may be taking some heat from the lines. I used eze double walled tiled triple wrapped pex and the stove is 65ft from the house.
                                                                                            Yes certainly if there is any way for water to get to the pex underground pipe then you will be heating your neighbors well water, if you have any place where a junction is underground, a hole in the protective cover or even just the ends of the pipe exposed where water can get inside you may as well dig it up and replace it with either my competitors pipe Central Bolier or the pipe I promote which is Urecon. I like the urecon because of 1 thicker outside black plastic, 2 smart membrane to stop foam from gassing off, 3 urecon is measured from inside diameter( 1 inch inside diameter not .82 inches as with nominally measured pipe)My suggestion to all of you is don't cheap out on the pipe, it is more expensive to change out the pipe than to do it right the first time        Richard

5303
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: exhaust gas temp
« on: April 23, 2013, 05:48:16 AM »
Yes you can bring down exhaust temps to far and create condensation. if you want to bring the temps down to around 300 degrees you would have to be burning very clean first or you will have one nasty mess inside the heat exchanger. most of the conventional stoves on the market today run an exhaust temp of 700-1200 degrees for that same reason. if you have a conventional boiler and want more heat from the exhaust then maybe build a coil into the stack and run your return  water from your home to the coil and then return to your boiler, I got a 10 degree water temp rise just from the heat going up the stack. Use caution though as it makes a great place for creosote to collect and chimney fires to happen. just curious, were you trying to design your own unit(research and development) or just did not want to spend the money for a factory built unit. Suggestion would be ,look at the different models out there, pick their brains, compare notes, and then decide if it is worthwhile building your own or buying one already built, tested and warrantied. A great boiler to look at is the one that we sell but I don't think it would be right to advertise the name here, however if you are interested in learning more about it you may certainly E mail me
Richard

5304
Portage & Main / Re: Air settings for your Optimizer 250
« on: April 11, 2013, 08:04:35 AM »
good answers on the settings the most important one however i will elaborate on just a bit, the motor inlet damper should be adjusted so that you have a nice flame in the reaction chamber but not open enough that (when burning nice dry hardwood) you should not be getting dime size or larger charcoals on the ledge at the top of your vertical tubes if you are cut the air back a bit more all of us are burning different qualities of wood with different heat loads, if you are having trouble with the settings ask your local dealer to help or contact PM directly

5305
Portage & Main / Re: Frequency of cleanings - Opt. 250
« on: April 11, 2013, 07:35:39 AM »
Simple solution to your question about when to clean heat exchanger tubes and this will also silence the retoric from those dealers that promote their single pass (easy to clean) heat exchangers. open the back doors on the 250 and right above the cleanout door there is a flat area in the exhaust just before it transitions to insulated smokepipe, you can install a simple candy thermometer right there by drilling a hole and iserting it into the stack. on a clean boiler with water temps of 185 degrees the stack temp should be between 260 and 280 with the blower running, if the stack temp goes over 320 clean the tubes, lets see your easy to clean single pass heat exchanger do that. I would much prefer to clean the tubes than cut more wood and watch it go up the chimney

5306
Portage & Main / Re: Optimizer 250 settings for shoulder seasons?
« on: April 11, 2013, 07:09:08 AM »
To start with you are doing the right thing by loading twice a day with a smaller load. next i would turn up temp to at least 185 and higher if you are not seeing any water depletion, a good rule of thumb is run as high as you can without seeing visible steam from the vent tube, if you see steam then simply cut temp back 5 degrees. another thing to check is air leakage around door gaskets and in distibution box, when the boiler is dormant there should be no air infiltration into the boiler or the cool air will create creosote

5307
You should only add water to your boiler when it is up to temp as the water in the tank heats up it expands and pushes out the vent then when you come back and the temp has gone down the water contracts bringing the water level down

5308
Portage & Main / Re: bad news
« on: April 11, 2013, 06:15:08 AM »
I believe i know a bit about this problem boiler and if so it is not a PM 250 but instead is an older conventional boiler  and was severely oversized for the application. if i am right then not only has this person been made an offer to repair it but also an offer to upgrade to a new boiler. as i see this one the boiler was never sized properly resulting in constant condensation inside the boiler from lack of demand and overfilling my suggestion to those of us who choose to burn wood is do not oversize your boiler for future use and do not constantly overfill your boiler

Pages: 1 ... 352 353 [354]