Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
Outdoor Furnaces - Manufacturers WITH EPA-Certified Models => Central Boiler => Topic started by: dabears1980 on December 30, 2014, 09:35:16 AM
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New to running a OWB, so still trying to learn the art (or science) of getting it right.
We have a 2007 6048. Had it set around 175 I think, and temps dropped below zero overnight. Woke up to a freezing house, checked the burner, and it was at 116, but with nearly a full load of wood still in there, burning and smoking. Pushed wood around a bit, added a bit more, and cranked it up to 185. Temp is back on the rise, up to 150 in 2 hours, but what could have caused this...? We are burning oak, some of which is green I would imagine.
Our boiler line runs into the house through a gas forced exchanger in a traditional furnace, water heater exchanger, and also radiant heat throughout an addition to the house.
thanks in advance!
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Set temp was a little low my guess would be the green wood with not enough coals if you are going to keep burning green wood you have to have lots of coals and if it were me buy the fan upgrade for the boiler, I believe they make one.
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thank you. I am open to any and all advice running this thing. I like the heat we get from it, but I feel like we are not optimizing our usage, and going through more wood than necessary using it. :)
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Oak that is green needs lots of heat to burn off water in it. Without a fan to help the coals heat up the wood you are relying on just the coals to do the work. Probably would have been ok but with a cold night the house called for a lot of heat and brought the water temp down which further hurt your ability to burn off that water before the wood would put off any heat. If you are going to burn green wood, esp. oak, get yourself a nice thick 4 inch coal bed built up and the water temp all the way up.
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I agree with Honda. With the fan you are creating a hotter fire faster, what you had last night was probably a little smoldering campfire in your boiler.
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any idea where to look for the better / bigger fan? it's so weird that now the fire is just raging and up to temp...thank you all!
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Do you have the add on fan option? Most CB classics don't have a fan, only a damper door.
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I have the fan for my 6048 but never put it on. I think it was around 300.00 when I bought it last year. I only bought it due to our state regs.
Did it bridge during the night?
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What type of wood are you burning? How seasoned is your wood? Those are two big issues seasoned wood and burning good hardwood.
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Is that fan made out of gold lol ! The most I have seen them is 150$ check e bay, my friend got a used one for 65$ 2 yrs ago and still running strong! The fan is the way to go
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what does bridge at night mean? - lol sorry i'm 100% novice
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When the wood wedges together not allowing it to fall as the coals burn so the wood stays elevated above the coals and then burns out due to not sitting on the coal bed. Did I explain that correctly?
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I put a fan on mine this year(5036) Its like a dif. bolier. I really like it
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The reason it took off when you stirred it up is most of the moisture has finally been boiled out of the wood. Burning less than seasoned wood can be a real pain in the *ss especially your first year with a OWB.
Here's a pretty comprehensive thread on burning green wood, large coal bed, split it, etc are all covered.
http://outdoorwoodfurnaceinfo.com/forum/index.php?topic=6907.msg57352#msg57352 (http://outdoorwoodfurnaceinfo.com/forum/index.php?topic=6907.msg57352#msg57352)
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Most wood guys love Oak and it's true that it has the most BTUs for the money. It also takes a long time to fully season. You can burn green wood in these things but you need a good coal bed or enough fully seasoned wood to dry it. My opinion was its a wood quality issue
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Actually Apple, Locust, Ironwood, Osange Orange, and Hickory all have more BTU's per dry cord than either red or white oak.
Cottonwood, Basswood and surprise surprise willow are among the lowest.
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/wood-combustion-heat-d_372.html (http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/wood-combustion-heat-d_372.html)
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Actually Apple, Locust, Ironwood, Osange Orange, and Hickory all have more BTU's per dry cord than either red or white oak.
Cottonwood, Basswood and surprise surprise willow are among the lowest.
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/wood-combustion-heat-d_372.html (http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/wood-combustion-heat-d_372.html)
This is true. In our area oak and maple are the most prevalent of the higher BTU wood. Ironwood never gets big enough here. 4 to 5 inches. That's inside wood. We do have a lot of dead apple orchards but sure seems like a lot of work with all those stiff branches for not a lot of wood???
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Like the others said ur burning green wood if it were well seasoned it's doubtful that you would have had any issues . Actually woken up to a bed of coals and a warm house over night here is 16deg filled up at 4:30 last night just went out to fill back up this morning 6am.
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Actually Apple, Locust, Ironwood, Osange Orange, and Hickory all have more BTU's per dry cord than either red or white oak.
Cottonwood, Basswood and surprise surprise willow are among the lowest.
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/wood-combustion-heat-d_372.html (http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/wood-combustion-heat-d_372.html)
This is true. In our area oak and maple are the most prevalent of the higher BTU wood. Ironwood never gets big enough here. 4 to 5 inches. That's inside wood. We do have a lot of dead apple orchards but sure seems like a lot of work with all those stiff branches for not a lot of wood???
I hear yah on the apple, pain in the butt to cut up, thats true with about any fruit tree.
We actually had a ironwood that was large enough to get a few boards out of, local sawmill bought it as they wanted to cut a few boards out of it for display purposes, wouldn't have let em have it just because it was the biggest ironwood I've ever seen but it was starting to die anyways.
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Gather pallets cut them up and mix it in with your wood you will get better burns about 3 cut up pallets per full load of wood
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Did you have any success figuring out the problem?
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thanks to you all. still no real reason why it dropped so low, but has been working nicely since then. We have a mix of seasoned wood and green wood. Burning all seasoned it just burns up so fast. Burning all green is the opposite. Trying to find a nice mix of each...I am glad to have all the extra inputs from you "seasoned" pros
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Glad to hear !
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I had trouble over the Christmas holidays with temps below zero for several days and the boiler just wouldn't hold temp. It would smolder all night and never get back up in range between 175-185. Got the chimney brush out and cleaned it out, which took quite a bit of effort as it was at least half closed at the top. Now, it's like a new boiler even with temps -12 below last night. Holds temp now and burns down to ash.
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MT it was that bad how often do u brush it out?
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New to running a OWB, so still trying to learn the art (or science) of getting it right.
We have a 2007 6048. Had it set around 175 I think, and temps dropped below zero overnight. Woke up to a freezing house, checked the burner, and it was at 116, but with nearly a full load of wood still in there, burning and smoking. Pushed wood around a bit, added a bit more, and cranked it up to 185. Temp is back on the rise, up to 150 in 2 hours, but what could have caused this...? We are burning oak, some of which is green I would imagine.
Our boiler line runs into the house through a gas forced exchanger in a traditional furnace, water heater exchanger, and also radiant heat throughout an addition to the house.
thanks in advance!
check your smoke stack and make certain it is not clogged at the top. Even if it is partially closed, your draft won't work and your wood will smolder all night and never reach temp
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MT it was that bad how often do u brush it out?
I cleaned out the vent tube regularly, but had never cleaned out the stack...in over three years. I took my cell phone and stuck it in the clean out and took a picture. It was about half way closed. Bought a brush and used it, but it took me putting a joint of conduit to bust off the creosote in chunks to get it mostly clear. At this point it is mostly open, but I will need to take it down this summer and finish the job. I can tell you this, it is burning like it was brand new. I struggled with it for about three weeks with it never getting to temperature range (175-185) if the outside temperature was in the teens or lower.
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I put a fan on mine this year(5036) Its like a dif. bolier. I really like it
Patton.
I put a fan on mine and seems to be too much air.I put a switch on it and drilled 5, 1 " hole across the bottom of the fan housing. That gives it draft when the fan is off. When trying to start wet wood or if im gone too long and come back to a bed of coals,about 14 hours in sub zero weather, then I use the fan for recovery. How far open is your draft door? and what are you see for improvements? less wood and longer burns?
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I put a fan on mine this year(5036) Its like a dif. bolier. I really like it
Patton.
I put a fan on mine and seems to be too much air.I put a switch on it and drilled 5, 1 " hole across the bottom of the fan housing. That gives it draft when the fan is off. When trying to start wet wood or if im gone too long and come back to a bed of coals,about 14 hours in sub zero weather, then I use the fan for recovery. How far open is your draft door? and what are you see for improvements? less wood and longer burns?
Does the fan have its own draft flap? Is that we're you drilled your holes does it connect to existing wiring
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When you buy the fan kit from CB it comes with instructions you take your small cover of the door you will see the selonoid that opens the damperit gets its power from there on the side of the fan is a round disc to a just the air
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When you buy the fan kit from CB it comes with instructions you take your small cover of the door you will see the selonoid that opens the damperit gets its power from there on the side of the fan is a round disc to a just the air
Ok got it simple enough...
Woody by drilling holes on the bottom are u having a continous draft?
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I believe he did that so he can run with or without the fan.
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You don't have to drill any hole you just unplug the fan or put a switch on it, aries if you need a hand I live in byram I will come and help you if you need it
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Fireboss that's great I'm in Fredon off 206.. Idk if I should do it or not it's working fine without it now just would like to get the recovery time a little quicker sometimes..
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K let me no I have one, I put it in to heat my pool, with the fan it recovers faster!
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Maybe this is a dumb question, but in you opinion do you burn more wood with the fan on the 6048? Was looking into adding for faster recovery times.
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You don't have to drill any hole you just unplug the fan or put a switch on it, aries if you need a hand I live in byram I will come and help you if you need it
Im not shore you have the same surface area through the fan as you do with out the fan inplace.Probably not enough draft.I also think the fans are better in the warmer areas cuz of longer time between burns.I talked to a guy down south and said all the stove they sell have fans. Most here in maine dont run them.
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You don't have to drill any hole you just unplug the fan or put a switch on it, aries if you need a hand I live in byram I will come and help you if you need it
Im not shore you have the same surface area through the fan as you do with out the fan inplace.Probably not enough draft.I also think the fans are better in the warmer areas cuz of longer time between burns.I talked to a guy down south and said all the stove they sell have fans. Most here in maine dont run them.
Your probably right it looks like the coverage is generaly more towards the front by the door with no fan I can see when I put larger pieces they don't burn toward the back as well..
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My dealer said he would strongly recommend not putting a fan on? I questioned him long and hard about it and in the end decided not to. A fan will help burn bigger logs and wetter wood and will also give you faster recovery. The down side of a fan on a classic is pulling in cold air. So there is some extra fuel use to compensate for that. How much IDK. If you run to low on fuel you will pump cold air in and cool the water.
As far as recovery time like every one else I like to see my stove up to temp. But I'm starting to think, "what do I care if my stove sits at 165 all day?" As long as it doesn't drop below 140 where I have condensation. I still haven't come to a solid conclusion on this thought yet but for now I decided not to add the blower. That may change when I add my shop to the boiler next year???
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When the draft door opens it still brings in the same cold air ! With the fan it just brings it in faster and gets the fire going a d up to temp faster and recover faster I keep mine @ 185/195
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log Hog. Im not sure where your from but up here in maine, its a lot colder then new jersy. In warmer areas the stove sets longer between cycles.The fire may be close to out and the fan would help. my stove has more of a load on it and cycles are more often. The fire is alot hotter at start up. Most up here don't use a fan.
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I'm in northern Wisconsin. I have never heard of this New Jersey you speak of. LOL I can understand a blower to reignite the fire after long idle times. For my that would be spring and fall. So far I'm happy as a clam without the blower, but it it cold and it's cycling a fair amount.
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As of right now it has been an issue I would like to know I have an option if I notice it take a while to get up to temp when using bigger pieces and greener wood.. I go into my woods and cut up trees that have already been down but of coarse they are not fully seasoned I like them because of there size I don't have to split them so I add drier wood on the bottom and lay a few of these logs on top helps them dry quicker so by the time there on the bottom they burn perfect..