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[Scott7m]

Well, as many of you know who have followed me on here I like to review the products I'm using and pass some information along at the same time.  The furnace I've been burning so far this winter, since mid September,is the elite 100 xt rom empyre. 

Starting out I was the first real world customer to start using the xt design, of course they'd been through numerous testing and labs but real world is far different. 

First time I built s fire in the xt, it was literally Gasifying within 30 seconds of start up and burning smoke free.  As I added more bigger wood, it kinda hazes out the chimney as it wasnt up to full temp and was burning big wood.  Mild day temps and cool nights weren't the best recipe for learning a new gasser.  I kept having the fire die in the middle of the day due to it not cycling at all.  However I knew that it's sister design, elite 100, would idle 12-14 hours, so I began checking some things.  One thing I noticed was as soon as the fan kicked on at 160, the temp reading would be 147 within 2 minutes, simply not possible.  Then I noticed that when the fan kicked off at 170, temp would continue to rise to 185.  Wow, all of a sudden I have a 38 degree differential vs 10???  That's right. The fan was cooling the temp probe making the furnace over run ite set point by 15 degrees. So in working with empyre we were able to come up with a fix, a deeper dry well, and insulating the well itself with cork tape.  I also placed a piece of prodex insulation under the fan near the well.  I changed my differential from 10 to 5 and raised it to 175 off 170 on.  Since those modifications when the fan comes on, it only drops to 168-169 and never over runs 175 by more than 3 degrees.   Problem solved.

Another initial issue was a sticking load handle, it went away and I feel it was due to some of the powder coat paint winding up in places it shouldn't have, problem went away after a few weeks, it still sticks a little at times, but it's not an issue.

As the weather cooled things kept getting better, 12-14 hour burn times are easily obtained heating 2200 sq ft in 15-20 degree nights.  That is pretty impressive as the firebox size is similar to what you'd see in an old king wood stove or something like that, not the traditional huge fireboxes most owb have.  This firebox is only 19" wide by 21" tall by 28" deep.  Only 6.1 feet of firebox space! 

The dreaded cleaning of a gasification furnace turned out to not be a big deal, since mid september I've cleaned my tubes only 4-5 times.  It takes about 10 minutes each time. I know not all gasifiers are like this, some are a pain and will plug tubes up within 7 days if there not cleaned weekly or bi weekly, so with this I am impressed. 

So besides this technical talk, what do I think? How do I feel? 

The good:  it's efficient, I'm burning less wood than before, however only about 25-30% less than the convnetional heatmaster e series I ran last season.  It looks pretty cool, nothing like a normal owb, it's small, compact and fits neater into the landscape, it never smokes, and no one would ever know I was heating with wood.

The cons:  well, the firewood has to be so much more precise, wood with humps and bumps and knots don't stack very well and can very easily cause bridging, that's where the wood doesn't fall down to the air ports and burns a hole out in the middle of the wood.  The small firebox makes it take more time to load vs a regular boiler, with a regular one I can be out to the stove and back inside in 3-5 minutes, with the gasification boiler it's more like 10. You have to kinda choose from your wood pile what will work in this spot, will this fit here?  Hey, theres a good one.  Well that won't work it'd got a knot on it'.  So there is more time involved in that aspect, my burn times are fine, but I wish the firebox was larger just to make loading simpler.  Not a big deal though

Overall, I like it!  I think it's something I can sell with confidence to folks who require epa phase 2 or those looking for wood savings. 

Is it for everyone?  No, some folks wouldn't take the time or have the patience to properly cut and stack there wood in the drove, also, in my area, folks have endless supplies of woods.  It's kind of hard to convince a farmer with 400 acres that it's a good fit for him.  However, for folks who require this or view this as a hobby as much as a way of heating a home, it's far better choice than most of the gassers I've seen on the market.

[martyinmi]

Good review, Scott!

Does the xt use the Scotch Marine style heat exchange tubes(horizontal and vertical tubes)like my little Pro Series 100 did?

I really did like that boiler, but like you said, the primary burn chamber was just too small for my heat load when it was very cold. There seemed to be about 20 or so days a year that I'd have to stuff it full at 10 pm just to make it through until 6 am. They must have made the fire box a little bigger on the xt. It seems like mine was just under 6 cu. ft.

Once again, good honest review!

[Scott7m]

Marty, the heat exchanger is different on the xt series and much easier to clean.  It has 10 tubes on the 100xt that come out near the bottom door of the gas chamber, they they travel horizontally towards the rear, them turn diagonal towards the top, they all meet up in the back under a plate.  It's efficient, and impressive that it does that with less tubes.  I'll have to post some video like I've done in the past.