Well, after ten years of dealing with a traditional outdoor wood furnace (Central Boiler CL5648), prone to frequent random failures, and now leaking like a sieve, I am replacing it this week with a new Heatmaster SS G200 gasifier. The CB unit blew dozens of fuses, at least three door solenoids, chimney plugged up solid one year, half a dozen circulator pumps died, mice peed and pooped everywhere and eat my insulation, smoke in my face every time, creosote buildup, ash cleanout sucks, and now it leaks 15-20 gallons of water a day (yes, per DAY). I admit that my preventive maintenance has been a bit sketchy over the years, but the unit should not have failed in that time. Hopefully the new Heatmaster OWF, which has a stellar reputation from what I've read and seen, will be less of a problem and more of an asset. I've committed to do all the PM work religiously, due to the hurting this thing is putting on my wallet. I don't want to have to replace it until I'm too old to care any more. Will be documenting the install as I go along. Phase One, happening this week, is the removal of the old boiler and a quick-and-dirty "temporary" installation of the new one. Phase Two, somewhere in April, will be a completely new layout of my system, including a new concrete pad, new supply and return lines to my house, removal of an old propane line, redesign and reconstruction of my wood shed, grading and landscaping. I'm looking forward to reducing my wood use by 25% or more, thus making it easier to "get ahead" on firewood (3-4 years is the plan - right now all I have is wood for 2017-2018 stockpiled). Also looking forward to a much more efficient process, being able to redo everything based on the past ten years of experience.
sounds like fun.... I'm not remotely familiar with either unit. I have a small NCB (80 gal) and don't have any fuses or anything like that. I have small leak too, but its in the insulated line..... I'll dig it up and fix this summer. It leaks about 5 gallons a day if the unit is hot and running, but if its cold it will nearly empty itself in a day... I can watch the water ooze up through the ground ( warmer climate and shallow lines ). Makes it easy to know where to dig and splice though.
OK, so here's a few photos of my new setup. I've only been running it since Wednesday afternoon, but already have noticed a huge decrease in wood use. The firebox on the new model is 17.5 cubic feet and I am only filling up about 1/3 of it, so maybe 6 cubic feet of split wood every 24 hours. One pile, 18" tall by 20" deep by about 28" wide. The old one had a 56-cubic-foot firebox but it's irregular in shape, so I calculated I was putting about 8-10 cubic feet of wood in it each time. But, also doing it twice a day for the past year or so, owing to the leaks in the unit. So I have gone from 16-20 cf per day of firewood (theoretically, a full cord every 6-8 days), to a full cord, at current rates, every 21 days. Much of that is dependent on my heating demand and the outdoor temperatures. I will be adding a couple of zones to the new unit, including an mostly uninsulated 800-sf garage, so the wood use will definitely go back up, but never to historic levels. I will also be able to shut the new unit down during the summer (mid-May through mid-September) with a couple weeks either side for pool heating. In the past I've burned 364 days a year, shutting down only one day a year for maintenance.
Still running strong, got home today from work and did not need to add a single stick. Consumption of wood will decrease in the next few days owing to daytime temps in the 40's until Friday. I'm filling the firebox every morning, as I am usually down to a strong bed of coals by then, and from zero to 6 small splits 12 hours later every afternoon. Did not expect a 24-hour burn but I might be able to stretch a couple burn cycles out to that if the temps stay in the 40's and my hot water use is relatively low. It's not really good for a gasifier to idle so long, but this one apparently self-cycles every so often for a few minutes to prevent long idle times and creosote buildup.
Thanks Jon. Looks like a great setup. Please keep us posted on how it works and amount of wood saved.
Well, here's the one month anniversary report on the G200. Installed January 4th, today is February 4th. I posted a longer review on a different forum but here's the short story: By my best estimate (basically looking at photos on the day of installation and what's left today), I've used just at or just under one full cord of wood since the new G200 was put in. This puts my wood use slightly under what I estimated, which was a cord every 21 days. Big difference from the old Central Boiler, I am certain that I would have already exhausted my entire winter's wood supply by now and been burning more-or-less green beech and white oak already, which is actually next year's firewood. I've cleaned ashes out twice and gotten enough ash in total to fill a couple of #10 cans. I'm keeping cardboard and paper out of the OWB unless I need to start a fire. Nearly non-smoking, which is a huge difference from the old one. If the OWB is low in the cycle (160-165 degrees) or in cold-start mode, and the firebox is mostly empty, I get some startup smoke. Once it starts gasifying, forget it - you can see some steam and heat but that's it. No gray, black, brown or stinky smoke clouds pouring out of this thing. During a full burn, high in the cycle, when the firebox has been "baking" for several hours, you can't see a thing. If you stare at the chimney with some background, you might be able to make out a faint heat signature - like heat waves off pavement in the summer. When the unit is off and there's no demand, there's also nothing to be seen unless it has just finished the burn cycle - then I'm getting some residual smoke as the fire uses up what's left of the air in the firebox. I'm very happy with the unit. It even looks a lot nicer than my old one. If I had to rate it on a scale of 1-10, at this moment I'd give it a solid 9. My old unit was approaching a 1 and would have gone lower if the leaks turned into a full-fledged blowout.
Yes lets hear it! Im interested in hearing more about this boiler now that you've been running it for almost a full year. Any issues at all?
So, January 4th was my one-year anniversary of the installation of my G200. In the past year, I have probably burned about 35% to 40% less wood with it than with my old CB unit. I have had a few problems with it, but nothing that was much more than a minor annoyance. The big plus is the wood consumption, of course, but the unit is also easy to operate, extremely efficient, and easy to clean and maintain. Even the electrical bits and pieces, which gave me fits in the last one due to being unprotected and prone to critter damage, are easy to access and diagnose if there are problems. I have not had to add a single drop of water to the unit since it was installed. It has a water level indicator, and it stays full. I may have lost a gallon or two to evaporation but that will be replaced once I get my water sample test results back. I also really like the full-size rear door and pump/control access, it makes things so much easier to inspect and make new connections or changes if necessary. So the problems and how they were dealt with: An issue with the main motorized damper sticking due in part to creosote buildup and in part to a revised design by the factory. They sent me a kit to fix the problem, but before I could get it installed, the problem resolved itself. I have not had a sticking damper in months, even with the extreme cold we have had recently. The door seal is not perfect and I get a bunch of creosote drips down the front of the unit. I have not tried to fix this yet, I think it might be a simple adjustment. It looks like crap but doesn't affect the operation. The inner plate liner on the lower door, which is the access to the secondary combustion (gasification) chamber, is badly warped. Apparently the stainless steel plate on the inside of the door cannot handle the high temperatures of the gasification process. The good news is the warped plate does not affect the operation of the unit, and it also tells me that the unit is gassing the way it should. I am planning on replacing the plate with a heavier plate and some Roxul insulation. I burned up a fuse when I made the mistake of opening the smoke bypass during a peak in the burn cycle, and overheated my blower motor. A quick replacement fuse and cool-down and I was back in business. There's a lot more creosote on the inside of the unit than I expected. Not sure I can do much about it. The wood I have been burning is dry, but I have not checked the MC yet. I would change a couple things on the design but I am nitpicking. The insulation is cheap fiberglass with a shiny foil-like surface, and it's thin; I would go with a rock-wool. In the pump area and the rear door, I will replace the insulation that is easily accessible. I would change the lower door plate and insulation to a thicker plate and either rock-wool or a ceramic kiln board. And I would probably have made the firebox a couple of inches longer/deeper. On to year two and we'll see how it goes!
Jon. I’m glad to read you are enjoying your new gasification boiler! Will you be putting boiler inside of building?
I will probably put it just inside the edge of a new woodshed, so that the front half is under cover and the back half is out in the open. Have to make it large enough so that the current winter's wood is on one side and next year's is on the other. That way I don't have to wait until spring to restock the shed. I would love to move the whole operation to a different spot on my property, but without excavating all of my underground lines, it's got to stay close to where it is.
Inside of shed sounds good. Could be a separate small building from your wood shed. Maybe 12’x12’? The only reason I asked is because you talked of phase two in your first post. If you could eventually enclose the whole thing in a small boiler building/shed you would enjoy it even more. First. Keeps the boiler out of the weather. Second. With enough space for 1/2-1 face cord of wood storage you could then begin a firewood rotation. Then all wood that goes into your boiler spends a couple days inside shed where boiler dries it out some more. Third. Keeps you out of weather when loading and gives you a cool, heated, little man cave to hide out in when weather not good. Just have a vent at top of rear gable wall you can open to let heat out of it gets to warm. If you can do it eventually for the cost of the material, and you can build it yourself, it would be a nice benefit. Is that your old boiler in your avatar? How about a whole picture of that nice new one!
