Experience with indoor gasification boilers

I'm building a stand alone workshop and tractor shed with a wood shed on the end.
The customer is looking at indoor gasification boilers with storage to heat the workshop, house with radiant floor heat and DHW.
I only have experience with OWB's.
Found Garn
Products | GARN
and looking for anyone with experience with the Garn or other similar systems.
The Garn is appealing because it's 1 fire per day or more and has storage integrated.

 

campinspecter
Gasifier

I personally had a Tarm multi fuel and did not like it because of lack of efficiency

 

I would have gone with a Garn but wanted mine in my basement and didn’t want to build an additional building. So they were just too big. Look like nice units though. If building new, placing it on a reinforced concrete floor before building goes up, or having doors big enough to get it in would be nice. All kinds of proper planning needs to take place of course. Closed system? Open system?

 

It's an open system and they have water treatment specs.
New build so reinforced floor is easy and 8'x8' doors into shop.
I'm concerned about the welds and leaks.

 

I have a stainless steel Wood Gun by Alternate Heating. I added a 400 gallon buffer tank because that is what I had room for. But a 1000 gallons would have been better. I bought a kit and spray foamed my tank to insulate it. Just another option.

I know the Garn is an open system. Is that what they want? I prefer a closed, pressurized system.

 

She doesn't know what she wants. It started as an OWB between the shop and house. I pointed out it would be better inside shop and gasification was more efficient. Now I'm doing the research. Do you get DHW off storage tank also?

 

I have a separate hot water tank. An indirect that is a two tank heater. So there is a stainless steel tank inside of a carbon steel tank. The hot water from the boiler system (@180ish) enters the outside tank and heats the inside tank up. The boiler water never mixes with the potable water.

 

I like what I'm reading on AH and the Wood Gun.
AH is only 45 miles from my customer.

 

Their newer models are better than the one I have. They are slowly getting more sophisticated. LOL If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Go with the over the door exhaust hood for sure. Worth every penny. I put in-floor heating in my garage floor and love it. It has to be done right by someone who knows how to do the looping correctly. I had never done it so I paid a guy to do it and glad I did. Set it at 45 and it works great. If I want it warmer for a project I turn it up to 55 or 60 the night before. Concrete must be insulated underneath and on the sides properly with 2” tongue and groove foam board. So all heat goes up. But baseboard heats the rest of my house. ( That is what was in there before heated by an oil boiler.) And I love that heat too! Slow, steady heat gives a consistent warm temperature instead of up and down.

 

I installed the in floor radiant heat in this house too many moons ago.It has a propane boiler that works great. The kitchen floor is new concrete and the consistent temps are amazing. We will keep the propane as a backup for when she goes away, but with storage it shouldn't work too hard.
Where did you get the tank?

 

I think I saw where you posted about this on the other site too...prior to the one guy that has had issues with this, I feel like they (Garn) enjoyed a stellar reputation...and one guy with problems doesn't ruin that, but I would be really concerned how they have handled the problem...it would sure make me hesitate to drop the kind of $ that Garns cost...

 

Seems like the water treatment cost alone would point me to a closed/pressurized system. Treating 1000-2000 gallons in a Garn was quite expensive IIRC.

 

I do one fire per day with my Attack 45kw boiler and 2x500gallon propane tanks for storage. I fire the boiler when I get home from work, reload about 2 hrs later. The reload might be a full load or partial depending on storage temps at the start of firing. In rare cases I'll have to do a third partial load on the coldest days. Of course it all depends on your heat load, more heat load = more storage / bigger boiler or more reloads to achieve one burn per day. Be sure to look at firebox volume to help determine how many reloads you'll have to do, my Attack has about a 7 cuft fire box where as a similar output Varm is a couple cubic feet smaller so more reloads for the Varm.

Of course wood type makes a difference, more reloads if using cottonwood/boxelder vs oak and hard maple.

Firing a cold boiler takes about 5 minutes. Reloads on hot coals is less than 1 minute.

 

3fordasho would this not be a perfect type set up for a rocket stove? Or not as much because of BTUs needed to heat 1,000 gallons of water?

 

Not sure, not up to date on rocket stoves.

 

Agreed, 1 bad review doesn't take Garn of the list for consideration.

 

Water treatment in the Garn is a concern. I will be talking with them about warranty, water treatment and quality control, especially the welds.

 

This is my dream setup, coupled with palletized wood as it comes off the splitter. I have read a lot but have zero experience. I have not seen anything to scare me off a Garn. I’m pretty sure fuelrod has a bunch of relevant gasifier experience.

 

I have a Woodgun like Gas.
100% in floor radiant. I'm in the 38x64 shop right now doing a little maintenance on my bandmill in a tee shirt.
I'm not a water chemist, but I also favor a pressurized set up, I've just heard too much issues with an open system, but to be fair, the guys without problems aren't out on the web shouting about it either.