Hi. New here. Thought I had an account already but nonetheless I have been lurking for a while. I live on 5 wooded acres and unfortunately have a lot of dead oak due to oak wilt. Sad. So I've been cutting the dead standing and splitting it. Scraping the wilt and burying it. Some of the oak I have had been standing dead for a while and is dry but has a nice pulpy outside. I'm thinking this would be not the best for a gasifier. Looking for opinions. I don't have a gasifier yet but want one! G100 is a good size for my application. Looking at others. Still early on. Thanks. Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
Welcome to the Hoarder's ! I have one of the early Gassifiers a Jetstream , have burned pulpy wood when its dry just leaves more ash .
Welcome aboard madosta No experience with boilers, but I'm sure you'll find some good advice from others.
I have a G200 and it doesn't mind a little wet pulp on the otherwise dry wood. Obviously runs better without, but runs good either way.
How do you like the Heatmaster G200?I was thinking of getting one as of late heard not a lot of good things about my other option.
I have nothing but good things to say about mine. I installed in fall 2018, so only on its second season though. The only problem I have is it doesn't get enough heating demand from the house, and will occasionally loose its fire in milder weather when I don't mix in enough softer woods. Softer woods are oak and hickory, so not exactly soft, but they are compared to hedge and black locust. Would 10/10 buy another if I had to do it over.
.[/QUOTE] Thank you for that info.I have to ask if you ever burn wood with nails(pallets) and as far as wood goes the best I will be putting through it is Maple slab wood other wise Poplar, spruce 2x4s and Ash slab wood.Do you have yours in a building or out doors?any smoke when opening the door to refill and how often have to empty ashes?
I try not to burn stuff with nails, but I don't have a good reason why. I have burned slab wood...burns great. It is outside on a concrete pad. Mine is the GS200 which doesn't have the bypass. I power cycle the controller to turn on the fan and that gets rid of 75% of the smoke when loading...I think the bypass would be more than fine to get rid of the extra smoke. I empty ashes about 2-3 times per season. Usually fill 2-3 ash buckets with each cleanout.
To respond to the OP - the punky stuff on the outside of the oak is fine, as long asthe heartwood is nice and dry. For a gasification OWB, you're aiming for 20% MC, although a few points higher or lower isn't going to be a problem. I burn slightly wetter wood occasionally and it just tends to creosote a bit more, which can be offset by having a nice heavy coal bed. I have a Heatmaster G200, and it was installed in January 2017, so this is technically it's third season? I spent the past three months burning a lot of poplar, balsam fir and white pine, which caused me a fair amount of problems because none of that wood leaves decent coals or last very long. Now I'm burning pretty much just oak and black birch, and it is performing very well. I empty ashes monthly. I burn parts of pallets, but no nails, because I put the ashes on my driveway in the winter and on my lawn in the spring and fall and I would like to avoid putting those nice spiral nails through my tires. If you wind up with an OWB with a smoke bypass, be very careful that you are not letting actual flames through the bypass, they will toast your blower motor. I'm on my fifth or sixth motor right now, and I think all have failed due to excessive heat load. Although I also think motor quality is a factor as well - cheap Dayton motors aren't lasting very long. Two most popular brands right now appear to be Heatmaster and Crown Royal. If I had to do it all over again right now, I would seriously be considering a Crown Royal 7300E in a dead heat with the Heatmaster G200. Have not heard anything at all bad about CR and their customer service is reputably excellent. Hopefully by the time I have to replace the G200 I'll be too old to make the effort to burn wood anymore.
[/QUOTE] Thank you for the input on the unit.I am now fairly sure I will go with the Heatmaster.I am concerned about what you said with burning soft woods as that for the most part is all I have other than Ask or Maple slab wood.I tried a few times putting ash down on the walk ways but it just got stuck to my boots and tracked into the house so now if I burn nails that ash goes into trash can .
I really like both the Heatmaster and the Crown Royal 7300E - I would lean towards the Crown Royal from what I've researched and close dealer and his recommendations. My biggest hold up is figuring out batch burning and trying to figure out an indoor gasifier in an outbuilding... GASP!
Not much to figure out about batch burning. You make a fire and load it up and burn it wide open until it goes out. During that time what your house etc. doesn't need gets stored for later. And used after the fire goes out. Then when that gets all used, you make another fire and do it again. I have 660 gallons of water for storage. More would be better, but my space is kind of limited.
Yeah batch burning is a great way to go, if you have the ability to store the heat. I know a guy that installed a pair of 1000-gallon used propane tanks in his basement, built a room around them and then filled the space with spray foam. It would hold heat for days. He was using a Tarm indoor wood boiler and was only burning a load of wood two or three times a week. Only downside is having to start a new fire every time. Which really isn't a big deal if you're somewhat of a pyromaniac anyway.
Batch burning is the only way to go. I have 1,045 imperial gallons or 1,245 US gallons of storage. Through the winter months, I fire a batch burn every second day.
X5 on the batch burning! We burn it "full tilt boogie" style. Little to no idling=very little smoke. My "indoor" boiler is installed in the woodshed. It only has a 25 gallon water capacity and a small firebox. But, a fire every night heats our 750 gallons of insulated hot water storage well. On milder days we can skip a burn. I light a new fire between 5 and 6 pm every night. Then I throw a few more splits in the box around 9ish. At 6am I turn the boiler (and the boiler loop circulator) off for the day. The house loop circulator runs non-stop all burning season. Loads are a water to air heat exchanger in the ductwork for the forced air, and a side arm for domestic hot water. 4.5 to 5.5 cords per winter. But, I will say we are blessed with our choice of primo hardwoods. I tell myself that when this unit fails beyond my repair ability, I'd like a Garn. Maybe crazy? They just interest me.