Starting up Outdoor Wood Burner

[Gary_C]

Well I got the OWB started up for the season yesterday. I haven't really needed it before as the temp in the house has not been below 68 even at night. But with this wind, rain, and relative cold with this monster low pressure system, I knew it would be needed tonight. And the house was down to 62 when I finally got it going.

It did take most of the day as I had some rework on the line at the wood stove end because of the shoddy way the dealer installed the line last year. The ground was froze when he installed it and he left the line on top of the ground for last winter. But when I dug the line in this summer, I found the guy did not own a tape measure and he made the main line about a foot and a half too long. So I had to cut that much out of the line to get it down in the trench. He did use 4 inch PVC drop pipes at both the house and the OWB so I should have had to just swing those drops down into the trench and back fill, but the line would not lay down in the straight trench. When I called him on it, he just said I should have trenched in a loop for the extra length. We are having a disagreement over his bill.

The major problem I had was even though the circulation pump seemed to be working, the line was not getting hot. Finally I discovered there must have been an air bubble in the underground line and that air got trapped in the pump. I finally hooked up the water fill in the house and pushed some additional water into the line and the pump started circulating.

I sure regretted having the dealer install the system. Most of the workmanship was OK, but he had estimated $2000 depending on how much line I needed and I prebought all the line and he still charged me over $3000 and refuses to explain why other than it was so cold the day he installed everything. There is just over 80 feet of line so with the line it would have cost over $4000 for the install. And I also had all the 1 inch line, fittings and elbows, and a zone valve thanks to Jeff and the Biomizer trial.

So has everyone else started their OWB for the season?

[badpenny]

   Cleaned flues and put a fire in the box yesterday. Mine is on its 24th season, was made by a local welder who used it 2 years, then a neighbor had it, and this will be my 3rd winter with it. All manual, no controls at all, pump runs 24/7, water temp controlled by guess and by gosh at the door, but the house is warm and dry. Install by Me Myself and I, only cost was a new pump and 2 rolls of pex tubing, the rest is all recycled and free. Some call me cheap, I prefer frugal. 8)

[thecfarm]

Mine has been running steady since I've got it,3-4 years ago.I only shut it down once for a week when we went on vacation in May last year.I just close the valves to the zones I don't want and unplug the circulator. I was lucky with my installation.The only problem I had was too big circulators.Water was coming back to the circulator too fast and hitting the fins.He returned the value of both circulators,$350 and I went and bought 2 smaller ones for under $200 and had $150 for my bother.Works out good since it's running all the time.If I need heat I just open the valve and good to go.

[doctorb]

Plan to start mine after this weekend.  Have to go to "Parent's Weekend" at my daughter's college, I guess so that the school can prove to me that she's really there.  It will be good to see her though.  There was no reason to start her up (highs in the 70's yesterday) only to let her burn out while we're away.  I am jealous of you guys who have already started.  I know it's crazy, but I have been looking forward to the daily furnace routine for a while now.  Doctorb

[MudBud]

Doctor, started mine here the end of September as the temps dropped in the mid 30's at night.  No issues at all except our temps have increased to the 70's this week and don't need it as much.  I do have a warped main door and will have to get that replaced under warranty.  I installed all the piping underground 70' and into the basement myself with no issues except running it up and over ledge 12" down.  Most of the area is only 24" down.  I had a plumber install all inside for about $1500 to include all parts, except the 50 plate. 

Running good and hope it stays that way for its 3rd year of the E2300.

[red oaks lumber]

fired up all 3 stoves this week, not bad only needed 1 blower fan ,1 circ. pump, 1gasket. at the shop today just put in a different heatexchanger in the kiln, 200,00 btu. man does that throw heat(free heat).

[jackpine]

 I fired mine up at the end of September also when our first cold snap and hardfreeze happened. I heat the house and my small shop with the boiler and wanted the heat in the shop. It's only the second year on this boiler so didn't have to do anything except add about 4 gallons of water. I installed the original one myself and added an additional 45 feet  of piping when I installed this one last fall.
Bill

[island]

Getting ready to fire the E2300 up this weekend,had to add some water,and drill holes in the fire box (retrofit).2nd year operating, hope I have it figured out better this year!

[tulenut]

Island, what retrofit? Curious.

[Dean186]

I fired our E-Classic 1400 up on October 22nd.   We had a few days with night time temps in the low 20's and highs only in the 40's this past week here in the mountains of Colorado.  It has warmed up again and the furnace is just cycling at night now. 

This will be our second season with the E-Classic 1400 and last year I didn't finish the install until late January.  Looking forward to seeing how much wood it takes for the whole winter.  I am currently just burning the stuff that won't stack neatly in my log piles and that will last another week or so.

On the installation, which I will write up details in a separate post, I haven't had any problems.  I did the installation myself taken over 250 hours to complete, which is why I probably don't have any problems.  Few hired people will take that long, or if they did, the cost would be too high.  I am very particular about how things are done, and I can't afford to hire someone who pays that much attention to detail.  Which leaves the job to me and it takes me a long time to get it done.  But it's done and I am enjoying the benefits of a good installation.

[doctorb]

Started the E-2300 yesterday.  I don't know about other users, but I thought that I would post the progression of the temps in my stove during the start-up process.  I did this last night after arriving home from Parents Weekend.  I would have liked to start earlier in the day but......

5:45 PM    lit fire                temp:  67 deg.
7:05 PM  good gasification  temp:  81 deg
8:10 PM                             temp:  103 deg
9:00  PM                            temp:  125 deg
10:00 PM                           temp:  156  deg
11:00 PM                           temp:  181  deg

So it took me about 5 hours to raise 450 gallons of water from 67 to 180 degrees.  Is this about what others have noticed?  Is my warm up too slow, faster than others?

Doctorb

[Dean186]

I would say 110 degrees in 300 minutes is very good for 450 gallons of water.  I look more at your numbers from 7:00 when you had a good fire to 11:00.  In round numbers that was raising 450 gallons of water 100 degrees in 240 minutes.

I can't usually get my furnace into high burn mode during the first light of the season or during a relight.  It is during the high burn mode that I get fast temperature rises.

I did not write the times down, but it was about half the time you posted.  Note:  the E-Classic 1400 has a 200 gallon tank compared to the 450 gallon tank on the 2300 and one would expect the time to be half.

A water jacket temperature of 67 degrees says a lot about your temperatures there.  The water jacket temperature on our furnace when I fired it up a couple weeks ago was 47 degrees.   I just made a post on this on this topic.

[MudBud]

Doctor, pretty close to me, roughly 4 hours from 67 to 185.

[doctorb]

MudBud-
During the warm up I was messing around with the valves in my basements, yes basements, and drained a little heat away from the system by adding some cold water.  I think I could have made it easily in less than 5 hours without this minor hindrance.  It seems like our experience is pretty similar.
Doctorb

[island]

Took about 4-5 hours to bring temp. from 51 to 190.Tried using pallets this year and they burn great,just alot of creosote.Will probably start to mix with logs.

[albirk]

The only fire in mine has been the welder maybe this weekend can't wait down to around 50 in the garage

[MudBud]

Albirk, now I have to ask for wandering minds......why was a welder needed?

[ken999]

I've been running my 2300 every day since Dec. 8th or so... ;D

Dean, I'm looking foward to your post on the installation.

[albirk]

My old stove 7 years old had some leaks so makeing a new stove

[doctorb]

This is my second season with the E-2300 (started Nov. 1).  I started during a cold December last year, so I never had to run the stove on the typical Fall days we have seen through this month (highs 50's to 60's; lows about 40).  Obviously, there is less demand for heat on days like these compared to the dead of winter.  Does anyone have any tips for operation of the stove during these low peak times.  Do you fill all the way?  Do you fill with smaller loads, but maybe more often?  Are you carefull to use very dry fuel for longer burns, preventing the fire from going out with wetter wood?  Does the length or diameter of your wood matter to you under these conditions?

I have not burned wood as fast as last year's start, but I ascribed that to not only lessened heat requirements, but also having a better feel for how the stove works.  Any tips for stretching the time between loads (I have not changed my routine from filling twice per day, but with a large load could probably done it once per day).  Doctorb

[albirk]

set my new stove sat. @5pm first fire @ 3am sun now the house and garage are both nice and toasty