school me on owb's seriously considering an e classic2400

[thecfarm]

Welcome to to OWB world. You will like it.

[nedly05]

We have been heating with our new E2400 since monday. I am very happy with it so far but I can see there is a learning curve. I already have a few questions.

*How full do you guys fill your firebox? I have to fill mine pretty full to get a 12 hr burn.

*When should I clean it the first time, and what will be an indication that it needs cleaning?

*What should the temperature swing be at the furnace? I've noticed it's not uncommon for mine to swing from 190-160, with no ill effects to the heat of my buildings, it seems a little drastic to me though.

*The fire box is huge, I'm cutting next years wood 2' what are you cutting your wood?

I'm going to have a ton more questions, I'm pretty sure. Thanks for the help!!

[doctorb]

The first question I would have, to get to answering your questions, is "Are you having gasification?". Is there smoke when the unit is running on high burn?  If you are gasifying, then you're doing it right. 

You can load the stove anyway you want, with logs front to back or side to side.  Watch out for "bridging", where the logs get caught in an arch above the coal bed.  The coal bed above the half-moon opening gets burned away and your stove runs inefficiently.

Most new guys either don't clean the stove soon enough, or clean it too often.  Both should be avoided.  Take the ash dust out of the firebox after a couple of weeks.  Leave any coals there.  I clean the reaction chamber and the rest about once every 3-4 weeks.  The key to cleaning is to get the coal bed down to almost nothing so you can access those air holes.  They need to be kept open.  When loading, I try to let the logs in the firebox be at a low level so I can scrape over the air hole openings to prevent blockage.  This is part of routine daily maintenance, IMO

As I have a 2300, I don't have the temp readings available that you do, so I can't give you any answers about furnace temps.

Keep us posted and you'll get lots of help here.

[hockeyguy]

nedly05,
Congrats on your purchase.
To add to the good advice from docb:
It took me a half season to learn how to operate my 2300. Once you get to know how this thing works, it's very easy to operate.
How much to fill your firebox depends on the outside temp., how well your house is insulated and what your burning. I always shoot for a 12 hour burn. Half a firebox of hardwood works for me on a 30 deg. night while it takes a full load of hardwood on a night below zero. I also get d.h.w. from mine.

Mines an older model, so I'm not sure if we have the same temp. swings but I run my furnace at 175 during the warmer months and increase to 190 during bitter cold. This works for me, but I think much of this depends on your set up and how much heat you lose between the boiler and house. My boiler is 140 feet from my house and I usually have a 5 deg. difference between the boiler and house. Sometimes a little higher in colder weather.

I cut my wood between 20 to 24 inches. I find the 2300 prefers splits over rounds(unless rounds are  under say 6 or 7 inches and bone dry). I can't emphasize enough how important dry wood is. This boiler does not like wood that isn't fully seasoned, unless you mix a small amount in with some good stuff.


You've come to the right place. The people around here can answer any questions you have. Don't get frustrated.

Good luck!

[boilerman101]

Nedly05 - Great choice! I have found the key to operating my E2400 is to keep a loose bed of coals just over the air charge tube in the firebox. Be sure to use the rod and run through those coals everytime before you load, along the left and right side of that air charge tube. The E2400 alternates between reading the water temp and reaction chamber temp. When gasifying well, it will go into high burn mode at 750 degrees and once the new load of wood is dried out, chamber will go well into the 1,000+ range. If chamber does not go into this range, the coal bed is either to deep, crusted up along the air charge tube or it's time to clean the ash out of the reaction chamber. Check that every 1 - 2 weeks and see how fast you accumulate ash in there.  Be careful not to take all the coals out of the firebox when cleaning that, if you don't have coals at least to the top of the air charge tube, it won't gasify either. I have my water set point at 185, though it often seems to run up to 190. The fan starts running when water temp drops to 175, but sometimes water temp still drops down to 171 before starting its way back up to the set point. I cut all my wood to 24" length and seems to work great. If you can get at least 6 - 12 months of seasoning on your wood pile, it will perform the best, but I have burned with less. After a few weeks, I'm sure you will have it down. This is my second season on my E2400 and it runs like a dream. I have not experienced the problem issues some E2300 owners have discussed, so perhaps they have been resolved with this model.

[nedly05]

Great advice guys, thanks!

I must be doing something right, as I regularly reach temps over 1000*. I run the rod over the bottom of the firebox before each load like it shows in the manual, and that seems to help a lot. I now have a good bed of coals around my charge tube also. The first couple nights we were running it was around -10, so the first night I had way underloaded it and the fire was out when I went out in the morning. I was a little scared then that I might have to get up during the night to check it, but every day has been an improvement since. It has been a little warmer the last couple nights, and I think that coupled with the good coal bed has led to me having wood left in the firebox after 10+ hours. Everyday I get a little more comfortable with it. I am cutting all of my wood to 20-24" for next year, the stuff I am burning right now is 16" that I had cut for the stove at my old house. It works just fine, I stagger it front to back and I haven't had any issues with bridging thus far.

I really appreciate the help, it's nice to have this forum with great people to turn to!

hockeyguy, you nailed it when you said "dont get frustrated" good advice right there!

[wayno12]

I buy every piece of wood that goes into the firebox.  I don't have 1 tree on my property and hence have bought all my wood for the last 10 years.  Last winter my wood consumption to heat 3000 sq ft + DHW was about $1200.00.  For the same demand in propane, my cost would have been in the range of $4,700.00.  For me, buying my wood split and delivered makes all the sense in the world!  They dump it, I scoop it up, pile it on pallets, and then cover it.  No handling till it goes to the stove.