Shaver Improvement Forum

[hedgecutter]

Been awhile since I have posted anything but thought someone here may benefit from my experience with the Shaver DHW coil. I have a shaver 165 and plumbed it it just like the manual says. I used 3/4" pex for the domestic hot water, furnace is 85' from house with total loop length of 275'. I used an Armstrong 30 pump mounted on my propane fired 40 gal hot water heater. I used the snap disc T-stat that came on the Shaver (replaced it with a Ranco) and siliconed it to my LP water heater to cycle the pump on and off. It works pretty well and seems to keep up with houshold demand for a family of six. I actually recovers water temp quicker than when using propane. I run my Ranco out on the Shaver at 180 and set the hot water snap disc t-stat at 125. I turned the propane off to the hot water heater and only use the shaver heat for the house and domestic hot water. At first I was going to plumb it up with out a pump and just use my well pressure, but I wanted a way to circulate the loop if I was gone in the winter months to avoid a freeze up. So I plumbed in a pump wired to a 3-way switch: one position for t-stat operation and the other for 24/7 continuous. I will try to post a pic.

 

[Windwalker7]

I also set mine up exactly as the manual suggests.


I have an electric hot water tank. I just shut off the breaker to it and let the Shaver heat it.

I was heating one of the rooms in my home via radiant floor heating. The way I had it was after heated water from the Shaver exited the HX in my plenum, it then ran between the floor joists in that one room. The water was probably losing about 25*.

I think this is why my DHW took so long to recover. I noticed if I shut off the radiant floor it recovered much quicker.


Yesterday, I spent the entire day revamping the whole thing.

I now have the heated water entering a "water to air" HX in my plenum, and from there it goes into another HX. Its a "water to water" HX that I have connected to the loop to the radiant floor set up I have in the one room.


Now I just need some colder weather to see how well it works.

 

[fify59thatsit]

sure is quite in here

Crickets..chirp..chirp..

where is everybody?

 

[John D]

Crickets..chirp..chirp..

where is everybody?

still here,im back to work,and the cold nights are over here,the owb is cruising thru the night easily now.This summer ill take it down to the bare steel,and insulate it properly.

 

[boyland]

I have been looking at the shaver boiler it appears with the front of the boiler being a square box door and burn box being round with a square door there is an area in between the round and square that would be fully exposed to heat? Meaning it would be able to get pretty hot not surrounded by water. I wonder if anyone has experience to share on that area as well as the temp of the door itself.

I saw the one guy sprayed his with foam I would be worried about this area catching the foam on fire?

Let me know what you guys are experiencing with this, I am evaluating this unit.

Thanks

 

[ngzcaz]

Maybe its just me but I'd like to have a deeper firebox rather than longer. The longer logs you put in the longer you have to rake. A deeper firebox would keep the fire much better as well. The mod that some did by closing the air box completely would really come in handy with a deeper box since the fire would feed on itself, probably come up to temp faster, coal better and maybe even last longer w/ less chance of it going out. Make the fire box ROUND like Natures comfort ( Shaver are you paying attention ? ) so there's less work for the owner since the ashes feed by gravity to the bottom.

I envision a better, hotter burn as well. If there are negatives let me know ( Although this is nothing that we can do to modify our OWB.. Also on the wish list is a bypass control that would temporarily actually make the smoke go up the chimney instead of in your face. The switch I put on the front to turn off the blower is practically worthless. Geez......... is this asking too much ?

:biggrinbounce2:

 

[fletcher0780]

I too think the firebox should be the entire barrel and add a box below for the ash pan. A by-pass rod to open the chimney at the top of the firebox would be nice to fix the smoke billowing out the door.

 

[John D]

I too think the firebox should be the entire barrel and add a box below for the ash pan. A by-pass rod to open the chimney at the top of the firebox would be nice to fix the smoke billowing out the door.

My homemade OWB will use the entire barrel as well. Taking 10" off the bottom of the barrel for the ash pan is rediculous,wastes too much space that could be a few more logs.Also heat transfer under the fire would be better than it is now. I plan to weld a 4 ft long length of 1/4" thick 8-10" square stock under the barrel.Just cut the one side off it,so its got 3 sides,and weld to the bottom of the barrel,and plasma cut the air grates/ash grate right into the barrel,you can always go back and cut it out later if you want to try something different.
Id like to make the air feed up front as well.I believe the cool air should come in the front,and burn front to back,to get the most heat out of the wood.

 

[fify59thatsit]

shaver book

Here's some fodder ,If you look at the drawings you will see some View attachment 93468

View attachment 93469

View attachment 93470

View attachment 93471

View attachment 93472things you guys where just talking about, firebox design and fire box thickness if you can read the text

 

[fletcher0780]

too bad they aren't really built like that

 

[John D]

Just a heads up to anyone here,in the last 2 days,It has been extremely windy,and things are drying out. Yesterday I was at work,when the gf called,and said my wood pile was on fire,she looks out back quite a bit during the day,and thankfully seen the log that caught fire.She ran out and put it out with a 5 gal bucket.Today,same thing happened,this time it was behind the wood pile,and this one would have been a biggie of it wasnt seen when it was. I have had no chimney cap on the shaver,and bought one today,initially i thought I may have carelessly let a glowing chunk fall out,but today,the fire was behind the OWB off to the downwind side.So I knew the chimney started it.
I would have had one heck of a fire,I still have 3-4 cord of nice dried locust and oak in my pile,would have been a hot fire,and one way to get rid of the Shaver....If anyone else is running a shaver with no cap,I'd put one on before it gets any drier.I couldnt find a good one,so i bought a cheepie,and wrapped a xcreen around the openings,and pop rivetted it together.If anyone knows if a good cap,that is a spark arrestor,please post the link here,thank you.

 

[ngzcaz]

Why not just put a screen on the top instead of a cap ? That way the smoke is free to keep going upward instead of being forced sideways or potentially downward.. You could decide that size holes would be necessary to keep the larger pieces that may cause a problem.

 

[Redbird]

You need more of a wire than a screen. From my experience if the holes are too small they eill collect soot/creosote and eventually plate off.

 

[ngzcaz]

I was thinking more along the lines of a screen than we used to use for various topsoil. Guess it would be considered a wire screen, fairly heavy duty. Different sizes yielded different types of soil. I know what you mean. Small holes would junk up in short order. Depending on how the screen is made it could be taken off in seconds, knocked clean w/ a hammer if dry, and put back on.

 

[ngzcaz]

View attachment 93472things you guys where just talking about, firebox design and fire box thickness if you can read the text[/QUOTE]


Maybe I got a second. Mine doesn't have a round firebox.


:jawdrop:

 

[yodayoda]

Just a heads up to anyone here,in the last 2 days,It has been extremely windy,and things are drying out. Yesterday I was at work,when the gf called,and said my wood pile was on fire,she looks out back quite a bit during the day,and thankfully seen the log that caught fire.She ran out and put it out with a 5 gal bucket.Today,same thing happened,this time it was behind the wood pile,and this one would have been a biggie of it wasnt seen when it was. I have had no chimney cap on the shaver,and bought one today,initially i thought I may have carelessly let a glowing chunk fall out,but today,the fire was behind the OWB off to the downwind side.So I knew the chimney started it.
I would have had one heck of a fire,I still have 3-4 cord of nice dried locust and oak in my pile,would have been a hot fire,and one way to get rid of the Shaver....If anyone else is running a shaver with no cap,I'd put one on before it gets any drier.I couldnt find a good one,so i bought a cheepie,and wrapped a xcreen around the openings,and pop rivetted it together.If anyone knows if a good cap,that is a spark arrestor,please post the link here,thank you.

John, how small of a screen did you use? I noticed last fall when I first fired mine up, allot of sparks and it worried me until we got some snow cover. I think your screen is going to plug up fairly quick, the reason I say that is I originally bought a cap for mine to keep the rain out, it was for (I think it's called class B)gas furnace vent, it worked for a couple of weeks, then I couldn't keep a decent fire going until I noticed all the vent slots in the cap were completely plugged and the vent slots were fairly large, (maybe an inch long and 1/4 inch wide) Let us know how it works out as I definitely want to make something for my shaver as well, especially since your story confirmed my worries.

 

[John D]

John, how small of a screen did you use? I noticed last fall when I first fired mine up, allot of sparks and it worried me until we got some snow cover. I think your screen is going to plug up fairly quick, the reason I say that is I originally bought a cap for mine to keep the rain out, it was for (I think it's called class B)gas furnace vent, it worked for a couple of weeks, then I couldn't keep a decent fire going until I noticed all the vent slots in the cap were completely plugged and the vent slots were fairly large, (maybe an inch long and 1/4 inch wide) Let us know how it works out as I definitely want to make something for my shaver as well, especially since your story confirmed my worries.

I used a screen with about 1/4" holes,I got it from the hardwarestore. Last night sparks were still flying out of it,Im not liking this at all.This morning ,I cleared the area under the chimney ,as the coals were right under it,it seemed to help a little. Today i went out with a rake,and cleaned up all the bark ,and mess around the OWB,and threw it in before dinner when the wind was blowing east ,where its over a mile to the nearest house.It was smokey for a while.I'd like a finer screen,but i figured it would just plug up anyway.As it is,im sure ill need to go up,and burn the creosote off the cap with the mapp gas burner now and then.

 

[ngzcaz]

A while back, one of my thoughts to improve this unit ( after watching blue flame shoot out the chimney about a foot and a half ) was to make a simple diverter to ensure the wood/ash cant get directly under the chimney. Take John's 1/4 inch screen or, make it 6 or so inches higher than the chimney, bend it in a semi circle at least 180 degrees around the diameter of the chimney and place it facing the feed door toward the front of the stove against the chimney or just use half of a 6 inch steel pipe if you want to make the smoke go completely around the pipe and then up and out.etc. This diverts the wood from getting directly underneath the chimney in the first place. Make it removable of course. It would have to be secured so the incoming wood wouldn't knock it out of place. The chimney would be one area that would be safe to drill. I wouldn't drill into the firebox because of the water jacket. Maybe a tack weld or something similar. Lots of ways to secure this.. Actual size and diameter, holes ( if any ) would vary on setup but it should work with some actual testing. Hopefully better than the stock chimney at least.

And..... if the chimney is not wet from creosote, a couple whacks from a 40 oz ball peen hammer is a lot fast than a torch. If one can lift the furnace with it it should withstand a couple of whacks with a hammer. Obviously this is for those of us who haven't put on a chimney extension.



:monkey:

 

[John D]

No chimney extension here,I just looked this am,and my screen is already about 30% plugged.I think its mostly from burning a wheelbarrow full of bark,splitters,sawdust and sticks yesterday.

 

[John D]

pics today,screens only been on 48 hrs,buti cleaned around the owb yesterday,and burned a lot of sticks,and bark.