Burn times in various OWB's

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Oh a couple of more things. I missed my prediction about my inside house temp this morning. With no fire all day yesterday or last night and high winds all night, with the outside this morning at 26 degrees, my house is still 66 degrees. As far as getting a face full of smoke I get that all the time and yes the an comes on and off at set temps.
 
Is this what everyone calls "BTU's going out the stack":mad:
ry%3D480
 
Yesterday we had a really warm day so I shut the boiler down and modified my stack set up. I hope this increases my burn times and makes the thing more efficient.
ry%3D480

It's kinda hard to tell what it is but it's just a 3 sided box that makes the fire travel to the back and around before getting to the stack. I have high hopes for it.
 
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Boy you guys don't know how to have a good argument on here. You need to go over to ou power , those guy's can show how fight. All these boilers are rated for square footage and not btu's and this in itself give's them a way out. Just to many variables. If you go to their web site if I recall correctly the 4400 is rated for 5000 square feet, I have less than 2000 including the garage. The guy says why didn't I get the next size bigger, well with the horrendous amount of wood this thing burns I hate to think how much a bigger one would use. I tried to give a little background along with answering questions and I tried to be nice. But here is the thing, those here who are trying to fight me are on my terf. I was willing to lay my cards on the table I told every one my qualifications and I can prove them , when you challenge me tell every one what your background is in the piping, heating and boiler industry. Show me you have better qualifications than I do. Someone will say why don't you call a heating professional. Well [ duh ] that's like telling the cops why don't call the police? Or my personal favorite, see your dealer. Hey it ain't his fault he did his job, he is a salesman. I hold no malice toward the guy, in fact I like the guy. Why should he be held responsible for poorly designed equipment? But getting on here don't you think I haven't had other people look at it? all my friends are retired pros and they have all looked at it, my nephew who owns a pluming and heating service business looked at it. My nephew even put his electronic flow meter on it so we could prove flow and how much. Everybody that looks says the same thing, boy that a nice system' to which I reply yep sure is it just don't work.


Sounds to me you have everything under control. Good luck with your boiler system.
 
ngz I can't seem to drive through your head that there is only 12 feet of pipe outside, all the rest is in a heated garage and even the part inside is insulated. The outside has 1/2 inch foam covered with 3 1/2 of fiberglass and finally that is covered with plastic. I don't need some infrared gadget when I have inline thermometers with thermometer wells installed in the lines. there isn't 1 degree difference between boiler temp and and water temp at the heat exchanger. No there is no strainer but I am getting plenty of delta across it, I will assure you that you won't set your butt on one of my radiators very long. You keep harping on the house insulation. Once again it is the same as it was with the gas boiler and the same as it was with the inside wood boiler so it remains a constant. As far as pex goes its little more than glorified garden hose. Designed so an inexperienced person can install it with no fittings except at termination points. Boiler temp is set at 165 with a 10 degree differential.
All this being said tell me why it used so much wood last night and the fan shut off on low water temp when there was basically no heat load on the boiler at all except its own water. I have not added any wood all day and the fire is out' the house is still warm inside. We have had high wind all afternoon so obviously my house isn't real hard to keep warm. I won't even fire it up tonight and the house will probably still be around 67 or 68 in the morning.
Pipewelder,if I read this right,you are running at 165deg? unless it is a super warm day my c.b.won't do anything but burn wood at this temp. setting,on the real cold days,I run all the way up to 195 as that is the only way I can keep up with heat demand on the inside thermostats.I've found that the only way to make it work is to keep enough heat outside to stay ahead inside.I'm direct plumbed at 195deg. to a system designed to run at 210 -220 deg.I don't have all the experience that you have but this is what I have found to make mine work for me.You might try upping your limits on your owb to max. and seeing what it does for you.Mine truly uses less wood this way than on lower settings. Scott
 
Anyone else notice pipewelder just wants to complain and has dodged a bunch of questions about how the unit is installed...guess it's easier to blame the unit than your own install...
It's not rocket science...if it's burning through that much wood those BTUs are going somewhere...plenty of other woodmaster owners manage to get those btu's to their house as heat...so we know it's not going up the stack, which means what? To me it means there is a huge heat loss somewhere and that's not the units fault....

possibility that not really a heat loss as possibly never enough temp to start with.
 
AIM.. its funny that you posted that. When I made the one post partly in jest about someone who shall remain anonymous that all the heat was going up the chimney and that all the wood was stacked right underneath the chimney, I got to thinking about a partial addition to my unit where I would add a section of steel ( maybe a third the size of the pipe, maybe perforated, maybe not, that would not allow wood to get right underneath the chimney i.e. go right to the floor of the unit. I've had blue flames coming out the chimney on more than one occasion when the draft motor was on... and like you, if I understand correctly, the flames would also have to go around before exiting the chimney. Probably should be easily removable in case it clogs or makes things worse. If I confused anyone this would be taking a piece of 6 inch steel pipe, placing it upright and then cutting it straight down. The resulting piece would then go against the existing pipe toward the front to keep wood from going under then chimney and would also make it go around to the back before going up the pipe. And like I said, make it removable so I can remove it when it doesnt work : - )

In any event good luck and let us know how it works. I for one, would like to know which OWB you have for a basis of comparison.

** has anyone else noticed the smoke seems to be swirling when coming out the chimney instead of straight up kinda like the gadget they were huckstering on tv a year or two ago that went in the air cleaner ?

:clap: :agree2:
 
My OWB is home made. We'll call it the "inventaboiler brand"
It's a 500 gallon propane tank upright with a smaller "not sure of the size" propane tank burn chamber stuck in the side. Here is a pic of it when I first set it in place.
ry%3D480

It looks really ugly bare like that but since then I have had it spray foamed, sided. and a roof on it. It looks alot better now but I still have some modifications and some more dressing up to do.
 
You are all talking and not one of you has posted your qualifications. I know what you want you want to find something you can point your finger at and put the blame on me, ain't going to happen guys I have the temp all the way from maxed out down to 140. the only thing raising the temp does is burn more wood. I tried to bow out gracefully and I was challenged. It seems I am the only one willing to disclose m qualifications. I keep having to repeat my self because the proponents of these OWB's are bound and determined to place the blame on me. and to the guy who said I was complaining wrongo buddy I was stating my opinion as the facts pertain to me, by the way what are your qualifications?
 
NGZCAZ

I really like my boiler but I kinda wanna build another and make some changes.
It does a great job of providing enough heat for my house but you gotta fill the beast up quite a bit. It has a pretty big appetite for wood. I fill twice a day MINIMUM and most always 3 times. When it's really cold and windy I've filled it as many as 5-6 times. My burn chamber is 24" X 38" so maybe cubic foot wise it's kinda small. (I'll have to figure that out)
One good thing is that I seem to have a situation that most don't seem to have and that is that I can more than effectively heat my house to 74 running my water at 130 degrees. I've turned it up to 160+ just to see and the result was simply MORE WOOD. One thing that I kinda wish I had done was lay down the cash for the spray foamed pex lines in the 4" tile. Best price I could find was $11 per foot and I'm running 90' to house and 25' to garage. If I build a new one I'm going to relocate on my property and I believe I'll spend the cash to get that pex.
 
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pipewelder... you are correct.. the world is wrong. You are the only qualified person to state an opinion. These guys were only trying to help but since none know as much as you its a mute point. Its a piece of crap. Go back to burning propane....

:censored: :chainsaw: :mad: :deadhorse: :bang: :deadhorse: :bang:
 
my owb burns a lot of wood. if i bought it cost would be at least a thousand a year. propane would be more convient but expensive.natural gas is not avilable .i have 10 acres of woodlot which supplys about 2/3 of my supply. could be more but not wishing to over harvest it. from what i see here the 8 cords average i burn(year round) is in line with most posts. we all have to burn whats availabe in our area and of course volume would be higher with less dense wood than the oak, hickory and cherry that makes up most of mine. just a wild guess but if someone is experencing a higher usage something is not right with that setup. think I'll just leave it at that.
 
after reading through these post..

I honestly hate to enter into the cage.. But basically Pipewelder.. Your heat is going somewhere.. If it is not making it into the house it is leaking outdoors.. It is that simple..
Are you certain they insulated the boiler? I am sure your pipes are insulated just fine.. But is the boiler insulated?Maybe they forgot a process?
I am not qualified to fix anything.. I am a carpenter by trade. Not a welder or a fitter.. But I built my boiler from scratch and it seems to work ok.
 
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My OWB is home made. We'll call it the "inventaboiler brand"
It's a 500 gallon propane tank upright with a smaller "not sure of the size" propane tank burn chamber stuck in the side. Here is a pic of it when I first set it in place.
ry%3D480

It looks really ugly bare like that but since then I have had it spray foamed, sided. and a roof on it. It looks alot better now but I still have some modifications and some more dressing up to do.

Now that's some rocket science right there! :clap: :D

Goes to show even the home built jobbers make heat, I'd like to hear what the real problem is with the manufactured unit in question....stuff just ain't addin up :monkey:

I'm guessin the unit is waaaaaay undersized or heat loss of one form or another is an issue..


Qualifications....jack of all trades, master of some.
 
I honestly hate to enter into the cage.. But basically Pipewelder.. Your heat is going somewhere.. If it is not making it into the house it is leaking outdoors.. It is that simple..
Are you certain they insulated the boiler? I am sure your pipes are insulated just fine.. But is the boiler insulated?Maybe they forgot a process?
I am not qualified to fix anything.. I am a carpenter by trade. Not a welder or a fitter.. But I built my boiler from scratch and it seems to work ok.


e,I'm just a farmer,truckdriver and a kind of jack of all trades who can work on,fix repair most anything that I come in contact with.I installed my own c.b. and directly tied it into my existing boiler myself.Do I have the qualifications to do this kind of work?Probably not but I have heated my house for 4 years now with the set up that I installed with no other source of heat so evidentaly it ain't rocket science but what do I know,I'll just go out about 8:00 tonight,throw my 3/4 of a wheelbarrow load of wood in and come back in the house like I've done for years and think pardon me all to hell for showing some interest in this guy's problem
 
Eric.. I was thinking along the same lines as you... maybe the insulation is missing or faulty?
 
All I did from the very beginning was express an opinion. I even tried to bow out. The problem here is we have a bunch of people so prejudiced they wont let one person have their own opinion if it does not agree with there's. I was man enough to post my qualifications and when I tell the finger pointers to put up or shut up then they go on the attack. I personally don't give a crap if people like me or what I say. I don't give a crap how good someone Else's boiler works. The one I have is the one I have to deal with. These internet arguments quickly deteriorate to the name calling stage. That's when it time to call it a day. It's the same old ford, chevy thing ,no one is going to change their mind once they have it made up. Before this ever started I had already made the decision to call it bad money and gather up the losses and move on. If I find a factory unit I like I then maybe I will make a new purchase. If not I will have to build something that will meet my own standards. To Eric, its a lot of work to build,good job however well it woks. On the final note I stand by my original opinion, I think it's an over priced,under engineered wood eating monster.
 
pipewelder... I am just courious... maybe the unit is missing some insulation... I was to a buddy of mine who was a dealer in another state... and he had a couple that people could not get the burn time at all out of the unit... turns out .. that one unit had almost no insulation on it... and another one was missing some on the top... so the units were repaired and worked fine after that. so it does happen that sometimes they slip out of the factory incomplete.
 
My OWB is home made. We'll call it the "inventaboiler brand"
It's a 500 gallon propane tank upright with a smaller "not sure of the size" propane tank burn chamber stuck in the side. Here is a pic of it when I first set it in place.
ry%3D480

It looks really ugly bare like that but since then I have had it spray foamed, sided. and a roof on it. It looks alot better now but I still have some modifications and some more dressing up to do.

I think you should call it the BUB brand... "Big Ugly Beast" but as long as it works and it looks like you had fun doing it... plus you probably don't have alot really invested in it $$$ wise... but seriously... nice work
 
pipewelder... I am just courious... maybe the unit is missing some insulation... I was to a buddy of mine who was a dealer in another state... and he had a couple that people could not get the burn time at all out of the unit... turns out .. that one unit had almost no insulation on it... and another one was missing some on the top... so the units were repaired and worked fine after that. so it does happen that sometimes they slip out of the factory incomplete.

I don't think he's interested in figuring out the cause of the problem. He'll spend more time complaining than coming up with a constructive solution to the problem.
 
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