OWB Project

[R W Ohio]

It looks like a pro built it.Hope it works as good as it looks.A lot of time spent,but you will find it was worth it.I know that our son did.

 

[November Wolf]

Very nice professional job you did there. I wish I had the know how to weld like that.

 

[Stihl310]

Well, it's been awhile... but I finally got it done!!! I got held up by some personal injuries... finger in a fan blade on a 92' chevy while it was running ( see picture), and a sawzall blade to the foot...

But anyhow, it's all finished up. I had my first "real" fire in it this weekend, I ran it full throttle, had all the windows in the house open with the t-stat set at 80. It was around 50 outside so there was enough cold air running in to cycle the t-stat on and off... The burner worked flawlessly all weekend, never had the slightest of problems. It's been turned off now for 2 days and is still sitting around 110 degrees. I must say I was pretty impressed, I went from knowing notthing about them a year ago, to building my own unit. Alot of the info I got came right from this site.

Here's a pic of the finished product... also a pic of my fan blade job on my finger... that stopped production on the wood burner for about a month.... seems funny now...

Sorry for the small pics, I'll try to get some better ones...

 

[mimilkman1]

Very nice, hope it works out for you.

Kyle

 

[November Wolf]

Looks very nice.:greenchainsaw:

 

[mtfallsmikey]

Hmmm...looks like the makings of the Stihl310 boiler company!....more pics please....and BTW, that is a dayum professional looking job you did!!!

 

[flotek]

looks great ,you must have saved a ton of money and upgraded areas where other manufacturers were flimsy. out of curiousity ..how much do you estimate was the total cost to do this project?

 

[Stihl310]

looks great ,you must have saved a ton of money and upgraded areas where other manufacturers were flimsy. out of curiousity ..how much do you estimate was the total cost to do this project?

Thanks, I figured I have around $3,000 in it. I'm to the point now where I'm really happy with how it's working. However I keep thinking of things I want to tweak. I'm going to put some more controls on it. First thing I'm doing is putting indicator lights on the blower fan and solenoid so I can see status from the house. That way I know if they are working. I'm also going to put a limit switch on the solenoid so that the blower fan cannot turn on until the damper opens. No sense in running the draft fan if the damper isn't open. Small things like that are what keep coming to mind at this point, before I know it, it's going to look like a Christmas tree out there with all the lights.


Oh, also going to be putting an interval timer on the power going to the fan and solenoid, this way if the fire goes out the blower and solenoid won't stay engaged indefinetly. I'll probably put a 5 minute max cycle time on the blower, then it will atleast cycle on and off rather than running non-stop if I were to lose the fire.

I do have a snap acting thermostat that will shut the power off below 140, however if I were to lose the fire and still have a temp of 160 or whatever temp, then the solenoid and blower would stay engaged until the temp dropped to 140, which could take awhile.

 

[mimilkman1]

At 140 I still feel decent heat coming into my hx. I wouldn't have it shut down until 120 or lower. Just my .02.

Kyle

 

[Stihl310]

At 140 I still feel decent heat coming into my hx. I wouldn't have it shut down until 120 or lower. Just my .02.

Kyle

Yeah I guess I was getting heat at 140... but I've got my thermostat all connected and wired in for 140, so it'll have to stay for this year. I have a feeling I'm going to be constantly upgrading the thing as the years pass by. It seems you can never think of everything the first time.

I probably will still hook up some more indicator lights on the front to show status of the fan/damper.

 

[Paul61]

Stihl,
Nice job on the OWB!
The dry burn you did had me cringe though, my unit has warnings everywhere against this, could cause damage due to overheated firebox.
Good idea with the timer but, I'd set it for 15 minutes, don't think 5 min. will be enough burn time when the low temps arrive?
I didn't see where you posted your temp. differential on the stat (shut off vs. blower start?
I think you'll find this setting important with a tight unit, if you don't want to be re-starting the fire often.

Paul

 

[Stihl310]

Stihl,
Nice job on the OWB!
The dry burn you did had me cringe though, my unit has warnings everywhere against this, could cause damage due to overheated firebox.
Good idea with the timer but, I'd set it for 15 minutes, don't think 5 min. will be enough burn time when the low temps arrive?
I didn't see where you posted your temp. differential on the stat (shut off vs. blower start?
I think you'll find this setting important with a tight unit, if you don't want to be re-starting the fire often.

Paul

Dry burn Everything was operational, tank was loaded with water and everything was set to go. I just opened the windows and let the heat run out of the house. The t-stat in the house was cycling on and off, as well as the draft inducer on the wood burner. That is really what I was wanting to see, just how everything would work when it was under load.

My temp diff was set at 1 degree, just curious as to what others have theirs set at??

 

[Paul61]

Dry burn Everything was operational, tank was loaded with water and everything was set to go. I just opened the windows and let the heat run out of the house. The t-stat in the house was cycling on and off, as well as the draft inducer on the wood burner. That is really what I was wanting to see, just how everything would work when it was under load.

My temp diff was set at 1 degree, just curious as to what others have theirs set at??

Re. the dry burn, I didn't know you filled it for the burn test??

1 deg diff. is too low, no need for the unit to cycle that often.
5 deg. works well with an really airtight unit during the coldest months.
My mfg'r recomended 10 deg. diff. @ 1st but, sent me a notice that the fire may go out before the water drops by that amount, it did frequently.
The setting relates to the amount of heat you're pulling from the unit.
I lower the setting to 3 deg. as the temp goes up in late winter/early spring.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

Dry burn Everything was operational, tank was loaded with water and everything was set to go. I just opened the windows and let the heat run out of the house. The t-stat in the house was cycling on and off, as well as the draft inducer on the wood burner. That is really what I was wanting to see, just how everything would work when it was under load.

My temp diff was set at 1 degree, just curious as to what others have theirs set at??

My CB 5036 is 10 deg. Wish I could adjust it to 5 deg. during the colder months, would see less supply temp. droop.