Taylor stove- lots of smoke

[Scrapiron]

This is my third season running the OWB. I've learned a lot from this site, so thanks! I'm burning 1.5 to 2 year old seasoned (split, stacked, covered) red oak and hickory. Yeah, it's really great wood and a little part of me doesn't want to burn it. Haha!!

Anyway, when firing it in the morning- there is nice bed of coals, I lay the wood on top, get an instant fire, but... lots and lots of smoke from the chimney. And it's a darkish grey right out then turns to white higher up. I don't remember this much smoke last year.

I've been running the OWB about 5 days this season. I've got the damper on the front fan open about 60% (tried it 100% or 30%, same amount of smoke).

Any ideas? Is my memory just not as sharp as it used to be?

Thanks-

 

[CrappieKeith]

We know smoke is a sign of incomplete combustion.Unfortunately there are many wood burners that are not designed for complete combustion of the wood and so you have what you have.I'm not big on doing mods...however people do what they will do.
Opting for a better OWB may be a choice,but for financial reasons maybe not a good choice.
If you are burning dry wood and building smaller loads you are doing about all you can do with the Taylor's limitations of design.

 

[Biker Dude]

A couple of things I have noticed on my T-450 are that it smokes if it sits idle for long periods of time and also if the wood I load is moist going in. This time of year there is dew in the morning so even seasoned wood is going to steam when it first goes into the boiler. The boiler tends to idle quite a bit this time of year too because it's not cold enough to put a heat load on the stove. Creosote builds up in the boiler and then when the draft fan kicks in all that creosote burns up at once causing it to smoke like crazy for a couple of minutes. You could build a smaller fire and feed it more often to stop the creosote. Another possibility is a small water leak causing steam but that smoke wouldn't go away after a few minutes. Like Treeco and Kieth said, it's a 20+ year old design and there isn't much that can be done. I seem to remember a thread about adding firebrick to the fire box to raise combustion temps but Kieth knows more about that than I do.

 

[Scrapiron]

Why ya'll hatin' on Taylor?

I agree on better designs- my friend's CB is a pretty sweet OWB. But our house came with the T-750 (he upgraded from a T-450 about 12 years ago) and it's under a shed... it's got a lot of life left in it.

I don't have the $$ to replace and since I live in the country, no one except me minds the smoke. Well, my wife does.

When it's idling I get some smoke, not too bad (for the Taylor) actually. I'll try some smaller fires to see if that helps. Trying the firebrick might be a good idea, but I know that can get pricey.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

 

[PURPLEBOWYER]

I noticed more smoke this morn out of my shaver,its my 1st yr with the owb,Ive been burning nothing but good seasoned cherry wood.I have my damper opened about a 1/4in I opened it half way and it really chugs the smoke wonder if I should leave open about 50%,could that cut down on my emissions?I went with a shaver cause for the money I figured it was my best option,but I guess its an old design too right?

 

[pook]

ideal fire,if acheivable, burns from the top down so the flames burn the smoke.
if a fire burns from the bottom up,the lower burning wood will heat the wood above it which dries,gassifies, & burns in an accelerating manner. at some point, the combustion air may be inadequate for the offgassing wood.
try raking the coals towards the air inlet so the new load aint laying on the coals + addkindling or dry wood to start flaming on top of the coals- then its burning from front to rear instead of from bottom up

 

[goosegunner]

Thats the main reason why I sold my taylor and am putting in an econoburn 200 in a boiler room that is attached to my under construction out building.

Hopefully I will know soon if I made a good decision.

gg

 

[time warp]

I also have the Taylor 750. I'm going on my third yr now. Rake the coals to the front,leave a little space in front of the fan door {about 3-in. wide},put in a couple pieces of quick burning wood in this area then put the good stuff on top of it. This cut my smoke out put in half. Pine & cottonwood is great for this & people can't give me enough of it.

 

[Scrapiron]

Yep.. Biker Dude steered me right a couple of years ago on raking the coals to the front. I put pine or scrap lumber down then the good stuff. Still smoking like a train.

I put the oak in towards rear, not on the coals. I have about 6" of the wood leaning on the coals, the rest of the wood (~18") is on metal (or on top of wood on metal).

I have started trying using smaller loads, and that helps a little. The smoke is still a "dirty" grey right out of the stack.

Again, thanks for all the help!

 

[oneoldbanjo]

Raking the coals to the front and putting in a very small quanity of wood helps. I put in wood in the morning before I leave to work and at night before I go to bed, and I only put in enough wood to last until the next filling......and when I guess right the only thing left when I go to refill are enough coals to get the next fire going.

I also believe that if you use a few pieces of the largest wood you can lift there will be less smoke - instead of loading in a lot of smaller wood. The larger wood has less surface area per volume of wood so more air is available to help with a clean burn. To demonstrate this....fill your OWB with small sticks and watch the huge cloud of smoke come out of your OWB - there is just too much surface area to burn for the amount of air that comes into the fire.

 

[Scrapiron]

oneoldbanjo you may have hit upon it!

I've been using smaller pieces- oak and dry, around one or two larger pieces. Trying to use up the "junk" stuff before it really gets cold.

I'll try a load with just large pieces and see what happens.

Thanks!!