Our wood boiler has been mostly running non stop for 15 years. We have a heat exchanger to make hot water, so in the summer we make one quick , hot fire a day to get it up to temp only. No long smoldering fire. We just transitioned to full fire for heat this year. We've never fully drained our water jacket either. Seems like an invite to problems. We also keep an extra pump insert on hand because it always seems to fail on a Saturday night in the dead of winter. Also, a door gasket replacement is a good idea before starting up full time. I like the water indicator on yours. Ours is a Central Boiler and doesn't have that. It also doesn't have a blower.
Water carriers oxygen. If there is iron in the system the iron will rust till the water loses all its oxygen. Replacing the water replaces the oxygen and the rust cycle restarts.
Hi Dan...just a suggestion, in the summer when the fire is out for a long period leave the controls on so the pump circulates the water in the system and the sludge doesn't build up in the low points, also keeps the relays and valves active. Great videos, great lifestyle. Cheers from Wales Uk
It's a great idea. I do exactly this with my central heating system. Once or twice a month in the summer I run the pump for about 20min and I've never had a stuck valve or blocked pipe since the system was commissioned 15 years ago.
In Europe, where 95% of heating systems are hydronic systems with central controls, the controller oftentimes has some code in it to randomly run the pump a few minutes per day or week to accomplish exactly that.
As a young man I was friends with a guy who restored and operated a case 40 hp steam tractor. When we filled it for the steam show each year he was lightning a small fire the second we started filling it. He would bring it up to a full head of steam asap. The rest of the firings that season would be slow gentle firings. According to him and many other experts. Once clean water has been boiled it no longer rust steel. The fear is that corrosion can set in around the flue pipes. Don't know how critical and hour would be but he did have a very nice boiler.
Back in 1983, I put in a wood/coal boiler in the basement of my house in Connecticut. Burned wood spring and fall, and coal in the winter. Used that for many years until the price of oil had dropped to where it was cheaper than coal. Wish I still had that setup, I’d go back to coal. 3-4 tons kept the house warm all winter.
Dan i have always loved your boiler videos which is how i found you in the first place. One day i hope to have one myself or a wood furnace in the house... either way, when i heard you mention that you had started the boiler up on the friday night live i was electric figuring soon id get to see the big boy roar!!! Thank you again for this
The biggest advantage I think I have is this boiler...it takes care of all the wood I don't wanna sell....lol...but also helps that I get the wood for free. That's the real advantage!
Ive been looking at way i can up my output for wood and it will be the multitek 2040 that my buddy did most if the restoration on and i just helped him on
On another note I had too much Captain on Friday and forgot to do the promo code 😝 on my order. It was a blast 💥 cheers to the next 150. Nice to see the wood 🪵 boiler humming again.
Over this side of the pond, UK and Europe, our boilers are batch boilers. A wood boiler that does not have an internal tank, just pipes running through it. A separate well insulated tank is used. The boiler is filled with wood, a fire is lit and then the wood is burned flat out. What I mean is, the fan runs at full rate all the time until the wood is burned or the tank reaches it's set temperature. The boiler and tank are sized to match each other. 1 full firebox of wood to heat the tank from cold to hot. The hotter the wood is burned the more efficient it is. There is a lot less creosote this way. Also, you only need to go out once or twice a day to fill up the boiler with wood depending on how well insulated your home is. You also use less wood. When your wood is smouldering, the fan is off, your are losing heat and wasting wood. If there was a way to install an external well insulated tank to your system you might be able to do something similar. If you have space the tank could be in your basement then all you would have to do is change the internal pipework inside your house. Run the boiler hot until the tank was hot then let it burnout until you needed to restart the fire. Just a thought or too 😊
I like this concept. If only we could use this with a wood stove that would have a water jacket likely behind it, so that the water heater doesn't have to work so hard and refills the water in there. I wanted to do this with my other wood stove so in case the power went out, we would still be able to get hot water. Also with a wood stove, that efficiency jumps greatly. If we'll be truthful, bare metal stoves are going to be about 50 to 80ish percent efficiency, meaning the rest goes up the stack depending on how well the stove operates and how internal parts keep heat from basically escaping. If we'll go further in explaining kinds of stoves like Hybrids of a tube and catalytic stove work well and should improve from here but the efficient ones are catalytic stoves as they recycle the burning gasses in the stove from the wood. They can have long burn times but it's operating a stove at the lowest setting which is practically a slow smolder for 20-30 hours if the wood is the right kind. None of these stoves are the kind found in Europe with a thermal mass that will release heat over time. Most of them are an insulated water tank or a heat sink that is full of heavy heat absorbing materials so when the fire goes out, still keeps the house warm. I'd like one of those if I were living in a place with winters so cold, you need something that stores heat for later until the stove is running again. Theres much less creosote by burning dry wood is helping him here. Most often I heard of outdoor wood burners is they burn wet branches, cut up that stuff in the spring and burn in the winter so it's not dry and it's not split. More creosote happens as the fire mostly smolders all day. These aren't efficient systems by any means but they get their return having to heat such a large space and heat the water for their shower. Unlimited hot water is always good
We don't need that stuff because parts that get really cold in the USA are sparsely populated and we have a lot more square kilometers of forest per person than you do.
All of the new installations are also wood gasification burners, which have increased efficiency (90% and up even). There is no smoke coming from the chimney with these, and you need less wood. To the other reply to your comment: even if you have all the wood in the world, not having to process it, not needing the space to store it, etc. leads to less work overall. I heat my off-grid home in northern Finland with wood and only need 10m^3 a year, which is what, 3 cords or so.
If you suffer from the smoke drifting onto the house... try extending the chimney by another 36 inches... and surround that pipe with another of just slightly less height... to form a nice warm double walled chimney ensuring, even when the fire is only smouldering...that there is good draft.... and the smoke is less inclined to flow down towards the ground.....
Good Video. I'm a city slicker but itching to get out. I have always liked the idea of boiler (coal or wood) especially if you have multi family / multi structures. Glad to see its working for you the way I would expect it to work for me.
I would check the anti freeze level with a tester. I have a Hot water system in my home. Just in case the power would every go out, I have anti freeze in my system, good till -34 below zero. I check it every year. I don't add water Dan. I will add more anti freeze not water. As you add water it dilutes the anti freeze in your system. Dan has your Electric bill gone up, I know mine has. They say Electric bills are going up 37%. Good Video Dan.
You should swap that taco 0014 pump to a 015e pump about 80% less electricity. When running 24/7 that adds up. Depending on where your located some states have huge rebates on the pumps. I am in Massachusetts I get 007e for $50
for canadians, make sure there's 50' clearance from fences, treelines, wood piles, etc... anything combustible. my insurance company was being stupid about it. just check with your insurer so your policy isnt null and void
I was so tempted to get a fire going on stove last weekend but warmed up to quickly the next morning. I have way to much wood and need to start burning it off so I can justify splitting more.
lol...I'm in the same boat that's why I didn't mind starting the boiler up a week or so early. Got plenty of wood I need to get rid of and make room for more, like ya said...hahaha
HEATING SEASON IS HERE AND IT'S GOOD TO HEAR THAT FAMILIAR "BACK 40" VOICE AGAIN. I HAVE JUST A COMMENT TO MAKE ABOUT FILLING A BOILER TO THHE FULL POINT WHEN THE WATER IS COLD. WHEN THE WATER HEATS UP THE WATER WILL EXPAND AND GO OUT THE OVERFLOW THUS LOSING THE WATER TREATMENT/ ANTIFREEZE TO SOME DEGREE. I'VE DONE THIS AND HAD TO ADD MORE THAN A LITTLE WATER BACK ONCE IT'S HOT. JUST SAYIN'.
It really is hard to believe that it's that time of year already!! I also get excited when it's time to fire up the wood heat!! If the power would to ever go off do you have a generator to still be able to run the boiler for heat? Stay safe my friend 🔥🔥
Water oxidizes better than air so the rust claim is bogus though there may be some validity to other issues presented from introducing oxygen into the tank.
This is my first time watching your channel, I'm impressed. 2 questions, how often do you have to fill the furnace with wood? And, at what point do you switch that lever to act as a reburner instead of going straight out the chimney?
Hey, welcome to the channel...appreciate ya tuning in and checking things out. I usually add wood twice a day, morning and night. Depending on how cold the temps are drives how much wood I'll add. If temps are below zero I may have to add wood mid afternoon. The lever to open the bypass for smoke to go up & out instead of through the re-burn chamber is only pulled out when you are going to open the door and add wood. Once the wood has been added and the door back closed the lever is pushed back in. Main reason to open that bypass is to prevent a lot of smoke from coming out the door while loading.
Nah...still WAY ahead. Cost of the tools, tractor, saws, fuel, etc. I also make up for selling firewood. Not having to monitor the meter in the house and leaving it at 74 all day/night, all winter long....totally worth it. 👍🍻
I have a 140 year old farmhouse ,,,first year i lived here i spent over 3 grand on propane that winter and the newer basement that had tubing in the floor and hooked up to an off peak wall heater that was never conected to the grid ,was NEVER WARM,, next year built and installed a wood boiler ,,bypassed the electric heater, and cut my propane use by 70% ,, and ended up cleaning up the deadfall all around my woods,,,, water circulated heat is so much more comfortable than a forced air furnace ,, and i only heat my water to 120 f,,, keep the basement at 80... upstairs stays around 65 ,, and the second story gets to 60 ,,,,,
We're still waiting for Vermont Castings to ship our Defiant stove. The wood pile has grown rather large waiting for it. And we're refusing to turn heat on yet :D, stupid expensive propane.
It is this time of the year already…; looking at the forecast in Eau Claire, you guys have a big spread in temps between min and max… What you drained from the boiler looks color wise like morning p.. at some days 😂
Just curious. How often in the really cold months do you put wood in the boiler? I have a wood furnace in the basement connected into the duct system. I have to add wood at least four times a day. My fire box is much smaller than your hoiler
Usually all winter I fill it up in the morning and the evening. If temps are at are below zero I may throw a few pieces on mid-afternoon but otherwise only twice a day.
How often do you need to top up the fire? Does it burn 24\7 through winter? We are using kerosene here in Scotland but have an abundance of firewood so interested in an alternative
I add wood usually twice a day and yes, the fire burns all winter long 24/7. If the temps get real cold, like sub-zero I may need to add wood in the afternoon, but otherwise morning & night is when I put wood in.
When your boiler fails or breaks beyond repair what type of boiler do you think you would go with? I'm researching the Classic Edge 760 Titanium HD. Have you heard anything about that style of wood boiler?
The money you save on energy, does it offset the cost of chainsaw gas/oil/maintenance yearly? Obviously the initial expenses of buy the boiler and saws will take a couple years to pay for itself. Recently bought my first house and I grew up with wood stoves / boilers. Just curious about the savings
Definitely think it does. The firewood I process half goes to selling and half to my personal heating. The sale of firewood more than covers all the costs to process it so in the end the wood I burn I'm almost paying myself to burn it....lol...making the boiler even more of a savings. If that makes sense.
I am not sure the concept of an outdoor wood boiler does convince me as someone living in Germany and who heats his home during ther winter with wood, but operates a very different system. We use here (and in Austria and Switzerland as well) the so called “Grundofen”, which is IN the house and can be connected to the heating and warm water system. Having furnace in the house seems to me much more efficient. I did not compare the the efficiency ratings of a “Grundofen” and outdoor boiler, but common sense should proof me right.
A cord of firewood went up 100.00 since last year. It cost me 1055.00 to fill my oil tank. It's still cheaper to burn wood than oil even at 350.00 per cord.
@@ryantannehill2830 that's cut, split and delivered up my way. They drop it off and I stack it. The other option is tree length 7 cords for 850.00. You have to cut split it yourself.
It's far more expensive to pay for that labour and the associated mark ups down the line. Especially when that dollar doesn't buy as much as it used to.
Tried putting one on one year but it just clogged up with creosote after about a month. Too low of airflow for extended periods of time. Dealer actually told me not to put one on for that reason, but wanted to try it and what he said would happen, exactly happened...lol
Can anyone let me know if this boiler is for the central heating in the house? I am from the UK and have never seen one of these wood boiler heaters and is it running continuosly during the winter time? Thanks in advance
