CL 5648 Outdoor Wood boiler

Looking for information on ways to improve the efficiency of my out door boiler. It is 8 years old...have not replaced any door gaskets, etc.

Burn dry wood to minimize creosote formation...that's about all you can do (short of replacing it with a coal stoker )

Many attempts have been made to do that . Gasification is the only way and you cant change your boiler to a gasification chamber. Burn only Oak or Ash, maybe Yellow Birch, super dry and hot.

Kevin

I burn year old seasoned maple and yellow birch

Until 3 years ago I used to get most of my wood (beech and maple) from Canada at a really good price, however, due to regulations...I can no loner do so!

I understand, my location is Chattanooga, but I just moved here after living all my life in the Machias area. I burned wood for years, own a skidder, woodlots, etc. Still have all that back in Maine. Once these guys stop fighting about their favorite model, and you get the one you want, you will never look back. And you are way ahead of the average with your Uncle having one. I thought the question about will coal be available a good one. Not an easy answer to that. It depends how much you hate the O and the EPA.

Kevin

Machias! Wow! A true DOWNEASTA'! I will be very happy not to handle wood anymore!

Ayuh! My son is running my Vf 3000, just started it last night and lost the fire. Got it going this morning early and is off and running on the learning curve.
I sure do miss going to my hunting camp with the group, but there had to be trade offs in such a big move. 15 years to retirement, Would that be at 67? I am also 15 years to retirement if SS exists!

Kevin

15 years for me is at age 58! I love the hunting and fishing up here too...We've got a deer in the freezer already and hopes for another here in the next two weeks...probably have 25 pound of filleted partridge meat between two my brother, son and I and ready to get more!

Whoo hoo, retire at 58 huh? My brother "retired" at 50, from school teaching, and then went to work. Lobster boats, cutting wood every winter, firewood sales, and a big blueberry business. He is 59 now and just got back to Maine this weekend after a week hunting in NC and another week in VA between Danville and Martinville. One week at our camp and he heads for Anacosti Island for another week. I will never be able to do that as I chose manual labor for a living.

Kevin

Post drift, I'll pm ya if I have anything else to add off topic.

Kevin

I cut wood and sell it and buy a little coal with some of the proceeds.

I can't tell you how to make it burn more efficiently, but I can make you feel better. I really only have 2 customers; one guy burns 150 cords of tree length firewood every year (about 1 cord per day), and the other one burns 40 cords tree length. Between those two, I stay pretty busy keeping them in wood. If you burn less than that, feel lucky!

The guy that burns 40 cord, he spent two years cutting his own wood lot figuring when he bought the stove it would use his "free wood". Then after seeing the swath that 80 cords of wood required, he told me he is buying all his wood from now on.

Myself, I am happy to send them truck loads of wood, but my father had one and it burned his house down, and a few more homes around here have burned because of them. My parents and siblings we lucky to escape with their lives as they lived in a split level home and the fire ended up beneath them (in the garage) and over them (in the attic space). My biggest gripe is their 35% burn efficiency. That means for every 100 cords of wood you put into it, you get 35 cords worth of heat out...that does not seem like good math to me.

Not a thing in the world wrong with manual labor Kevin--a proud & healthy life style & don't even get me started on teachers.

KLook wrote:Whoo hoo, retire at 58 huh? My brother "retired" at 50, from school teaching, and then went to work. Lobster boats, cutting wood every winter, firewood sales, and a big blueberry business. He is 59 now and just got back to Maine this weekend after a week hunting in NC and another week in VA between Danville and Martinville. One week at our camp and he heads for Anacosti Island for another week. I will never be able to do that as I chose manual labor for a living.

Kevin