E-Classic 2300 is now up and running in Central Mass

[stumper]

Jscott- It sounds like you have something very wrong.  I am heating 3,200 square feet with some cathedral ceiling in central Maine and I have only used 2.5 coards of good wood and 2/3 of a cord of junk aspen.  With no problems maintaining temp with weekly cleanings of the reaction chamber and monthly cleanings of everything.  You seem to be going through enough wood to heat 4 houses.

I would suggest you clean everything.  Then with things apart check the air flow through all the holes and closely examine the by-pass door for leaks.  You should be able to feel air flow through each of the holes.  I would place the brightest light you have in the chimney shining at the by-pass and then closely look for light leaking.  Then do the same with the light in the fire box.  I would also look and make sure everything is working correctly in the rear of the unit (water flowing in the correct direction, selonoids working correctly, fan woking correctly, air getting to the fan).  I would also check for excessive heat demand in the house.  If you can I would remove the demand from the wood boiler and see if you can reach and maintain temps with out any load.  Have you checked for excessive heat loss in the thermo-pex piping?

If all that does not reveal the problem I would ask the dealer to come and examine your unit and I would hire a solid fuel heating technician to examine your set up.

[terra8186]

If you have air flowing into the boiler and sure everything is clean, then I would check the exhaust.  If you have been burning green wood, could you have creoste in your chimmney blocking the exhaust?  I have also read on this forum about a chimney cap blocking the exhaust.  Do you have this?

[jscott]

thanks Stumper for the info but I tried all that. I turned the oil burner in the house up to 185 so as not to create any load on it and it didn't make any difference. Kind of sucks burning 16 cord of wod and still burning oil. The confusing part of the whole thing is now today the thing is running perfect and probably will for the next several days and then it will go back to it's 140-165 mode. Like I said how can something so simple be so complicated.

[jscott]

Thanks Terra but the chimney is fine. no blockage of any kind. I talked to CB about it and they are sending out a higher volume fan to see if that will solve the problem. Sure hope that solves the problem.

[Hackberry]

Jscott,

This is a wild guess but the next time the unit does not come up to temp. try this.  Open up the back doors and remove the air box cover.  Check to make sure the solenoids are open.  The top one should be open 1/2 inch and the bottom should be open 3/8 of a inch.  If their open, disconnect the power and lift up the solenoid caps and shine a light in to see if something is blocking the air.  Your problem has been bugging me 1/2 the day.

Good Luck,

Hackberry

[stumper]

It is a troubling problem.  Burning the wood up faster then it should, but not getting the heat.  That made me think there was a problem with the by-pass door, because I know the one time I forgot to close the door I burnt a lot of wood in the hour till I discovered it. 

Next time you have the problem take the back cover off the chimney and see if you have smoke leaking by the by-pass.  Take a stick of something you can reach in with from the outside and lightly push on the by-pass door to be sure it is sealing well.

If you have ruled out excessive load, then we are left with very poor efficency. 

I assume you are burning reasonably good wood.  Heck even if you were burning Balsa and Bass wood I would not expect you to use 16 cords in a "southern" state like Mass

I hope the fan helps but I would expect it would cause more wood usage.

[MudBud]

Also tell us what they send for a fan in case one of us needs a retrofit in the future.  If they are sending a bigger one I wonder if they know something we dont.

[jscott]

Thanks Hackberry I'll try that but if their blocked why does it work right some of the time? That's the part that puzzles me. That just about eliminates everything. I think they hit it on the head with the fan. That's what it act like cause when you open the door and let the air in it takes off. Close the door and it's all over. I've seen electric motors that will sometimes drag and sometime work right. Sure hope that cures it.

[jscott]

Thank Stumper I'll check that out in the morning.

[jscott]

OK Mudbud will do.

[RustyM]

jscott - have you emptied the ashes from your fire box?  I had one day where I experienced issues like yours, and it was clearly an exhaust problem.  I cleaned ashes from the ash dump area and also cleaned my turbulator tubes, but that didn't help.  I could see air that the grate wasn't plugged, but I had a good deal of ash buildup around the grate.  I finally concluded that the excess ash in the firebox was sealing off the exhaust anytime I placed a sizable log over the top of the grate.  I shoveled out the majority of the firebox ash (saving some coals) and haven't had the problem since.

[njcandyman]

Hello to all and thanks for all the info on this site i will be firing up my e2300 tonight and i just want to make sure that the setting on the FirsStar  controller with the defaults setting will work any help and tips would be great.

thanks again!!

[smlkdl]

I saw the post regarding problems keeping the temp up.  I had the same problem, even after cleaning the fire box and reaction chamber.  Try shutting it down and pulling off the upper solenoid in back  (two hose clamps, pretty easy).  I found mine chock full of creosote.  Once I cleaned it out, she worked like a charm.

[jscott]

checked it out today a little bit of creasote but nothing to casuse a problem..

[MudBud]

I spoke with a colleague today who has a E2300 as I do.  Also his neighbor installed one in November as well, except he got the Dual Fuel E2300.  It seems as most of us have had issues with the firebricks coming out, his did the same.  However once that happened his firebox started developing water leaks.  He got a hold of an ultrasonic tester and found out that what was supposed to have been 1/4" plate steel was less than 1/8".  He called the local vendor who tried welding it with a small wirefeed welder but couldn't as the metal was too thin.  They got ahold of CB and a new one was brought in and installed during the winter...all their cost.

I will be doing the ultrasonic testing this spring after the heating season to determine if they tried to take a shortcut by using the firebricks and less than desirable metal.

Whats next?

[rpote]

MudBud,

what device did he use to do the testing? I'd like to look at mine. I get over your way to service some accounts at the Kittery WWTP and Navy Yard. If it's something that could be rented, I'd consider it to check mine out.

My biggest problem seems to be losing heat but I have lousy PEX runs - 180' with poor insulation (home made job). either going to do some foam insulation in the ditch this summer or rip them out and put in ThermoPex. Probably going to go thru about 11 cord of ash this winter. Not bad but I know losing heat to ground where snow always melts off. What did you use on pipe runs?

[MudBud]

RPote, I don't know what he used, however most oil companies now offer ultrasonic testing for oil tanks.  I will look into what he may have used. I used the CB insulated pex line, down about 19-24" and on the 19" area I layed pink foam insulation, 2"thick.  It does pretty well for us. I think I paid about $13/ft and I only went about 65 feet underground.  I had ledge to deal with as well.  I have seen some of the other insulation out there, I wouldn't go with anything but the CB stuff, even if I didn't buy the unit.

Keith

[stumper]

Keep us posted on the tool used to determine the steel thickness. 

I was very concerned with loosing heat on my run, so I went down 4 1/2 feet.  Layed down 6 inch under drain and stone, then 2 inches of foam, thermo pex, and 2 inches of foam on each side, then 2 inches over the top.  Not a hint of snow meltingover the pipe, but spring will be the most revealing time.

[needful]

Hello everybody,
i'm reading all the advise what could be plugged or not working to find out why the 2300 is using that much wood and is not performing.
I know it sounds silly, but are you a 100% sure that the supply and return are hooked up right. It happens that the connections way up there in the insulation (which in some cases you have to cut away) are overlooked and then the boiler performs exactly as described. You get heat for a while and the nothing until it builds up again.
So far i am happy i'm heating 2 buildings 6000 sqf., domestic water and used 10 cords of pine and spruce. This winter so far was very cold 50 days between -30 to -40.
Cheers

 

[jscott]

update on the wood pig. Dealer came out today and installed the new fan. Same as the other one except it has more fins per inch. Suppose to produce more air. Doesn't seem to make any difference. He says it's all in the wood and it has to be very dry to work. The wood I'm using is oak and it was cut two years ago. During the day I use pine and that was cut four years ago. He said it doesn't matter when it was cut it's how dry it is that counts. He said that you have to start cutting and stacking your wood now and let the sun beat on it all summer and in September put it under cover to keep it dry and then the stove will work. I don't know where  I could find wood like this. I even tried ash which I was told you can cut today and burn tomorrow. He said no. I'm up to about seventeen cord of wood so far this winter and would like to know where you guys get your wood that will burn in this thing?