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

[FOURSEASONS]

Fourseasons:  We installed our E-Classic in Mid Oct. It is Great to find this group to help each other out.  We have been using Seasoned Hardwood & have gone through about 4 Cords since we started. We heat about 3000 sq ft along with all our domestic Hot Water/ HWBB System. I thought we would use less wood?? Happy with the operation I keep it at 185* Cleaned the ashes every week then just let it go for 1 Month and it was OK had room for another week or so all powder good burn!!! I am using the ashtrol to keep the cresote down but usually scap it off when it is Hot . We did have a problem when I used some flat slab pcs that covered the lower air chamber have to keep this open have  not messed around with poking around too much just placing logs in a stagering order. How much wood are you guys using so far this year??.  Thanks Fourseasons

[beenthere]

....... How much wood are you guys using so far this year??.  .....

So far I've averaged one wheelbarrow load of wood a day. I get around 20 wheelbarrow loads from one cord of wood. So a cord of wood every 20 days.
That is heating 3000 sq ft. and lots of days with the high below freezing, and some lows sub zero F.
No gas usage at all this heating season (so far).

[Bart May]

Beenthere,

Thank You for your response.
I’ve learned there are many variables in trying to determine the efficiency of OWBs.
I believe I saw a posting where you had a 6048?
Assuming your home and heating requirement are the same, how does the wood consumption compare to the E-Classic?   

Thanks,

Bart

[FOURSEASONS]

Hey guys Thanks for the response on the wood usuage. Worked on mine this weekend had a blockage just as others have cleaned it out completly works fine now. Noticed I am picking up some cresote on the Flue Tubes in the back this may be an issue in the Spring after heating season for us. May have to use some acid wash to get these cleaned properly any body else out there have there tubes getting zapped up we are burning all seasoned Red Oak?  May be just normal?? Thanks Fourseasons.

[stumper]

I also cleaned mine yesterday.  It was in the 40's so I took the oppurtunity.  I can not say I have much creosote in the tubes, maybe a slight coating but mainly just fly ash.

I did check the flow of the blower air and now I understand a little better why it burns out the front first.  Bringing the fan on and holding my hand infront of the blower inlet holes I could feel much more flow in the front holes and slightly more flow in the right then the left.  I double checked and all my holes where clear and unobstructed.  Kind of exlains why my front burns up first and why the hole generally is on the right side to the middle.

I plan to alter the loading based on this info placing the larger wood toward the front and more on the right.

I als have found that it burns better if I load a little wood 3 or 4 times a day.  When I loaded once (warm fall days) or twice a day I have more bridging.  I also only load 1/3 of the may up the door opening and that helps as well.

[aircmech]

Hello all fellow E-2300 owners. I finally decided to join. I read alot of this info about the E-2300 before I purchased one back in September. I finally got it the week before Christmas and Installed and started it up the same day. I had September to November to do all the plumbing and concrete, so I was all ready when it showed up. I purchased the dual fuel model, and I am very happy. I had a few problems the first week which the dealer and I worked out. Like a lot of people, I had a hard time keeping the fire lit but I adjusted to air burst on the boiler and that fixed it. Before I had time to contact the dealer, I used the paperclip method to keep it running. The other problem I had was when the gas was hooked up, the upper burner would not lite. I turned out to be air in the gas valve that I discovered by putzing around. My dealer operates the same boiler at his house, so that helped. Central Boiler says to use up to 8 inch diameter wood, but my dealer informed me he burns larger. He puts a large piece over the grate, and builds up with smaller on the sides , then large above that with more smaller on the side. I have been using that method, and I am burning wood up to around 20 inches in diameter. (only 1 or 2 of the big pieces at a time with a bunch of smaller on the sides.) If you have any questions, let me know, or if you have some good advise that would be great. I am located in the Appleton Wisconsin area if any one would like to see it in action before you buy one.   

[wi woodcutter]

Welcome airmech hope you like here. Where did you buy your E-2300? If you don't mind me asking how much do you have in it?

[aircmech]

Wi woodcutter,
I bought my boiler from a dealer in Forest Junction. If you include the plate exchanger(I have hot water heat) and all the copper for plate install, the underground pex and concrete, probably around 14,000. Kind of shocking, but comparing wood usage to my father inlaw who has a central 5048, I easily use half the amount of would considering I load my boiler about every 12 to 18 hours on a cold day, and my lengths of wood are 18 to 20 inches compared to 3 to 4 feet.

[muckamuck]

Hello everyone.  Like aircmech, I am a new e classic owner (fired up Dec 5. in Central Mass as well) and have been listening in.  Thanks to all for your collected wisdom.  My system is a big old 15 room +3 bath farmhouse (actually a cape and colonial stuck together with an add-on sunroom and finished area above garage and domestic hot water.  We used to burn 1600 gal of oil a year plus about 2 cord in a woodstove.
 
Installation: I take winter vacations and worried about freezing/power failure so I had a friend with a backhoe dig a 3' deep trench to run 1 inch thermopex about 140 feet to the classic.  We hit bedrock at 18 inches for about 50 feet of that so I used blueboard insulation on top of pipe and then used pressure treated plywood and then mounded the area to get about 25-30 inches depth.  One inch of foam board is worth a couple feet of soil as long as you lay a wide trench and have the insulation extend out 2 feet to both sides just above the pipe.  It acts like a geothermal heat trap and should keep pipes in ground from freezing indefinately, but you can still freeze in the back of the classic where the pipes emerge (see below).  I have  the duel fuel classic with water but the house has antifreeze in the house so I  use a 50 plate exchanger and run a 1/2 horse taco continuously (I think we will switch to 1/3 hp so save electricity).  Like others my fire went out on warm days so I did the paper clip trick and later programmed in the pulse. (NOTE:  the previously posted programming instructions are correct but there is no "enter" button so hit the menu button to enter) and no more problems.  The plumber charged $4000 to plumb it in and added a toekick heater in the sunroom as well.  I hope to add my outdoor electric hottub to the system at some point.  I run 2 electric lines and also ran a 6 conductor lawn sprinkler line which I hope to use to monitor the temperature and maybe use to control the pumps.
 
Stovepipe: My town wants 20 feet of smokestack so I got 4 sections of insulated pipe.  Quite a trick for one person getting it up.  I screwed 3 sections together and strapped a six foot section of perforated angleiron to the 3 pipes with 3 sets of big ideal hose clamps and the factory brace clamp in the middle.  Then I put a 16 foot 2x12 on the fork of my frontendloader tractor to use as a crane.  I tied a rope to the bottom of the 3 sections and attached the rope at the top with a balance rod slipped vertically into the angle iron. Upsydaisy with the crane to place 3 sections on top of the last section of pipe on the furnace.  Once the  pipes were in position on the furnace I screwed them on, attached 2  ten foot sections of 1 inch conduit to brace to my woodshed.  Then I reached up and untied the rope from the bottom of the 3 pipes and used the crane to lift out the balance rod at the top and free the rope.
 
Freezing:  We had an ice storm and power was out 7 days and I was worried about the pipes freezing in the back of the unit.  I lit a kerosene lamp and tucked it in the back which kept things warm until I got a generator.  Then I insultated the back access panels of the unit and put blueboard insulation as a panel sideways in the back to keep the pipes warm but leave the fan area unblocked.


I tried to copy a picture but it did not work so go to recent uploads and look at the new folder for muckamuck and you can see the pictures.




 Ventiliation:  I am worried about the fan being starved.  My concrete pad has the 16 inch slot area open for the pipes and electric so air can get in there but I blocked most of it off to insulate the pipes leaving a 5x4 inch opening at ground level.  I can feel air rushing in when the fan is on but when it snows it gets covered up.  So I think I will add a vent in the cabinet.  Maybe we need more air holes in the firebox as well.
 
Loading: I have been loading full twice a day but it was only burning about 2/3 leaving 1/3 in the firebox.  (On a very cold night 5F with 15-20 mph wind I burned up a full box in 12 hours with just a stick or two left.)  Eventually I was having problems maintaining heat and thought it was starved for air.  I asked Elliot and he said to clean out ashes blocking air holes.  I did and things are burning again. but I still worry about air supply.  So clean out the firebox when you do the ash box.  Generally put a few big (split pie shapes 10x 16 inchx23 inch ) pine in with the rest split hardwoods on the sides and I agree with other posts: big wood may not produce coals and may go out so mix in the smaller stuff as well.  All of my wood is about 23 inches long because thats what my splitter can handle and besides, I think you get less bridging problems and don't break your back lifting big logs.  I am on track to burn about 8 cords this winter.  Some smoke, but I think it is mostly steam as it disappears within 50 feet.
 
Cleaning tubes:  I thought I would clean the tubes so I got out the brush and 4 foot fiberglass rod. The middle tubes cleaned fine (just ashs- no creosote), but when I cleaned one of the top tubes the brush got stuck at the bottom.  As it turns out there are gaps in the tubes that the fiberglass rod can slip into and get stuck.  I could not get it out but the steel brush was in the ashbox.  So I ran to get some tools but when I returned the fiberglass rod had melted (some coals and hot metal down there) and the brush fell off in the ashbox so I pulled the rod out.  I recommend that you put a metal conduit over the rod like a sleeve so it does not get stuck in the small  crack. 
 
Great balls of fire:!  If you try to load with 1/3 of hot flaming wood already in the box you are asking for a fireball even with the bypass open. (I would like to install a button to manually operate the fan and selonoid to clear the smoke from the box before opening).  Over the past few weeks I had some experience with this but one time I didn't have quite enough wood and closed the door to get some more. When I came back and opened the door a huge mushroom cloud of smoke came out and then ignited and sent flame right up to the peak of my woodshed 11 feet above the ground.  I would not want anything like this monster in my house and I would caution those putting them in wood sheds unless they are made out of steel.  I also do not like the smoke which fills the woodshed so I build a 'fireball deflector' out of sheetmetal above the furnace door like a hood that deflects fireballs and smoke out the peak of the shed.  The picture is in my new folder gallery under muckamuck.
 

[beenthere]

muckamuck
Welcome to the forum.
Very interesting read on your venture.

Pics are easily posted, and you are very close.

Go back to your post, and click on "modify". Put your cursor in the post where you want the pic.  Then...

At the bottom under the blue window, click on classic uploader, and then go to your gallery.
Click on the photo you want to post, and when it comes up real size, scroll down to the line that says something about pasting in your post. When you click on that, you will answer yes to the question. Then go back to the tab with your post and you will see the url wherever your cursor was left.

Click Preview before posting to check that you've accomplished what you want.

Enjoy the forum, and look forward to more of your ideas.

[muckamuck]

thanks, that worked.

[Tom Sawyer]

Great report!  I would like to see a video of that fireball.  Maybe we could even start a contest to see who can get the biggest fireball

[stumper]

Glad to know I am not the only one with the sticking rod issue.  I actually broke mine, twisting the brush off.

[bull]

welcome aboard muckmuck.  Central MASS... What town ?? Eliott has sold quite a few furnaces in Central MASS

[muckamuck]

Oakham, same as Elliott and Crystal Rock Farm.

[jscott]

I've been reading all these posts and it loks like you guys have all solved your problems. Wish I could say that. I put my e-classic in in the beginning of November in Charlton Ma. At first it worked great and then the problem of temp. not going up. Elliot came out said wood is too green and too big. OK empty shed and split everything finer. Never solved problem. Now I'm burning three year old seasoned wood. What I can't understand is when I'm about ready to take a bulldozer to this thing then it will go up to temp and work just fine for a few days and then we go back to the 140's temps. I know all obout the hole in the bottom and to keep the air inlets clear and clean the ash dump. Day before yesterday got disgusted cleaned whole stove and haven't been able to get it over 165yet.  Today is in the forties and figured it would be no problem. I'm heating 3000 feet of new construction not some old farm house with a million holes in it. So far I have gone through sixteen cords of wood and have a lot of winter ahead of us. If anyone has an answer for this I would sure appreciate it. I'm at my wits ends. When I open the door it turns into a raging fire especially is you hod the door button on. Close the door and the temp starts to drop. It's like it isn't getting any air.

[beenthere]

It's like it isn't getting any air.

And you know that it is getting air?

Sounds like you found the problem. 

Welcome to the forum.

[jscott]

The blower motor is working and when you open the door and push the fan button you can see the air blowing and the fire takes off and burns great. Shut the door and it's all over.

[MudBud]

Jscott, are you SURE that the hole going to the reactions chamber is free and clear?  The air holes may look clear, ut if you have a block in there somewhere you choke off the fire.  Mine gets clogged with nails and staples as I burn crap junk wood.  I even burn some real green wood with no problems.  Every time I open to refill with wood I run the CB hoe pole round end down through the hole.  What happens when you leave the damper open for approx.1 hour.  This is how I get mine up to temp much quicker, especially if its down below 140.  Also did you remove the 2 round metal pieces heading down to the reaction chamber?

Hope this helps,I have only burned approx. 7 cord of junk wood so far, not even tried oak or any hard wood yet.  I am estimating 12 cord from Nov-April.

[cb6048]

Jscott

I'm in Spencer on the Charlton boarder. I went to see Elliot he was really pushing the e-classic(told me thats all he is going to sell) I was very skeptical of that stove, seem to me there were a lot that could go wrong. I ended up buying from Scott in Conn. he highly recommended the 6048. great dealer ,real professional. I went with the 6048 extremely happy I did. We have the same weather obviously, I have burned through 6 cord so far since beginning of Nov. Mostly semi dry wood and down right green. At 16 cord there is something seriously wrong with your e-classic. I won't not make this your problem I would make it Elliots........make this thing right or take it back. You spent the long dollar on that stove. There seems to be a lot of people with a lot of problems with that stove. I'm thinking they rushed it to market with to many bugs.(not that you need to hear that s**t) but again like I said at 14,000-15,000 I would make this Elliot's and CB problem real fast.