Transcription
Hey folks, welcome back to Dig DriveDIY. It is a beautiful September day, but actually to me it feels a little bit more like Christmas day because, well, today's the day I've been waiting for for for quite a while now. It's been months. You know, a couple weeks ago you saw us remove our old outdoor wood stove. This is a Crown Royal RS7400. We've had it for 18 years now. It has served us well, but it's an old conventional style of boiler, which means it uses a lot of wood. It's a young man's boiler where you're not afraid to cut as much wood as you possibly can. And as I get older, I'm looking more for the the old man boiler, the middle-aged to old man boiler, something that uses far less wood. And so that's what's coming today. Keith from Green Techch Manufacturing, Crown Royal Stoves. He's the founder. Well, he's on his way with our new stove. He's going to show me how it works, help me get it installed, and then we'll be ready to fire this thing up because even though the weather's nice right now, we know that'll all go away very soon. So, I'm fired up. I can't wait to show you what we're going to do. Of course, it's going to go right back in the same spot. All right, I'm going to wait in anticipation for Keith to arrive and then we'll see what all it takes to get this new one installed and I'll give you a detailed explanation of how it works and what it looks like and then we'll be ready to go for this winter.
>> Dig drive.
>> You made it. Long day yesterday.
>> Was it really? Great to see you, Keith.
>> Pleased to meet you. All right.
So, you saw the truck pull in the driveway and the man himself is here, Mr. Keith Horn from >> International Falls, Minnesota.
>> International Falls. It doesn't get quite as cold here as it does up there, but >> we're kind of the ice box of the nation.
>> Yeah, that's what what I've heard. But it's warm right now, but Keith has shown up with the new stove in tow. And and now we we need to do some preparations in order to get the new stove to fit where the old stove was. Some of the heights are different. Some of the the connections are different, but Keith has a plan here. So, we're going to tear into these pipes and see if we can get things set up and ready to go.
Does it look like it's going to work here, though?
>> It looks like it's going to work. Just a little trimming here and there, and we should be able to get it in.
All right. Well, there it is. It's the Crown Royal 7400E. This is the Pristine series, the gasification boiler. So, Keith and I got everything prepped over there. We got the hoses cut, the pipes cut. We're going to see if we can get this picked up. I think we're going to pick it up with a skid loader first, carry it over there, and then we got to finagle it.
All right. Well, fortunately, the 331 didn't have any trouble picking it up. So, just for the fun of it, we're going to carry this around back and have a look at it compared to the old stove. I want to see the size comparison and take a few pictures and just for fun. We don't get to do that kind of stuff too often. do now.
[Music]
Holy cow. That's a big difference. Even more than I expected. Look at that. This guy was a hungry hungry guy. Hopefully, this one's much less hungry. It's slimmer to start out with. So, yes.
>> So, there's the front. Oh, they're almost identical. That's going to be perfect. So, those hoses are going to be real close. Let's check it out pretty good. And you know what was always the problem with the other stove? There was never enough room along the sides of it to walk out of there.
>> Now you can.
>> Now we got the room. Well, the big difference is when we first built the first stove, that's what everybody was doing. Now, as the time has evolved and we got more efficient, uh you can see the difference in the size. You don't need a big firebox to heat your home because we're uh burning all the wood and getting all the gas and the heat out of it. So, and plus the heat isn't going up the chimney anymore. It's staying within the stove and extracting it from the wood.
I think what we're going to probably do is pick up the new one with the backho and carry it over there. That way, we can install it from the backyard and we don't have to try to monkey around, you know, inside the building. We'll just we'll kind of put that one in there the way I took the old one out if you're all right with that.
>> That sounds fine with me.
[Applause] Heat. [Applause] Heat. It's kind of a tight squeeze where the bucket was right up against the building. The front of the stove is against the other building and our pipes were just right there. Look at that. Wow. Good. All right. So, that's a big piece of this out of the way. We got the stove moved in here. Everything went really well. Super happy with that. And so, now we're going to start plumbing. Keith is getting his toolbox and we're making good headway. It's going to be pretty cool to see it all fire up. See those pumps run. It's all hooked up and ready to go.
That was not too bad, was it?
>> No, it went really good. I can't believe how good. Had a good partner.
>> That's good.
>> I'm I'm going to pass the apprenticeship test here. I've installed one here twice before. I'm hoping this may be my last time.
>> We might make a more efficient one.
>> That's right. That's right. I was calling this my old man stove, but maybe there's an even better one down the road. Well, when we get our plet boiler and oh >> out there, maybe you'll switch to a plet boiler down the road.
>> Sounds appealing, too. So, I think we got this is all buttoned up and ready to start putting water in it, right?
>> We can put water in it. So, this is where the vent is. And you don't fill it through there anymore or you can.
>> Yes. That's right into the water jacket. And then the float >> float goes in there.
>> Yep. And when you fill it before you fire it up, you only want to put water either 3/4 or half because once you fire it up and from the cold temperature to 180, it's going to be almost full. I'll be done. this. My other stove didn't have this. We're going to get this started filling with water. The water jacket's a really important part of this deal. I'm going to This is a soft water spot, so I'm going to put soft water in it.
Do you know off the top of your hut how much water this one holds?
>> Uh 200 or 320 gallons.
>> 320 gallon. Okay. So, it'll take it a little bit to fill.
>> Okay.
>> We'll go grab lunch and some electrical connectors.
Well, we made it back from our parts run and a nice lunch. We're working on the electrical component of it now. We had to grab a few parts for the conduit that's coming up from the bottom. And Keith and I got it routed in here now. He's working on the final wiring of the junction box that powers the fans and the water pumps. We're going to be ready to light this thing up here pretty quick. the water overfilled while we were gone, but we drained it back out already. And I got the uh the float on there showing us how full it is. What's nice this time around is they've got a they've got a connector for a garden hose down there to drain it.
All right, all the electrical is buttoned up. We've got a a joint made up in here going into our main feed. Got a nice flexible conduit running down to our existing feed line. I must say, nice job. Okay, before we get too carried away, we got to get a piece of chimney on there, which I've got. If you want to toss me the chimney cap, I'll throw the cap on. We like the caps on all all our stoves, but it's really important for the gasification.
>> Oh, yeah. Keeps the rain, snow, everything out. And it also creates a little bit of down pressure. pressure in the box. Look at that. Nice.
Okay, we got water in. Got our chimney cap on. We got our wiring done, plumbing done. It's full of water. Now we just got to see if it turns. We'll fire it up and see if it works. And then we got to And the power is on. Now, the pan is calling for heat. That's a status light on that. So, when that green light is, it's running. I'm going to go track down some drywood. And in the meantime, if you want to know how this thing works, they did a really nice explanation for me when I was up at the plant.
>> Yep.
>> And I'll let the experts speak to how how a gasification boiler works. And uh you can enjoy that while I round up some wood and then we'll be back to fire it up.
All right. Well, I am here in the ice box of the nation, International Falls, Minnesota. I've traveled all the way up here to visit Green Techch Manufacturing, and I'm getting the 7400E. It's a lot different, and there's a lot I need to learn about it. So, I'm here with Alex Schwarz from Green Tech, and you're going to walk me through this thing, right?
>> Yeah, sure am.
>> So, the E in the 7400 E, that's stands for emissions, right?
>> Correct.
>> Okay. So, this one's a lot different than mine. Mine's a conventional boiler. What you would typically just have a fire in there, ashes come out the bottom, that's it. This one's got a lot more, right?
>> Yeah. This is a little more technical. Uh so this is our pristine series. This is our 74E model. It's a gasification series uh wood boiler. And just overall the efficiency uh compared to what you're burning now is going to be night and day. I mean, you're going to notice it right off the bat.
>> All right. Well, let's check it out and we'll kind of see what this is and and you'll know right away how it's different than what I've got. Wow. A lot different on the inside. So, am I going to build my fire right on top of that thing?
>> Yep. So, the first thing you'll notice, this is uh equipped with refractory. It it burns so hot when it's gasifying that we really have to use the the refractory. It'll it'll actually warp or even uh melt metal.
>> Wow. So that the fire is built right on top of that then that what you're calling the refractory is that is it stone or
>> it's uh like a cement like a it's like a highmore it's just a like a hightemp refractory and yeah so you as your fire is burning it's actually burning upside down so it's burning downward and as it passes through these refractory blocks it gets shot with another blast of oxygen and then that gasifies all of your smoke. And as we look down here, that's your heat shield there. Your flame will come through this bottom refractory and then around the sides towards the back of the stove, which is where the heat exchangers are.
>> No kidding. Okay, so one thing we should probably point out is this is a a negative pressure stove, right? where
>> correct and it's it's drawing air from the back through the stove whereas a traditional or conventional boiler is blowing air onto the firebox from above. Right.
>> Yep. Exactly. So, it's actually pulling the air through the stove instead of pushing.
>> So, that's a big difference from mine.
>> Big difference. Yeah. You'll see the heat exchangers.
>> Oh, I like that door. Oh, wow. So, there's heat exchanger tubes in between the firebox and the water jacket. And all that hot gasified air is coming through those heat exchanger tubes and it's getting turbulence as it's coming up through those heat exchangers and then up and out your chimney.
>> And what where's the magic happen? What moves all the air?
>> Right here.
>> That's a heck of a lot more fan than what I got.
>> Yeah.
>> Right.
>> Yeah. It's I don't know exactly. I think it's a 1/3 horse,
>> but this is a this is a pretty precise part if I'm understanding it correctly. Like this fan in here is balanced and it's very important that that thing is money. Right.
>> Yeah. This thing is this thing is moving air like just an incredible amount of air.
>> Now, I noticed the handle on the front for mine is a bypass, but this one has a different the handle in the front.
>> So, I'll actually go around to the front of the stove and I can pull that handle if you want to.
>> Yeah. So this is the handle that you're doing it.
>> Gotcha. So some of the features on the back of this stove is it's got a rear clean out. So you'll take your ash rake and you know once a month you'll rake out all your fly ash from this bottom rear cleanout. As we move up the stove, you'll notice that this is got an air box. And it's equipped with an actuator and a a damper. And as this it's a spring return actuator. So when it calls for heat and it's ready to burn, it'll lift this damper plate up. And when it's done, it's reached its, you know, its set temp, let's say 180°, which is what we set these at the factory. This this will spring return. So, it's everything's shuts off. Damper comes down and it'll actually apply pressure on this damper to the airbox, which helps with uh keeping the creassoot down.
>> Yep.
>> That's the chimney right here.
>> Yep.
>> Oh, yep. I can see right out there. I think it's incredible that it can do what it does and it's all essentially still mechanical. You know, there's no no additive, no catalyst or anything like that. Like I think a lot of people have that misconception sometimes. Yeah, it's a more complex design, but it's still pretty simple.
>> Yep. Really appreciate the time and uh
>> if I have any questions, you know, get your number.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay.
>> For sure.
So, now we will light the first fire after I get the moisture meter. So, we're going to learn a little bit about dry firewood because it's not something I've always or not something I've worried about too much with the old conventional boiler.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. That's very critical on gasifications that you burn nice dry wood.
>> And so what is the recommendation on percentage?
>> We like to see anywhere from 25% down to 18% somewhere in that.
>> Oh, really? Okay.
>> EPA says they like to see it 20%, but uh we allow it. And basically to power it on there. Now it's ready to test.
So, we ran down to the neighbors and grabbed a little firewood. This is some ash. Typically, all you have to do is take this and shove it in. So, we'll test the moisture here. So, right now you're at 19.2%.
>> That's about ideal.
>> That is good. I'm going to show you if you would want to get a split. When people test their firewood, they always like to go in here. We'll see what it is here. See, you can almost I'll uh So, it's 7.9% on the end. And it was uh 19 there.
>> So, now the real true test is to take this and split it and then test it. Okay? and we'll see what the moisture because when you do it when you're burning your wood that's how you want to do it is test it. So now we'll put the tester in this way and you're seeing we're at 20.8. So it climbed up. So every time you do a piece of wood if you don't if if you test it where it's been split for a while or on the ends it's always going to be drier. It's always wetter. The moisture stays within the wood.
>> Sure. So that's why we always say when you're burning, get new firewood, cut it, and you'll know where your firewood moisture is.
>> If you want to fire it up, we'll put the first fire to it.
>> Let's fire it up. Wow.
>> It's all happening so fast.
>> We'll throw one piece of wood paper in there and then I'll throw some wood on top of it. Paper's got to be at 2%.
[Music]
We'll shut the door and let her go for a minute.
>> So, you close it all the way.
>> Yep.
>> See, before with my other stove, I'd used leave the door crack.
>> You needed air and everything. It's getting air in it. It's been almost 20 minutes now.
>> Where are we at?
>> We are at uh 67 right now.
>> What was it when we started? 6
>> 62.
>> 62. Okay.
>> I do believe it'll take a while. It's heating heating all the steel up and that
>> steel and the water.
>> Yep. So,
>> and we're really probably going to see the water rise up, too, on the float, right?
>> Yep. We'll watch that as it gets hot.
>> It's only half right now, but it's warming up. I'm I'm anxious to see inside the firebox. And when it gets up to temperature, we're going to fire up the pumps, too. And I want to see how those work. They're different pumps than what we've had before. Boy, it's so much physically smaller, too.
Y
>> there's some of that condensation you're talking about.
>> Yep.
>> It's got a little drip tray right here just to catch that condensation. Anytime you light it up when it's cold, you're going to have some of that. Right.
>> Yeah, that's right. And then once it's up to temp, you'll it'll go away. You said that I won't have to like traditionally I would open the door, stir the ashes and the coals around to get a nice bed.
>> On a gasification, you want to leave everything where it is. It's not like raking your wood around and leveling it up. You just want to open the door, fill it, shut the door. The only time you're ever going to move something if you got one piece of wood way in the back that stuck up. You can knock it down. But it's much easier just to open your door, fill the wood boiler, shut the door, and go in.
>> That's going to cut down on some time, too, I tell you.
>> Yep. So, we got the thing going. We're waiting for it to come up to temperature.
>> Yep. We need to do a water treatment. Water treatment. We'll do that. You could do it in a couple days. The thing I wanted to show people, and I know you're well experienced with it, but for new people, you let the stove run for a day or two to make sure you don't have any leaks so you don't put the chemical in. And then add the chemical and then it let it run for a day or so. And in the uh water treatment, you're going to get two test bottles. You're going to get a gallon of chemical depending on each stove. And the most important thing what people do, they forget to pull out there's two shipping boxes and two labels that they have to fill out. They usually throw these in the stove and burn them.
>> So then they call us and say they didn't get the things which we understand. They're very
>> hidden in that. So basically all they have to do is once the stove is up and running and for a couple days with the chemical so it gets thoroughly mixed take a sample in a good spot and then tighten it up. The shipping label is for the box. You put the boxes together and then put cut the label off and put it on the bottle and then the shipping label goes on the box and send it. It goes to North Carolina. And make sure when you fill it out, all your information, email is very important cuz they like to email the results. We get a copy, the customer gets a copy.
>> Nice.
>> And that's all that's to it.
>> And this is how our warranty is. If you miss a year, you will lose your warranty. Very strict on that.
>> So you got to send a sample in every year.
>> Every year. Every year.
>> And that maintains your warranty validity. Y
>> because I mean the stove and the steel is only as good as the water you're putting in it.
>> Yep. Right.
>> And what we talked about earlier today, uh there's becoming more chlorides. Chlorides will eat a stove up. It doesn't matter what steel it is, it'll eat it up. The only steel it won't touch is titanium. And you can afford to build it. So when I tell people to test their water, they just bought a stove. It's an investment for them. So, take care of it. It's very easy to take a water sample, send it in. The test lab tells you what to do. And if they tell you to add a half a gallon or a quart and then retest, add a half a gallon. Run it for a day and retest. Send another sample. It's really easy to do.
>> Nice.
So, the pumps are actually something really exciting, too, cuz they're completely new. I wasn't even aware of them, but Keith said they're way more efficient than the old style Taco pumps.
>> These here, all the pumps, whether it's Taco or Grunfos, I love Taco. These are the new ECM. They've been doing them for about four years by 28. Regular pumps are no longer going to be available. They're getting rid of them. They're going all ECM. So, your old stove had 111. So, we put something on here comparable. We went with the 26E high efficiency. You're going to run 60 to 80% less electricity on them. And you can control the water flow on them. We'll plug them both in and get them running.
>> I hear it barely.
>> Yep.
>> Quiet.
>> And when you start them up, we'll start on the 26 E or the 34s. You start them up on high and then we're going to turn them down here and we'll go on the low part of medium and low for what you need and we'll do it to the same one. So you can control your flow gallons per minute and everything. So that will be awesome for burning wood. Our obviously our highest utility bill is electricity and it can be 3 400 bucks a month
>> and that's a lot of people. I mean in well Ohio is really bad with prices and everything but with these new pumps plus the biggest selling point on the ECMS and the biggest killer of a pump is air and if you get air in them it'll tear them up. It doesn't matter what brand they are. So, with these pumps, they'll actually shut down and rock back and forth until the air is out and then they take off and running. So, you don't lose a pump.
>> Nice.
>> Because I've had people where they put a pump in and 3 weeks it's burnt out because they had air in them.
>> Now, I can't hear them running now. Are they?
>> That's They're quiet. They're that quiet.
>> That They're quiet. There's some condensation water running out of here, too.
>> Yep. Boy, they are quiet. Wow. Okay,
>> I'll turn it I'll turn this one up and you should be able to hear. Oh, yeah. Big difference. Wow. That one's going to the shop. So, this side goes to the shop. This side goes to the house. Now, we'll turn the stove back on and let it do its job. And the condensation that's uh when you first fire it up with the cold water and everything, once it's up to temp, it goes away.
>> Sure.
>> So, and so will the smoke on the stove.
>> Uh-huh. Okay. So, this isn't This was normally my ash pan where I would pull ashes out, but I'm not going to have to do it as frequently, you don't think? How often? once a week until you learn it. Like your conventional stove that you probably took out 100 gallons of ash, you'll be lucky to get 10 gallons a year.
>> Really?
>> Yeah. It pulverizes, burns it right up.
>> Wow.
>> Okay. You'll be much happier, I'm hoping, you're traditional, cuz you're going to burn less wood. Oh yeah.
Well, I think we're there, huh?
>> We made it.
>> That was a good
>> It didn't blow up on us.
>> We didn't We didn't get killed by electrical or anything today. Everything went smooth.
>> We didn't flood the basement. We're We're We're That's a win all the way around. I'm I'm super excited to try this out. And uh super grateful to be trying this pristine series, too. So, it's a lot different. I've got a lot to learn, but I feel pretty confident now having been told several times.
>> Yep. It's a big learning curve. I can tell you today how to do it, but you're going to play with it and learn yourself. But the big thing is just open the door, throw the wood in, shut the door, and go in the home.
>> So, it's just you don't have to rake it around like the traditional ones. And
>> yeah,
>> and the ash removal is way less. You'll be good.
>> It's going to be different. All right. Well,
>> thanks so much.
>> Thank you. Appreciate it. And please give us a call.
>> I will
>> anytime.
>> I'll be sending those water samples. And if you're interested in finding out more about these Crown Royal stoves, these guys are just a phone call away. There's information in the description down below. You can find them. In my opinion, it's the the best boiler on the market, bar none. And uh I'm pretty confident that the next 20 years are covered.
>> Yep.
>> So, all right. Thanks so much for clicking on this video. Hope you liked it. We got a lot to learn, a lot to come yet in the future, too. So, thanks so much for being here. Hope that you liked it and if we're lucky, we'll see you in the next one. Thanks again, Keith.
>> Thank you. Appreciate it. Hopefully you have fun with your new toy.
>> I I will. That was great.
>> I'm glad it went pretty well.
>> Next time it'll be the plet boiler.