Polar G2Plus wood boiler update. My First 4 months #21

Рет қаралды 13,060

Күн бұрын

I review my first 4 months of a Polar G2 Plus outside wood Boiler by looking back on why I chose to go for a gasification type stove over a conventional. From a plugged nozzle too being undersized I talk about the learning curve from a conventional wood stove to a gasification wood burner.
The coldest Manitoba winter for a long while has been a real test for the Polar. Portage and Main wood boilers along with Polar are constructed here in Manitoba at the Piney Plant.
00:00 intro
1:25 My routine on a wood stoke
6:58 Why choose a gasification
7:43 What is gasification a wood stove
9:13 The old Beast a conventional wood stove
12:18 My thoughts on the first 4 months
See Travis explaining the workings of a Polar gasification here full video
• My first look at a Hig...
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For more information on Polar OWB
www.polarfurnace.com/products

Пікірлер: 41

@andrewscott2866 2 жыл бұрын

I've been wondering how you're making out this year! Getting a year ahead when you're burning that much wood is something I've never been able to achieve. This is really valuable information for me, I really appreciate you documenting your experience 👍👍

@curriecountryliving 2 жыл бұрын

I may be cheating but I buy 12 cord and have it brought in. Cost me about $1700 CDN and then because I have a fairly large family we process it over the thanks giving weekend. The rest of the year I try and cut on my own property to make up the difference.I will have to plan better as the gasification doesn't like unseasoned so won't get away with just anything thrown in. Thanx for the comment Andrew

@richarddabkowski2896 2 жыл бұрын

Fairly confident those "clinkers" that you mention are different minerals in the wood that aren't getting burned

@GENECARP 2 жыл бұрын

Nice overview, I’m running a Greenwood 100

@peteantos-ketcham3493 2 жыл бұрын

Great video Greg - thanks for all the info. and footage. For consistent firewood length I've had good luck with the Mingo paint marker.

@curriecountryliving 2 жыл бұрын

I have to check that out Pete. Thanx

@tonyd4697 2 жыл бұрын

Great honest information, think I will stick with my conventional boiler.

@curriecountryliving 2 жыл бұрын

What do you run Tony?

@tonyd4697 2 жыл бұрын

@@curriecountryliving I been running a Heatmor unit for the last 22 years. I really identify with your situation. I run exactly the same way you had the beast set up.

@tractordan933 2 жыл бұрын

I have been operating a CB 6048 for 17 yerars (seasons) and know the end of it's life is coming soon. Polar is one of the replacements I am considering. I appreciate your honesty and thanks for sharing your knowledge. I live in the US (Ohio) and we are not nearly as cold as you but each year is different as you know. Having a local dealer is a real problem here.

@jasonchopp6922 Жыл бұрын

Stick with the central boiler. I just switched from polar to a central classic edge hdx

@oby-1607 Жыл бұрын

You have a lot of ash in the secondary chamber. I rarely have to clean anything in mine but my wood in never over 20% moisture. The only real maintenance is cleaning the fan once in a while. Replacement fan on mine is quoted at over $675.00 so I hope it lasts a long time. It does shut down when it gets the water up to temperature and restarts when the water cools down a bit. I will be building a small shed over mine to protect it from the elements soon.

@davidcarrow6851 Жыл бұрын

Poplar has about 1/2 the BTU'S of oak. I'd cut and split small the oak and get it drying

@norb231 7 ай бұрын

Wear a p100 respirator cleaning the ash the fine particles are not heathly long term.

@Jack-vx5ym Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the really valuable video! Curious if you made the switch to the G3 and if it meets your needs? I was looking at the G3 myself and comparing it to the Woodmaster Clean Fire 900 for its even larger output.

@ExpeditionPowerWagon 2 жыл бұрын

I think I will be purchasing one of these. Thinking I need the G3 based on your experience. I’ll be heating my house (3300sq feet) plus hot water, attached double garage (only 3-5°c, 600ish sq feet) and a 32x40 shop. Shop and house have natural gas heat for backup. From northern Alberta so it sounds like I have similar temps to you. I work 10+ hrs a day so I need 11hr burn time at -20°c.

@curriecountryliving 2 жыл бұрын

In hindsight I should of determine what my 2 18KW electric boilers produced in BTU's to heat the area I wanted and I would of realized the G2plus was undersized for a 12 hour burn. Are your buildings fairly well insulated?

@ExpeditionPowerWagon 2 жыл бұрын

@@curriecountryliving the walls and ceilings are very well insulated. House has older windows and doors, shop has lightly insulated wood doors. My gas boiler is 160,000 btu, my shop has a 80,000 radiant tube gas heater and the garage is unheated but currently stays at 0-5° on its own.

@curriecountryliving 2 жыл бұрын

@@ExpeditionPowerWagon That might even push the G3 for size. I would give the boys in PA Sask a shout and see what they think. I worked with a dealer out of Manitoba here so not sure of the network in Alberta www.portageandmainboilers.com

@holysirsalad 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the update! I found your previous videos about your Smoke Dragon a week ago and I've been looking forward to this! Too bad the G2 Plus was undersized, would've been great to get a more accurate comparison between the two units... weather notwithstanding. I think in one of your previous videos, the rep (Travis?) indicated that primary intake air could be increased by adjusting the damper stop in the back. I'm curious if that's something you experimented with? I have a Central Boiler Classic CL5036 which is just about as bad as your old Beast. It's a box in a box instead of a barrel in a barrel with a convoluted top. To be honest it seems like it was "designed" to maximize the amount of welding hours rather than anyone who was familiar with even a basic fireplace. I've managed to improve the efficiency somewhat by making a few modifcations, but it's still a very hungry thing. I do like that I can put nearly anything in it as far as wood quality, or non-wood items like piles of bark and sawdust, oily shop towels, kitchen grease, and so on. I've come to the same conclusion that even the finest multipass pales in comparison to a gasifier and cutting wood is the bulk of my labour, and it would be real nice to cut that down. I hadn't even heard of Polar until a couple weeks ago so I'm keenly interested in these units! I see those same ash pucks develop in my stove. It's definitely a result of condensation. If I'm burning dry wood they don't show up at all. With wet wood this starts to appear and short-cycling exacerbates this. I've found that on warmer days, if the thing is overfed, long periods of smouldering result in a lot of water coming out and then condensing and dripping down. The ash inevitably gets cooler since burns are shorter and less frequent and these clumps form. That these could block a nozzle on a gasifier is something I never thought of before but makes total sense to me

@curriecountryliving 2 жыл бұрын

I have played with the primary and secondary air adjustments. Hard to say at this point if it helped or not. I think because I've undersized it and our winter has been brutal this year but I can't tell if it extends burn time or not. Thanx for the comment and info

@holysirsalad 2 жыл бұрын

@@curriecountryliving Thanks for getting back to me! I guess if it's hard to tell then it probably hasn't helped enough - unless your weather is anything like here in Ontario where it goes 2 to -22 in 18 hours. I was wondering, what is the steel in these things? Polar's site doesn't mention whether it's mild or stainless

@curriecountryliving 2 жыл бұрын

@@holysirsalad mine is SS bought in 2021 on G2polar+.

@holysirsalad 2 жыл бұрын

@@curriecountryliving Thank you so much!!!

@dumbugy Жыл бұрын

Did you move to G3 as planned? Happy with your purchase?

@SA-qg2bv 2 жыл бұрын

Hi ! I was wondering how your boiler is doing ? Greeting from Belgium !

@ericgebhart5775 Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the great video. Can or do you use your polar in the summer to heat your hot water. I have a hardy h4. I have been using it year round since 2004. Looking for something that don’t use so much wood. I have a Heatmaster dealer about 20 miles from me. Thank in advance.

@curriecountryliving Жыл бұрын

No I don't and with a gasser you wouldn't want to as the heat load may not be enough to cycle the burn times causing problems.

@hp1468 2 жыл бұрын

I also have european made gasification wood boiler (indoor ). And here it is mandatory to have big enough water storage tank linked to the boiler to enable the boiler to run at max burning rate (6.5 % O2 in my case) - better burning and less air polution. If the burning process is stalled i get more creosot build up and less efficient burn. I'm interested if your Polar works at max burning rate all the time, or does it stall the burning process (when the house doesn`t more heat)?

@curriecountryliving 2 жыл бұрын

Yes it stalls the burning but only when the water temp in boiler is reached ( I'm my case 190 with a 10 degree off set) So if the house calls for heat the Polar won't start a burn cycle until the temp drops to around 180. depending on the outside tempuure my Burn cycles rum anywhere from 2 hours to 6 hours. Thanx for the comment

@JimmY-jf3rw Жыл бұрын

Heatmaster g10000 makes a 195k btu 8 hr burn which sounds like you would do better with

@forevergreentree1 2 жыл бұрын

Greg...I'm not too far from you....I'm in North Idaho. I have been running a conventional for 24 years. It is a Turbo Burn made in Spokane but they went out of business. I may get a new stove but I want it to be able to burn waste oil. I have a Kagi Waste Oil burner that bolts to the door of the conventional stove. I burn both waste oil and wood depending on the time of the year. I like the oil in mid winter because it is automatic and I don't have to mess with anything.....what stove do you recommend?

@curriecountryliving 2 жыл бұрын

@ Forever I'm of no help in regards to oil burners. You say it bolts to the door? is it completely seperate from the wood burning unit?

@curriecountryliving 2 жыл бұрын

...do you have to modify the wood boiler to make the oil burner work? This would probably void their warranty on a new unit so I would be looking at a used conventional if you old one needs replaced

@walterhiegel3020 Жыл бұрын

I have 2 questions. First one is what do you mean by plugging up the chute? Is that with creosote or embers? The second one is with a stove filled with dry wood could you put a little of the "trash wood" on the top and let that burn?

@jorrick66 Жыл бұрын

I don’t have a polar, I have a central boiler so I’m not sure about the plugged chute on the polar. I have had an instance where I got lazy and the ashes filled up the lower round chamber. Once that gets plugged and doesn’t let air and heat down, you’re pretty much done until you clean out the lower chamber. Like he said, they’re air tight, and once you choke off their exhaust/chimney(which is through the floor and in the lower chamber) they just kill the fire. Depending on how much you’re burning, once a week I usually give gasification chamber a good cleaning out. As far as the junk wood on top, you can, but it’s not really ideal. There’s a pretty sizable learning curve to gassers. I tell everybody, “take everything you know about burning in a wood boiler and throw it out the window. It doesn’t apply to a gasser.” They operate more so on a coal bed than big rounds/splits for long burn times like traditional boilers. I use 6”-9” splits 20”-22” long. You want 20% or less moisture, ideally, so you can make coals. The smoke and gas from the wood goes into the lower chamber where heat from the coals and air combust it and produce very high amounts of heat. That heat passes through the heat exchanger on its way out of the chimney. Bigger splits, or junk wood, means you need a bigger coal bed for the stove to operate efficiently. Long winded, sorry about that, but hope it helps!

@curriecountryliving Жыл бұрын

The proper term should of been nozzle where the air is pulled through the coal bed into the reaction chamber Walter. I was mixing green wood with dry wood in March trying to get through the season but eventually ran out of dry wood to mix ....it was an unusually long winter