by matt walker » Sun Feb 08, 2015 4:22 pm
Good questions. I've been meaning to write a follow up and just haven't been feeling like writing much lately, although I've been marshaling my thoughts on this thing, and getting an incredible amount done around the 'stead lately. I'm remiss in all sorts of updates! Anyway...here's a quick answer to your questions and I promise I'll do a thorough follow up soon to this thing. It's kinda overwhelming as there's so much I want to cover.
So, for the Pre Port air, after much experimenting, for now I've settled on what I was referring to as v5. About 10% secondary/9% primary. The tube is the rectangle stock for secondary intake along the floor, and the vertical output side is 2" round pipe with a 3/8" slot and no top. I built a door, what a pain in the ass! Made a huge difference in performance. The primary comes in just at the lower mid section of the fuel, and there is a plenum under the window that shoots air wash up across the window. That puts on an awesome show, I need to film it for you guys. Here's the door...
...and I tiled more of the bench...(your favorite Manny!)
...and I built this wood dolly/ottoman/fire-tending stool thing. Really cleaned up the hearth, and keeps all the chips and dirt contained. I love this thing!....
As far as the bottom of the riser goes, this heater is barely blowing anything past the port. I cleaned it last night as a matter of fact, as I was feeling guilty since I hadn't even really looked in there for a couple weeks. It was really clean, not much in the port/riser at all. It is a pain to clean back past the port, but you can stick a little shovel or stick in there no problem and pull stuff back. As you know, it doesn't need to be perfect, just remove any build up once in a while. I take out my secondary air tube and this thing cleans much easier than the J overall, although the process is a bit dirtier. About the same as shoveling out a wood stove, with way less volume.
Part of the reason the update has been slow is that this thing is an incredible heater. I am continually blown away by just how good it is. And then I will have a bad start or a cold load and I will smoke out my whole yard! And then an hour later I'm like, dang this is an awesome heater! So, it's amazing, and it's finicky. I'm curious to open up the flues when things warm up. I definitely have more smoke events than I did with the J, and occasionally it will take me a few minutes to get over it. And then it's warm and it's the best heater I can imagine. Overall, I'm amazed at this thing. It is just a great, great heater. After running it for a while I was thinking it wasn't doing so great on the numbers just based on guessing from watching it over the weeks. I put a load of fuel in one night, nothing special, just a regular nightly load of fuel from my stacks, and stuck the Testo in it. Same flat line chart, CO down below 10ppm, efficiency at around 90%. So, yeah, I'm endorsing it for sure, but it's going to require a good operator and good fuel to be a success. Here's the latest Testo chart.