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Post by peterberg on Mar 2, 2019 12:30:22 GMT -8
Every run the CO went through the roof at some point. I couldn't find out what went wrong, whether it being loaded too much with scrap wood or the wind was playing false notes. In the mean time the draft limiter arrived, with this mounted and half a load of not-so-dry ash wood produced better results. But then every run after that went haywire again. I even replaced the floor channel with the smaller one but to no avail.
Finally, it dawned on me I was using bigger blocks from industrial pallets at the bottom of every load. And somewhere during every burn I spotted small puffs of black smoke in both the combustion chambers. So I loaded the box solely with these suspiciously pieces of fuel and got a burn which was as dirty as my very first attempt with mass heaters. I presume those pallets were impregnated with very nasty stuff which let the chimney exit smoking like in old days 25 years ago.
I ditched the entire stuff from the same source in the thrash container and switched back to the not-so-dry ash. First run was medium dirty, presumably caused by the goo that lined the barrels. Next one was nice but O² went too low and the CO went to the roof again. I switched the floor channel for the largest one and did a good run, no problems at all. Yesterday I did another run which happened to be excellent again.
One week of testing down the drain. Please be aware some scrap fuel isn't suitable for these high-performance combustion cores. Lord knows what poisonous muck was rising from my chimney...
Pallets that are marked with the letters HT are OK, those letters means Heat Treated.
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Post by Vortex on Mar 2, 2019 12:56:49 GMT -8
Are they the blocks that are made of compressed wood chips? If so they would have to contain a waterproof glue, otherwise they would disintegrate as soon as they got wet.
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Post by peterberg on Mar 2, 2019 13:54:55 GMT -8
Are they the blocks that are made of compressed wood chips? If so they would have to contain a waterproof glue, otherwise they would disintegrate as soon as they got wet. No, not the compressed wood chips, I won't use those anyway. All of this pallet material had the same properties, it smelled oily-like when heated gently.
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Post by Vortex on Mar 2, 2019 15:21:35 GMT -8
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Post by peterberg on Mar 3, 2019 0:54:34 GMT -8
Could be the paint if they're painted. No paint, I won't burn wood with paint on it. Or glued in any way.
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Post by Vortex on Mar 3, 2019 5:52:03 GMT -8
Only other things I can think of are; very resinous pine, or to damp, or to dry from the heat treatment. I once had some kiln dried birch that smelled sweet like a baked pudding, it was really light and so dry it just all ignited at once, no matter how you stacked it or lit it.
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Post by wiscojames on Mar 3, 2019 6:20:23 GMT -8
Methyl bromide? Pyrethrins? Maybe these are "only in the u.s." phenomena.
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Post by peterberg on Mar 3, 2019 11:43:07 GMT -8
Methyl bromide might be the case here, although it could be any other impregnated nasty. I had two of those pallets, they were old and grey ones from the times before the HT IPPC pallet became standard.
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graham
Junior Member
Posts: 74
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Post by graham on Mar 3, 2019 17:59:19 GMT -8
I only grab newish looking HT stamped pallets to burn.
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Post by hof on Mar 4, 2019 11:37:42 GMT -8
Try using MDF and plywood pieces. Very interesting.
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Post by wiscojames on Mar 4, 2019 11:44:12 GMT -8
The adhesives, resins and flame retardants in mdf and plywood might not be good to burn. I'd stick to scrap pine lumber, or hardwood scraps if you have those available.
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Post by ronyon on Mar 6, 2019 21:01:46 GMT -8
No matter what they were treated with, they maybe contaminated by their cargo, or the industrial environment. Just curious, what becomes of the nails in your burns?
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Post by peterberg on Mar 7, 2019 2:06:07 GMT -8
Just curious, what becomes of the nails in your burns? The nails remain in the ashes, sometimes fused together. Lots of nails in the ashes also have the effect of leaving less charcoal. Presumably because the steel pins tend to distribute the heat better through the ashes. Akin to a cup of milk in a microwave: it will become more even in temperature when there's a teaspoon in the milk.
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