Archive for January, 2009

I purchased my EKO 60 a couple years ago before I began selling boilers.  The EKO 60 that I purchased was actually one of a few boilers that were designed and modified to be used as outdoor boilers.  The company that I bought it from was trying to take on some of the outdoor wood boiler market.  Unfortunately, due to high manufacturing costs, the units couldn’t be competitively priced.

These units were built with an insulated stainless frame and roof to house the boiler.  Inside the steel housing, the unit has a 100 gallon tank and circulating pump.  The boiler was designed to be a “plug and play” installation.  All you needed to do was connect the electric and plumbing on the two ports coming out of the 100 gallon tank.

When I first purchased the EKO 60, I used it outdoors for a cold season until I was able to build my barn.   I have installed a 500 gallon storage tank in my basement.  The tank is a used propane tank which was professionally inspected, cleaned and modified to add the plumbing ports. 

This summer I built my barn and replaced the 100 gallon tank that came with the boiler with a 250 gallon insulated tank placed just outside the boiler housing.  The 250 gallon tank is a used propane tank as well.  I had a base ring installed on one of the rounded ends; I did that so I could stand it up and save floor space.

When building the barn last summer, I left an opening the size of the face of the steel boiler housing.  I pulled the boiler flush with the outside wall and installed flashing to seal/connect it to the wood siding.  Having the boiler facing the outside is very convenient; I can load wood without worrying about smoke issues etc.  I can treat it more like I did my outdoor wood boiler with the exception of the dry wood needed for the gassifyer.

A couple of these photos show what it looks like inside the barn.  The one photo shows the boiler enclosure with the insulated removable side panels off.  There are removable panels on the opposite side as well.  The back side of the boiler has doors on it similarly to the front doors.

There is a draft meter mounted on the side wall of the boiler.  I have been experimenting with different draft control as I had lots of trouble with too much draft.  I’ve learned that without the draft meter (Dwyer Mark II), I wouldn’t have known what was going on in relation to my burn variation.  It has helped me to configure my boiler’s air mixtures to achieve great burns.

This is the video that accompanies the post “EKO Boiler Christmas Chicken”

Being the boiler man and all, I thought it was only appropriate to cook Christmas dinner in the EKO firebox.  I have cooked many chickens and turkeys in 3×3x3 ft holes that we filled with coals by burning lots of wood then wrapping the birds with several layers of foil.  I figured that near the end of the burning cycle, an EKO boiler, would have similar properties.

Ingredients:
-6 lb chicken
-Some salt and pepper
-Rotisserie chicken seasoning
-Olive oil
-One happy sous chef

Instructions:
1.  Spread olive oil on the chicken and sprinkle your seasonings on.
2.  Stuff the chicken with ice cubes to make the meat very moist.
3.  Wrap the chicken in seven layers of aluminum foil
4.  Wrap your chicken with wire and leave a long enough piece extending from the bird to act as a handle.  This will help you to take the chicken out of the fire box.
5.  Wait until the fire is at the end of its cycle and there are just a few inches of red hot coals left.
6.  Put the chicken in the coals and let it sit until it’s done.  I cooked mine for an hour and a half.  If you open your bird and it isn’t done, throw it back in for a while longer.
7.  Set the boiler temperature so the fans won’t continue to blow on the fire.

Note: After an hour I peeked in and the coals looked a bit black, so I flipped the chicken and turned the fans back to normal so the fans would run again.  After another half and hour I went and pulled the chicken from the fire box.