Anyone else given up on Wood Pellet Boilers?

Kashkai · 27-08-2010 10:24pm

We bought two pellet burners, one for the central heating and one as a room heater. The room heater blasts out the heat but its a temperamental little fecker. It can shut itself down for no reason. The cowboy we bought it off was the subject of the consumer affairs programme a few months back as once he has your dosh, he doesn't want to know when, not if, you have problems.

The central heating burner just can't heat the house. Its not powerful enough even though we were shown all the calculations by the supplier to "prove" it was more than capable of doing the job. I had an oil boiler installed since as we need something that can heat the house to the point where you don't need to wear a jumper or coat in winter when you're inside!

I'd hand back the grant money if I could get back the money I wasted on these "green wonders" aka pellet burners.

kscobie · 29-08-2010 4:18pm

yoshytoshy wrote: »

I thought the problem here was the supply/distribution of pellets ,maybe someone has made a wet pellet boiler:D

Is there any regulation with regard to the supply of wood pellets ? ,or can people sell any old muck ?

The pellet supply is not a problem now i think, probally less demand! The big pellet guys up north were at the sei show earlier this year, and i had a great chat with a rep, he said there was a european standard, but very few knew of it, never mind stuck to it.

the roadwarrior · 15-09-2010 11:06pm

ive just seen this thread and im tempted to gather a group of people to go to the next sustainable building show at the rds 7th to 9th of october bring along their pellet boilers and make those SEI idiots eat them . what a waste of mone y and time , the really good thing is the relief now ive decided to take the gerkros boiler out and get an ( oil ) boiler in that will actually work ! we had our new bulid 3 years ago and the boiler was the only bad mistake we made , it broke down 15 to 20 times , went on fire twice , wore out ignition elements regularly .the worst bit was the unreliability of it and the constant high maintenance . unless u cleaned it out every 2 to 3 days it would start faulting , when you take into account the installation costs , the cost of a boiler shed , a special 6 cubic metre hopper slow temperature build up , etc it doesnt make any economic sense so am putting in a high efficiency condenser oil boiler , itll work and turn on straight away , anyone want a 30 kw pellet boiler auger and hopper ,i can recommend a good psychiatrist

jpb1974 · 17-09-2010 10:57am

the really good thing is the relief now ive decided to take the gerkros boiler out and get an ( oil ) boiler in that will actually work !

I feel the same way.. I had my condenser oil boiler installed last Friday.. it's like a weight off my shoulders.

In the past I dreaded the prospect of using oil... I wanted to save the planet and be free of inflated oil prices... but after doing my bit with that dreaded wood pellet boiler I know the the administrators at the gates of heaven will know that I tried.

jpb1974 · 29-09-2010 9:46am

Start using the new oil burner earlier this week... oh the joy:

* Oil ordered last Friday afternoon via the internet - delivered Monday afternoon. All the hassle of pellet availability gone

* Hot water almost instantaneously unlike the wood pellet boiler that spent 10 minutes running through checks and start up protocols and then another 20 minutes to get the water up to heat

* No more worries about the number of ignitions wearing out parts

* No more weekly cleaning

* No more issues in relation to service and parts

* One service a year for circa €70

I never thought I'd be rejoicing oil so much but so far so good.

mcauleyj · 29-09-2010 2:58pm

Hi jpb1974,

If you dont mind me asking, what oil boiler did you opt for?

I'm about to replace my pellet boiler with oil as well. Might keep the pellet boiler & plumb it in parallel so can have the choice tho!

John

jpb1974 · 29-09-2010 3:21pm

what oil boiler did you opt for?

Hi John,

That would be a Firebird.

The wood pellet boiler is still plumbed in, just a matter of opening and closing a few valves... but to be honest I've really no appetite to ever switch back to it.

Iderown · 30-09-2010 7:02am

jpb1974 and mcauleyj

A competent oil installer replaced the pellet burner here with an oil burner. The Gerkros boiler case is still used, so no additional bulk or plumbing needed in the garage. An adapter plate was needed so that the oil burner (Riello RDB1) could fit in to the hole.
The only plumbing that was needed was to replace the thermostat port with a slightly larger one (same thread) so that a standard thermostat could be wired in.
An additional thermostat was needed at the top of the boiler to switch the circulating pump.
That was it! After the kit had been got it took about 6 hours to connect all together.
We have needed only domestic hot water until last week when the full central heating has been used. It is working really well.
Anyone got suggestions (sensible suggestions!) about what to do with a 3.5 tonne plastic pellet tank?

mcauleyj · 03-10-2010 10:04pm

jpb1974 wrote: »

Hi John,

That would be a Firebird.

The wood pellet boiler is still plumbed in, just a matter of opening and closing a few valves... but to be honest I've really no appetite to ever switch back to it.

Thanks, thats the idea I have as well allowing either oil or pellet to be used - initially though I am going to run with the oil over the winter & see how it goes in comparison with the pellet & then decide whether to keep the pellet boiler & buffer tank or sell it on.

I was looking at the Firebird enviromax myself after my father put a non-condensing Firebird in. I like the idea of the burner at the top and secondary heat exchanger at the bottom, tho I have changed my choice to the Grant vortex I think now, theres not much between them but I can get the Grant at a better price up north than the Firebird.

John

mcauleyj · 03-10-2010 10:25pm

Iderown wrote: »

jpb1974 and mcauleyj

A competent oil installer replaced the pellet burner here with an oil burner. The Gerkros boiler case is still used, so no additional bulk or plumbing needed in the garage. An adapter plate was needed so that the oil burner (Riello RDB1) could fit in to the hole.
The only plumbing that was needed was to replace the thermostat port with a slightly larger one (same thread) so that a standard thermostat could be wired in.
An additional thermostat was needed at the top of the boiler to switch the circulating pump.
That was it! After the kit had been got it took about 6 hours to connect all together.
We have needed only domestic hot water until last week when the full central heating has been used. It is working really well.
Anyone got suggestions (sensible suggestions!) about what to do with a 3.5 tonne plastic pellet tank?

Hi Iderown,

Thanks a good idea - I had considered doing that as well, as my pellet boiler (Scotte/ Dor) is basically a solid fuel boiler adapted to take a burner in the side (in this case a pellet burner) - so I could just fit an oil one in its place like you have done.

Good in terms of reuse and minimal cost to change over. Only downside is that it wouldnt be as efficient as the condensing oil boilers available at the moment.

Did your oil bloke tweak the burner settings & use a flue gas analyser etc to optimise the oil burner to your boiler?

I'm wondering what to do with my pellet boiler;
1. Keep it and put it in parallel with the oil,
2. Try alternative fuel - maybe waste oil burner (but these are costly & might be license/ legal issues). Only good if you can get a supply of waste veg or other oil.
3. Sell it on as it works grand, but is just a bit underpowered for my house.

John

Iderown · 04-10-2010 7:37am

John,

Did your oil bloke tweak the burner settings & use a flue gas analyser etc to optimise the oil burner to your boiler?

Yes, he did. It needs to be reset again. I have installed an additional set of baffles in channels in the boiler. These are used in the 30kW Gerkros boiler but not in the 20kW one which we have. I suspect, but I have no data to back it up, that the efficiency is now higher.

We have kept the pellet burner, the control box, the feed screw, the small and large pellet tanks, but, I don't really see us going back to pellet use in the near future.

coastcooler · 09-04-2013 12:16pm

after reading so much threads and the negativity regarding wood pellet heating systems, wanted to go with that for eco reasons, affordabilty and more cleaness wise im at an all time low like the song, ive plans drawn up wait 2 submit to council only to know whether i need a bigger garage for storage of pellets, hopper and burner etc.
no one has a good word to say..
8-(

Kashkai · 09-04-2013 12:26pm

Don't do it mate. I know they are in widespread use on the continent but for whatever reason, they just don't work in this country. I haven't used mine in over two years as it ate pellets and only heated the rads to a lukewarm temperature at best. Go with a solid fuel stove as my brother has one and it heats his 3,000 sq ft house and supplies all the hot water his family of 8 needs. If you really really want a wood pellet boiler, you could buy mine!

coastcooler · 09-04-2013 1:27pm

Dont do it mate, i love it!! great advice im a girl and great advice goes along way, LOL. ye they seem to be more hassle than anything else. thats not what i need with constant updating, servicing, replacing parts etc, call out fees is last thing I need, iv no trades and am useless when it comes to things like this, so I need to buy something that works 100% doesn't cost earth and is reliable.
i know people are saying what about geothermal / air to water heard bad stories about them too. agh NIGHTMARE...

Kashkai · 09-04-2013 1:52pm

coastcooler wrote: »

Dont do it mate, i love it!! great advice im a girl and great advice goes along way, LOL. ye they seem to be more hassle than anything else. thats not what i need with constant updating, servicing, replacing parts etc, call out fees is last thing I need, iv no trades and am useless when it comes to things like this, so I need to buy something that works 100% doesn't cost earth and is reliable.
i know people are saying what about geothermal / air to water heard bad stories about them too. agh NIGHTMARE...

I call everyone "mate", whether they're male or female so no offence intended;)

Seriously, wood pellet stoves and boilers were thrown onto the Irish market with no back up support from the suppliers or manufacturers and when they broke down through poor installation, poor servicing etc, we all got fed up with them. Geo thermal sounds great but there are substantial electricity costs associated with running the pump so not as cheap as it sounds. Solid fuel stove is the way to go as they can burn wood, coal etc and can be kept lighting indefinitely once you regulate the airflow,fuel it, clean it etc. Obviously a condensing oil burner is the almost hassle free way of heating your home but five years ago, 1,000 litres cost €450, now it costs circa €1,000. I can't see the price of oil decreasing any time soon.

coastcooler · 09-04-2013 1:59pm

oh god no i dont mind been called mate ;-) god what 2 go with... agh, oil sounds good - condensing boiler but cost is extortionate and then supply and demand law of economics regarding oil into future.

demanufactured · 09-04-2013 4:03pm

Wood pellet boilers - A product of the boom times....
Useless in Ireland.

Dtp79 · 09-04-2013 6:34pm

Ye can't really base an opinion just because people don't like the gerkros or Scotte pellet boilers. If fairness they were always on the lower end of quality. Pure sh1te. Look up verner or ponast boilers. Much better quality

shane0007 · 09-04-2013 8:40pm

Supply & storage of pellets is probably the biggest factor for failure in Ireland. Moisture content & lack of bark mulch being key.
I've taken out plenty of them at this stage. Good for scrap as nice heavy beasts!

Jesus Christ · 09-04-2013 8:54pm

My house came with a Wodke that had sat idle for a couple of years in houses that wouldn't sell because the developer was looking for silly money. It was recommissioned in June of 2010 when we bought from a liquidator and I haven't had any major issues so far. I have looked into replacing the side panels on them for aesthetic reasons and they were loony toons money, so parts will probably be expensive if something does crop up, but thus far nothing.

My only complaints would be a lack of servicing choice - we're pretty much locked into the guy that helped set them up day one - and that it needs cleaning more often than the programmed standard (1.5t). However that's probably down to the way we run it - most of the time, very low - and I'm going to start doing that myself shortly.

We use bagged pellets, if that's relevant. It's somewhat inconvenient, but I've seen plenty of people complaining about stuck feeds so perhaps it's the safer option. Up to now the bags have been stored in the house, including a full pallet at one stage when we had a spare room, however we'll be putting in a proper timber shed shortly so we'll see how that impacts on cleanliness WRT damp. I'm hoping it won't be a problem.

shane0007 · 09-04-2013 9:08pm

Bagged pellets? - very expensive way of doing it.
Stored inside? - very dangerous as fire risk but also stored pellets naturally omit carbon monoxide. A few cases of deaths in Europe & also in Ireland. Probably less risk in bags due to low quantity but a risk all the same.
Timber Storage Shed? - fire risk. They should not be stored within combustible material.

01-05-2014 9:35pm

Anybody want a KWB 60kW multifire?

bobskii · 01-11-2014 7:01pm

thanks for the iderown. We have plumbed for oil as a back incase this didn't work out so it's just a matter of changing over.

bm69 · 15-01-2015 12:11am

All the guys complaining seem to be talking about a gerkros system. Is it possible that it is just this brand giving issues. Anyone with other brands with no issues.
I am currently looking at buying a house with a pellet system in it (unsure of make yet).
Considering i haven't foot the bill to put it in..... should it still be a serious concern for me. I am technically minded and dont mind servicing it regularly. I am more concerned about will it be cheaper than an oil or gas system.

Wearb · 15-01-2015 8:41am

2 year old house near me with Grant pellet boiler. He is really happy with it. Hard to compare it to oil because the house is insulated to a high level.

Anyone else given up on Wood Pellet Boilers?

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