Fulgora anyone?

[TEO]

Hi all,

Does anyone have or has had a Fulgora sawdust burning stove? I could do with some advice please;

I just found one in a boot sale and I'm chuffed to bits because once loaded they're supposed to burn unattended for ages; a very nice change to our little wood burner that needs constant attention.

The problem is that I can't get it going, or at least not burning hot enough to warm the workshop nor hot enough to completely burn whatever's coming off the sawdust as after the first go the inside of the burner's coated with a nasty sticky black sludge.

Anyone used/using one of these and can tell me what I'm doing wrong please?

Thanks,

T

 

[katellwood]

If its the same as mine its a steel cylinder with a hole in the bottom inside another steel cylinder the outer one has a false bottom which goes to an airvent at the bottom.

To load you place the inner cylinder inside the outer cylinder and place a piece of pipe approx 80mm dia in the middle. You then pack sawdust/chippings around the pipe filling it too the top or thereabouts, you then pull out the central pipe leaving a central void which extends down to the air vent area at the bottom (have the vent fully open).

To light it I roll up a piece of newspaper light one end and place it down the central void.

You then put on the lid which is like an old fashioned dustbin lid with two handles and if all went well after approx five mins you can adjust the vent to a suitable temperature

The problem I found is that the flue is situated approx halfway down the outer cylinder (I believe this is to circulate heat between the two cylinders) and until the heat begins to draw up the chimney you get a great deal of smoke escaping round the lid. I solved this by cutting off the original flue welding a piece over and repositioning it higher just below the lid. This made lighting much easier with no smoke escaping into the workshop and no discernable change in heat output.

Mine burns for approx six hours on one fill and for the first three hrs you can boil a kettle on the lid in approx 3-5 mins (subjective to the airvent position). In addition when burning correctly there is no discernible smoke coming out of the chimney.

The biggest drawback to these burners is that they cannot be topped up with chippings during the day, they have to cool off and start again however I put offcuts of all description in it during the day and keeps the chill off in my cold and draughty workshop

Will post some pics tomorrow if you wish and if I can find it still have a pamphlet which came with mine when I acquired it

 

[TEO]

If its the same as mine its a steel cylinder with a hole in the bottom inside another steel cylinder the outer one has a false bottom which goes to an airvent at the bottom.

To load you place the inner cylinder inside the outer cylinder and place a piece of pipe approx 80mm dia in the middle. You then pack sawdust/chippings around the pipe filling it too the top or thereabouts, you then pull out the central pipe leaving a central void which extends down to the air vent area at the bottom (have the vent fully open).

To light it I roll up a piece of newspaper light one end and place it down the central void.

You then put on the lid which is like an old fashioned dustbin lid with two handles and if all went well after approx five mins you can adjust the vent to a suitable temperature

The problem I found is that the flue is situated approx halfway down the outer cylinder (I believe this is to circulate heat between the two cylinders) and until the heat begins to draw up the chimney you get a great deal of smoke escaping round the lid. I solved this by cutting off the original flue welding a piece over and repositioning it higher just below the lid. This made lighting much easier with no smoke escaping into the workshop and no discernable change in heat output.

Mine burns for approx six hours on one fill and for the first three hrs you can boil a kettle on the lid in approx 3-5 mins (subjective to the airvent position). In addition when burning correctly there is no discernible smoke coming out of the chimney.

The biggest drawback to these burners is that they cannot be topped up with chippings during the day, they have to cool off and start again however I put offcuts of all description in it during the day and keeps the chill off in my cold and draughty workshop

Will post some pics tomorrow if you wish and if I can find it still have a pamphlet which came with mine when I acquired it

Thanks for this Katellwood,

Yes it sounds identical to yours.

Do you have any idea of the length of flue you have, I'm wondering if the flue I have, about 16', is long enough to have it drawing properly. Maybe that's why it's not getting very hot and why I'm getting the black sludgy deposit.

Your mod sounds interesting, any pics would be useful.

many thanks,

T

 

[katellwood]

16' sounds more than enough mine is approx 10-12' through the roof and draws well

The black sludge sounds like tar, what are you burning, how wet is it and how much air are you allowing through

 

[katellwood]

http://www.hedon.info/FulgoraSawdustStove?bl=y

Found this

 

[TEO]

16' sounds more than enough mine is approx 10-12' through the roof and draws well

The black sludge sounds like tar, what are you burning, how wet is it and how much air are you allowing through

Thanks very much for this Katellwood,

You're right, it is very tar like. I've loaded the burner with a mix of sawdust and chippings, can't be sure how dry it is as due to space constraints we have to store the bags from the extractor outside. As for air flow I tried it at a variety of positions from fully open to fully closed, when open we had smoke belching back into the workshop, when fully closed the smoke problem was resolved but the obviously the heat wasn't being generated.

Thanks also for the article, I kept coming to the same website on google searches but then couldn't see the articles for some reason. It confirms what I'd been told by the guy I bought it from and I've been doing pretty much what they say, substituting lit spirits soaked rag for newspaper.

I'm going to try it with some very dry fuel to see if that makes the difference.

Also, does yours have a good rope seal around the top? I've tried to improve ours with more glass rope but it still leaks the odd whisp of smoke.

I'll let you know if dry fuel sorts it out.

Thanks,

T