out door wood boiler

What you asking?... most outdoor boiler furnaces are non pressurized(unlike say a steam engine), that's what the vent is for...and why its recommended to check the water level daily. If water is gushing/ really boiling out, then the fire's to hot and you have to figure out why(damper stuck open, door not latched tight....).
 
Hopefully your outdoor furnace has some marking or plastic tube to indicate normal water level (cold and/or hot). It expands a whole lot once the heat is up to the right temperature. I have no problem with the one I am operating. If you have too much air intake (and smaller dry wood) on warm up you can get it boiling when it shouldn't prior to the thermostat cutting it back.
 
You are filling it to full if you are talking the site tube for checking level or you are to hot.You need to check damper and thermostat controls.What is your temp gauge reading.Should be 160 to 180 degree range when damper or if you have fan shuts off.Maybe you have thermostat problems we need more info.Scott
 
First I know nothing about wood boilers. Having said that I have a customer that had the same problem as you. He heats a very large building with his,The patch was a 500 gal LP tank mounted over his boiler,it is all on steel and concrete. He filled the LP tank with water, and the air goes up and the water goes down. It is really just a large air trap. 20 gal should work fine for a home system.
 
I used a wood boiler for several years and really enjoyed toying with it to improve performance. On my vent tube, I made a simple trap, like is on any drain, out of plastic tubing and attached it to the vent tube. I then filled the trap portion with antifreeze to avoid problems when temps are extremely cold. After that "fix" I no longer lost steam out the vent but, still had a vent that would allow excessive pressure to vent if needed.
 
MUsky can u send a pict of what u made .You are on the rite track. It is not the check level tube. It kicks off at about 180 degrees thanks
 
Brand/type of system.

Depending on the system, some water loss is normal.

My open system, if operating under normal conditions, loses a few gallons over the course of a heating season. I top it off mid-season and keep my eye on water level but a tiny bit of water is constantly evaporating.

So, as others have asked, how much water are you losing and how quickly?
 
(quoted from post at 00:37:22 01/10/18) MUsky can u send a pict of what u made .You are on the rite track. It is not the check level tube. It kicks off at about 180 degrees thanks

Saying that it "kicks off" and that it does it at 180 degrees sure makes it sound like a pressure relief valve that is keeping your boiler from exploding. Sounds like you are running too much fire or not pulling enough heat. So if you don't have the controls to regulate it you would be better off with an arrangement like Musky and 504 describe.
 
10 years of OWB experience here, that doesn't make me an expert, it makes me experienced, LOL. If kept full all the way to the top you will constantly lose a bit of water. Fill it, let it lose what it wants to lose when hot and leave it alone until your gauge or light tells you it needs water. Properly designed and operated a non pressurized OWB shouldn't loose more than a few gallons of water per year. I doubt if I lose over 5 gallons. The hotter you run it the more water you will lose. I run mine at 160 on-170 off. It will also use more wood the hotter you run it. Run it at the lowest temp that gives you good temps out of the registers and will keep up with demand. I run mine up to 180 when it is below zero and wind is blowing. Over fueling it at times of low demand will also cause boiling and water losses. The design of the vent has an effect and some are very poor. Mine has a PVC cap that fits snug on the pipe (not tight). It has a hole in the middle and a piece of 3/16 copper tube. The tube goes up above the cap a ways and the steam cools enough that the water returns to the boiler. A friend had one that just had an open 2" pipe for a vent and he lost a good bit of water due to that.
 

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