ennismaple
10-19-2009, 05:50 PM
Lapierre hosted an information day and training session by test firing our 3.5x14 Force 5 on Saturday. I think ours was the 2nd Force 5 off the assembly line and was the first one installed in Ontario. Jean-Francois, Rejean and Steve from Lapierre were all in attendance along with numerous Lapierre reps and other soon-to-be Force 5 owners from around the province. I understand that this was the first of many training sessions they will be doing to help support the producers so they understand how the Force 5 needs to be operated.
Rejean gave a good talk about the development of the arch and some safety issues. He discussed setup, startup, shutdown and maintenance procedures. Then we got to fire it up! We slowly warmed it up before getting the pans to a full steam boil. Once the primary and secondary fans were set properly we got to see the blue/violet flames they are looking for and there was zero noticeable smoke coming out of the stack.
One pleasant surprise was Rejean's complaint that our wood was split way too small. We were burning some basswood that was cut over 18 months ago and was split really fine. Rejean called it gunpowder because it burned too fast in the Force 5. We grabbed some 8" diameter pieces that had been cut to length 3 months ago but not split. Once a few of those logs went in the fire box we got the burn Rejean was looking for. You couldn't have wiped the smile off my face with sandpaper because I realized the effort to split our wood will be half what it used to be! Basically, if you can comfortably handle the wood (ours are cut to 44") the Force 5 will burn it.
Bring on the BIIIIIIG SAAAAP - we're ready for some short, hard boils now!
Rejean gave a good talk about the development of the arch and some safety issues. He discussed setup, startup, shutdown and maintenance procedures. Then we got to fire it up! We slowly warmed it up before getting the pans to a full steam boil. Once the primary and secondary fans were set properly we got to see the blue/violet flames they are looking for and there was zero noticeable smoke coming out of the stack.
One pleasant surprise was Rejean's complaint that our wood was split way too small. We were burning some basswood that was cut over 18 months ago and was split really fine. Rejean called it gunpowder because it burned too fast in the Force 5. We grabbed some 8" diameter pieces that had been cut to length 3 months ago but not split. Once a few of those logs went in the fire box we got the burn Rejean was looking for. You couldn't have wiped the smile off my face with sandpaper because I realized the effort to split our wood will be half what it used to be! Basically, if you can comfortably handle the wood (ours are cut to 44") the Force 5 will burn it.
Bring on the BIIIIIIG SAAAAP - we're ready for some short, hard boils now!