Dave is the only one I’m aware of that gets those kinds of hours. I have an updraft with a fifty gallon waterheater tank and I assume it would have enough fuel but it has never run unattended for that long. I find it necessary to adjust the metering valve occasionally. I go by the way the engine sounds so if I wasn’t paying attention while doing other things i think it would probably shut down. I assume others with more experience than me have overcome some of those limitations. Matt Ryan’s gasifiers could be run like that but I think it takes the electronics he has incorporated.
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Thanks Cody and Tom, I’ll press on with the 16 gal for now and plan to upgrade to a larger one later.
Great advice, Thanks, Joe
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I dont have electronics on the charcoal units
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A better way to build bigger is to team multiple units into one centralized filter. There are many advantages to this. One of coarse is fuel capacity, but when you have multiple units as a whole it will run more stable. If one unit has a hiccup for what ever reason the otherone will compensate. Another reason is having two or more units in a team allows re fueling on the fly. You install ball valves on the gas out between each gasifier and the filter unit. When you want to refuel you turn off the valve and the other unit will keep things going while you refuel the other machine. Then you switch and re fuel the other one.
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This set up here ran for 6 plus hours per hopper charge.
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Hey Joe , as everyone has mentioned a 16 gallon wont go very last too long , but its not a game changer as long as you are prepared to top up every 30 mins or so depending on your gas demand , what i can say though is with a bottom vertically aimed nozzle in a 45gal /200 litre drum i can get a run time of around 4 hours and sometimes a little more again all depends on how much power i am needing , a 100lbs propane tank with a horizontal nozzle 6 inches off the bottom used to last me close too 2 hours run time , all my charcoal was put through a crusher that made very uniformed charcoal of between 3mm all the way up too around 16mm , i never used a water drip or egr in my simple fires i managed to get a long run time on the nozzles through experimenting with materials of all types over the years , all nozzles are mentioned in this post that most members have contributed too Nozzles for Charcoal gasifiers, part 2
all the best with your build and cant wait too see your results in pictures and video’s if possible please .
Dave
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Despite the cost of pipe fittings here Im going to build this Drum of your’s Matt. Its going to save me 50% in fuel wood! Till now Ive just gleefully watched mine squirting a jet flare upwards and never clicked that I could get it to contribute to the burn. Thanks for posting
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Hello Joe, welcome here from New Zealand. great to see someone else jumping in with both feet! - Im brand new here too and being a woodstove maker Ive worked on the fringes of gasification for years. The impending fuel restrictions convinced me that now is the time to build a device.
Im building a char down draught gasifier to run my 620cc generator and 620cc woodchipper and waterblaster. I finished it this afternoon and as soon as the rain stops Ill wheel it outside and fire it up.
built from scratch in about two weeks. 2/3rds of that time spent having coffees with it while I figure how to make the next bit fit the last bit and not get in the way if I ever need the get first bit out again.
Get started and post lots of progress photos Joe- I want to see how your’s goes.
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Good morning Stuie .
In the years past as we are making gasifiers we find one of the most important tool to have around our work area is the ole thinking chair 
It will be raining here all day so bad day for working, good day to burn some wood .
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Once again, great advice from you all. I’m gathering up hardware and will soon be assembling the 16 gallon unit. It seems to me an important step is to successfully make some gas, first.
Matt, as usual, great suggestion on teaming up the units. I like that approach allot. A couple 100lbs propane tanks could be the ticket.
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Make sure if you get some used tanks to take the valve off and fill it up with water to purge any old propane out. You could also take the valve off and put it upside down. I’m overly cautious with this kind of stuff because I’ve been burned severely before in a welding accident and I try to prevent that from happening again.
You could weld in a top from a drum of a similar size or thick metal bucket to have a removable lid, would make it easier to dump any clinkers out too. Or you could go the Ben Peterson route and make your own lid.
If all you have available is thinner buckets, you could tack weld in a few spots and seal it off with red high temp RTV silicone. Up at the top it shouldn’t get hot enough to damage the RTV and you should refuel when the exit gas temp goes over boiling point anyways, so you’d be well within the limits.
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I heard of some folks in Pennsylvania that are building and selling plans for a sawdust Gasifier
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That sounds interesting Edwin. I’d like more info on that.
I’m just now getting back to the simple fire. Trying to work out the filter at this moment.
I’ll add some pictures.
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Hey Joe, you might want to change that plumbing at the engine intake to PVC, the weight and vibration will rip those carburetor studs right out given enough time.
Matt says it’s better to run a gas hose to the intake, and have the mixer not weighing down on the carburetor studs.
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Thats a good idea. I was having trouble finding the right flange in PVC. I’ll just start the PVC at the cast metal flange. Thanks for the good advice. I felt it was too heavy.
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Joe I am Ed Zimmerman 717-314-7565
From Pa if you like call me I have been running a gas engine off saw dust I can give you my experience
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A lot of us would be interested in hearing about that!
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