New to heating with wood furnace, have some questions

[NCHornet]

What a great forum!!!! I have learned a lot in a short time and want to tell everyone thank you. I have been wanting to give a wood furnace a run for several years now. When propane sky rocketed last year I began looking. All my looking ended last week when I found a Hot Blast 1557 that had only been used two months and only had six small fires in it. It worked great but the guys wife was scared the kids would get burned and made him sell it. It is like new, got it, all the chimney pipe and fittings that he had, plus all the 12" line he had and also a 12" dampner that was $140 in itself. He then asked if I wanted any wood, I took all he had and my truck and trailer loaded down. Got it all for $800 so I was really happy. Still learning how to " tune it" but so far it is doing great. I plumbed it into my existing duct work and thus far have not even plugged the blowers in. When doing my research I kept reading about folks who seldom, if ever, used the blowers on the unit. They simply let hot air rise and warm the house that way. Mine is installed in the basement aprox in the middle of the home and so far seems to be doing great. I may need to use the blowers in the early morning when trying to warm the house quicker. I sure don't miss the propane. I just wanted to say hello, and thanks for sharing all your wisdom with newbies.
Oh, one question that I do have. I bought one of those temp gizmos and have little problem keeping the unit in the " burn zone" , but I understand no matter what the chimney will need to be cleaned properly once or twice a year. I keep seeing lots of products that say they clean and get rid of the creosote build up. But do they really work? I know nothing is a substitute for proper cleaning, but is there a reason at all to use these products? If so which ones do y'all recommend?
Thanks Again
NCH

 

[NCHornet]

Lowes had a fire log that said it removes creosote and helps prevent new stuff from building up. Since my chimney is new I bought more for the prevention of further build up. It was $15 for a single log. Before I bought it I even checked this thread from my phone to see if I had any answers to my question on this stuff, lol!!!

 

[joshua mason]

welcome to the site. post back how that log worksout for ya. been thinking about trying one myself.

 

[Lancelwh]

Congrats on a great deal and welcome to the forum.

I've got a 1557M that i bought from Tractor Supply 3 years ago-been extremely happy with it :msp_thumbup: I too installed in the middle of my basement and hooked it into my existing ductwork/furnace. I've always had the blowers plugged in though. Not only do they 'suck' the return air from your return diffusers, reheat it, and 'blow' (get your minds out of the gutter :biggrin: ) it back out your supply lines, but the air movement helps cool the firebox and prevent warping.
We have a firebox that is 3/16" thick and its not as thick as a freestanding unit. If you get on US Stove Company's website and look at the manual, it'll tell you if the power goes out just keep smaller fires and not big ones.
I'll suggest that you remove that dang flapper on the feed door and just put the bolts back in the holes. You can get bigger pieces of wood in. As soon as i bought ours i put eye bolts in there to let that smoke screen 'flap' and just used a short piece of wood to prop it up when i fed the stove.

I used a few different logs or sticks to help remove cresote. Just get a blazing hot fire going, with the flue damper open (you should put one in on your flue pipe), and put the log in and let her burn-at least this is what the kind i used stated. It didnt vaporize the big stuff in my clay flue liner so i only use them periodically. I just get up on the roof every few weeks with an LED maglite (and the fire barely going if at all) to see how much has accumulated.

Keep that blower plugged in and the thermodisc will kick them on when the fire heats the box up enough.

Good luck and welcome to the forum.

 

[hoosier daddy]

not exactly the same, but...

I have a FireChief furnace and it's similar to yours. I understand what you are saying about keeping it in the safe burn and for a short while I too was concerned. What I have discovered and do is: When I refill the furnace I keep a close eye on the temp of the stack. I try to get it past the safe line quickly, for me it's 300 and then adjust the air to keep it in the zone. At the "End" of the burn the stack temp will naturally fall below the 200 mark but the box is full of coals and I am relatively certian that I have cooked any moisture or creasote forming materials out of the system. I cleaned the flue monthly the first year and struggled to find any build up. Now I clean chimeny once durring the Jan thaw that we always seem to get and when done for the season.

I'd say if you are new to it; I'd error on the side of safety and clean often until you see what you type of build up you get burning the type of wood you have under the conditions at your place...

Good luck and welcome aboard...these guys (95% of them) rock!!!

HD

 

[ziggo_2]

same frunace, different name.

Dont go by what the magnetic thermo says. They may work for some but for me there junk. Your best bet is a probe thermometer. ive tried the CSL log (creosote sweeping log) and its not like its gonna remove creosote but i think it helped with glazed creosote, use it about a week prior to cleaning. Keep the blowers plugged in so you dont overfire the unit. You may need a barometric damper, a manometer will tell you for sure. Otherwise i wouldnt even bother putting in a key damper (just another place for creosote to form)...You got a good deal.

 

[CrappieKeith]

Dont go by what the magnetic thermo says. They may work for some but for me there junk. Your best bet is a probe thermometer. ive tried the CSL log (creosote sweeping log) and its not like its gonna remove creosote but i think it helped with glazed creosote, use it about a week prior to cleaning. Keep the blowers plugged in so you dont overfire the unit. You may need a barometric damper, a manometer will tell you for sure. Otherwise i wouldnt even bother putting in a key damper (just another place for creosote to form)...You got a good deal.

Great reply....and welcome to the forum.:adore:

 

[loadthestove]

Welcome to the site.I to own one of the us hotblast wood furnaces ,for a cheap furnace I am very pleased with my mine.if you read a little more here on the forum you will find you best bet against cresote is a good seasoned wood pile.I've been heating with wood for about eight years now and like many others a lot of my knowledge has come from trial and error.As mentioned ,,error on the safe side,i have a wood furnace and a free standing in my house and both setups are completely overbuilt with safety in mind.

Once I started burning I discovered the difference in good quality seasoned wood and what I thought was okay to burn.After reading here I discovered than most are at least two years or more ahead on their wood stock.I'm currently two years ahead and would like to have even more.

The biggest problem with wood heating is the diseases it causes.I think everyone here suffers from CAD,this is usually followed by the recently named WAD.they are not fatal by no means but may require an explanation to the wife.

Once again welcome to the forum,there is an vast amount of good info available here.

 

[smokinj]

I check mine once a month (I have the same furnace) I have a s/s insulated flu and have not cleaned it in 6 years. I have the brush set-up new in the box ready but its clean.

 

[ziggo_2]

I check mine once a month (I have the same furnace) I have a s/s insulated flu and have not cleaned it in 6 years. I have the brush set-up new in the box ready but its clean.

do you clean out the base of the chimney? I brush my chimney once a year in the fall, just because. but during the winter i just scoop the base of the chimney. I brush the stove pipe every other month or whenever it looks scary enough. Im pretty sure ive never had a chimney fire and i dont intend to either....The barometric damper is the worst part to clean, i found out the easiest way to clean it is to burn it, but do it outside cause it stinks.

That said... my wood may not be the driest wood either but im working on that.

also creosote isnt as easy to light on fire as people make it sound. but once it goes...it goes

 

[CrappieKeith]

I check mine once a month (I have the same furnace) I have a s/s insulated flu and have not cleaned it in 6 years. I have the brush set-up new in the box ready but its clean.

Your stack temps must really be high...but if it does what you need it too then all is good.

 

[NCHornet]

Keith,
Man y'all have some big crappie up North there. Besides catfish crappie is my next favorite. I wish we grew them like that down here.

Back on topic, thanks for all the replies and welcomes. When I say I am new I mean to burning for a heat source for the entire home. I have thousands of fireplace and camp fires under my belt, but as you all know this is totally different. I do have a manual dampner in the chimney pipe, and I tend to choke it down before bed, and open it up a little more in the morning. I have never had creosote issues in the past with the fireplace, but I will keep a eye on the 6 ft of black metallic chimney pipe that I have between the stove and existing brick chimney. Yes, this is the only thing plumbed into this flu liner, the fire place up stairs uses a different liner. Wood is usually seasoned for one year, but I should have no problem kicking up my cutting and running 2 years ahead. Tonight was fairly mild in NC so I closed the stove off and burned that $15 creosote log, I will let y'all know if I notice any changes. Tomorrow evening when I fire up the stove again I will plug the fans in and see how it works. I am sure it will help to heat the bedrooms at the end of the truck line, but I was concerned with the wood burning up quicker. Like I said I bought one of those chimney temp gizmos and mine is pretty accurate as I was checking to see how well it worked with my IR temp gun. It was darn close, even with the hottest fire I have burned I never got above the 500 degree and into the over fire zone. The outside of the stove was hot, but not overly so. So I will see how it works with the blowers plugged in. I have also read where people only use the one fan instead of both. If you keep the out feed lines separate as they come out of the top of the stove and run them to different areas then I could see needing both fans. With my set up I made a plennom box on top of the unit and ran a single 12 inch line coming off the box and it runs about 5ft where it enters my existing duct work on top of the main furnace. I will try and post some pics below. Maun wood round here is popular, oak, some maple and ash. I picked up a couple cords worth of pecan. I have never had any dealings with pecan but it sure brought the 20 ton splitter I was using to a stop several times. I have never split wood as tough as pecan. I swear the splitter was actually cutting the wood more than splitting it. It was fairly green so not sure if I will have to dig into this year or not. But I am curious how it will burn.
As for the the swinging door panel on the main box area I simply use a pair of fire gloves to load the wood. I hold the door up with one hand and put the wood where I want it with the other hand. It works for me. This furnace works so much better than I ever dreamed it would. I only wish I would have done this years ago. I know the Hot Blast stove is more a entry level furnace but for now it is working just fine. When I wear this one out I will consider up grading to a different unit. The main issue I have read with these stoves is the low quality blowers they use. If/when mine fail they will be replace with a quality blower unit.
I do have another question for everyone. It would be great to control the stove with a thermostat like we have on the main central air system. I know US Stoves has a small blower that forces a draft on the fire through the piece of pipe that protrudes out the back of the stove. This blower is controlled by a thermostat mounted up stairs in the house ( my furnace is in my basement) . I was told by a HVAC person that it can be controlled by a thermostat that will turn the blowers on and off as needed to maintain the set temp. Any information someone can add regarding the use of a thermostat would be welcomed. Any other info or tips on this unit or stoves in general will also be welcomed. Thanks again for all the replies and information posted in this thread. Let me try and post some photos of my set up.

Sorry for the poor photos, but this shows how it ties into my existing duct work. Notice that I have a dampner in the main 12" duct that runs between the stove and existing propane furnace.

from a different angle. This also shows the chimney pipe location. The black panel on the right shows where the chimney off the stove enters the existing chimney, and it is a heat shield, I also have one fastened to the floor joist just above the thimble on the main chimney.

 

[CrappieKeith]

Well thanks NCHornet...if ya ever want to come up for a few days...I'll guide you for free.I have all of the gear...top shelf...so all you'll need is your licence and your good luck charm...oh wait I'll be guiding you...belay that last statement about :wink2:luck.

We could get you with your own pair of earring like those slabs...and more...hope you ain't against releasing...we do get into hundreds a day.:bang:

So good luck with that hotblast....

 

[NCHornet]

If I can ever get away for a few days I would love to. No problem releasing, I love catching Crappie on ultra light tackle. They are one of the best fighting fish for their size that I have found.

OK, Need some more help. It wasn't very cold yesterday in NC, so no fire all day or last night. Dropped into mid 20's last night so I woke up at 6 and the house was 64. Built a fire like normal but this time I plugged the fans in. After ten min or so they came on. I was very surprised at the difference. No more hot spots in the house, the bedrooms heated exactly the same as the living room, so that was all good. I also noticed that the basement didn't get nearly as hot with the blowers running. I could actually touch the out take line on top of the stove. I could never do that when using it with no fan power. The house was at 75 within 40 min or so. So we are looking good. Isn't to cold today so I figured I would keep a low fire all day until tonight and stoke it up before bed. After about an hour I went down to check on it. The blowers will still blowing, the temp gauge on the chimney pipe was showing 200. I opened the main fire door to see when they would shut off. After 15-20 min the gauge on the chimney pipe showed 150 but the blowers were still running and all that was in the fire box was 2-3" of red hot coals. In the cold weather I am afraid the blowers are going to be running all day and night. I couldn't find in the manual what the temps are on the thermodisc that came with the unit. I took the cover off the back to view the thermodisc but there were no adjustments that could be made to it. I don't know if I have a bad disc or what. Can anyone help me with this?
Thanks
NCH

 

[ziggo_2]

not sure about hotblast's, but if your not careful the automatic damper thing will flip its self around, (not sure how else to explain that). the blowers have no affect on the fire inside, unless the firebox is cracked. the blower can and will run constantly. this is one of the reasons they are cheap. you should take the cover off your door to get a better understanding of how the draft control works. Once that thing closes it will starve the fire of all air which is why there is a spin draft on the ashpan door.

Is your cold air return hooked up? dont look like it.

Look for the threads ive started about my furnace.....Its a different brand but the fireboxes are the same, just a differance in sheet metal and looks.

 

[NCHornet]

I have no idea what the " Automatic Dampner Thing " is that you are talking about. The manual I downloaded off the US Stove website is about worthless. Doesn't give me any info on the settings of the thermodisc. Can you purchase other thermodisc's with different on and off points? If other Hot Blast owners are running their blowers 24/7 I would think I would have read something about it, and I haven't. The stove is taking the air from the basement instead of the cold air return of the main furnace. When doing my research prior to buying this stove I found most people do the same thing. Don't need to remove anything off the main door I understand how the vents work on both doors. There has to be another way to trigger the blowers on and off. I will keep searching, Thanks.

 

[ziggo_2]

The knob on the door is a automatic draft regulator. It uses a spring that expands when heated. which close down the draft.. if you monkey with them too much it can get "hung up" and you have a runaway furnace.

I was also going to say (internet wasnt working good) that you probably have a excess draft, so your fire will burn hotter and faster.

my thermodisc is set to off at 100 and on at 130. but if you dont have numbers then that wont help much. mine are just little tabs you can move them with your fingers.

Most people will tell you not to waste your money on the forced draft kit, it just make them burn hotter and faster and it sounds like you are staying plenty warm.

By saying that the blowers will run constantly i mean it seems like forever before they shut off. mine will run for an hr or maybe more (never timed it). It only does it when you have it running full blast. I think they are undersized. The 12" duct you have might have something to do with that too... I have two 8in ducts and i think thats too restrictive.

This is why the want you to follow the clearances on the ductwork.

I ran mine at first with out the cold air return hooked up but its better for me to have it hooked up.

you should have a damper right above your gas furnace so it doesnt overheat from the wood furnace...if you run it alot it will and newer furnaces cant handle that kind of heat on the electronics. Call CrappieKeith, he can get you one reasonably priced.

Where are all the hotblast owners? laynes ran one for something like 20-30 yrs. Im surprised he hasnt chimed in.

 

[laynes69]

I'm here, you've been doing pretty good on the discussing. As long as the furnace has a fuel load, the blower will cycle. Even a small fire will allow the blower to run. The older models used a limit/control to set the on/off temps. The thermodisc is much cheaper so it's what used now. The only way to reduce the amount of heat is to reduce the load size. If your concerned about the amount of heat, then maybe it's too big for the home. Having the return pulling from either the ductwork or an independent return for the furnace will allow for better circulation. Running the furnace without a return may compete with combustion air. The thermostat for the units are located behind the shroud in the door, its a small spring. During the heating season, our old hotblast ran probably 22 out of 24 hours a day. The limit/controls they used to provide had a 5 1/2" insertion probe. You will find you cannot control these furnaces like a central furnace, thermostat w/ forced air or not.

 

[NCHornet]

Thanks so much for the info. I have no issues with the house getting to warm. I can easily control that by how much wood I place in the fire box. I was concerned that the blowers are going to run constantly. If the thermo disc that came on the unit is on at 100 and off at 130 ( just using these numbers in general ) as long as the air around the firebox stays above 130 the blowers are going to run constantly. Maybe I am confused about this, but I believe this is correct, if not please correct me. As for the dampner in the main fire box door, I was assuming it was just a piece of sheet metal that slides up and down depending how much air you want going into the fire box. I usually have mine shut all the way unless I am starting a fire on a cold box, then I leave it wide open until the fire is going good. I think I need to take the cover off the door and see what is going on in there because I don't feel any pressure from a spring, it may just need a good cleaning.

I totally understand why many recommend using the blowers as they were designed. But the more I search on the internet the more I find folks saying they don't even have their blowers plugged in. I guess I am concerned about saving money on the propane for the main furnace, but paying for it with a high power bill. Maybe the blowers don't pull that much power, I don't know. If I don't run the blowers the basement gets really warm and you can't touch the supply line coming out of the top of the unit. Also the rooms right above the stove get nice and warm but the rooms at the end of the house stay cold. With the blowers on, the basement doesn't heat up nearly as much and I am able to keep my hand on the duct out of the top of the furnace.

I am also reading where people say the draft blower they sell isn't worth messing with. But many say they removed the cap where the draft blower is suppose to mount and it gives a better burn. What do y'all think about doing this? Is it worth doing? Any other ideas would be much appreciated.
Thanks
NCH

 

[ziggo_2]

Keep the blower plugged in. you wont notice it in the electric bill. If you dont you stand a good chance of the paint melting off and the front will turn white. Also i noticed a flex-duct, that may not stand up to the heat.

like this--View attachment 209889

I think laynes was the one that talked about taking the plug out, ive never done it but i thought about trying it....I use probe thermometer in the stove pipe to set my barometric regulator to about 500F then when the Auto-draft closes i open the the spin draft till the temp gets to 200-300F. Im down for cleaning today, should be back up and running tonight.

My auto-draft likes to stick up so i got in the habit of shaking it when i start a fire and if i adjust too much it will get out of wack.

Take the cover off, set it on low and build a fire. you will get a good idea whats going on and how long it takes to close....their kinda slow.