Hotblast 1357m newbie problems

[Stinsonfarms]

First off hello to everyone on here as this is my first post. I bought a new hotblast 1357m addon wood furnace back in October. I can't figure this unit out for anything I know I have it all hooked up right two 8inch heat runs tapped into my main trunk line and 6inch chimney pipe going into clay tile lined block chimney which is very tall,also I have a solid damper installed in the exhaust pipe. But my problem I am having is I cannot figure out how to get this thing to burn long most burn time I have got out of it was 3hours. I know I should be able a way longer burn time then that. It sure is gettn old waking up in the morning to a 56 degree house. I don't know what I'm doing wrong as I've heard of people getting over 8hours burn time. Maybe I am not loading it enough in fear of something happening or maybe all my dampers are just not set right I have no clue. I would really appreciate any help or advise on this. At this point I'm thinking this thing was a waste of money as I could get a two hour burn time on my old cast iron no fire brick stove. Could someone please help me figure this thing out. Thanks

 

[v-ridge]

First off hello to everyone on here as this is my first post. I bought a new hotblast 1357m addon wood furnace back in October. I can't figure this unit out for anything I know I have it all hooked up right two 8inch heat runs tapped into my main trunk line and 6inch chimney pipe going into clay tile lined block chimney which is very tall,also I have a solid damper installed in the exhaust pipe. But my problem I am having is I cannot figure out how to get this thing to burn long most burn time I have got out of it was 3hours. I know I should be able a way longer burn time then that. It sure is gettn old waking up in the morning to a 56 degree house. I don't know what I'm doing wrong as I've heard of people getting over 8hours burn time. Maybe I am not loading it enough in fear of something happening or maybe all my dampers are just not set right I have no clue. I would really appreciate any help or advise on this. At this point I'm thinking this thing was a waste of money as I could get a two hour burn time on my old cast iron no fire brick stove. Could someone please help me figure this thing out. Thanks

i feel your pain. i have a hotblast 1400, and if i get 4 hours using good oak i'm lucky.

 

[zipper1081]

I have had a 1537g for 6 years still have not figured it out. Lol. Good luck

 

[dave_dj1]

Although I have no first hand experience with your model I will offer some advice. I would get it all up and operating to temp, stoke it up a little, throw in some splits, this of course with the damper and draft open, give it about 10-15 min and shut her down, close stack damper, close draft and watch. Do you have thermometers on the stack and stove? I would think you should be able to get a min. of 6-7 hrs burn time unless the unit is waaaaaay undersized for your house.

Does it have a forced draft fan going into the firebox?

 

[cantoo]

I have a Hotblast 1400, we get 12 hr burns and still have lots of coals. Too much heat for the 1st few hours but then it gets bearable. Take a grinder to the knobs on the draft spinner and shut that sucker down.
Dave, I just bought a old Fawcett to heat my 24x 54 shop, it's only half insulated and I almost have to work in my underwear. View attachment 275801

 

[dave_dj1]

I have a Hotblast 1400, we get 12 hr burns and still have lots of coals. Too much heat for the 1st few hours but then it gets bearable. Take a grinder to the knobs on the draft spinner and shut that sucker down.
Dave, I just bought a old Fawcett to heat my 24x 54 shop, it's only half insulated and I almost have to work in my underwear. View attachment 275801

That's great! I am very happy with mine. Did you build the base for it? I have that same plenum piece although I'm not using it.

 

[reaperman]

Although I have no first hand experience with your model I will offer some advice. I would get it all up and operating to temp, stoke it up a little, throw in some splits, this of course with the damper and draft open, give it about 10-15 min and shut her down, close stack damper, close draft and watch. Do you have thermometers on the stack and stove? I would think you should be able to get a min. of 6-7 hrs burn time unless the unit is waaaaaay undersized for your house.
Does it have a forced draft fan going into the firebox?

This sounds interesting, but without air to feed the fire, what keeps the temps high enough to keep the plenum fan running? With my wood furnace (firechief brand), if I close the butterfly damper half way, I can almost snuff the fire out, all the way closed and its out for sure.

 

[cantoo]

Dave, the base came with it. I went to pick it up and the guy talked me into buying a pacific western OWB he had too. Now I have lots to do.
We have thermos on our chimney pipe, 1 on each of the 8" heat ducts coming off the top. Blower runs almost continous. If you search Hotblast there are quite a few threads on messing with them. We have a window or 2 open almost all the time. Besides the spinner know there is a damper something or other on the door that also lets air in.

 

[blades]

Buried in the archives is a lot of info on these, so I would suggest a search. Never got more than 4 hours of usable heat out of mine either.
Replacing it with a pellet stove, basement, just cause I do not want to haul wood up and down the stairs anymore. Most of my heat comes from my stove on the main floor.

 

[dave_dj1]

This sounds interesting, but without air to feed the fire, what keeps the temps high enough to keep the plenum fan running? With my wood furnace (firechief brand), if I close the butterfly damper half way, I can almost snuff the fire out, all the way closed and its out for sure.

I wouldn't snuff it out, maybe with that unit there is a fine line between enough air and not enough air. I know I would never run a forced air blower on anything ...period!
As far as the air circulation fans/(s), Mine is set up on a control to come on at a certain temp and go off at a preset temp. I'm wondering if the fan blowing all the time keeps the stove temp down enough to make it want to run wide open all the time? I'm not a big fan of grates for wood either, I would let the ash build up to the point they are above the grate and try that.

Cantoo, at the risk of dragging this off topic too far, I plugged 3 of the 4 half inch holes on the inside of the door on my Fawcette, it makes it way more controllable and I get way longer burn times. I just stuck some 1/2" x 1" bolts in them.

 

[Uncle John]

Can't help with the Hotblast. But welcome to AS!.........:msp_biggrin:

What part N. Kentuck?

 

[Stinsonfarms]

No I do not have to forced air kit on mine been thinking about it though.is it worth buyin. Also what is the little pipe plug looking thing on the back of the unit. And how full are you guys filling these things with would that have them. Would it be ok to fill it all the way up almost to the smoke shelf

 

[laynes69]

Our 1500 hotblast was a larger version of your furnace. In order to get an overnight burn, I would fill the furnace to the baffle. With that said, I recommend you get familiar with your furnace before filling it, so things don't get out of control. The forced draft kit will do nothing but lower your burn times, worthless IMO. I had the forced draft kit, and while I didn't use it, it was beneficial having air come in thru the rear of the furnace. Things seemed to burn cleaner this way. I didn't use the damper in the feed door, but regulated the furnace from the ashpan. I also ran a barometric damper in the fluepipe to keep the draft speed down. When it was cold out, I would have to wake in the middle of the night or risk waking to a cold house and furnace. I removed the furnace about 4 years ago.

 

[blades]

Plug on back is for the forced Air blower kit. These units are designed for coal, wood is an after thought. Auto damper on door constantly jams, most of the time wide open. I screwed around with it till i was blue in the face never got it to work correctly. I do also have barometric damper, helped some- but not enough in my mind. I could never trust it. Plenum blowers last about one season before the bearings go out. I messed around with it for 2 seasons then got fed up and bought a a NC30 for main floor replacing a much smaller stove. Life is warm now, and I can stuff it, go to work and not have second thoughts weather the house will still be standing when I return.
If I was around all day and could baby it then it would be fine I suppose, but I have too many other things to do that my time would be better spent on. All In all not one of my better decisions. It did pay for itself while I was using it in reduced NG charges.

 

[cantoo]

Dave, I figured out right away that my fawcett was getting too much air, I covered the top set of holes on the outsid of the door. Temporary fix until I get time to do it right.

The Hotblast does work but takes awhile to figure out what you need to do. During the day we only put a few splits in it every 4 hrs or so. Before bed we usually load it up to the smoke plate and close the spinner right off to maybe 1/16" opening. We also have a damper on the chimney pipe that is usually closed off at least 1/3. This depends on your chimney, ours is a straight run up 16' to the roof, we live on a small hill in the open so it's usually windy. PS, we have 100's of windmills around us so that gives you an idea of wind. By morning there is usually lots of coals in the bottom, spin open the knob, a quick stir to get fire going, throw some smaller splits in and away it goes. Couple hours later, turn the spinner knob down because it's 90 in the house. Only problem we have with it is excess heat, we usually sit around with t shirts on.