Wood Doctor ?

[l3450]

My question is can a Wood Doctor owb with blower be run natural draft & if so what needs to be done to make the switch ?

(Read a post here the other day concernig this but can't seem to find it now , certain its right under my nose but ...)

 

[zsteinmetz]

My question is why would you want to do this? I have one and could imagine without the blower green wood would be almost impossible to burn.

 

[l3450]

Because i have some dry wood to burn which i expect the blower will help devour rather quickly .
What i intend to do to compensate is set the aquastats with a greater than 20 degree difference between them .

Could going natural draft not slow the burn rate more effectively ?

 

[l3450]

Okay maybe switching to natural draft on a Wood Doctor for the purpose of burning dry wood isn't such a good idea .

Would setting the aqua stat temps at a greater than 20 degree difference as suggested in the manuel be advisable ?
If so how many degrees would you other more experienced OWB users recommend ? (I've been using the OWB for one season)

 

[zsteinmetz]

you cant up the high limit much more than ten degrees from the factory setting. If you drop the low limit down to say 30 degrees between cycles your indoor furnace is going to be running longer to make up for it also if you have a sidearm for hot water heating you may get some cold showers. Im sure you would have to modify the whole door if you would wanna go natural draft. The hole that is there now for the blower would not be big enough. Just my two cents.

 

[twincam]

My question is why would you want to do this? I have one and could imagine without the blower green wood would be almost impossible to burn.

Green Wood? I suppose you burn garbage and old tires also? There you go guys. and every one wonders why these things have a bad rap.

 

[zsteinmetz]

Every situation is different. I do not burn anything but wood in my OWB so dont jump to conclusions. But yes I do burn green wood and my nearest neighbor is fifty feet from my stove and she doesnt mind a bit. Its all on how tall your chimney is, when you load, and play the wind and everyone will be happy.

 

[elektrobot]

I don't understand why you are burning green wood

 

[LeakyWoodDoctor]

Burning the litter!

Ya,

I'm burning allot of "Green" too!

My father-in-law likes my Wood Doctor because it burns all the thinnings from his woodlot (blow down, deadwood, etc.)!

Have you tried adjusting the damper on your fire door, so the fan can't blow in as high an air volume. This would give you a longer cycle time!

I'm just trying to keep the boiler water inside my Wood Doctor (bigger problems!) :censored:

 

[mimilkman1]

Green Wood? I suppose you burn garbage and old tires also? There you go guys. and every one wonders why these things have a bad rap.

Since we're stereotyping here your post must mean you're a tree hugger and a card carrying member of PETA?

Kyle

 

[l3450]

draft adjustment ??

Hello Leaky

No i haven't attempted any adjustments on the door as yet.

Have you tried this and if so do you have any tip / tricks or advice on adjusting or cautions as to any adverse effects?

 

[LeakyWoodDoctor]

Hello Leaky

No i haven't attempted any adjustments on the door as yet.

Have you tried this and if so do you have any tip / tricks or advice on adjusting or cautions as to any adverse effects?

My Wood Doctor is a HG series and has a sliding metal damper on the under side of the blower, mounted on the fire door. It comes factory set for a specific air volume!

From the time my blower kicks in to when it shuts down again is quiet short so I reckoned I could lengthen this cycle time a little bit by closing off this damper a smidgen at a time. The result should be that it takes just a little longer for the boiler to reach temperature and shut off the blower again!

It must be hard on the boiler to cycle up to temperature so fast and possibly allot of heat just blows right out the stack? So rather than a short cycle at high air volume, why not a little longer cycle at slightly less air volume. As long as your stack is not getting gummed up and still burning clean all is good , I expect!

I'm just looking at things practically!

Leaky