OWB Early Fall Question

[Wayned24]

Hi everyone. I've been a member here for a couple years now. I have a Hardy H4 OWB. This is my 3rd season using it and it works great, but I have ran into a problem that I don't recall having the last two years. We have been experiencing some cooler nights and fairly warm days. So warm, that my blower doesn't kick on all day while I'm at work, so I come home to a burner full of wood and I have to restart the fire. Is this common on the warmer days when the blower doesn't run much, if any? The blower will kick back on in the evening, but by that time, the coals aren't hot enough to light back up. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks in advance.

 

[dave_dj1]

Hi everyone. I've been a member here for a couple years now. I have a Hardy H4 OWB. This is my 3rd season using it and it works great, but I have ran into a problem that I don't recall having the last two years. We have been experiencing some cooler nights and fairly warm days. So warm, that my blower doesn't kick on all day while I'm at work, so I come home to a burner full of wood and I have to restart the fire. Is this common on the warmer days when the blower doesn't run much, if any? The blower will kick back on in the evening, but by that time, the coals aren't hot enough to light back up. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks in advance.

I don't have any first hand knowledge with your brand of stove but I don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility to go out, it happened to my Heatmor once, same scenario. On my stove they tell you not to maintain a bed of coals. I know a fellow that burns his Heatmor all year, he just throws in a large chunk for the day, it seems to work for him. I just let the oil furnace run this time of year.

 

[cantoo]

I burn soft wood this time of year, I throw a couple of nasty crotch pieces of hardwood in the bottom first just to maintain coals. As the softwood burns it covers the hardwood pieces with ash they they just smolder at the bottom, day later the blower comes on and blows the ash off the hardwood which lights it up. By then my wife has remembered that she needs to throw more wood in.

 

[H-Ranch]

You shouldn't be loading a "burner full of wood" generally this time of year - maybe you are just meaning that the wood you loaded is not burned. I may only use a few splits a day. I think the trick is to load only enough to get you to the next expected loading time. Makes me happy to load when it's up to temperature with just a small pile of red coals.

But yes, a good door seal and extended idle time can put the fire out. I doubt mine ran at all today as the house is still 3°F over the thermostat set point. Actually, 9° above the overnight set point so it will be hours before it calls for heat.

 

[Maintenance supervisor]

Your Hardy should have a thermostat for water temp in the back you can set it higher and the fan will kick on more, but cool nights/ warm days ,will make the draft fan struggle to keep the fire going.
Make sure the magnetic relay is operating and opening the door to the fan all the way also.

 

[avason]

I have a central boiler with no blower but a damper that kicks open. This time of year is harder. I am in the same boat. Dry wood is key this time of year.
I burned for 5 years straight in the summer months too. Will say it again, dry soft wood mixes with dry hardwood is key. Good luck.

 

[Wayned24]

Thanks everyone! And, correct, my OWB isn't full...Just 4-5 splits, but it's just to warm during the day to keep it going.

 

[Marley5]

Use to run the boiler year around until the wife unloaded it thinking it was out and about burned the mountain down.

Now don't fire it up til after deer season and shut her down in late March.

Plus the girls moved out so not using much hot water anymore.

 

[Woodcutteranon]

This is an easy problem to solve on a Hardy. Let your ash build up so its very close to the bottom of the grates. This will keep the coals close to the wood and the coals stay hot resting in the ash. Don't empty your ash and all will be fine.