C.B. 5036 here, having run mine for the 4th season now, I have found the optimum setting for me to be at is 160-170 range unless we get prolonged below zero weather. It seems that I get the best burn time(fill in a.m. and evening only) and not using alot of wood. It took me awhile after I installed mine because I had to rethink how I cut and split the wood for the burner and also now I have wood that is better seasoned, hence why I am into the 4th season befroe coming to these conclusions. I turn it down to 150-160 range in the summer for the DHW and only fill PARTIALLY once every other day. I still go to the furnace in the a.m. and the p.m. and stir things up. Good luck with yours!
Owb temp?
- Thread starter blkcloud
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comnrailpwr
ArboristSite Lurker
Interesting. Mine is built similar to the woodmaster. Im on season 1, I guess i'll lower it a little and see how it goes. When I designed it I made it so I have a significant water movement around inside the water jacket. It has worked so well I hate to change anything. Going on 4 months use and nearly zero creosote and it smokes very little.
I run mine to open the damper at 145 and close it at 150. Occasionally it even dips down to 100 if I'm working late or just don't get to loading it when it's needed. I'll probably curse myself for saying it, but I've never seen any indication of condensation whatsoever.
Fifelaker
Addicted to ArboristSite
I run mine 175°-185° I have run this year round for 9 years. I may try a little lower this summer just to see if it eats less.
comnrailpwr
ArboristSite Lurker
If your burning good dry wood and the humidity outside is relatively low then it probably wouldn't be an issue I guess. I do commercial/industrial HVAC where boilers I start up for the year sweat like crazy until water temps near 140*. We run outside air resets which run them from 140* to 180* automatically based on outside temps. I guess the boilers i take care of are not water jacked either. So if theirs cold water coming back then the entire boiler is that temp, theirs no water jacket to mix like our wood boilers.
Canton
ArboristSite Member
Been running mine at 150 all season. Turned it up to 160 during a cold snap, but not really sure it made a difference. Here's an intersting article I posted a little while back about boiler temps. I'm not sure I understand or believe it yet, but none the less.....https://greenwood.zendesk.com/attachments/token/swhhiibf6bhz8uj/?name=Condensation.pdf
Jeff.
Jeff.
Moojamboo
ArboristSite Lurker
Cb eclassic 2400. 181-187.
So much depends on your heat load, climate, wood, etc.
So much depends on your heat load, climate, wood, etc.
waldershrek
ArboristSite Operative
I just got an Empyre Pro 200 installed this past Saturday, upgraded from an ancient Taylor. I had it set at the max (180) but it was going up to 196-198 before it finally leveled off which I felt was too hot. I since bumped it down to 175 which is working better. It drops down to 168 before the blower kicks on and then gets up to about 183 on the high side.
One thing I don't like so far is I'm getting a lot of creosote build up. Granted it has been warm but even when it was colder it was gumming up pretty bad. Is there anything I can do to keep it from building up so bad?
One thing I don't like so far is I'm getting a lot of creosote build up. Granted it has been warm but even when it was colder it was gumming up pretty bad. Is there anything I can do to keep it from building up so bad?
Cheesecutter
Addicted to ArboristSite
I have a portage and main and was getting horrible creosote build up in it. Found out we were feeding it too much wood per load. Tried putting half as much in and it straightened out a lot. Now have found out if we put about 5 pieces in 3 times per day we use even less wood. Works for me.
Marklambert61
ArboristSite Operative
boiler temp
Winter 160 - 170
Summer 185 - 195 (Pool Heat)
Mark
Winter 160 - 170
Summer 185 - 195 (Pool Heat)
Mark
Grandriverrat
ArboristSite Member
165 to 175 sems to work for me here in sunny warm Michigan.
Poston5
ArboristSite Operative
That is an interesting post on the Portage and Maine user only adding enough wood to maintain the temps. I have a Hardy and it has a lot of creosote, but i am stuffing it full. I think i will try to put enough in for a 12-16 hour burn and see if it helps on creosote issues. Does anybody else notice this?
On the other hand, what is the creosote hurting? This thing burns so hot at times that it will clean iteself out. My firebox has goopy creosote in it but my stack is perfectly clean.
On the other hand, what is the creosote hurting? This thing burns so hot at times that it will clean iteself out. My firebox has goopy creosote in it but my stack is perfectly clean.
milkie62
ArboristSite Guru
Originally my Central CL 40 came with a 160 degree. From boiler to farthest part of house it is about 130'.Could not warm up the far rooms.Bumped up to a 180 degree and it is fine.Probably could get away with a 170 if they made one.
waldershrek
ArboristSite Operative
I don't know that it hurts anything but I can't believe they were designed to run like that.
Cheesecutter
Addicted to ArboristSite
Portage and Main have a "heat exchanger" type setup. It's not a gasser- the smoke is routed under a baffle, up along the back wall, through the heat exchanger to the front of the stove, then to the back and out the stack. The Heat Ex. runs thru the water jacket. The draft air is fed from 1/2 way up the back wall (under the smoke) and from beneath the grate. They are designed to run on 1/3 to 1/2 the wood. Above 20 degrees I can heat 2 houses to 73 degrees by burning just enough to maintain the coal-bed(think small hot fire). When it's colder than 20 I fill it 1/2 way up the door to about 1/2 way back. I figure why burn extra wood just to heat an over-sized load up to temp.
I too used to fill it up, but the creosote would build up terrible in the Heat Ex. and stack. Dealer told me to always rake the coals to the front, but I found leaving them back from the front wall 4-6 inches allows the air to blow completely under the fire and up along the door. The water re-enters the OWB through the grates so keeping ashes cleared off them is important. Also I never burn green or unseasoned wood and rarely anything over 6-8 inches except when it's real cold.
I am assuming creosote impedes heat transfer by acting as insulation.
I too used to fill it up, but the creosote would build up terrible in the Heat Ex. and stack. Dealer told me to always rake the coals to the front, but I found leaving them back from the front wall 4-6 inches allows the air to blow completely under the fire and up along the door. The water re-enters the OWB through the grates so keeping ashes cleared off them is important. Also I never burn green or unseasoned wood and rarely anything over 6-8 inches except when it's real cold.
I am assuming creosote impedes heat transfer by acting as insulation.
Biglurr54
ArboristSite Operative
Has anyone tried messing with differentiation? I have my Woodmaster 4400 to come on at 170 and off at 190. It reaches a max of 195. I have about 10 -15 degrees of line loss. :frown: I live on a hill that is full of springs and water is constantly flowing. The previous owner used pex with reflectix wrapped around it. Next year I will be replacing with Logstor with proper drainage. I have a differentiation of 20. Everyone else is at 10. I started with the stock setting of 170 on 180 off. I noticed it was cycling a lot. I bumped it up to 20 degrees and that seemed to help the short cycling. I have to imagine more wood is burned to start the fire every time the fan kicks on so less start ups with longer burns should be more efficient right? I also want to look at adding some type of storage tank in the basement. Something like 250 gallons, well insulated to bump up my water volume. That should allow me to bring the temps to a more consistent temperature instead of my wild 20 degree swings at the ex-changer. Any one try this?
I was using 170-195 on CB E3200. But burn times were 35 to 70 minutes with 560 gallons of water storage. It would burn ok for 40 minutes then the wood would need stirred or knocked down. It would burn up all the coals and then start burning the logs. Now after reading this post I changed it 178 to 193 deg. It burns for about 30 min and then turns off. I think this allows the wood to charcoal a little more before the next burn. Thus giving my more coals for next burn.
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