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[hotrod232302]

I have a home made wood boiler. its made of stainless steel. Its aprox. 8' tall with the fire box in the bottom and a 6" round stack that goes stright up through the middle and out of the top. there is no damper in the stack. the only wayi can control my draft is with the dial on the door. if i load the firebox up it will only last about 5 hours before it needs more wood. i am looking a way to slow the burn process and make my wood last longer. i have called duravent and they cant help me because i have a home made product. I was looking at the barometric damper but it would be about 8' to 10' above the fire box and i am not sure that it would help me. if anyone has any info that could help me please share. thanks

[BoilerHouse]

Not sure whether you have forced or natural draft, how big your firebox is or how much water you are heating but the general method is to intall a fan and when the water temp hits around 180 the fan stops and the damper closes tight.  The stove goes into an "idle" mode.  When the water temp drops to 170 or so  the fan comes on and the damper opens.  Many people with this type of set up report burn times of 12 or more hours.  I don't know if this would help in your situation but I can't see how a barometric or a stack damper would help.

[hotrod232302]

thanks. i have natural draft. i have not measured my fire box but it is a good size box. i would love to change over to a forced draft setup. is there a universal kit that they sale that i could get to put on my home made setup? i will try to get some pics put up here soon of what i have. thanks for your help.

[Scott7m]

You need an aqua stat, solenoid, flap, and a fan so you can shut the air off to that sucker...   They'll use more wood than you can throw at them set up the way yours is...  If you could get me some pics I could see what you may need to mount up a kit, but nothing is universal as no one builds them even remotely close enough to making a kit that will work for everyone

But it is possible

[AirForcePOL]

you could also remove your dial and have the aquastat control a damper to open and close to control the fire and water temp.  Some units don't use a fan but if you can make it work I would recomend one.

[bigdaddyjak]

As stated, just buy s fan, solenoid and a flapper, cut a plate, mark the center of ur fan and cut it out, bolt the fan on it. Get a piece of 2"pipe pipe or 2"x4" tubing, weld it to ur stove,  cut the hole in ur stove, then weld the plate to the pipe or tube

[Bondo]

you could also remove your dial and have the aquastat control a damper to open and close to control the fire and water temp.  Some units don't use a fan but if you can make it work I would recomend one.

Ayuh,...   I use an aqua-stat to control a draft door motor,....

[gtownky]

Here is a pic of my set up. I bought everything from graingers. 3ZP77 THERMOSTAT,      solenoid Laminated
Item # 4X239,        5JJ60   fan speed controller,     
1TDP7 PSC Blower, 115 Volt except the flap and I made that.   TEMPERATURE CONTROL   RANCO
ETC111-000-000