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[thearcher]

I live in Vermont and have a Shaver 165. When the temp dips below 10 degrees (of which is more than a month) my house temp goes to mid 60's (termostat is set on 70, house was new in 2005, 1200 square feet). ON installing the furnace there was some growing pains. It was installed by a plumber working for a Shaver dealer. The furnace was set at ground level, pipe was put under the earth 5', so there was a rise of 15' to the heat exchanger. This rise supposedly resulted in 'air' in the lines and had to be purged every 10 days....this was a problem. The plumber then relocated the pump to the bottom of the furnace, of which got rid of the 'air' problem. But because I take the water from the bottom of the furnace, it is not the warmest part (it is actually in oppsite). Has anyone else experienced not enough heat? Or had to move the circulator to the bottom of the furnace? Should I re-insulate the furnace becasue of where I live?
I spoke with a rep from shaver furnace and he suggests that I go to the next size up in pumps because of the "rise" to my heat exchanger. I'm not sure if this will work as it is feeding a 1" pex pipe line and it would seem that I would have to increase the size of the line also to increase the BTU's. I did notice that thedoor is NOT insulated and the top insulation is "flat" from steam. I believe that the top insulation is probably not working at all because of this (?). Should I go to a foam panel or spray foam for the top? Any ideas??

[willieG]

one of the first things you should check is this...does your furnace ever reach the temp that it is set to in the cold weather. If your furnace is reaching the set temp and the blower or draft that feeds your stove air shuts off, then your stove is not to blame for your low heat ability.

how far from the house is your stove...are your lines big enough...is your pump big enough, are you getting enough water delivered to the house to get you the required BTU's when you are in the coldest part of winter?

is your heat exchanger big enough?
there are a whole mess of things to check before you blame your stove.

like i said first thing i would check is if your furnace ever reaches the set point for water temp in teh cold weather. if not then your stove is too small for your cold weather..if it does reach the set point then you have other issues to look at, such as i described above for a few.

[Rob 165]

My heat exchanger is located 12 feet above my stove.  Stove is 100 feet from house.  I take water off the top of the stove and yours will work, but you have a leak somewhere, probably very very small or you are never getting all the air out of your system.  This is very important.    I pull my heat exchanger in the summer months.  I have valves and have a "summer loop" to circulate through to keep my water from stagnating.  In the fall I put the heat exchanger back in, but have to work a while in getting the air purged out.  The last ten feet of my runs to the heat exchanger are done in one inch copper.  Once my pump stops, if I can hear water running inside the copper, I have air.  Usually, I can go out to the stove and slam the return valve on and off several times and the air will purge itself while the pump is running. Sometimes you have to slam it off and on really quickly several times, then leave it closed for awhile then open it quickly.  You can usually hear the air gurgle inside the tank.
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