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[BNice89]

My fiancé and I just recently moved into her grandmother's house. It is an old stone house and came with a Mahoney outside wood burner with an oil back up furnace. I am having troubles with the wood burner boiling over. I thermostat is set at 180 degrees. I notice from reading other posts that people have a low setting and high setting for their thermostats? From what I can tell, I only have one thermostat in the back of the wood burner. Is it possible to only have one?

Any help or guidance to understanding this wood burner would be great!

Thanks,

[tinfoilhat2020]

your one "thermostat" that you see is most likely you aquastat. Some units have a 2nd for high limit cut off, some don't. Is your fan cutting off when the water temp reached 180? is so, and you temps are continuing to climb. most likely you have air leakage somewhere causing the fire to not shut down, raising the water temps. Most likely you air leakage is coming from a door seal, ash box seal or fan damper. make sure that everything is sealing TIGHT

[E Yoder]

I second what he said. ^^^
Does the mahoning have a solenoid operated flap at the fan or just a flap that blows open? I can't remember.
If you can't find an air leak put a board over the chimney and sometimes that will make it push smoke out the leak.

[BNice89]

Thanks everyone. We just replaced the damper because we new that it was letting air in there even when it was closed. The rope around the doors does look pretty rough. I know they weren't changed in atleast 2 years. What type of adhesive do I use to connect the new rope to the door? I cannot totally confirm that the damper is closing when temperature reaches 180 because are thermometer that reads the temperature is broken? Anyone know where I can get one and how I replace it?

[Smokeless]

I use the high temp silicone for the door seals.  Home Depot
 Your local plumbing supply should have a gauge. But be very careful taking the old one out you don’t want to get scalded with 180deg water.

[E Yoder]

Might be in a dry well. Hopefully.

[tinfoilhat2020]

I think there temp gauges are just in a dry well, should be an easy part to pick up from Menards. For the door rope you want to use high temp silicone. Strip the old rope out, use a putty knife to clean out the door jam where the rope goes. apply a nice bead of high temp silicone around the door jam and then put rope in jam on top of silicone. after rope is set in place, close the door. your door should now shut nice and tight! keep the door shut for 12-24hrs letting the silicone cure.

 If you don't mind taking some pictures, that would really help us, help you!

[BNice89]

Thanks everyone for all the help. It just boiled over again last night but it was fairly warm over night for December in Pennsylvania. Could that cause a boil over? I don’t mind taking pictures at all. I just don’t know how to post them.

[mlappin]

Regardless of outdoor temps it shut shut down all the way once it reaches the set point. You still have an air leak somewhere.

[E Yoder]

^^^ I agree. Check your door seals and air inlet/fan/damper. Doesn't take much of a hole. I take pictures with my phone resize small and attach to post.