Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: DBeleskey on September 17, 2018, 01:34:07 PM
-
Hi Everyone
I am new the the OWB scene and was wondering what a person does when they have a boiler running and have to leave town for a week or so through the winter months and nobody around to stoke it for you ?
-
If it happens a lot, you would probably want to consider antifreeze. If it is a one time thing or rare, just turn up the backup heat and it should draw enough heat out of the house to keep everything warm if it was setup properly.
-
I kind of thought that might work but wasn't sure...thanks.
Another question...what if I don't get the initial fill up done before freeze up ? Can I fill even though it is freezing out ?
-
No problem. Unless it's -100F outside lol. I usually start filling and then start a small fire at the same time so it's starting to heat while it's still filling, if it's below zero
-
I filled one one when it was about -20F. I had both the supply and return valves open and the water froze when it got to the cold pump. I should have closed the return valve so the water was flowing fast enough to warm the pump and then switched to the return to make sure that warmed up too. It filled fine and everything looked good but no water would flow. Took the pump apart and it was solid ice.
Nothing else was a problem. After heating up the pump, it was fine.
-
Great thanks
I actually though about being able to start a small fire but it says in the manual not to apply heat until the boiler is full. Probably means not to start a huge fire and get the boiler real hot before adding water.
I hope to beat the freeze up but you never know. Haven't had much good luck in the past little while :)
-
I filled one one when it was about -20F. I had both the supply and return valves open and the water froze when it got to the cold pump. I should have closed the return valve so the water was flowing fast enough to warm the pump and then switched to the return to make sure that warmed up too. It filled fine and everything looked good but no water would flow. Took the pump apart and it was solid ice.
Nothing else was a problem. After heating up the pump, it was fine.
LOL that sucks.
I finished one last year about the 28th pf December. House had been up and running for awhile. Kid had the heat exchanger unit form his grandpa’s wood working shop. He said everything was drained when his grandfather quit using the old Woodmaster. Might have been drained but was full of mud. Took forever to figure out why it wouldn’t prime, finally got the mud flushed out only to find it leaked. Took the lines off at the manifold, stuck a coupler in them and just left the pump run on low a few days until we got a new coil.