Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
46
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Conventional to gasser wood consumption reduction
« on: February 20, 2014, 08:24:18 PM »
I would like to hear from some people that have burned in a conventional and then moved to a gasser in relation to how much less wood they go through now. Also what stove you burned in before and now.
47
Site Suggestions / Sections of the Country Threads
« on: February 17, 2014, 07:39:20 AM »
I was thinking it would be cool to have a section of the forum similar to 'Model Brands' but would be 'Sections of the Country'. We could have Northeast, Midwest, Upper Midwest, Southeast, Southwest etc. I think it would be to cumbersome to do it by state, to many different choices. But it would be cool to be able to talk about the specific issues in the specific areas of the US. Like most of the Northeast where I am from has a lot of regulations on OWB and we could talk to others and to perspective buyers in our area about the regulations, dealers, wood, weather and just plain area related topics! What do you guys think?
48
Hardy / Sealing water jacket around flue
« on: January 24, 2014, 09:17:31 AM »
I had my boiler spray foamed after I bought it 3 years ago. Soon after the boiler started steaming from around the flue. I called hardy and they said it was a common issue and that to fix it I needed to remove the top of the water jacket and rechaulk where the top of the firebox meets the top of the water jacket. This would be easy if I hadn't spray foamed the whole water jacket. So I have lived with it steaming around the flue for 3 years. I have tries to chaulk between the flue and the water jacket from above with high temp silicone but it always fails within a month. I add about 5 gallons of water every week. Anyone think it would be worth doing it right to increase efficiency or just live with adding water every week?
49
Hardy / Insulation
« on: January 24, 2014, 08:24:26 AM »
I was wondering if anyone had removed their stainless cover over their hardy and built a traditional enclosure so that they could insulate their hardy better? I had the spray foam guy cover mine with about 1-1.5 inches of spray foam and then put the cover back on. That means that I only have about r7 to r10 on top and the sides. My buddy with a shaver placed 6 inches of rigid foam board on top of his which really helped. His insulation melted this year due to the flue and he realized this when he saw his wood consumption go through the roof. So I was thinking that I must be losing a lot through the top if I only have r 10 or so. The problem is I can't add any to the top with the cover. I would have to take the cover off and build another enclosure.
50
Fire Wood / Burning Silver Maple
« on: January 05, 2014, 08:42:55 AM »
I was wondering about others experience's burning Silver Maple. The graple load of firewood I got last fall (October 2012) Had about 1/2 Silver maple, 1/4 american beech and 1/4 white birch. I have always like burning Beech, it seems to dry reasonably quick and burns hot. The white birch also seems to dry out fairly quick and burns hot but doesn't last real long. The Silver Maple I just seem to HATE. It appears to not dry out well in round form(not split under 10 inches) and even after it seems to have dried out it doesn't last very long at all, almost the same amount of time as the white birch! I have been burning mostly Silver Maple since starting this year on October 28th and have been through about 3.5 cords. I can't wait to to move on to my grapple I got spring 2013 that has a lot of beech, oak and ash.
51
Electronics / Ranco question
« on: December 29, 2013, 12:11:49 PM »
My buddy has a Shaver 165 that we did the altheatingsolutions kit on that included new fan and soleniod plus a ranco aquastat. When we originally insalled everything and it worked flawlessly. In the past two weeks though the aquastat has not been reading accurately and shows a significant difference in temp compared to actual temp. Today it was showing 90* while the pipes and the aquastat inside showed actual temp of 150*. The temp probe is in the supplied drywell from the kit. The kit did not come with any cover to seal the end of the drywell but he put a cap on it that seals fairly well. Any ideas what the issue may be? Like I said it worked for about a month accurately.
52
Plumbing / Shell and Tube Sidearm Questions
« on: December 01, 2013, 07:55:34 AM »
I have this sidearm
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Side-Arm-Heat-Exchanger-Outdoor-Furnace-Boiler-Stove-/160508275258?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item255f09ea3a
Does anyone else have this type vs. the long 1 tube over 1 tube design? My question is about how it should be mounted. WillieG pm'd me and clued me in to the fact that I may have mine plumbed wrong. I was only getting the top 1/3 of the tank full of hot water. Well that is about how long my sidearm is in length (17 inches I think) and I have it mounted basically right up high where it goes into the pressure relief valve which enters the side of the tank(pressure relief is plumbed into the side of the tank vs on top of the tank). WillieG told me that it actually needs to be mounted all the way down at the bottom of the tank so that water will continue to thermosiphon all the way down to the bottom of the tank. I wanted to know if anyone else has one of these types of exchangers and how they mounted it along with how it works for them.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Side-Arm-Heat-Exchanger-Outdoor-Furnace-Boiler-Stove-/160508275258?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item255f09ea3a
Does anyone else have this type vs. the long 1 tube over 1 tube design? My question is about how it should be mounted. WillieG pm'd me and clued me in to the fact that I may have mine plumbed wrong. I was only getting the top 1/3 of the tank full of hot water. Well that is about how long my sidearm is in length (17 inches I think) and I have it mounted basically right up high where it goes into the pressure relief valve which enters the side of the tank(pressure relief is plumbed into the side of the tank vs on top of the tank). WillieG told me that it actually needs to be mounted all the way down at the bottom of the tank so that water will continue to thermosiphon all the way down to the bottom of the tank. I wanted to know if anyone else has one of these types of exchangers and how they mounted it along with how it works for them.
54
Hardy / How much do you load?
« on: November 24, 2013, 08:57:43 AM »
Everyones heat loads are different, wood is varying degrees of dryness etc. I was just wondering what everyone else puts in for a 12 hour load? Its getting colder up here in the New Hampshire( 30* during the day 15* at night). I load once at about 7-8 am and again at 6 pm or so. I put in 4 split pieces of maple that are 24 inches long and are 6 inches x 10 inches in diameter. When the temps are 40* + on average I can get away with 2.5 pieces per 12 hour load. Just wondering how this stacks up to what others are getting.
55
Electronics / Low water cut off switch
« on: November 17, 2013, 07:05:44 PM »
Looking to add a simple low water cut off switch to my hardy. I would put it up in the little tank on the back that I use to check the level. I would want it to simply allow the hot wire to run through it and break the connection if the water dropped below a certain point for some reason. Any ideas?
56
Plumbing / Extra Capacity
« on: November 14, 2013, 07:50:05 PM »
I have a Hardy H4 which is 120 gallons. I was thinking of adding a 50 gallon hot water tank in the loop to add extra capacity to the system. Anyone think it is worth it?
57
Hardy / Stack Temps
« on: November 11, 2013, 07:07:40 PM »
I have never measured my stack temps before. Tonight I thought that I would take a look at see what they were at. I loaded about 3 hours ago and measured when it had been blowing combustion air for a few minutes to pick the temp back up to 185. It was currently at 177 and climbing. The bottom of the stack showed 250* or so while the top was at about *215 with my rain cap being 300*. I measured the top of the firebox which was about 415*. I have added a piece of 8 inch flue which drops into the firebox past the horizontal pipes up top that the flame buster use to sit on. I have the flame buster currently hanging from the flue pipe with about a 1 inch gap so that flames and gasses can't just shoot up the flue, they have to go to the top of the firebox and then make there way back down. What are other people getting for stack temps?
58
Hardy / Coals falling through the grates
« on: November 05, 2013, 06:43:46 PM »
Anybody else have the problem with the coals just falling straight down through the grates and not leaving any above? I would think that the stove would be much better off if I could have a bed of coals going? I would think that I would also get a cleaner burn if the hot coals stayed with the logs up top heating them up instead of the blower just blowing air on the logs to keep them going or get them back up to temp for clean burning. Any suggestions?
59
General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Water to air exchanger isolation valve
« on: November 04, 2013, 06:09:59 AM »
I have a 24x24 water to air hx. When the blower is on I get about a 22 degree heat drop from inlet to outlet which is just about perfect. The problem is that I get a 10 degree drop when the blower is off and just the pump is pushing water through the loop. I would to to put an automatic valve that opens and allows water through the exchanger only when the house calls for heat. Anyone know of an electric diverter valve I could use? Two zone valves maybe?
60
Hardy / New Season New Water?
« on: October 25, 2013, 08:45:02 AM »
Im going on my third season of heating with my H4. I was wondering if you guys do a total water exchange before the beginning of the year or you keep with the same water? I have never added any type of boiler treatment to my water, does anyone use something for water conditioning in their Hardy? My H4 has a steam leak around the stack where the water jacket and firebox meet so I have to add water every week or so. I am sure that throughout the season I end up with a total water exchange. In past my water had elevated Iron content and was a little bit elevated on the hardness scale, PH was right around 7.0. I added a water softener this past summer to take care of those issues.