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16

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Shorter burn times per load question

« on: January 06, 2018, 08:37:13 AM »

If you need to warm your house from 25 degrees to 70 degrees that means you need to raise it 45 degrees. If you need to raise it from -15 to 70 that is 85 degrees. Double the heat, double the wood. It is simple math.

I see what your trying to say but I'll have to disagree on the double the wood. My stove actually burns better and same or a smidge less wood when it starts to get around 0 compared to 25-35 unless it is real windy. I relate this to the short on off cycles and being able to burn more efficient. This has been my experience with my portage and Maine and was not the case with my ridgewood 6000 I had.

17

Portage & Main / Re: fan damper

« on: January 06, 2018, 06:39:07 AM »

6 degrees this morning.. This is a pic of a 12hr load from last night last pic is this mornings coal bed. One piece of red pine on the bottom rest is oak and beech

18

Portage & Main / Re: fan damper

« on: January 02, 2018, 04:54:06 PM »

I run mine wide open and honestly believe could use a little more air. Stove burns pretty clean but always has some smoke unless I'm down to just a coal bed. If I open the door a crack when it's smoking under load it will clear right up and you can see all the smoke burning in the chamber. I'm heating around 3700sqft plus a 900 sqft garage and domestic water with crappy under ground pipe and can go 12hrs on 6-7 splits and a 10-12" round oak on cold days. 30 and above 4 or 5 splits is all. I keep my ash pretty low keep brick exposed quite a bit. I also blocked off 2 air passages at rear of stove with a plate and firebrick this helps keep more air under where I have the fire which is more in the front and also helps with more secondary air. I also clean my stove once a week religiously pulling all ash from upper heat exchanger and push it back into the firebox. I also scrape the creosote off the what I would call the ceiling of the upper heat exchanger with the supplied tool. I've seen some stoves on YouTube that guys open up and I think to myself how much wood they are wasting. This is what seems to be working good for me

19

Plumbing / Pump suggestions-

« on: January 16, 2017, 07:23:49 AM »

I have to buy another pump for my garage loop I just installed. I am wanting some input on a pump. I have a grundfos 15-58 now for primary and have that set on low which feeds the house needs fine with DMH and Furnace. I have also ran on medium to do the garage loop while closing purge Tee. I was wanting to know if I move the grundfos to my second loop and get a delta t pump or at least a ecm pump would that make sense price vs what i am getting. I have a 100ft run to boiler. I know there are a lot of people here who have tried all sorts of different setups and am looking for suggestions. Thanks

20

Plumbing / Re: adding second loop. Question?

« on: January 07, 2017, 03:54:11 PM »

Should I push through my secondary loop or pull?  Also is there any problem to pulling my secondary loop off a vertical run. Appreciate any input once again thanks

21

Plumbing / Re: Heat loss to ground

« on: December 28, 2016, 04:59:23 PM »

Thanks for all the replies I am going to gather somedata and will update when I do so. Seems that this only happens once wade weather hits. I also do not burn a lot of wood I can throw in 3-4 logs 20-22" long 10-12" diameter 25-30 degrees outside air temp and go 12hrs no problem. Heating dhw and 3800 sqft home with 18ft ceilings in living dining area. Just floored when I had seen grass the same shape as my line and so many good reviews about z-supply pipe. Again appreciate all of the feed back

22

Plumbing / Re: Heat loss to ground

« on: December 26, 2016, 04:43:27 PM »

Well can't say the accuracy of the gauge I believe it was +or - 2 degrees but I will try and verify. As far as drainage or water infiltration I don't see how. I have a foot of top soil, 6-10" orange sand and gravel after that. I am pretty sure I have a dry casing never have had water in my house out of that pipe I would assume at some point it would have to come out right?? Hit water around here bout 24-26ft with the shallow wells. Anyone have better brand of gauge I could try inferred is not accurate on pex or copper. I don't have ground show all the time but can see that there is always less snow where pipe is

23

Plumbing / Heat loss to ground

« on: December 25, 2016, 11:38:34 AM »

I obviously am losing heat to the ground how much is the question. If anyone has any insight on this it would be great appreciated. My temp gauge shows in losing around 2 degrees for 100ft pump on medium speed. 3wrap zsupply 3.5 to 4 ft down sand/gravel soil. The second pic is reference that is my septic tank.
Is it worth upgrading to log stor or similar pipe? Cost effective ? Thanks in advance for any helpful input

24

Plumbing / adding second loop. Question?

« on: November 30, 2016, 11:59:41 AM »

I have a 100' run of pex and about 65 ft of 1" copper with a grundfos 15-58. I am wanting to add a 2nd loop to feed my garage unit heater 50k btu and will have to add additional 150' of pex to make it work. My question is can I put in 2 t's and put in a normally open zone valve between the t's to  make this work or do I need to not put in a zone valve and just do another pump. Right now i can run my pump on low and does just fine keeping up with side arm and heat exchanger. Thanks in advance for any help

25

Portage & Main / Re: New BL 28-40 owner, way too many questions...

« on: October 23, 2016, 06:30:41 AM »

Your draft stop will not work the way you have fan mounted. Must be mounted horizontal for that setup. I had some boil over issues last year with drawing off the top if I were just hooking up I would return water to top and draw from bottom to alleviate this from being a problem

26

Plumbing / Re: Side arm not impressed any suggestions

« on: February 28, 2016, 06:50:37 PM »

Thanks for the quick replies. I will try venting and give it a few more days of use see how it go's. Worse case 10 plate exchanger on cold side I lest should solve my problems correct? Any particular brand of plate exchanger better than others?

27

Plumbing / Side arm not impressed any suggestions

« on: February 28, 2016, 05:19:13 PM »

Just got my side arm exchanger hooked up today and with my dishwasher running I got about a 15 minute shower and ran out of hot water. I let tank warm up to 135ish which is what I have elements set to. I shut the breaker off and had dinner loaded dishwasher then jumped in the shower. If this is normal for a side arm then I guess I just wasted a lot of time and money . I am have heard plate type exchangers plug up and so many people have said there side arms work great. I attached some pics if anyone sees anything that could be my problem please let me know.. Thanks

28

Portage & Main / Re: bl34-44 fire going out

« on: February 12, 2016, 09:08:11 AM »

Watt2323 What are you running temp at? Whats your diff setting? Is your blower damper wide open?  I get 12-14 hour burns heating just the house right now last night was 19 degrees. I put in 6-7 splits 20-22" long with two 4-6" pine logs about 3ft long. Stove is doing great as far as burning, very little smoke and is holding good coal bed. I dropped diff to 8 from 10 and havent heard any more boiling. I will probably end up waiting til shutdown to swap pump location unless boiling becomes a problem again.

29

Portage & Main / Re: bl34-44 fire going out

« on: February 10, 2016, 06:14:16 PM »

Well that sucks but I guess I know what I need to do.. Thanks for the quick response.  just wish p&m would change there owners manual if it's such a common symptom

30

Portage & Main / Re: bl34-44 fire going out

« on: February 10, 2016, 05:08:54 PM »

So after changing the loading tactics and using some smaller splits to get a good coal bed established boiler has been working great. Thanks for the iinput with suggestions greatly appreciated. I have one more question on the supply and return. We have a cold spell right now so boiler has had to work a little and I noticed that I could here some boiling. I have come acrossed that some people swap returns to the top. My question is is it ok to just flip my pump 180 degrees to now have it suck off the bottom and push into the top ? Pump is mounted at the boiler. Thanks for any info on this