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[Jwood]

Now that there are more owners and more time on your boilers, has anyone found the sweet spot for the fan damper? All the way open, 1/2 open what effects have you had changing it?

[oaky]

Wide open! Best all the way around for the stove.

[sceptre74]

Wide open as well. The screw holding the plate won't stay tightened so it falls down by itself. Lol. On the to do list in the spring I guess.

[oaky]

Wide open as well. The screw holding the plate won't stay tightened so it falls down by itself. Lol. On the to do list in the spring I guess.

I put in one size larger sheet metal screw in mine. In case I ever get bored & wanted to change the setting.

[sceptre74]

When the owb was delivered the plate was actually sitting on the floor of the back end. I put in a slightly bigger screw than what was there, but obviously not big enough. Not interested in taking it apart right now and I guess no real need for it either.

[Jwood]

Ok mine is wide open as well and I like the recovery just wasnt sure what everyone was doing, thanks guys

[Bud Man]

Mine is 3/4 open. Been working fine now that the issue of the bricks is solved.

[cando attitude]

I run mine about 1/3 of the way open.  I've found that this reduces wood consumption by allowing more dwell time for the hot exhaust gases to spend in the heat exchanger to transfer heat to the water and not blowing the hot air quickly out the stack. 

This will decrease recovery time......for me its not a big deal as I'm not up against the heat load ceiling.

Cando

[oaky]

I would like to think, (this just my thoughts) that while the blower draft plate is wide open, the fire will get all the air it is allowed to, producing a much hotter fire, meaning less creosote on all metal surfaces meaning, a clean metal surface, gives better heat transfer to the water, less chance of premature blower motor burn out & perhaps less amperage draw.

I believe the wood consumption will be equal to whether the plate is wide open or partially closed. My thoughts here again, while wide open, the stove will run more efficient while giving it a longer life.

There are situations when this blower plate does have a place for it, when we have gusty 30-40 mph NW winds or too much overly dried wood in the fire box. Because of this, the water temp tends to slowly creep up or, may over-shoot my set temp by 10+ degrees. I find in my case, that adjusting the blower plate temporarily, corrects this issue, (most of the time).

[Crow]

I think I ran mine full open last year. Recovered quickly even though wood moisture wasn't as low as it should have been. This year wood is much better as it is another year older.
So assuming the blower set up hasn't changed on the BL's this year, if you flip the plate up it will rest against the housing giving you somewhere around 1/3 opened. The screw is loose on mine also and didn't notice until after firing up. Still recovering fairly well but haven't noticed a change in wood consumption and creosote no worse than last year. Lastly if I am late filling it doesn't cool down as quickly.