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[wrudoing]

Hello guys I have a CB 6048 and I have had 3 solenoid failures I'm burning scrap wood and saw dust along with semi green cord wood mostly scrap hardwoods, plywoods and sawdust.  Now that it's really cold I'm really having problems it's like back drafting thru the door and the super hot gases are burning up the solenoid my question is how do I correct the problem short of changing what I burn? I have 3 sections of chimney 12' no cap and I took the door blower off do I need more draft or less air? I don't know any sugestions would be appriciated. Thanks

[gandgracing]

All the CB I have seen have a cap on the chimney.

[Scratch]

I have a 6048 with 2 four foot sections and no cap.  I used to burn dead unsplit rounds, now I burn split wood.  Never had a problem that I know of.

[wrudoing]

Caps are optional

[willieG]

Hello guys I have a CB 6048 and I have had 3 solenoid failures I'm burning scrap wood and saw dust along with semi green cord wood mostly scrap hardwoods, plywoods and sawdust.  Now that it's really cold I'm really having problems it's like back drafting thru the door and the super hot gases are burning up the solenoid my question is how do I correct the problem short of changing what I burn? I have 3 sections of chimney 12' no cap and I took the door blower off do I need more draft or less air? I don't know any sugestions would be appriciated. Thanks

saw dust and carpentry wood scraps will cause more volotile gasses  (i know from experience)  than your stove can likley handle. you nned much more air to burn this stuff you will find that if you open the door a little when the fire is raging and causing all this gas that it will draw air in through the open door and burn wildly, close the door and it puffs and farts
i don;t think you can do anything about this but put in less of this type of fuel, more often

[wrudoing]

WillieG, thats exactly whats it's doing crack the door when it's back burping smoke and it smooths right out. I've only burnt maybee 2 pickup truck loads so far the rest has been scrap wood I'm heating 15,000 sq feet with this thing it's been awsome  I make more scrap than I can burn, but now thats it's much colder I need a hotter fire which means more and more scrap. What do you think put the door blower back on and open the air all the way up? another section of stack to try and get more draft? The back burping really doesn't hurt anything except it cooks the solenoids. I wrapped the current one with heat tape and it's been 8 staight days so far.   What did you do stop burning scrap or go to a different boiler? Thanks

[willieG]

  What did you do stop burning scrap or go to a different boiler? Thanks
[/quote]
I havestopped burning scrap wood mostly. the odd time on a weekend i will burn some. I just burn a little when i am home and load it with less scrap, more often. you could maybe look at your stove design and see if you could move yoru solenoid away from the heat and use a longer chain or rod or what ever pulls your blower door open. also if all you do is burn scrap you might try a higher CFM blower (this will of course likley cause less efficiency as it will push more heat out the chimney, but if theere is unburnt gasses blowing out the dorr and the chimney now there probably wont be that much difference) it would be good to get those volotile gasses to burn either way.

you might even install another complete blower assembly so when you burn scrap you can u se two, if youwent back to regular wood you could just shut the extra one off

remember your chimney must be able to takethis extra combustion air but i believe it can as you say when youopen the door things smooth out

good luck and keep us posted

[wrudoing]

Thanks I knew I wasn't the only one having these issues. 
Does anyone know if there is another boiler out there that can deal with the extra gasses of scrap wood better than CB? 

[tulenutn2o]

I would think a simple enough solution would be to have a mix of scrap and cordwood, don't you? This is what I do. Scrap is a good, fast, hot fire, cordwood builds the coal bed. I wouldn't abandon the scrap completely, just mix it up.

[wrudoing]

I heard back from my dealer today who was talking to CB about the problem and did you know the arm to the solenoid is adjustable? I didn't they said it's getting to much air he said adjust it so it doesn't open as far and it will slow the burn down and it should help the problem. I'm gonna give it try.

[wrudoing]

Also I heat taped the solenoid to try and divert some of the heat might be a good thing even if your not having problems??

[RSI]

Thanks I knew I wasn't the only one having these issues. 
Does anyone know if there is another boiler out there that can deal with the extra gasses of scrap wood better than CB? 

I would assume a downdraft boiler should work well with it. I haven't tried it yet but am planning on testing pallet wood in my Nature's Comfort GT220 this spring.