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1
HeatMaster / Re: I think my g-200 has brain damage
« on: November 18, 2018, 08:04:47 PM »
Mine does too... have brain damage - just not quite the same symptoms...
Stove working fine this morning. Get back tonight and, out of habit, throw the bypass handle but the exhaust fan doesn't start.
Confused and, forgetting my Logo 6 control display doesn't work any more, I check it and "Lo" there are numbers there !!! It has been dead since I fired up this season.
Once I get over the shock of that, I realize the temp says 141, the damper says 100 - but - damper is not running. Hmmm!
Damper looks to be fully open but still no fan. All I can think to do is shut it off, give it a minute or two to reset, then try again.
Control display panel works again - yeah! Damper doesn't, bypass handle doesn't. Darn!
Damper plates do open and close when I switch on/off.
Anyone got any clues what to do here?
Stove working fine this morning. Get back tonight and, out of habit, throw the bypass handle but the exhaust fan doesn't start.
Confused and, forgetting my Logo 6 control display doesn't work any more, I check it and "Lo" there are numbers there !!! It has been dead since I fired up this season.
Once I get over the shock of that, I realize the temp says 141, the damper says 100 - but - damper is not running. Hmmm!
Damper looks to be fully open but still no fan. All I can think to do is shut it off, give it a minute or two to reset, then try again.
Control display panel works again - yeah! Damper doesn't, bypass handle doesn't. Darn!
Damper plates do open and close when I switch on/off.
Anyone got any clues what to do here?
2
HeatMaster / Re: G200 Control Panel removal
« on: April 10, 2018, 03:53:17 PM »
Sounds promising but, what's really involved in that "rewire a few things", Eldon?
I'm not exactly an electronics engineer
I'm not exactly an electronics engineer
3
HeatMaster / Re: G200 Control Panel removal
« on: April 09, 2018, 01:30:40 PM »
OK - having just shut down my furnace for the season (need a Hazmat suit for that job!), I'm finally about to remove that control panel. While I'm at it, is there anything I can do to upgrade or enhance the LOGO display - it is pitiful! Impossible to see in daylight.
4
HeatMaster / G200 Control Panel removal
« on: March 07, 2018, 03:00:15 PM »
I need to clean the LOGO display on the G200 Control Panel - somehow it has filled up with cobwebs - go figure!
Looks simple enough to remove the panel but when I tried loosening the 6 screws, the panel remained solidly attached.
Anyone done this before? I'm not anxious to try prying it open without understanding what I am doing.
I had thought there was a tutorial video out there somewhere but can't find it.
Looks simple enough to remove the panel but when I tried loosening the 6 screws, the panel remained solidly attached.
Anyone done this before? I'm not anxious to try prying it open without understanding what I am doing.
I had thought there was a tutorial video out there somewhere but can't find it.
5
HeatMaster / Re: G200 Installed.....excited to fire up!!!
« on: November 01, 2017, 05:07:54 PM »
Been running my G200 since Sept 2015. Heats about 3600 sq.ft. (house and garage) and uses on average a pallett/wk. One pallet = 1/4 cord. I have 26 pallets stacked and seasoned but expect to use less than 20 this season.
Just fired up for the 2017/18 season, everything looks good (apart from some dumb painter that stood on the roof of my furnace and broke all the seals around the chimney and water level gauge). Consumption is light because it's quite mild just now.
My first season was, frankly, one panic to the next that something was not working right - too much smoke? Too much creosote building up? Too frequent re-lights? ..and on - mostly just our inexperience. Now we know what to expect a little better and last two seasons have been pretty much plain sailing. We are enjoying our G200 enormously.
Hope you do too.
Just fired up for the 2017/18 season, everything looks good (apart from some dumb painter that stood on the roof of my furnace and broke all the seals around the chimney and water level gauge). Consumption is light because it's quite mild just now.
My first season was, frankly, one panic to the next that something was not working right - too much smoke? Too much creosote building up? Too frequent re-lights? ..and on - mostly just our inexperience. Now we know what to expect a little better and last two seasons have been pretty much plain sailing. We are enjoying our G200 enormously.
Hope you do too.
6
HeatMaster / Re: Water heating problem
« on: November 01, 2017, 04:46:31 PM »
Decided to following E Yoder's suggestion and just turn on the power to the heater for now but monitor power consumption for a while. I am pretty convinced, however, by what you guys have told me and what I have read, that a sidearm would be the most elegant solution in this particular scenario.
There was one You Tube I saw that suggested if you plumbed it right, a plate HX could create a convection system because the pressure of the water heating up in the HX is greater than the water cooling down in the tank - they called it "thermal pressure syphon" - thus forcing hot water into the tank creating a convection effect. Certainly not much of that going on at my place
I turn my wood furnace off in the spring so I am comfortable for now leaving the traditional heater in place but, if ever I should find a little spare cash, I shall look into the by-pass and demand heater idea.
Thanks a lot for all your input and great suggestions. Most enlightening. Great learning experience for me.
There was one You Tube I saw that suggested if you plumbed it right, a plate HX could create a convection system because the pressure of the water heating up in the HX is greater than the water cooling down in the tank - they called it "thermal pressure syphon" - thus forcing hot water into the tank creating a convection effect. Certainly not much of that going on at my place
I turn my wood furnace off in the spring so I am comfortable for now leaving the traditional heater in place but, if ever I should find a little spare cash, I shall look into the by-pass and demand heater idea.
Thanks a lot for all your input and great suggestions. Most enlightening. Great learning experience for me.
7
HeatMaster / Re: Water heating problem
« on: October 31, 2017, 05:22:59 PM »
Managed to lock myself out of this forum by updating my email address but, thanks to Marty Lappin, I'm back in now.
Thank you for some good suggestions - some of which (sidearm, tempering valve, to name just 2) I had to research to find out what they do.
Eldon Yoder's suggestion is the simplest, of course, but I don't really follow why it wouldn't cost much? If I only use the hot water in the workshop - maybe briefly, twice a day - aren't the heating elements going to be working almost as hard to maintain temperature, especially when my HX is ineffective in dormant demand?
What I did discover, researching these suggestions, is that my installation takes no account of the concept of a "thermal block". Across my entire installation, the plate HXs seem plumbed to create just that! In the garage, for example, the plate HX sits on top of the water heater with its HW system exit rising 18" before dropping 22" into the cold intake of the heater. The 18" riser is HOT but the drop pipe is COLD - classic thermal block. Hot water will rise but not sink. The same is true in the main house where the hw exit rises 4 ft. before dropping 10" into the cold intake but there demand is sufficient to keep it flowing and so, while not optimal, it still works.
In both cases, it is only continual demand (or the electric elements) that will keep the water hot since the there is little to no convection caused by the plate HXs. There is a notion I came across of "thermal pressure syphon" that could create a convection process with the plate HXs but the way they are plumbed right now apparently inhibits that.
All in all, from what I have read and You-tubed, it seems a sidearm is the most logical and efficient way to optimize the heat convection without either power or continual demand- and, for low use installs, perhaps the only sensible approach. What do you guys think?
If so, any recommendations on a sidearm? Garage HW heater is older (2,000-ish) and has no side ports so would need to use drain and pressure relief valves about 40" apart.
I do not, it turns out, have a mixing valve anywhere in the entire system. Our water is scalding hot - too hot to hold my hands under - but my wife likes it that way! Maybe she's really from Mars, after all?
Thank you for some good suggestions - some of which (sidearm, tempering valve, to name just 2) I had to research to find out what they do.
Eldon Yoder's suggestion is the simplest, of course, but I don't really follow why it wouldn't cost much? If I only use the hot water in the workshop - maybe briefly, twice a day - aren't the heating elements going to be working almost as hard to maintain temperature, especially when my HX is ineffective in dormant demand?
What I did discover, researching these suggestions, is that my installation takes no account of the concept of a "thermal block". Across my entire installation, the plate HXs seem plumbed to create just that! In the garage, for example, the plate HX sits on top of the water heater with its HW system exit rising 18" before dropping 22" into the cold intake of the heater. The 18" riser is HOT but the drop pipe is COLD - classic thermal block. Hot water will rise but not sink. The same is true in the main house where the hw exit rises 4 ft. before dropping 10" into the cold intake but there demand is sufficient to keep it flowing and so, while not optimal, it still works.
In both cases, it is only continual demand (or the electric elements) that will keep the water hot since the there is little to no convection caused by the plate HXs. There is a notion I came across of "thermal pressure syphon" that could create a convection process with the plate HXs but the way they are plumbed right now apparently inhibits that.
All in all, from what I have read and You-tubed, it seems a sidearm is the most logical and efficient way to optimize the heat convection without either power or continual demand- and, for low use installs, perhaps the only sensible approach. What do you guys think?
If so, any recommendations on a sidearm? Garage HW heater is older (2,000-ish) and has no side ports so would need to use drain and pressure relief valves about 40" apart.
I do not, it turns out, have a mixing valve anywhere in the entire system. Our water is scalding hot - too hot to hold my hands under - but my wife likes it that way! Maybe she's really from Mars, after all?
8
HeatMaster / Re: Water heating problem
« on: October 29, 2017, 06:42:40 PM »
Thx hondaracer2oo4.
The water heater works fine as an electric heater. When we have guests in the apartment, I simply flip the breaker on and within an hour or two they have hot water.
Not sure what you mean by a "tempering valve", exactly. Is that the same as the "T&P" valve on the parts explosion I checked?
Don't know what it's function is precisley.
The water heater works fine as an electric heater. When we have guests in the apartment, I simply flip the breaker on and within an hour or two they have hot water.
Not sure what you mean by a "tempering valve", exactly. Is that the same as the "T&P" valve on the parts explosion I checked?
Don't know what it's function is precisley.
9
HeatMaster / Water heating problem
« on: October 29, 2017, 03:22:42 PM »
A G200 feeds my house and my garage - separate buildings. Above the garage is a guest apartment. There's a 40 gal. electric water heater in the garage (primarily for the apartment but also for my shop in the garage) that's hooked in to the G200 lines and has a heat exchanger sitting on top of it that is connected in to the cold feed and is as hot as hell!
Yet, the water coming out of the hot tap is cold. If I run the hot tap for 5-10 minutes it MAY just reach tepid.
In the main house, everything works well. The garage is exactly the same configuration.
I imagine the problem is insufficient, continual hot water useage out in the garage to allow the hot water to permeate throughout the water heater tank so while very hot water is coming in to the bottom of the heater tank it's just going cold by the time it gets to the top and feeds out the hot water tap.
Other than shortening the tank's cold feed to deliver hot water to the top of the tank does anyone have any neat ideas on how to fix this?
Yet, the water coming out of the hot tap is cold. If I run the hot tap for 5-10 minutes it MAY just reach tepid.
In the main house, everything works well. The garage is exactly the same configuration.
I imagine the problem is insufficient, continual hot water useage out in the garage to allow the hot water to permeate throughout the water heater tank so while very hot water is coming in to the bottom of the heater tank it's just going cold by the time it gets to the top and feeds out the hot water tap.
Other than shortening the tank's cold feed to deliver hot water to the top of the tank does anyone have any neat ideas on how to fix this?
10
HeatMaster / Re: G200 door leaking
« on: December 30, 2016, 02:40:59 PM »
Thanks chaps...
On closer inspection, and after more assiduous creosote scraping, I discovered the latch bolts are, as mlappin pointed out, bolts that can indeed be adjusted. So, for now, I have adjusted the bottom latch bolt inwards slightly to improve the seal.
Then, thanks to AirForcePOL, I cleaned off the front off the furnace with LAs Totally Awesome cleaner - "Awesome " is exactly right - then checked the boiler every 12 hrs or so, to see if the leaking stopped - so far it has! Magic!
I also talked to my local dealer about the "Smokin' Swoosh" - she did some research and came up with this response from the oracle... "Yes, I've had mine do that too if it is loaded up with dry "baked" wood and the nozzle is a little choked. The wood gas ignites sporadically and "chuffs". And the baked wood gasifies very quickly and floods the nozzle with wood gas. Usually digging a small hole through the coal bed with poker will send an even steady amount of wood gas / oxygen into the horseshoe brick." Who'd have thunk it?
So, as RSI suggested, this was, in fact, two separate problems and the poor door seal at bottom latch was simply highlighting it.
You guys rock!
On closer inspection, and after more assiduous creosote scraping, I discovered the latch bolts are, as mlappin pointed out, bolts that can indeed be adjusted. So, for now, I have adjusted the bottom latch bolt inwards slightly to improve the seal.
Then, thanks to AirForcePOL, I cleaned off the front off the furnace with LAs Totally Awesome cleaner - "Awesome " is exactly right - then checked the boiler every 12 hrs or so, to see if the leaking stopped - so far it has! Magic!
I also talked to my local dealer about the "Smokin' Swoosh" - she did some research and came up with this response from the oracle... "Yes, I've had mine do that too if it is loaded up with dry "baked" wood and the nozzle is a little choked. The wood gas ignites sporadically and "chuffs". And the baked wood gasifies very quickly and floods the nozzle with wood gas. Usually digging a small hole through the coal bed with poker will send an even steady amount of wood gas / oxygen into the horseshoe brick." Who'd have thunk it?
So, as RSI suggested, this was, in fact, two separate problems and the poor door seal at bottom latch was simply highlighting it.
You guys rock!
11
HeatMaster / Re: G200 door leaking
« on: December 28, 2016, 10:45:20 AM »
Read through this thread several times now trying to understand precisely what it is you guys are actually adjusting when you "Adjust the door".
I have the same leakage problems as you all describe - creosote dripping down the front of the furnace - except mine has now developed a smoking "swoosh" every 3-4 minutes. The attached a video shows what is happening but for those who cannot view the file (Windows Media Player works for me at least), smoke is intermittently bursting out of the bottom left corner of the front door, making this noise like a steam engine letting of pressure. Effectively it is, I guess.
So adjusting the door seems like a good thing but I haven't attempted it because I cannot tell what I am trying to adjust it to? How do I know if/when I have it set correctly? I could see the hinge bolts may allow some door sagging over time but the latch bolts appear to be welded in to the door flange with no room to "Tap" backwards - even 1/8 inch?
Clearly, I am not "getting it" so, with apologies for being such a dumbass, any clarification you all can offer would be greatly appreciated
I have the same leakage problems as you all describe - creosote dripping down the front of the furnace - except mine has now developed a smoking "swoosh" every 3-4 minutes. The attached a video shows what is happening but for those who cannot view the file (Windows Media Player works for me at least), smoke is intermittently bursting out of the bottom left corner of the front door, making this noise like a steam engine letting of pressure. Effectively it is, I guess.
So adjusting the door seems like a good thing but I haven't attempted it because I cannot tell what I am trying to adjust it to? How do I know if/when I have it set correctly? I could see the hinge bolts may allow some door sagging over time but the latch bolts appear to be welded in to the door flange with no room to "Tap" backwards - even 1/8 inch?
Clearly, I am not "getting it" so, with apologies for being such a dumbass, any clarification you all can offer would be greatly appreciated
12
HeatMaster / Re: New Heatmaster G200 Owner
« on: November 11, 2015, 11:40:39 AM »
My G200 was installed a couple of months ago (mid-September). My experience so far, however, has not been quite as straightforward as others would appear to have been.
Lots of smoke, daily re-lights, substantial (?) fuel consumption and, it seems inevitably, the damper running throughout the night (under our bedroom window) until cold start temp is reached.
The temperatures here (NC) have remained quite warm so conditions are far from ideal to evaluate the G200 performance. My lack of experience with OWFs is another major factor although I understand these G models are quite different from traditional systems. Apparent senility may also be something of a hindrance
. That said, despite being told "everything will be fine when it gets really cold!", I am still seriously struggling - and failing - to understand how to optimize this equipment and its burn cycle.
To date, I have burned through 1.5 cords of kiln-dried hardwood, the energy from which has largely, ultimately, been wasted - mostly due to my own inability to clearly think through that cycle.
Has any one developed any kind of optimization models for these devices under varying ambient conditions?
Like: how long does it take to get from 74 F to 180 F when it's 35 F outside? how much fuel does that take? how long to cool down from 180 F- 160 F when its 45 F outside - or to get down to cold start when its 65 F, etc... helping figure out when to light the fire, with how many sticks of wood, so that the water temp is still reasonable in the morning, the damper hasn't run all night ...and so on?
The more I think about it, the more variables I find need to be built in to the model. So, if I have to build my own, it would be nice to not have to start entirely from scratch?
Lots of smoke, daily re-lights, substantial (?) fuel consumption and, it seems inevitably, the damper running throughout the night (under our bedroom window) until cold start temp is reached.
The temperatures here (NC) have remained quite warm so conditions are far from ideal to evaluate the G200 performance. My lack of experience with OWFs is another major factor although I understand these G models are quite different from traditional systems. Apparent senility may also be something of a hindrance
. That said, despite being told "everything will be fine when it gets really cold!", I am still seriously struggling - and failing - to understand how to optimize this equipment and its burn cycle.To date, I have burned through 1.5 cords of kiln-dried hardwood, the energy from which has largely, ultimately, been wasted - mostly due to my own inability to clearly think through that cycle.
Has any one developed any kind of optimization models for these devices under varying ambient conditions?
Like: how long does it take to get from 74 F to 180 F when it's 35 F outside? how much fuel does that take? how long to cool down from 180 F- 160 F when its 45 F outside - or to get down to cold start when its 65 F, etc... helping figure out when to light the fire, with how many sticks of wood, so that the water temp is still reasonable in the morning, the damper hasn't run all night ...and so on?
The more I think about it, the more variables I find need to be built in to the model. So, if I have to build my own, it would be nice to not have to start entirely from scratch?
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