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[MTJAG]

Well my CL5036 is getting a good late season test.  It is 19 degrees and snowing, so four days after install, my boiler is starting to pay it's way.   I have the restrictor in place and everything seems to going well.  My dealer set the temperature on the boiler at 185 degrees and my indoor thermometer on the supply side is reading 183 degrees today.  Been thinking about that high a temperature and realize that both my infloor radiant heat and DHW both use a mixing value to reduce the temperature down to 130 and 120 degrees respectively.  So, why should I heat the water to 185 just to cool it down to 120 before it can be used?
I am considering lowering my heat setting on my unit down to 165, so that it kicks on at 154.  If that works with no problems, I will probably run it that way through the summer just for the DHW.  Does it make sense that it would take less wood to do that?  I wonder if doing that would increase the amount of cresoting?  If anyone has some experience in that with a classic boiler, please chime in. 
By the way, so far I am only using branches to fire the boiler. Nothing over 4".  I have plenty of seasoned wood ready to go, just thought with mild temperatures it would be good to clean up some of the limbs I had around the property.

[martyinmi]

Almost everyone around here, as well as a few relatives of mine, have tried that with mixed results. Even the ones that thought that maybe they went through a little less wood and were defending turning it down still turned it back up. They figured that the little bit less wood wasn't worth the extra creosote in the fire box. I'm on that bandwagon also. If you try it, do a little experiment and you will see what I've learned. Go a few days at the low temp, then pick a calm night just before dark to load it and manually cycle it and watch the sparks fly! I almost learned the hard way after burning my old boiler at 151 on and 160 off for a few weeks what can happen. I had been splitting wood, so my brand new TSC splitter was sitting only a few feet from my boiler, and I loaded it, turned the temp up, and decided to burn out all the creosote by holding the flap open a little more while the fan was running. I ended up having a dime sized chunk of red hot smoldering creosote land on the fuel tank right in front of me. I'm not sure why it didn't catch on fire, but it didn't. I learned three things: 1) You are able to keep creosote to a minimum with higher temps.(165* and above). 2) Blue Gatorade will extinguish burning creosote. 3) The puny little fuel tanks for the Briggs engines are not cheap!(around 40 bucks) I've never seen a 5036 up close, but I have seen a few 6048's up close and I assume they are the same design as their big brother, and they will throw boat loads of sparks even with 8 or 10 feet of exhaust pipe! Learn from a dummy, and don't leave your new splitter where a hot piece of creosote can damage it.
   Sounds like you are thoroughly enjoying your new toy. That newness still hasn't worn off for me. I heat my house water year round, and I still look forward to throwing 3 or 4 pieces in mine every day all summer long. I am catching IT from my wife, however, as I have 2 OWB's in my yard, plus a third almost completed in the shop.
   Marty

[MTJAG]

Hey, thank much for that first hand experience and information.  Good to know that Blue Gatorade will put our a cresote fire!  HA!
To give support to your experience, I've also heard today that you need to keep the temp high so you do not get any condensation on the inside wall of the water bladder that can cause rust to develope.  So, that in combination with the creosote has me convinced to leave it alone and just burn wood. 
I think I am adding too much wood to mine at present.  I have a large pile of coals and ash just in the past five days of operation.  I have been burning nothing but branches and scrap I have collected on the property leaving my cut wood in place for the time being.  I have started cutting for this next winter and am wanting to get eight to ten cords ready before fall.

Also, I don't know if I mentioned it in my original post, but I put in a restrictor to help reduce wood usage.  This came from Central Boiler and it effectively reduces the chimney down from 8" to about 4 7/8".  Do you know if anyone had one of these in their stove?  Mine seems to be working fine, I just don't know if it will contribute to creosote build up in the stove.  After the first night, there was creosote that leaked through the bottom of the door down the side of the unit.  It has not done it since though and the restrictor is still in there.
Thanks again for your post.

[RSI]

It depends on the stove and wood if it will work or not. I know of a lot of people that run then in the 140-150 range but they aren't central boilers. I would just lower the temperature a few degrees at a time and go a while before doing more.
140 is about the minimum you would ever want to go because of condensation.