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[jack1243]

Aight folks, I've got a question I can't answer. This morning I went out to check my stove it was sitting at 140 which is not bad for overnight. I racked the coals down and level and loaded it with wood the same as I've been durning since the start of the season (red/white oak seasoned). As of about 8 this afternoon my temp as hot moved nor has the blower cut off. I've cleaned the flue tubes which transfer heat to my water and cannot for the life of me figure out why the temp has not gone up at one point with a fire in the box it was dropping lowest it got was 130 with a good fire in the box. Any ideas on this one?

[baldwin racing]

Aight folks, I've got a question I can't answer. This morning I went out to check my stove it was sitting at 140 which is not bad for overnight. I racked the coals down and level and loaded it with wood the same as I've been durning since the start of the season (red/white oak seasoned). As of about 8 this afternoon my temp as hot moved nor has the blower cut off. I've cleaned the flue tubes which transfer heat to my water and cannot for the life of me figure out why the temp has not gone up at one point with a fire in the box it was dropping lowest it got was 130 with a good fire in the box. Any ideas on this one?

check your stack see if it is getting plugged? mainly neer top were is gets cold .....see if there is build up.... right before a cap if you have one on.....

[MattyNH]

I guess my question is what temp do you have your boiler set at?  You said 140 isnt bad  for a overnight.. Seems too cool of a temp to me.. Did your fire get too small to catch the wood that you threw on?...Being forced air draft... Id check your stack like baldwin said

[jack1243]

That's what I'm thinking my temp is set to cut the blower off at 180 (factory setting) and it comes on below 175. My pipe runs from an 8" down to a 6" into the chimeny that is about 20/25 ft tall out the top of the old Carriage House where we have our unit. I can tell it is burning differnt then it did 3 weeks ago when we installed it. It seems to smoke more when I open the door and if I open the door draft knobs about 1/2 way it comes to temp. Seems to me like we need a stronger draft and it might have something to do with the reduction from 8" to 6" into the flue tile. I've got the chimeny guy coming tomorrow to double check and make sure we have no issue in actual chimney the pipe I can take apart or run a flue brush in it to the wall. It's a fine dance running this thing to max your energy and use less wood. Thanks for the suggestions.

[coonsrich@yahoo.com]

My aquastat is set at 170-190.  Mfgr recomments build a fire and let burn heating water to 170 before turning on water circulator and air blower.  You can leave the door open a crack to give it air.  130 -140 is way to cool for a wood boiler you will make creosote and close the chimney in a few weeks.  Also the chimney must be fully insulated and protected with stainless outside.  I had a 10' steel uninsulated for 4 years and had problems.  Now with a 8' high 8 inch insulated stainless I have virtually no smoke and no odor when I burn seasoned dry wood.  A wood  boiler is totally different than a wood stove which simply heats the air.  Best of luck.

[fryedaddy]

Jack,

140 degrees overnight? Is there a timer on your stove?

I've found with this type of stove a timer is important. If your wood burns up overnight
the aquastat will kick the fan back on blowing cold air into the firebox cooling the water down.

I've been told I was crazy (on this site) for installing a timer but our stoves are a little different than most.

Our stoves use a large volume of water and charge like a battery. Once the water is up to temp the
heat gets used over a longer period of time then kicks the blower back on.

I could be wrong but from what I understand most of the OWB's on this site use a smaller amount of
water and cycle on and off more ofter than ours.

I'm not sure about how your is reduced and causing creosote, sounds feasible though.

My father has the same style and size as yours and is able to heat his house 2,600sqft easily with
no problems.

[jack1243]

This stove is straight from HICKS... there is a dial for the water temp, a sight glass for water level, and a honewell thermostat that controls a blower on the front of the stove with a pipe and elbow blowing into the bottom of the firebox under the door. I thought once it got hot it should stay hot for a few hours even with the pump pumping water to the heatexchanger. This thing last night it never moved off 140 til about 8pm then by 12am it was at 190 blower off and good amount of wood in the box. This morning at 530am chunks of wood left about the size of my fist and hot coals water temp was at 160 raked the coals level added more wood and now at 1030am temp is at 140. How can water get cooler with a fire in the box. Yesterday, I got so peed off I opened the dampers on the door wide open and said, "You'll heat or blow up!" it got to 190. but took 6 hours. I feel like I'm burning/wasting wood with this thing....don't know if its a draft problem, chimney clog, or what.

[baldwin racing]

This stove is straight from HICKS... there is a dial for the water temp, a sight glass for water level, and a honewell thermostat that controls a blower on the front of the stove with a pipe and elbow blowing into the bottom of the firebox under the door. I thought once it got hot it should stay hot for a few hours even with the pump pumping water to the heatexchanger. This thing last night it never moved off 140 til about 8pm then by 12am it was at 190 blower off and good amount of wood in the box. This morning at 530am chunks of wood left about the size of my fist and hot coals water temp was at 160 raked the coals level added more wood and now at 1030am temp is at 140. How can water get cooler with a fire in the box. Yesterday, I got so peed off I opened the dampers on the door wide open and said, "You'll heat or blow up!" it got to 190. but took 6 hours. I feel like I'm burning/wasting wood with this thing....don't know if its a draft problem, chimney clog, or what.

hot coals will be hotter than right after you put in wood you will see temp dropbecause you open the draft door to let smoke out along with loosing heet to load firewood in box....but not shure what to tell you....call hicks and see what they say about the reduction of your pipe....they should help you with your problems....no matter what... let us know what they say
kelly

[MattyNH]

This stove is straight from HICKS... there is a dial for the water temp, a sight glass for water level, and a honewell thermostat that controls a blower on the front of the stove with a pipe and elbow blowing into the bottom of the firebox under the door. I thought once it got hot it should stay hot for a few hours even with the pump pumping water to the heatexchanger. This thing last night it never moved off 140 til about 8pm then by 12am it was at 190 blower off and good amount of wood in the box. This morning at 530am chunks of wood left about the size of my fist and hot coals water temp was at 160 raked the coals level added more wood and now at 1030am temp is at 140. How can water get cooler with a fire in the box. Yesterday, I got so peed off I opened the dampers on the door wide open and said, "You'll heat or blow up!" it got to 190. but took 6 hours. I feel like I'm burning/wasting wood with this thing....don't know if its a draft problem, chimney clog, or what.

  Heating 500 gallons take a lot of fire even to recoup back to normal or desired temp..How big is your fire?

[jack1243]

The firebox is about 3 foot deep by 2 1/2 high by about 2 and1/2 wide give or take. I can take up to a 36" log in length according to the manual. It's standard on the stove. I tried HICKS today but it was after 4 they were closed for the weekend and the holiday. I've cut the heat in the house down some to see if it will catch up with the temp. My chimney guy gave me a science lesson on Barometic pressure today. Seems I need to run the dampers wide open on cold cloudy days I did pull the pipe off today and open the doors and windows in the Carriage House the pipe was not clogged but there was a pretty good 1/2" build up of soot and cresote all the way to the chimeny flue. I'm just trying to figure out the most efficent way to run this thing and today has not been my day! I had to cut my hotwater heater back on because the water was not hot enough to wash dishes or do anything. Frustrated is not the word right now.

[jack1243]

Fryedaddy? Where are you talking about putting a timer? If there was a way to keep the blower off during the night and just use the manual draft it might solve the issue of cooler water in the mornings. I do have a manual switch to cut it off with do you think I should get it to 190/180 and cut the blower switch off and let it draft naturally with the door dampers open about 1/4-1/2 way?? Or any one can give some input on this but the timer thing peaked my interest.

[boilerman]

Jack1243 - You stated in previous posts that this is a very large poorly insulated building. How many and how large are the exchangers that you are using in this building? Has it gotten colder in your area over the past few days when the problem started? If all the mechanics of the furnace are good and operating, maybe you just don't have enough furnace output to keep up with the higher demand. What is your delta "t" or total temp drop from supply line to return line at your OWF.

[baldwin racing]

Fryedaddy? Where are you talking about putting a timer? If there was a way to keep the blower off during the night and just use the manual draft it might solve the issue of cooler water in the mornings. I do have a manual switch to cut it off with do you think I should get it to 190/180 and cut the blower switch off and let it draft naturally with the door dampers open about 1/4-1/2 way?? Or any one can give some input on this but the timer thing peaked my interest.

my regular wood boiler will drop when i put wood in from maybe  if it at 160 to 150 or 140 at most and climb from there and it is natraul asperated not forced by fan until 170 then shuts down to limp mode....my ? is are you pulling to much hot water in house and stove can not keep up? 500 gallons is alot and are all your pipes insulated well? i insulated all my pipes even the ones indoors  with better black wrap around insulation.....my idea is the better it keeps the temp in lines ,boiler, and so on the more efficiant it will be.....sorry to here all the head aches your having.....i hope it getts figured out for you.....i was having them with my old outdoor boiler....system....it was full at night and go out next morning and water level was out of site.....found out 15 small leaks in just about every weld on the thing had a small leak in it.....
kelly

[jack1243]

We are heating about 1800sqft with one 98,300 btu exchanger this model is designed to heat up to 2500sqft. I have not lost any heat in the house its still 72 but its not as warm. I've shut everything down and the temp in the stove went up 10 degrees in less then an hour. It's been cooler here today with windchills in the 20's and tonight in the teens. I just can't figure out why such an amount of water does not hold its heat more then an hour or so. I've read post where folks get 12 hour burns from one load... If I'm burning 12 hours I'm also going to load about 2 times. I know it's a learning process but today I feel plumb defeated by this stainless steel monster in my Carriage house. It's clean, and no clogs just seems like the water is not getting hot fast enough. It went from 45 to 150 the first day I fired it in about 4 hours it went from 160 at 530 this a.m. to 140 in about 45 minutes and its struggled to get to 160 once I cut the inside heat off to let it catch up....

[baldwin racing]

We are heating about 1800sqft with one 98,300 btu exchanger this model is designed to heat up to 2500sqft. I have not lost any heat in the house its still 72 but its not as warm. I've shut everything down and the temp in the stove went up 10 degrees in less then an hour. It's been cooler here today with windchills in the 20's and tonight in the teens. I just can't figure out why such an amount of water does not hold its heat more then an hour or so. I've read post where folks get 12 hour burns from one load... If I'm burning 12 hours I'm also going to load about 2 times. I know it's a learning process but today I feel plumb defeated by this stainless steel monster in my Carriage house. It's clean, and no clogs just seems like the water is not getting hot fast enough. It went from 45 to 150 the first day I fired it in about 4 hours it went from 160 at 530 this a.m. to 140 in about 45 minutes and its struggled to get to 160 once I cut the inside heat off to let it catch up....

my boiler is 125,000 btu 130 gal water, rated for 2500 square feet also....I am running threw over 200,000 btu exchanger 24x24  in house in force hot air furnance, plus heating my old part of  shop with a small modine heater and getting 9-10 hours no problem even when down to 0 out.... like you said has to be something thats making it not keep up with demand....wondering if it is the pipe.....with volume not draft...i know i had to run 8 inch and was not to reduce it down but it is natrualy asperated...?
kelly