Print

[intensedrive]

I work long days owning a business.  If the weather is windy or very cold it's quite common to come home to the boiler at 100 degrees or below.  Very frustrating.  First thing I do is open the boiler door, rake the coals or what's left to the front and throw a few small pieces on the coals.  I then go inside and turn the blower off and kick on a space heater or two to keep the house temp up a bit.  I then watch from my bedroom window for the smoke to stop, at this point I know the few pieces I put in are on fire.  From here it's a matter of a hour or two slowly adding wood.  14 hour days are killing me plus boiler attention.  Can't afford propane to heat this old drafty house.  Is there a better way to get the fire started more quickly

Thanks

[robertj1]

Hire a high school kid to throw in some wood when you are gone. Turn the heat way down in the house when you are gone. Should have more coals left when you get home to get a hot fire quicker.

[fireboss]

Are you using hard wood? Are you putting enough wood to last 14 hrs?If you are maybe you can put a draft inducer (fan) ! Or a low temperature cut off switch, that way it will shut down and save your coal's to make it till you can get home and then packet full and the fan will help it recover faster and you don't have to go back out

[kybaseball]

Are you loading the stove before you leave for the day? I always check mine before i leave for the day and add wood as needed.

[mlappin]

Only suggestion I have is to load the largest pieces you have in before you leave for work.

On my old boiler if it got low enough I’d add wood then take the leaf blower running at an idle while standing back 4-5 feet and give it some air till it starts to burn well.

[agriffinjd]

You can also collect cardboard boxes to burn, but they burn best with forced air not just a gravity damper.  Do you have a blower or gravity?  If blower, wire the shutoff thing so it won't open the dampener and blow cold air in once the water temp drops to a certain level.  That cold air is a huge culprit once the wood runs out.  Not sure how it affects it with a non-blower damper.

I have a 30 gallon propane tank with a hose and torch on it.  It can really get stuff going to blast the torch on full blast.  If you put in some cardboard and some smaller pieces or splits, blast it with the torch, add some larger pieces, blast it again until it gets going, it will help.

Don't add a lot of wood until it gets closer to your setpoint.  It also helps to go back out an hour after you've gotten the fire going to rake the wood around then add some more.  That way it turns the first bit of wood you added into good roaring hot coals quicker, rather than drying out and trying to burn a huge pile of wood all at the beginning.  Better to have the BTUs going into your water in the beginning to get the temp up.

[silver star]

When I have that issue, I will rake the coals around and add some cardboard to the wood. I don't mess with using a few small pieces- add then next 12 hour amount of wood and go into the house.

I have some great large pieces of cherry that I only will put in when this happens. These things seem to start with just a small fire, and go.

Put enough wood in to ensure you will have a good bed of coals. 14 hours shouldn't leave you with only a few, unless you are stingy on the wood. Being away that long may mean you consume and event waste some wood, but what you have to do to get it going again isn't worth it.

I have a three foot wand torch which uses those small propane or butane bottles. I can reach in and light up the cardboard pieces and get it going.  a guy near me keeps some kindling soaking in old oil, so it will serve as a long burning fire starter to get some of the greener or damp stuff going.

[Jon_E]

This used to happen to me all the time with my old boiler.  Rarely got to 100 degrees because my hot water tank would backfeed my OWB (heat exchanger works both ways!) but often down in the 130s to 140s and a few small coals left in the ashes.  I would load it right up with cardboard and newspaper balls, drop a bunch of smaller pine or fir splits on top of that, and then load it the rest of the way with hardwoods.  Then get out my Ryobi 18v cordless leaf blower (which was bought specifically for this purpose), fire it up and get the thing lit.  A few minutes of the leaf blower and you had a fire hot enough to forge steel. 

[hoardac]

I got a shut off from RSI that shuts the blower fan off when it goes below a set temp so you do not keep blowing cold air into firebox after coals get low. Then you just reload and press the override and start back up. Before that I used a giant propane flame thrower to relight the new wood quickly.

[MISHOOTER]

Buy some coal.  Shovel a few pounds in and then set your wood on top.

[intensedrive]

Hi,

Thanks for all the input.  Like I said I have a drafty farm house, hard to keep warm.  It has been windy this year, sucks the heat right out of the house.  My boiler is a natural draft.  What do I need to install when the water reaches a certain temp to close the natural draft to conserve the heat.  I have a Ridgewood running a Love Controller.  Good advise on turning the heat down,  I have a parrot so I need to make sure the house is plenty warm,  Maybe I just need a heating bulb over the cage, house temp set a moderate 68.    I'm burning mixed hardwood so I'm told,  many of the pieces are pretty small 18 month aged.  I fill the boiler up pretty good,  I'm trying to conserve some wood I'm already 7 full cord burned for the season,  Its just mind blowing how much wood I have burned.  I'm pretty sure water must be in the lines,  I'm going to have to temp the water entering the heat ex changer to see the drop.  Torch, and leaf blower are a great idea to get the fire restarted and going fast.  Looks like I will have to invest in these options.  Lastly, the Coal option, since I have no shaker grates will this work?  Will I cause any damage to the boiler.. What outcome can I really expect.  I'm loading up on cardboard from work from now on.. So I have plenty.  I always load in the morning before work.  I swear if I loaded the fire box completely full I would be 9 cords in already, too many small pieces.  Normal season for me is around 15 full cord,  First year with seasoned wood, not all that impressed...Green wood buys me longer burn periods, but more of a headache trying to restart a fire from small coals.  Then again the green wood were huge chunks.  If coal will do the trick I'll buy 50 bags of coal and mix it in.

Thanks for all the help

[fireboss]

You can mix the green wood with season wood to increase your burn time . and you need to use bigger piece's. you definitely need to look at a Gasser the money you safe on wood it would pay for itself in no time look into the heatmaster g 200 that's the Gasser, everyone is raveing about !

[shepherd boy]

No grates and no blower is going to make coal not an option. At least the coal I'm familiar with.

[Pointblank]

Maybe the house is just that drafty, but it might be worth it to check your line temps to rule out loosing heat to the ground. At 15 cord/year, you have a lot of btu's going somewhere.

[aarmga]

I agree.  I've only burned 2 maybe 3 cords and I keep my old farm house at 70 degrees.