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1441

Electronics / Re: fan only thermostat

« on: November 13, 2013, 08:36:52 AM »

Do you have FHA or FHW? Someone correct me if I am wrong but it sounds like to me that the thermostat does more than what you will need it to do. Not sure if the percentage is referring to a multispeed blower in a FHA system or what. Sorry I am not much help on this topic.

1442

Hardy / Re: Stack Temps

« on: November 13, 2013, 07:59:06 AM »

Checked again this morning when I was loading. Stove was firing with a good bed of coals on the bottom. Temps at the top of the firebox were 700* plus. My flue pipe was 350* or so. I would really like to find out what other people are getting since I added that extra 10 inches of flue pipe down into the firebox to trap the heat up top and force the smoke and heat to come back down before heading out of the flue.

1443

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Research on water stoves

« on: November 13, 2013, 07:54:29 AM »

Welcome to the board! That is the problem with a wood stove, it is difficult to move that warm air from the source to the outlying rooms. Having an outdoor wood boiler ( or water stove as my Hardy says on the name plate) can allow you to operate your heating system in the house just as if you were using oil or gas. How it would work in your system is simple. Your wood boiler would be outside, you dig a trench and place insulated pex piping in the ground which carries the hot water from the stove into your home. At this point you would place a water to air heat exchanger into the supply plenum of your heating system which would take the water from the incoming pex piping, flow it through the water to air exchanger and then send it back to the wood boiler outside to be reheated. Your thermostat in the house would be hooked to your fan on your heating system only so that when it calls for heat it will turn on your forced hot air fan for the home without turning on your oil or gas furnace, push air through the water to air heat exchanger and exchange that nice hot 180 degree water and move it throughout your house. Some down sides to the outdoor wood boiler in comparison to the stove is that if you purchase a non gassification model you will be going through most likely 8-10 cords of wood or more. Gassification model wood boilers go through less wood but are about 3-4000 more expensive. I know that Taylor and Hardy are somewhat popular down there but they are very antiquated as far as technology goes for non gassification stoves. Look around the forum and see which boiler you like, talk to scottm on here or slimj. Both are dealers and very knowledgeable. If you look around on Craigslist you should be able to find a used boiler for 3-4k or buy a new one for 7k plus. Good luck.

1444

Hardy / Re: H-4 I beams

« on: November 12, 2013, 07:37:26 PM »

My stuff that is between the I beams and the firebox has almost solidified and turned into a solid chunk of hard ash at this point. It keeps any wood up in the firebox at the same level as the grates. I don't let my ash build up to high below the grates where you normally clear it out. My reason or this is that it seems if a mound is built up in the middle which happens the most than the combustion air is deflected upwards at this point and only the wood towards the back of the firebox burns well. Also if it gets to high hot coals will warp the grates. One last this is that I recently put a piece of expanded metal down on top of the grates. This has helped immensely in keeping the hot coals up top instead of them falling down below and not helping to start the new logs burning when I load them. 

1445

Hardy / Re: H-4 I beams

« on: November 12, 2013, 05:57:47 PM »

The space between the I beam and firebox on mine is full of ash. I actually never clear it out. I really should clean it out in the summer time but I dont . I would let yours fill up with ash and leave it for the season.

1446

Hardy / Stack Temps

« on: November 11, 2013, 07:07:40 PM »

I have never measured my stack temps before. Tonight I thought that I would take a look at see what they were at. I loaded about 3 hours ago and measured when it had been blowing combustion air for a few minutes to pick the temp back up to 185. It was currently at 177 and climbing. The bottom of the stack showed 250* or so while the top was at about *215 with my rain cap being 300*. I measured the top of the firebox which was about 415*. I have added a piece of 8 inch flue which drops into the firebox past the horizontal pipes up top that the flame buster use to sit on. I have the flame buster currently hanging from the flue pipe with about a 1 inch gap so that flames and gasses can't just shoot up the flue, they have to go to the top of the firebox and then make there way back down. What are other people getting for stack temps?

1447

Plumbing / Re: this could really suck

« on: November 10, 2013, 11:56:21 AM »

Make up a soap and water solution in a spray bottle. Hook up your compressor to the system and spray that solution on all of your exposed pex manifold, connections, pipe that you can etc while pressurizing it. It will bubble readily when you find the leak.

1448

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: OWB Tools?!?!

« on: November 10, 2013, 08:31:27 AM »

I use have a flat shovel that I use for ash removal, an old wheel barrow handle to use as poker to move logs around in the boiler(works awesome, been using for three years now and hardly burned any of the end off) I just picked up one of these http://www.harborfreight.com/propane-torch-with-push-button-igniter-91037.html for $22 with a 25% off coupon. This is by far my best purchase yet for the boiler. The thing rocks! If the fire goes out and I need to get it going again this thing will get a raging fire going in 2 minutes. I use to screw with waste oil and kindling etc. No more of that!

1449

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: system setup

« on: November 08, 2013, 03:56:20 PM »

What are the entering temps from the boiler start at? If they come in at 180 and drop to 140-150 that is to much of a heat drop I believe. When I was putting my system together I believe the ideal drop is right about 20 degrees. If you are having a greater drop than that you need to move the water faster through the system. 

1450

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: register or floor vent temps

« on: November 08, 2013, 09:12:53 AM »

I get around 150-155 out of my vents closest to my HX with my outdoor boiler. The further away vents see temps in the 130s. My vents get about 115 -120 with my oil FHA.

1451

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Water to air exchanger isolation valve

« on: November 07, 2013, 02:37:14 PM »

LOL I don't use a temp gauge with a well. I use the REDI-CHECK wireless remote thermostat. I strap the temp probes to the inlet and outlets for the HX. Surprisingly very accurate. My infrared thermometer reads the same as the REDI-CHECK does.

1452

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Water to air exchanger isolation valve

« on: November 07, 2013, 09:51:54 AM »

Today I moved the temp probes onto the pex lines coming into the hx and leaving the hx. Looks to be only a two degree difference there. Strangely enough though they don't read well strapped to the pex vs strapped to the hx copper. I would think that the copper may allow them to be more responsive to changes in temp quickly but not be this far off. Right now I am ready 162 coming in and 160 leaving. When it was strapped to the copper on the hx it was ready 183 coming in and 175 returning. I think I will move them back to the copper but it showed that I was not losing nearly as much as I thought and I don't think a bypass loop would be beneficial.

1453

Shaver Furnace / Re: shaver warranty

« on: November 07, 2013, 07:12:03 AM »

I don't know how that company continues to be able to sell products with all of the bad press online. When you search shaver on Google all you come up with is negative press about them.

1454

Hardy / Re: Coals falling through the grates

« on: November 06, 2013, 09:12:42 PM »

I'm going to try moving the coals to the side in the morning. Typically I never have any coals to move. Any coals that I did have all have dropped down through the grates when I go to load it.

1455

Shaver Furnace / Re: shaver warranty

« on: November 06, 2013, 01:20:07 PM »

Rugerman, Just curios what number you are calling? I just called 608-519-4664 and "Randy" answered the phone. I was just curious to see if I called looking to buy a stove if they would pick up. They did.