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[lugnut]

Okay, new topic from this "still a newbie"...Member Church and I had quite a nice conversation Friday evening and Church came up with an idea and a query.  Seems that we Shaver owners have this large blower motor of 75 cfm on the rear of our furnaces...yet we're trying to stifle the air that is rushing in to the rear of the furnace and under the actual wood/coal.  Why on earth are we fighting the system?  Larger motor with a flippy flap that doesn't flip, but does flop.   

My neighbor has a Central boiler (choke) and Dan tells me that his OWB does NOT have an electric blower...the draft is "natural"...not electrically driven.

So, in our discussion of this issue with  Church,  brings me to this question...why can't we Shaver owners disconnect the wiring to the blower, yet NOT the solenoid and allow the "natural" draft to work in conjunction with the solenoid?

Any issues that we might be missing here?

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On another note, I tried choking down my existing blower with a strip of aluminum foil tape, but it seems that for some reason the solenoid never shut down and allowed the furnace to "idle"...any thoughts here as well?  I'm STILL trying to dial that darn solenoid in.  I have an idea and will attempt it sometime this week, but not until I purchase another solenoid....just in case I burn this one out.

I will step out of the room now and check the bulletin board later for any responses.

Lugnut
aka: Jerry

[tinner]

I do not have the answer to your question. But I do have a question of my own. Have you tried kicking the darn thing yet?

I am looking forward to coming up and looking at it when you git r done.

: )

[martyinmi]

Jerry- You are a hoot! I look forward to reading your daily adventures. In a way, I hope you never get that thing totally figured out. Your posts are so entertaining.

[Ridgekid]

The classic CB does not have a fan, that's true. But we don't have grates either.

My burn times average 15 minutes without a fan. Thats to raise my water temp from 175* to 185*. How long are your burns with a fan?

I guess a lot would have to do with your heat load too. Today we barely got to freezing outside. My unit went into a burn 9x in 22 hours. I added ten pieces of wood all day. The house is a balmy 74*.

I'm just trying to give you some numbers to work with before disconnecting your fan. I've never seen a shaver.

[tinner]

Jerry- You are a hoot! I look forward to reading your daily adventures. In a way, I hope you never get that thing totally figured out. Your posts are so entertaining.

+1

[lugnut]

Jerry- You are a hoot! I look forward to reading your daily adventures. In a way, I hope you never get that thing totally figured out. Your posts are so entertaining.

Well Marty, I'm happy that I can provide some entertainment on this website.  Some of youse guys are really quite stiff.     I think even if I do ever figure this darn thing out, there will always be something that I have missed.

Why is it that I feel that I'm the only person having this much trouble with the "auto damper" or "positive closure" on the rear of this shaver?  I just know that I'm being singled out for a reason.   

Jerry

[lugnut]

The classic CB does not have a fan, that's true. But we don't have grates either.

My burn times average 15 minutes without a fan. Thats to raise my water temp from 175* to 185*. How long are your burns with a fan?

I guess a lot would have to do with your heat load too. Today we barely got to freezing outside. My unit went into a burn 9x in 22 hours. I added ten pieces of wood all day. The house is a balmy 74*.

I'm just trying to give you some numbers to work with before disconnecting your fan. I've never seen a shaver.

Well golly gee whiz, I'm not certain how I would even go about measuring my burn times.  Today, we made it up to at least 39*, so i don't think I was burning that much wood, but with that darn damper on the rear...I dunno.  Going to go outside in a bit and check the box for wood.  Hopefully there is wood still in the box burning..thermostat in the house is set at 73* and it's nice.  Guess I really do have to get that Ranco connected and soon.

You've never seen a Shaver???  Oh my gosh, well then you haven't lived!!!!!!  I will give you their website...no wait, I don't have to do that.  Just take the mouse and do the clicky thing on their website on this forum site.  It "should" take you directly to their wonderful website.  If you get lost, let me know...I have the site memorized.  Where's my favorite smiley...   

Lugnut

[lugnut]

I do not have the answer to your question. But I do have a question of my own. Have you tried kicking the darn thing yet?

I am looking forward to coming up and looking at it when you git r done.

: )

tinner...guess that means you'll be coming up in the "warmer" months eh?  LOL!!

[Ridgekid]

Oh, I've been to the website. Just never saw one up close! 

[RSI]

I probably missed some of your posts but were you having a problem with too much air? The standard fan than most brands use is 135 CFM. Is it possible to put a plate between the flanges where the fan mounts? This is a much better way of regulating the air but it should work to adjust how far it opens the flap too.

Central boilers do have a solenoid to open the air door. They are designed for natural draft. Just opening the air without running the blower on a stove designed for a blower doesn't usually work. They don't let in enough air and will creosote up and probably never get up to temperature.

[powerstroke]

Lugnut, go to the nearest home improvement store and buy a light dimmer switch (the kind that you push on that have a dial you turn).  $5 or so.  They have 1 wire in and 1 wire out.  Put this between your the wire that is powering your fan and it is infinetely adjustable.  You can even shut it completely off.  It is super simple.  No more trying to choke it off with tape or anything or trying to adjust how far open the flap is.  Just complete airflow control at the touch of a dial.

[RSI]

Lugnut, go to the nearest home improvement store and buy a light dimmer switch (the kind that you push on that have a dial you turn).  $5 or so.  They have 1 wire in and 1 wire out.  Put this between your the wire that is powering your fan and it is infinetely adjustable.  You can even shut it completely off.  It is super simple.  No more trying to choke it off with tape or anything or trying to adjust how far open the flap is.  Just complete airflow control at the touch of a dial.

A light dimmer will ruin the fan. Buy a speed control for a ceiling fan if you do this. They look the same but do not do the same thing.

[Treewinder]

I'm a bit confused as to why you would want to reduce the  output of the blower.

The forced air from the fan ensures quick recovery time, and better complete burning and less creosote, not sure why anyone would disconnect.  Many users complained about the 50 CFM fan and then Shaver went to the 75 CFM. I have the 75 CFm and the solonoid flapper on my 250.

To get the burn times, (12 hours for mine) the stove need to burn hot, maintain water temps and then idle to conserve wood, till you need again to get water temps up.  I don't think the reducing the flow or shutting off your fan will give you enough make up air when you need it.

I'm just going to make a guess here about other OWBs that use natural drafts have a different fire box configuration and the size of the draft opening is probably larger.

Good luck with it. Let us know how it goes.

Ed

[woodman]

For natural draft you will need to have a taller insulated chimney. I haven't been following your posts so I don't know what all problems you are having, but if it helps at all there was a thread about 50 pages long over on arboristsite.com named "shaver improvement thread". Seems like a lot of guys had trouble regulating the water temp and blower/damper issues. Most seemed happy after some home made mods, good luck! 

[Windwalker7]

For thoes who might have missed it

Here is my blower mod. It works great and cost less than $20

http://www.arboristsite.com/firewood-heating-wood-burning-equipment/110817.htm