Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: gainerspot on March 04, 2015, 10:57:39 AM
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Did my morning chores and come back to load the furnace. Noticed it was steaming out of the level indicator. It was a warm night last night so I didn't load much in. I got temp back down. Now it seems like my pump is not pumping and making a lot of noise and then will lock up on the low and med. setting. Makes a lot of noise on high. The Line under the house is cold. I bypassed my plate exchanger thinking it was plugged. Nothing different. Any ideas?
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Everything is only a few months in use. No other issues until this morning.
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Not drawing heat shouldn't cause a boil over. You likely have an air leak somewhere. Check your flap and door seals.
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Looks like my pump is shot after 3.5 months of use and I didn't have money to get a spare
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An extended boil over will ruin your pump. That's what the noises are from. Pumps aren't made to circulate steam. When near boiling water enters the pumps, it cavitates, forms an air lock and causes your pump to overheat, thereby destroying it.
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I'm thinking the circ locked up and caused the boil over, with all the heat stored in that units ceramics it needs circulation to move the water around or it will boil, what is it for a circ?
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Did it boil over or was it just steaming? Did you put water back in it, and how much? What was the temp reading on the controller. I'm just trying to get more info so we can figure out it boiled and killed your circ or if the circ went first.
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I'm thinking the circ locked up and caused the boil over, with all the heat stored in that units ceramics it needs circulation to move the water around or it will boil, what is it for a circ?
Slim, do the bricks really hold that much heat that it would cause a boil over without any great being drawn off? How does that work in the shoulder seasons? I would venture to guess that in April and October that a furnace could easily go 30 minutes after a firing without drawing any heat? Heck, I went a couple hours without any load just a few days ago. How are there not more boil overs?
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It's not just the drawing off of the heat but more importantly circulation, just keeping the water moving keeps well designed units from developing hot spots that can boil, occasional boiling from power loss in my opinion is not harmful but a steady boil over time certainly can be, as long as the crown point of the unit has water over it there should not be an issue at all.