Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
General => General Discussion => Topic started by: rick n kristi on December 10, 2010, 08:19:55 AM
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After many years of indoor wood burning in a wood stove I’m now new to the OWB scene. I always had a damper in the exhaust side of the stove and used it to control burn instead of regulating intake air. It works well in the stove however I have not ever seen this done with an OWB. My boiler has been up a week now and I am very happy with my results so far but am ready to start the tweaking process. Did anyone already try the exhaust damper ? What were your results?
Thanks
Rick
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good question and i am sure some have tried it and i am not sure of any results
my belief is it is not needed near as much as pushing air in. In your home you likely had a chimney 15 feet or longer and when you get that chimney hot it increases the "pull" on the stove that is why you needed a damper on your exaust. it was usually weighted and set to a certain position to control how much 'suction" was allowed on the fire box so as not to suck too much heat from your stove (or home)
most of the OWB have a very short chimney and too much draft is usually not a concern near as much as not enough. that is why a lot of stove push air in to the fire to create a hotter fire
my thoughts anyway
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I have also been thinking about an exhaust damper. I have a Heatmor. It works fine but I have trouble controlling the fire in very windy conditions, sometimes the water will overheat. During a recent strong wind I put a piece of steel plate with a 4" hole over the 8" stovepipe, which restricted the exhaust flow and did a good job preventing overheating. I have left the plate on since then and have been using noticeably less wood. In my way of thinking, a weighted damper that would keep closed except when pushed open by the flow of combustion gas when the blower is on would help.
Any other thoughts on this issue?
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I've been recently having issues with my Heatmor boiling over on windy days, and now on nice days too. I've traced the problem down to the flapper that is supposed to close when the fan turns off. It can be pulled open by a strong wind or creosote can make it stick open even. I'm going to be building a box around the blower and using a solenoid controlled door to the box that will make sure no air can get in
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judds, how about adding a bit of weight to the flapper? Do you think that might help?
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most indoor wood stoves are designed to work on a natural draft. Sooo.. they had to put something in the stove pipes to slow it down if need be. That being said, your 325 and other stoves we have on here are forced air stoves, there not requiring a natural draft because they have blowers. I see no room for a benefit of a damper.
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on a further note.
if a customer calls in and says, "hey my stove is having trouble getting up to temperature" One of the first things I ask is, "is your chimney clean"
If your fan is running and trying to force more air into the stove than can escape your fire becomes really lazy and doesnt do well at all. Therefore placing a damper in a stove would essentially be like a partially clogged chimney and only cause problems.