Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
Outdoor Furnaces - Manufacturers WITH EPA-Certified Models => HeatMaster => Topic started by: schoppy on November 07, 2015, 11:27:46 PM
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So you G400 owners or Heatmaster dealers, just a question. My G400 was manufactured this last August so it is supposed to have the latest updates. The back has the door now (changed out the non-locking latch with a lockable one which they should come with) which is insulated but the back of the stove inside the door is not. Is this to help preheat the combustion air which is drawn through the opening in the back bottom then routed to the front? I also took a piece of 1/4" galvanized mesh screening, folded it over a couple of times and placed it over the fresh air opening between the insulation and opening to prevent our hoards of Chinese beetles from getting into the back through the air opening. I will have to check it to be sure it doesn't clog with anything. I insulated the back of P&M with additional insulation but I am guessing I shouldn't on the G400? The water lines are probably the only areas that should be insulated in the back? Just wondering?
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Good question schoppy, yes I am thinking that the pre heated air may help combustion, I would also like to see a lockable rear door for the customers sake all though I know I would never use it, heck I leave the keys in my truck everywhere I go so I don't lose them! Good idea on the bug filter, be sure it stays clean.
Please keep the ideas coming, the folks at the factory do watch the forum and will consider upgrades as ideas come in.
How are you liking the G-400 so far?
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Mine was manufactured June of 2015 and it does have insulation in the access door like yours.
I don’t like to insulate water lines unless absolutely necessary, if you ever get a seep in a fitting a lot of corrosion can occur before you notice it if they are insulated. If your using a Delta T pump then you’ll need to insulate the sensor so the ambient temp in the back of the stove doesn’t cause erroneous readings for the pump.
I have some 3/16 and 1/8” hardware cloth I was gonna place over the vent hole mainly to keep mice out, would be nice to keep those lady beetles out as well. Gonna try the larger first which will definitely keep mice out, not sure about the beetles.
I also have some 16 gauge stainless left i was gonna plasma cut a hole in to fit over the Logstor then pop river that in place to blank off the open space around the Logstor to keep mice out. When done with harvest we’ll have over hundred thousand bushels of corn stored on the farm, mice are abundant no matter how well you keep things cleaned up.
The G400 is awesome so far, had a bit of a learning curve compared to ole smokey, but from what I’ve seen as long as you have quality underground line it holds heat amazingly well when idling. But I have just had it up and running a few days now, as much as I hate to say it would like to see some nice frigid weather set in so I can really load it down and see what happens. From what I’ve seen in just a few days I expect to use half as much wood as ole smoky did.
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One last thing for new users, when filling if you stop when the indicator is half way up the gauge, when it hits 180 it will be near full without puking water out the top when it expands.
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If you want to look at another one, I have one sitting in Arlington. I am guessing it was just made but didn't look at the MFG date yet.
I also have a G100 and G200 if you want to compare anything.
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I had the same thing happen when I filled my g200. I also think I am going to have a 50 percent reduction in wood consumption from the old hardy.
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I agree with you mlappin on covering up the fittings in lines, especially after some wanna-be sharkbite clones leaked on me last year, typically I only insulate the lines themselves. The O.E.M. Sharkbite push fittings I used never did leak.
I was worried about mice getting in the back around my lines also. To seal up the gaps around my two runs going out the back of my boiler I took some material like they use to cover insulation on the side of a house. It is about 1/16" thick and flexible and I made a sleeve about 8 to 10 inches in diameter around my corrugated pipe tight to the bottom of the boiler and about 3"below what will be the final yard grade. Then I filled the sleeve with minimal expanding great stuff foam. It took about 2 days for the foam to stop oozing out any little cracks. Trimmed away the set-up oozed foam and now no more mice worries and even better insulation around the pies above ground below the boiler.
Hi slim, I haven't fired the unit yet but am hoping to in the next few days. Things have gone a little slower than normal with my shoulder surgery. Did my last pressure test on the new house piping and found some leaking solder joints on my mono-flow tees. What a pain to take the loop back apart to re-solder them. I am going to do some tests on the flow rates before final assembly so I have an idea of what I need for GPM's from my bypass pump. I'm moving all my pumps to the back of the unit and wanted to be able to lock it when we are gone. One flip of a switch and everything goes off. When I get it up and running I hope to take some pictures and post them.
Thanks mlappin for the water level info. I know my P&M puked water all over when I heated it up the first time. Did you experience any sweating in the firebox when you first fired it up? I plan on tracking my wood usage closely to see how it compares to previous years, assuming we have an average winter.
Next time through Arlington I'll have to take a look RSI. Good to have a dealer in the area, congratulations.
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Thanks mlappin for the water level info. I know my P&M puked water all over when I heated it up the first time. Did you experience any sweating in the firebox when you first fired it up? I plan on tracking my wood usage closely to see how it compares to previous years, assuming we have an average winter.
I think any stove will sweat regardless of make or material used. Mine did quite a bit, rained the night before and that morning so lots of moisture in the air, don’t really know how much as it was coming sideways.
Cold enough this morning when we woke up the wife asked why it was smoking, told her it’s steam, not smoke when it starts a foot or 18 inches above the stack and dissipates in 20-30 feet.
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I have had steam a few times. Usually when it is below 30 degrees and I have just loaded some less dry stuff. As soon as the stove goes through 1 or 2 cycles the steam goes away. The stove seems to operate fine even with wood as high as 30 percent as long as you have a decent coal bed.
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Fire in the hole! Fired off my G400 for the first time today. What ever you do, don't use Permatex pipe dope with Teflon in it. I have done gas, water and steam piping for over 35 years and this is the worst dope I have ever used. Did pressure tests on everything before firing and all checked out ok after re-soldering some mono flow tee fittings. Filled, purged then did some flow tests before firing. Then fired it up and had 4 leaks in my shed on threaded fittings. The pipe dope drips off the joints like snot and that is after I wiped all excess dope off. It acts like this crap dissolves in water. Relocating the red L.E.D. control panel light outside worked great. It was dark out by the time I fired it off so I couldn't tell how much smoke there was but I am starting with dried slab wood and it got a little rain on some of it last night. I know if you have the loading door and the bypass open too long it goes into a fault.
Hey slim, do you know the factory settings on the G400 for operating temps? I know there is a 190 degree high limit but the manual just says it is preprogrammed and requires no user programming. Wondering if the operating temp is 180 and what the differential is? The weather isn't real cold yet but so far the mono flow tees with a primary/secondary loop setup for the house has increased my gpm flow by almost 40% over last year (6.7 gpm to 9.25gpm). I decided to use two mono fllows for each load for maximum flow and because all my loads are below the supply loop. Thanks for the help with the recommendations of changes to my system. With both feeds and the bypass pump I have a little over 25 gpm flow that the factory says it should have.
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The factory settings are 160 on and 180 off, the differential I believe can be reset by the user but bumping the high set point requires the dealer to put in a reprogramming chip temporarily to set it higher, Glad you are up and running, I think you will find this unit much more user friendly.
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The factory settings are 160 on and 180 off, the differential I believe can be reset by the user but bumping the high set point requires the dealer to put in a reprogramming chip temporarily to set it higher, Glad you are up and running, I think you will find this unit much more user friendly.
I wondered about that wide differential, I was running old smoky at 175 on and 185 off, tried 180 and 190 but then it seemed like I just ate the wood keeping it 5 degrees hotter. Running the waste oil boiler at 195 off. O might have to install a high limit aqua stat in the incoming line from the G400 so the waste oil boiler down’t overheat it and trip the high temp cutout on the Heatmaster.
Maybe the wide differential so it doesn’t short cycle on days with lower heat demand?
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The learning process continues. First load of slab wood ran through just fine and lasted longer than expected. On the second load made a mistake of trying to fit a piece too long in and it bridged the rest of the wood and the fire went out. Restarted quickly but I will have to be careful to keep all wood parallel to each other especially with slab wood that doesn't roll.
Has anyone had any issues with the secondary heat exchanger refractory cracking? Checked the lower area this morning and found the front refractory block cracked in two right down the middle. When I picked up the stove the baffle piece which sits on the front edge of this refractory block (the width of the refractory about an inch thick and 2.5 inches high) was laying in the bottom and the dealer told me it just had to be set back in place. I had to do some slight filing to get it to fit, there was what appeared to be silicone holding it in place originally. Tonight I took a look and the baffle piece is now broken and falling down like a V on the front edge of the front refractory block. I did talk to Wally about the cracked refractory block and he said that it does happen and as long as it is not breaking apart it shouldn't be a problem. At the time I talked to him I didn't know the front baffle piece had broken also. I plan on taking a picture and sending it to him, for sure I will need the new baffle piece.
Does anyone think there would be a problem running the boiler until a new baffle piece is in place?
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No it's not a problem at all, it's only there to slow the velocity a bit and add turbulence in the reaction chamber, your dealer should have a couple of them in stock if he doesn't, ask him to get one for you, it might need to be trimmed to fit but it can be cut with a serrated knife easily, in the interim, run it !
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The learning process continues. First load of slab wood ran through just fine and lasted longer than expected. On the second load made a mistake of trying to fit a piece too long in and it bridged the rest of the wood and the fire went out. Restarted quickly but I will have to be careful to keep all wood parallel to each other especially with slab wood that doesn’t roll.
I cut all my tops at 30-36” and just place those on the very top, haven’t had a problem yet. The rest of my wood is ran thru a fire wood processor and is 17” long, all that goes on bottom.
anyone had any issues with the secondary heat exchanger refractory cracking? Checked the lower area this morning and found the front refractory block cracked in two right down the middle. When I picked up the stove the baffle piece which sits on the front edge of this refractory block (the width of the refractory about an inch thick and 2.5 inches high) was laying in the bottom and the dealer told me it just had to be set back in place.
Mine was in place but loose, wonder if trying some furnace cement instead to hold it in place instead of the silicone.
I’d think eventually the crack would fill with fine ash anyways.
Fire in the hole! Fired off my G400 for the first time today. What ever you do, don't use Permatex pipe dope with Teflon in it. I have done gas, water and steam piping for over 35 years and this is the worst dope I have ever used. Did pressure tests on everything before firing and all checked out ok after re-soldering some mono flow tee fittings. Filled, purged then did some flow tests before firing. Then fired it up and had 4 leaks in my shed on threaded fittings. The pipe dope drips off the joints like snot and that is after I wiped all excess dope off. It acts like this crap dissolves in water. Relocating the red L.E.D. control panel light outside worked great. It was dark out by the time I fired it off so I couldn't tell how much smoke there was but I am starting with dried slab wood and it got a little rain on some of it last night. I know if you have the loading door and the bypass open too long it goes into a fault.
Yep, been there, but we always considered the Permatex to be good stuff, least compared to the stuff that literally has grit in it. Of course we usually only use it on the nylon fittings that are used on all our field sprayers. Whats the point of the grit anyways? It all gets wiped off when you thread the pipes together.
I had maybe three fittings that were seeping just enough to leave a tiny trail once it got hot and ran a few days, my experience is paste literally glues the joints together once good and hot. Got tired of the paste once the dew set and my pipes got wet from the dew and the paste wouldn’t stick anymore, used heavy duty teflon tape after that and none of those leak or seep.
It does just barely sip the wood, I’m still over filling a little, 15 years of running old smokey makes for some ingrained habits that are hard to break. I almost think somebody that’s never run a OWB would have a little easier time of it as no old habits to break.
I took some 100% spray silicone and sprayed the damper cover with it, makes any mess wipe right off then.
It’s not really a fault mode if the damper is left open too long but a warning that the damper is still open in case you have it open, shut the door and walk away. If the draft motor shuts off because you have it open for 5 minutes but your not done yet, just move the handle a few inches like your going to close it, then open it back up and that will reset the timer so you have another five minutes of the draft inducer running and the pleasure of no smoke in your face while finishing up. That in itself is a strong selling point, I’ve lost track of how many times I was loading my old one and the wind would shift and end up with burning eyes and gagging on smoke.
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The weather turned warm here again so it hasn't had to work hard at all. I am probably over loading it also. How long should you be looking at for burn times per loading? I haven't even loaded it half full yet and it seems to go forever but like I said it has turned warmer here.
mlappin, you sprayed the round bypass damper cover with silicone? Was this before firing it and how do you get to yours to clean it? Yours should have all the latest changes on it too shouldn't it? My manual says to check for creosote build up once per week in the heat transfer tubes and chimney using the top access panel on the roof of the furnace and mine doesn't have that unless it is really hidden well. It looks like on mine I would need to remove the venter assembly and mounting plate to access this area.
My dealer had only sold one G series units and no G400's before mine. Didn't go over the stove much at all other than me checking to be sure everything seemed ok when I picked it up but I did tell them ahead of time that I would be installing the unit myself.
Slim have you sold any of the G400's yet and are they different from the 100 and 200's?
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Yes i have schoppy, you obviously have the 2015 model and a 2014 manual, the clean out is on the back now instead of the top, HondaRacer has my 2015 show boiler that I ran at my shows and it never got cleaned up there, it was a 200 but built the same way.
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Open your rear access door and look near the top, the panel that has the 1/2hp draft inducer motor will have 5 tabs around the outside with a 3/8” nut on each one, two on top, one on either side and one on the bottom. Turn the power off at the main control panel, don’t turn the wall switch off at the back or you will shut your pumps off as well, then unplug the draft inducer cord from the top of the electrical box that has your switch and receptacles in it. Loosen the bottom and side ones enough to rotate the locking tab out of the way, if you have a helper available have them loosen the top two while you support the plate and motor, I place one hand under the cooling shroud on the motor, once the top two are loose rotate the tabs and lift the whole assembly out, you may either want to wait till it’s ready to start another cycle and then turn the power off at the control panel or wear a pair of leather or welding gloves as the assembly can be quite warm.
Reverse this procedure to reinstall the draft inducer and cover assembly, you don’t need to over tighten the 3/8” nuts on the hold down tabs, just snug enough to get a good seal. It has two tabs the cover sits on so you can place the cover on the tabs then rotate the top in.
Clear as mud?
I really wouldn’t think it would need checked weekly as long as everything is good and dry in the reaction chamber.
The weather keeps flip flopping here, almost t shirt weather again here where a few days ago it was thermals weather with a bitter wind with gusts up to 60mph.
I’m heating the house, the DHW and the shop and have gone thru a quarter of a cord of ash in a week so not really worth letting it go out wit the what little wood it’s using, besides the wife has already become used to her endless hot showers.
EDIT:: Not sure why I worded that the way I did and I apologize if it caused confusion, but at least on the way the exhaust vent on the removable plate fits into the stack the bottom needs pulled out first to remove and inserted first to reinstall.
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Excellent description on the process mlappin. That is exactly how I pictured it but with recent shoulder surgery I will definitely be having help to do it.
I have been getting a little tary moisture dripping from the front and a few streaks running down the back from the venter panel. I will be taking my first water sample tomorrow and sending it in. I figured I would check the venter area and the chimney at the same time.
I believe my 15 year old daughter would live in the shower if we let her and the endless hot water means hot showers for mom and I when we take our showers after her. Slims recommendation on using the mono flow tees for my loads is working great so far and I am sure will be just fine once cold weather gets here. Supposed to have highs in the low 30's next weekend for the opening of deer season which should add some load.
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That should all clear up now that you are up to temp, if not then try adjusting the doors and perhaps tighten the dogs a bit on the rear access panel to seal it a bit better.
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Thanks Slim, I will check those out. I am also loading it less for the warmer weather. Do you think the 20 degree differential is for longer burn times trying to prevent short cycling and cleaner hotter burns? I know my P&M was about 7 degree differential but I would believe the gasser has a quicker recovery also.
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Yes, it does promote a hotter / cleaner burn.
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I haven't pulled th cover off th control panel yet to try and play with Siemens control to see what I can change and what I can't. I would like to bump the bottom up to maybe 165 for a bottom and maybe the top to 185? I have a hydro air system in the house so the owb water goes through a flat plate to get into the pressurized side and then flows to the hydroair coil on te pressurized side. Previously with my old system the owb would run right through the coil so I would get the 170-180 water directly. Now that it has to go through the plate and then te coil I get 2-3 degrees below what the actual owb is plus I run down to 160 so my heat vents in the house are consistently getting less temp than before. I run about 125-135 at the registers compared to 130-145 before. Not a huge deal but since I am not getting the same btus my hydro air box runs a little more than before. I will be interested to see how much more when the temps approach zero degrees
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in order to raise the high set point temp, i'll need to stop by but the low set point can be brought up by the customer.
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I will leave it the way it is for now and maybe have you change it at some point. Thanks for the info!
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I thought about raising my low point cut in above 160 but if you have ever heated with Geothermal or even the highest efficiency gas heating equipment you wouldn't even consider it. Geo puts out 105 to 110 degree heat when running wide open and a high efficiency gas furnace starts the blower at about 95 degrees but does warm up eventually. Even my DHW 10 plate exchanger gives me all the hot water I need at 160 but it is my first load. For cleaner hotter burns I will leave it as is.
I sent Wally (at the factory) a picture of the broken choc bar (that's what they call the insulation piece across the front) and the cracked refractory block. I called my dealer and they the factory and the choc bar is on the way. Wally advised to keep monitoring the refractory block so I checked again tonight and now the rear refractory block is cracked also. I sure hope these don't break apart and leave me without heat in the coldest part of the winter.
Slim I know you said no problem with the broken choc bar but I am not sure if the refractory blocks themselves come apart?
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I haven't pulled th cover off th control panel yet to try and play with Siemens control to see what I can change and what I can't. I would like to bump the bottom up to maybe 165 for a bottom and maybe the top to 185? I have a hydro air system in the house so the owb water goes through a flat plate to get into the pressurized side and then flows to the hydroair coil on te pressurized side. Previously with my old system the owb would run right through the coil so I would get the 170-180 water directly. Now that it has to go through the plate and then te coil I get 2-3 degrees below what the actual owb is plus I run down to 160 so my heat vents in the house are consistently getting less temp than before. I run about 125-135 at the registers compared to 130-145 before. Not a huge deal but since I am not getting the same btus my hydro air box runs a little more than before. I will be interested to see how much more when the temps approach zero degrees
I played with mine out of curiosity and decided to leave well enough alone, if you were to change it I believe from what I seen it doesn’t actually list the temps far as 160 cut in, but rather lists the reading the probe puts out at 160, so you’d need the chart thats used to test the probe to reset your temps. Really cute controller though, I have some VFD’s here at the farm with built in PID controllers, have 900 and some odd lines a person can play with, definitely need the manual, for example maximum hertz is listed as P103 and a number, don’t have the manual and your boned.
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I thought about raising my low point cut in above 160 but if you have ever heated with Geothermal or even the highest efficiency gas heating equipment you wouldn't even consider it. Geo puts out 105 to 110 degree heat when running wide open and a high efficiency gas furnace starts the blower at about 95 degrees but does warm up eventually. Even my DHW 10 plate exchanger gives me all the hot water I need at 160 but it is my first load. For cleaner hotter burns I will leave it as is.
I sent Wally (at the factory) a picture of the broken choc bar (that's what they call the insulation piece across the front) and the cracked refractory block. I called my dealer and they the factory and the choc bar is on the way. Wally advised to keep monitoring the refractory block so I checked again tonight and now the rear refractory block is cracked also. I sure hope these don't break apart and leave me without heat in the coldest part of the winter.
Slim I know you said no problem with the broken choc bar but I am not sure if the refractory blocks themselves come apart?
I believe as long as the refractory doesn’t start to crumble a crack won’t effect performance. I imagine given the shape of the refractories a lot of stress is created as they expand or contract as they heat or cool.
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schoppy, could you send me those pictures as well or post them here so we can all see it, so far i haven't seen any cracks.
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I was also wondering about raising the low temp shut down to 150 or so. It seems like when it gets down to 150 and below that I have little to no coals left for a restart which is what i figure that feature is for. At 120 I would certainly have nothing left as far as coals.
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Yes slim, I was going to clean out the ash and coals in the secondary burn chamber anyway. I will take some pictures and see if I can figure out how to post them here. My 15 year old daughter can probably show me how to do it if I can't figure it out.
Still getting a little dripping out the front door on the hinge side and running down the back. I was tied up today but will look at it soon. I am guessing the warm weather may have as much to do about it as anything with the furnace at an idle quite a bit. Bid cool off starting tonight so that may help too.
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Schoppy- running without the lower "horseshoe brick" is fine provided you leave some ash covering the floor of the lower reburn chamber for the flame to hit. Ash is an excellent insulator. It'll smoke a bit more because it doesn't mix as well but you won't damage anything. It's all surrounded by water and the brick just reflects the heat in and forces it to mix. My son's fatherinlaw ran a early model G100 for several months without a horseshoe brick and it was fine. Just not as clean of a burn.
Interestingly the CB Edge models don't have brick down there but their EPA test was dirtier.
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What are you guys getting for exit temps from the stack under load? I measured the inside of the flue pipe today with my IR gun. I got 385 degrees with water temp at 166 and damper 100% open. At 173 at 70% open I got 345 and at 177 with 60% open I got 325. To bad I don't know what the combustion temps are inside the secondary at different damper positions. This was 100% oak load on a nice bed of coals.
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What are you guys getting for exit temps from the stack under load? I measured the inside of the flue pipe today with my IR gun. I got 385 degrees with water temp at 166 and damper 100% open. At 173 at 70% open I got 345 and at 177 with 60% open I got 325. To bad I don't know what the combustion temps are inside the secondary at different damper positions. This was 100% oak load on a nice bed of coals.
I don’t believe IR guns anymore, can get all kinds of weird readings sometimes compared to a known source. I have a pyrometer that one of these days I’m gonna drop in the stack and see, my old one hit over 700 degrees with a roaring fire going.
I have my view port made and found a thermowell that will handle 2600 degrees, I’m gonna place it right over the viewport and rig up a data logger of some kind to track secondary burn temps and stack temp.
It got good and cold here a few days ago, was 8F on our way to physical therapy the one morning, dried everything right out in short order. Back into the low fifties again now.
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I know that IR guns can by finicky but I seem to have good luck with mine. You have to follow some basic rules and it seems to be accurate. http://www.westsidewholesale.com/amprobe-ir608a.html?keyword=Google_Shopping&gclid=CJuf0OHFrskCFYP1HwodiV8Fpg That is the one that I have. When you place it right onto the black fittings leaving the boiler it reads the exact same temp that the Siemens control reads on the boiler. When I measure pex I place the sensor right on the pex, when I measure copper I wrap the copper in black electrical tape, it reads the exact same number as the pex does when I do that. When I shoot the wall right next to my indoor thermostat it reads the same as my thermostat reads. Im not sure if mine is just higher quality then some other products out there but it seems to be accurate.
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I know that IR guns can by finicky but I seem to have good luck with mine. You have to follow some basic rules and it seems to be accurate. http://www.westsidewholesale.com/amprobe-ir608a.html?keyword=Google_Shopping&gclid=CJuf0OHFrskCFYP1HwodiV8Fpg That is the one that I have. When you place it right onto the black fittings leaving the boiler it reads the exact same temp that the Siemens control reads on the boiler. When I measure pex I place the sensor right on the pex, when I measure copper I wrap the copper in black electrical tape, it reads the exact same number as the pex does when I do that. When I shoot the wall right next to my indoor thermostat it reads the same as my thermostat reads. Im not sure if mine is just higher quality then some other products out there but it seems to be accurate.
Good to know. Mine was a freebie my father in law and brother in law used to use to check tire temps on the stock car.
Weather is goofy here, if it was anything like the last three years I’d be getting a good workout on the G400, if the long term is anywhere near accurate I may let it go out and use the waste oil boiler to heat the water at night before bed. Back to it using the purge cycle once in awhile as not enough heat load when its in the mid 50’s today.
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Thanks slim for helping with my G400 issues and to you mlappin for getting back to me on my questions. Sent pictures to Ryan at the factory about the issues, hope he gets back to me soon. My biggest concern is the vertical rear refractory block with the crack down the middle. The crack has spread to about 1" wide at the top and the hottest flue gasses can go directly out the back now. The front refractory block has also split wider right out to the retaining angle irons but that crack has mostly filled with ash. The temperature has cooled off here but it is also supposed to warm up to 50 by next weekend again.
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May let mine go out by the weekend, low in the 50’s.
I’ll just heat water with waste oil at night for little heat and free DHW.
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Hey mlappin, did you shut down your G400? How much creosote buildup are you getting inside your primary in this mild weather or what are you doing to prevent it?
I let mine go out last night hoping the new parts would show up today but no luck. Called the factory to see where they are since I was told on December 1st they would get them right out and then a week ago I was told the same thing. Today I found out they haven't even shipped yet but should be going out next Tuesday, I sure hope so. Now the weather is supposed to get closer to normal by the end of next week so it will be a little iffy to leave it off for a day for the silicone to set up.
Can't say I'm impressed right now!
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Given the amount of flow the nozzle has to the secondary burn chamber it would take a lot more than a 1” crack to loose most of the hottest gasses right up the heat exchanger tubes. That and the fact that the gasses will expand when ignited.
When it was actual winter here everything was peachy, today I power washed equipment in short sleeves. I let it burn out this AM, and will restart once it cools back off.
When it was under an actual load creosote was not an issue, once it warmed up I found in my case instead of filling the front and back of the firebox if I took the same amount of wood required for a twelve hour burn and just stacked it in the center it worked much better. But, most of my wood was ran thru a fire wood processor and is cut 17-18” long, which works out just fine for placing wood in the back, then another stack in the front and long pieces on top of that, with milder weather I just placed the same amount right in the center over the nozzle. Another problem I have in mild weather is I have 450 gallons of thermal storage in the shop so when it’s warm and the house thermostat resets to 67 for night, it’s a LONG time between calls for heat, not so much when it was starting to feel like winter here. I’m thinking of adding a solar controller to the shop plumbing so when the stove temp drops below 170 the waste oil boiler FPHE pump stops circulating so the 400’s water temp will drop faster from 170 to 160.
I’m curious though, what is the silicone for? I went back thru several of your posts and didn’t see any mention of it till the last one.
I had zero problems with creosote or dripping out the front until it just got to warm to even need the stove running. Wife and I are sleeping with all bedroom windows open a few inches tonight and enjoying the fresh air while we can.
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Right from the start my venter mounting plate in the rear leaked creosote down the back of the stove. This makes a real mess. My venter plate does not seal real well on the sides, there is about a 3/16" gap on the right side and about 1/8" gap on the left side when the plate is touching at top and bottom. I have to pull this gap closed with the dogs on each side to get it to seal and I am not sure how tight the seal is then on the sides.
Last week after I had loaded the unit and shut it down, it woofed just as I was leaving my building and blew out the gasket to the venter plate in the rear and even forced the float out the top of the unit! Scared the s**t out of me. Talked to slim about this and it may have been just unlucky timing of the unit loaded up gases, hot and the venter coming on at just the right time to cause it to woof. A friend of mine with a central boiler gasser has had his do the same thing too.
Anyway, after talking to slim he suggested using a thin coat of high temp silicone on the new rear gaskets they are sending me for the venter plate. The problem here is leaving the unit off for 24 hours for the silicone to cure completely. By next weekend the temps are supposed to get back to near normal so I'll run up the temp in my shed before I shut it down. I have other heat sources for everything else. First I have to wait until the parts arrive to do anything.
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Okay gotcha, haven’t had the woof thing yet, usually only try to load it after it’s been off for quite awhile or when it just starts again.
I’m wondering in these shoulder times if the creosote powder that Heatmaster offers will help any?
The other thing I did when it was warm was only load enough to keep it going for a few hours, but I have the fortunate situation of working from home so having to load several times thru the day isn’t a problem and yes I realize not everybody is so lucky.
Worked tonight in the shop in a t-shirt with the doors open.
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Haven't heard of the creosote powder before, may have to ask about it next time I talk to the factory.
I am burning real small loads now in this warm weather also. It doesn't stop all the creosoting but seems to be helping some.