Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: caper on January 21, 2016, 09:34:55 AM
-
first of all the heatmaster has been working great all season without a burp,until, go out this am and the furnace is at 203,first time this ever occurred, i run into garage ,hit theromstate, turn on inside house as well, mmmm takes awhile to get her down, then inside temps on gauge plummet fast,ok that may be normal,however, I then shut all thermostats down and things are just off, I check pump at furnace,working fine,inside as well,gotta keep an eye on her now for the day to see if everything is normal,,,just when I was thinking this would be a maintenance free season.....ill keep yas posted .....
-
keep us updated, how did the temp on the boiler rise that high??? did u check the flapper unit on the fan?
-
I’m betting on mechanical first, stuck flapper is the first to check of course.
Not as likely but could be a bad controller, get it running and check it a few times to make sure it’s shutting off at your high set point.
Usually I’ve found on our grain dryers that the new style electronic controllers I install they either work or don’t, the old mechanicals were a whole different kettle of fish and could be aggravating to no end.
-
Yes, check the flapper in the back. That's the only reason I've ever had a boil over. Ash and particles get "pinched" in the hinge and cause it to hang up. Grab the lever at the bottom of the soilenoid and give it a few good clangs and make sure it's sealing up well. That's the first place I go if I'm overheating.
When the season is over, make sure you clean out the bottom of that air channel very well. I show how to do this in my cleaning video. If it happens again, I'd clean it out now.
-
Have you checked your door seals? Make sure you pull the ash drawer out and check the entire seal also.
-
thanks guys for the suggestions, just got home, temp is 187, lil high still,i have it set for 182 12 degree diff......putting groceries away then heading out to check things out,hate that dam rear door,no hinges, loose insulation and tin foil backing, wish I had the newer model...
-
If it just crap down.... 187 is normal....my shuts down at 185 and will rise 3-7° more depending on how hot the burn cycle was
-
its at 200 again, checked the flapper, door seal etc...im starting to get worried now, cant have this temp all night..
-
Is your ash door and bypass door tight? Have you tightened your door latch since you fired up this season? It's about this time in the season I give mg door latch a tightening.
-
Things to check: If it is a late model 5000 the flap is on a spring. The flap can get a cinder or ash under the flap and hold it open a little. flip the flapper up and down and you should hear metal to metal and maybe knock out anything that may have gotten under the flap. Older units have the flap coming down on top of the fan. Check the flex duct going to the bottom for leak.
Stuck solenoid, sometimes they can stick and just the vibration of opening the back door can cause them to shut. hard to notice.
Ash pan closed. When taking out ashes lift up front of ash pan so it scrapes up any ash on floor under the pan. Ash under the pan will cause it not to seal properly.
You have an air leak and since it was all at once it's probably not a main door seal.
If it's a ranco stat make sure it's on H1 not C1. If the blower is not on and it's still rising it's not the stat.
-
Until you find the problem, I would drop the temp setting about 10 degrees or so. That way it is less likely to boil over.
-
Until you find the problem, I would drop the temp setting about 10 degrees or so. That way it is less likely to boil over.
:post:
-
haven't been following this too closely but I can tell you that over the life of my old Honeywell aquastat I have been turning it down almost every year. right now I have it set to 145 off and on at 10 less, my actual water temps on the gauge in the house is 170 hot and 158 low
-
thanks guys so much,all great info, especially when you start scratching your head, it is still high,but not always so its definitely something small I hope, one other thing, which didn't happen in the past ,when I open the door the flame immediately starts and gets big really fast from a smoldering one, this tells me a air leak right or am I just grasping now...
-
Yes, that sounds like an air leak.
-
Any chance your wood supply has improved for some reason? If the fire dies when you close the door and flares up when you open it, then you can't have much of an air leak. If your wood was not very dry, then you switched to good stuff your boiler could run hotter with a small air leak that you haven't even noticed in past.
-
I was assuming he was talking about opening the door when the boiler is idling.
-
So am I....if the boiler was not in idle mode then the fire would be high as he opened the door...
-
Set a chair outside by the unit and watch/listen. Mine did the same thing and here's what happened. The wood I used was not completely dry and while the fan was restarting it, there was a small steam type explosion inside the burner. It forced ash and coals back through the fans duct work into the fan and also around the flapper. Once the furnace got to temp, the flapper was held open by a small piece of charcoal.
This was witnessed by watching the stove go thru its paces and when the flapper closed, the smoke continued to roll due to the air that was being pulled in through the rear duct work. Good luck, and don't forget to put more water treatment in.
-
Your a good bit further north than me, but I have a hard time with my p&m bl2840 temps when I have warm weather with no wind. I live in Tennessee and weather in winter can get to 70 a few times a year. I have to keep windows open and run dishwasher and washing machine on timers and very little wood in it. I hit 204 today. One day I will have a greenhouse to dump the extra load in.
-
So I checked the flapper on my owb and found that the fan was upside down allowing air to draft in when the fan was off. Fixed it yesterday, what a difference that has made on the climbing temperature and wood consumption. I now have to relearn how this owb works. Got a 24 hour burn on what I was loading for a 14 hour burn.
-
SAY WHAT! Are you saying the flapper box was installed upside down? Did it come from the factory like that or did somebody mess with it?
-
I installed the owb. That was the first time I touched the blower. It sure explains why maintaining temperatures was so tough on warm days. I always thought it smoked a lot when off load. People around here have hardy's and they smoke a lot so I didn't thank to much about it. Now I might have to try to keep the fire from going out on warm days.
-
Great catch! I can see how perhaps a new guy or somebody numbing it at the factory might have put it on upside down, maybe a call to P and M might be in order, they may not yet be aware of the issue!
-
I am amazed at how little wood in am burning now the the flapper value closed when the unit is not on load.next year I will burn 1/2 the wood is have this year.
And I just got a score of bodock wood for the next 5+ years. It is also called orsage orange, it burns hot and long. Anyone have experience with this wood? My neighbor loves it more than oak.
-
Osage orange, cut and split when green if possible.
-
I am amazed at how little wood in am burning now the the flapper value closed when the unit is not on load.next year I will burn 1/2 the wood is have this year.
And I just got a score of bodock wood for the next 5+ years. It is also called orsage orange, it burns hot and long. Anyone have experience with this wood? My neighbor loves it more than oak.
Osage Orange, also known as Hedge and Bodark, is the mother of all BTU wood. When green, it cuts and splits very easily. When cured and aged, it will dull a chain in 1 cut. Might even throw sparks. DO NOT BURN HEDGE IN YOUR HOUSE. Only burn hedge in an OWB and be careful when loading with the fan on. Here is a video of my stove burning this stuff and it shows why I say this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6vS5U-k-hQ
I'd KILL for a 5 year supply of Hedge!! Man on man!! :thumbup:
-
Actually another high heat must cut green wood is ironwood.
-
Yes I would agree that it is the best wood I have ever burned. I have a friend who wants to do some trading for a truck load. This is going to be great.
I went and looked at it today, 5 years might have been an understatement. 1700 feet long old hedge row, very mature. My kids might never burn anything else in the owb.