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16

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / I'm using chemical treatment 101

« on: October 23, 2016, 11:02:33 PM »

I have been using the chemical treatment 101.  Dumped some in during the spring.  Where can I buy test strips to monitor?

17

Plumbing / Off topic post with well water issue maybe someone can help

« on: October 23, 2016, 10:18:13 PM »

Two weeks ago my well pressure would not go above 20.  Well guy came out and replaced the well pump submersible. Also noticed my expansion tank water logged.  Probably why the old pump failed sooner.  Replaced the tank myslef but would not fill with water.  I have a 40/60 switch replaced last year, and also replaced the guage.  Like clock work switch will kick on at 40psi and off at 60.  Expansion tank came pressurized at 38 which is correct 2 psi below cut in.  Checked to verify and it was 38 psi.  So playing around I released pressure from the tank and it began to take on some water.  I'm now at like 30 psi and the tank fills a bit but doesn't seem heavy, it's a 30 gallon tank and I believe it holds 6 or so gallons but seems to light.  I can't figure out why the water pressure seems lower than normal and why I'm needing to drop pressure in expansion tank well below cut in.  Any ideas I'm lost.

18

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / First year burning seasoned wood

« on: October 11, 2016, 11:02:40 PM »

I'm not sure what to expect out of this year's wood, I have 18 month seasoned hardwood split 13 cords worth.  I have been burning 4 seasions all the wood was wet, I mean 5 day old cut wood.  The wood burned but I had many headaches, throwing a pile of green wood in the morning on the ash bed would drop the boiler temp way down and took hours to recover, cold house.  It took so much up keep to make sure the fire was roaring before adding the wood.  I burned 15 cords of green last year, I'm curious to find out how much seasoned wood I burn in comparison.  I hope it makes my life easier.

19

Site Suggestions / Website responding slowly

« on: September 04, 2016, 11:13:19 PM »

Maybe I'm the only one that had experienced the website is slow to respond when first loading.  Maybe a shared overloaded server

20

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Shutting down for the season cause any anxiety?

« on: April 17, 2016, 11:18:57 PM »

Shutting down the boiler tomorrow, it's seems after 6 months of operating sometimes I feel a little anxiety letting the fire die out.  I spent all season maintaining the original fire, seems sad after all the effort watching the fire come to a end.  Could you please send me to outdoor boiler anonymous. 

21

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / The effects of wood Smoke on the body, Road down memory Lane.

« on: March 07, 2016, 12:46:20 AM »

I remember back in the 80's in my neighborhood we all burned wood inside, just what the parents did.  It was normal, wood smoke was dense at times, yes our cloths smelled of burning wood going to school.    During this time indoor wood stoves were not near as efficient as today.  I have so many fond memories of sledding and cross country skiing and returning home as a younger child with frozen hands and feet nestling close to the wood stove.  Average weekend involved having Friends and cousins over, we all stayed close to the fire all evening enjoying food and watching VHS tapes.  Yes this might seem odd for the new generation we were required to keep the fire going and split and stack wood if we were to stay up late.  In realty after looking back, we all had our fare share of wood smoke from stoking the fire, or just being outside enjoying the winter activities.  Going forward we are all healthy with no issues.  We burned wood for so many decades to keep warm, now its bad?  Generations before used wood and seem to have no problems from wood smoke.

22

RidgeWood Stoves, defunct, support only / Need some help

« on: February 24, 2016, 10:54:46 PM »

Came home tonight snow is blowing high winds, boiler temp is low 138.  Add some wood, snow blowed the driveway come back 45 minutes later aquastat is dark.  The pump is still running I can hear it.  They installed a light switch that controls the aquastat, try flipping the switch on and off nothing.  At this point the switch failed or the aquastat failed.  How do I trouble shoot this?  Going to be a long night ..

23

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Rainy and Muddy here in West Michigan, Oh Crap Lost my wedding ring

« on: February 02, 2016, 10:15:38 PM »

Go out to fill the boiler tonight, huge amounts of rain.  Currently turning over to snow I lost my wedding ring somewhere can't find it.  Problem is because of the rain I have puddles and deep pockets of mud everywhere.  Went over the area many times with a flash light and can't find it.. Its possible it went into the fire box throwing in wood.  I realized half way through it was gone went to the area where I last picked up wood no luck...I normally wear gloves but with rain I decided not to... Sometimes you just can't win.. 

24

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Removing Ash from Conventional Boiler

« on: February 01, 2016, 09:57:43 PM »

When I decide to remove ash from the boiler I try doing it around warmer temps, because I always manage to remove some large coals along with it.   Once the ashes reach near the top of the boiler door, and risk raking the back ashes forward causing a huge mess overflowing near the door.  Every time I end up with huge chunks of nice burning coals that heat up my burn barrel for days.  I use a standard dirt shovel dig inn and just shake to try and get the large pieces to remain.  Its a real pain just trying to remove the fine ashes.  Does anyone have a better method?  I stick to warmer days in the forecast because I seem to loose some of those nice coals for overnight, have to build them back up.  Its possible I'm removing the coals too early, but have no other choice as I like to rake everything forward for easy clean out.  I would say on average 5 - 6 shovel fulls every 10 days.  I have heard, and I don't know if this is true, that ash can act as a insulator and prevent heat transfer to the water box.


Thanks
Scott

25

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Vegetbable Oil to help get the fire going.

« on: January 18, 2016, 11:13:00 PM »

To get your fire back up to temp it is cleaner to use vegetable oil on the logs than used motor oil.  Just a tip if you need the added boost to get a fire going on a conventional.

26

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / How to properly stack wood in a conventional boiler?

« on: January 07, 2016, 10:52:32 PM »

Can anyone explain or show pictures on how to stack wood in a conventional boiler for maximum burn times?  I usually just throw what ever fits into the firebox.  I normally run across a bridge burn at least 10 times a season where the wood is scattered in the box but barley touched by fire, everything is ashes and I have large chunks of wood not touched.  Is there a methodical way to stay wood to increase burn time?

27

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Can someone please explain water capacity of the boiler?

« on: December 04, 2015, 11:20:15 PM »

When I look around at specs for wood boilers I see different models offering to heat the same square footage with different water capacities.  Some models almost have double the water capacity for the same heating areas.  For a novice like myself it would make more sense to have larger water reserves for the coldest of days and when your drafty house demands more heating and feels like the blower never kicks off.  Its apparent from my research the only difference for boilers to heat a higher square footage is burn chamber size along with water capacity.  It makes perfect sense that more water capacity is, it's going to demand more wood to heat the extra water reserves, yet if your blower never kicks off and you use the extra water reserves are you not back to square one? Or even worse left with such a large amount of water to heat you will never recover that loss?  This water capacity has me very confused... Are New units trying to skimp by to make their product more affordable and advertise a higher square foot heating range?  I understand not one size fits all when it comes to housing.  You can have David on 9th street with 3000SQFT House with 2x6 walls newly constructed home, and Joe Blow with a 3000SQFT farm house drafty as you crap.  I welcome a open discussion... I'm curious as hell I have tried reading back through old threads never got a good answer.

Thanks

28

RidgeWood Stoves, defunct, support only / Need a Permanent t fix

« on: November 17, 2015, 12:40:39 AM »

My leads keep coming off the solenoid.  I have crimped them down tight but a few weeks later they just pop off..  Huge mess when your boiler idles all night long.  We are heading into the cold season and I can't have this.  I can't believe I'm the only having this problem with this poor design.  Any one have the same problem and figured out a fix?

Thanks

29

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Bruised finger nail / crushed finger from loading

« on: November 10, 2015, 12:00:30 AM »

I'm starting the season off early with a crushed finger, crushed the nail pretty hard.  I did the same thing last year in a hurry, throw a large piece in and bounces back down on your hand.  The nail bruises really bad and takes forever to grow out.  My buddy had it even worse requiring stitches literally blew out his finger.  Any other boiler injury stories?

30

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Vent Tube?

« on: May 04, 2015, 12:25:57 AM »

During off season, most manufactures recommend covering your chimney with a bucket.  This is simple enough.  They never talk about covering the vent tube on top next to the chimney.  Depending on the summer we can get lots of rain here in Michigan.  What are the disadvantages of not covering the vent tube?  Second year, I usually cut a Gatorade bottle in half and throw it over the vent tube to not allow any rain water in.  I know its a small opening, but I don't see it being discussed much.  To me it would make sense not to allow extra rain water into the boiler.  Any opinions on this?

Thanks,
Scott