Roger-
It's been like having a whole new furnace these last 5 days. I did slightly restrict my primary air flow today to see what happens (lowered my solenoid a touch). Your idea sounds good. I would ask myself this. How do the channels look, overall? In my case, the side channels were really falling apart, separating some from the sidewalls and just full of crud with no way to clean it out. Originally it didn't even have drain holes for the creosote. This furnace was doomed from the start and I feel I started having troubles the first year. Central Boiler has been willing to cover repairs but what good is it when a couple of months later it's filled up again. Last year we cut a chunk out of the back wall and left side and scraped out what we could, but it was still hard to get in there and the creosote litterally has to be chisseled out once it starts to cool. No fun at all. Anyway, I was thrilled that night, it burned great, for a couple of weeks, then it started filling up again. This year, the patch that we cut out last year started to rot away. I have a hole 1" x2 1/2". And on the right side there is 2 vertical cracks top to bottom and the top lip between them is warping and pulling away from the wall. It's a mess, with only 3 1/2 heating seasons on it. I feel I actually have some control over the unit for a change.
It re-fires faster than it ever has, within 20 to 30 seconds there is usually no smoke at all, only heat coming out. I like the idea of my air being up away from the coal and ash bed. I'm still getting a pretty even burn, favors the back a little but I can compensate for most of that. I'm happy with my decision. I may tweak it a little for next year, but at this point I'm very happy with it's performance. Note that my unit does not have the Pulse feature. There is an add-on cycle timer that I am considering. Waiting to hear the price on it. Probably look at that for next year.
One thing to keep in mind with your proposed idea is this. You'll need to make sure it is quite air tight. If too much air is leaking out around your seems, it will alter your fire to the back of the stove. You'll find it burning much hotter and faster at the back making it hard to reload unless it's moslty burned down to coals. Hope this helps in some way. It's just my 2 cents worth but I feel like I've been a slave to this thing for several years now and I finally feel like I have some control and freedom back. I don't know how to explain it, I just never felt like I could count on it to be burning good at any given time. It has always smoked more that I thought it should, esp. since I know somebody else with the same unit and his has never smoked as much. And his son lives next door to me. His wood is delivered there and his son cuts and splits it for him. He's usually burning it as he cuts and splits it totally green and he's always had better luck. His wood comes from the same guy I get mine from. My wood is not all dry, but mostly cut split and stored in a greenhouses with the sun drying on it throughout the fall. I couldn't figure it out. Now I have. Wasn't the wood at all. I think he'll be facing the same decision about his air channels soon though. I was looking at them the other day.
Jeff
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Topic: Reaction Chamber Temp (Read 15696 times)