Everything Drolet Tundra - Heatmax...

Digger79 · Feb 16, 2016

After 12 hrs exactly. House dropped to 64 deg. Loaded at 7 am. House was 68 deg at loading. Never got over 71 in house all day. I have wireless therms, cameras, furnace controls..gas furnace.. Basically I can monitor visually and control the wood n gas furnace both on my phone. Camera is only on wood furnace and dials, gas I just monitor the wireless therm for that unit. Got wifi therms on both. I did not load properly for the weather. For some reason thought it was gunna be warm today. Woops! Was like 75% White Ash loaded. Not much hickory.

Digger79 · Feb 16, 2016

I built a Brenndatamo fire! Lol

Digger79 · Feb 16, 2016

laynes69 said:
Digger, how strong of heat demand is needed on your home? I'll get our furnace up to operating temperatures, then when the damper closes, it won't call for heat until the coaling stage hits. Like 3fordasho, our damper remains closed a majority of the time. I'm not running a barometric damper, but I've closed off my secondaries about 2/3 and my damper opens a fraction it did from factory. My draft is .1+ and the fire remains stable.

Heat demand is pretty high. I don't own I rent unfortunately. I did insulate the attic with near and r-90 blown in ... lol not kidding I damn near filled it up! House is real bad drafty windows are horrible. One window you could see thru to the outside and not thru the glass. lol. I have wrapped windows in plastic, sealed up as much draft as I can but its every where and I don't think the walls are insulated in areas of the home. Certainly not properly at least the attic had R-13 2x4 wall bats laid in 2x6 joists. My house is a crummy built little 1200 sqft'er. Its gotten much better as I worked on it but my first winter here years ago cost over $2000 to heat... I know tell me about it. part of the problem was squirrel nest in the duct lines and disconnect duct work under the house and a huge split in the furnace plenum for the gas furnace. Even with fixing that propane was still running me 1500 at least a year. So I tried elect oil radiant, cost went down to like 8-900, then I got the drolet insert in the fireplace.. lol really I can heat my house with it alone and actually way better than the Tundra but thats cause Tundra is actually in a detached garage 2' next to the house and piped in thru the crawl.. lmao cold air come out the kitchen window. I have a upper window and a lower cold air register in my kitchen windows. Horrible place for cold air return. Odor wise that is. Kitchen are bad but my house is a studio with bedrooms added on. Kitchen, laundry, living all in same big room.(the old cabin part the bedrooms are modern construction.) Any ways as long as I can be home drolet insert heats house fine loading every 6 hours no matter how cold. but Im gone 8-12 hours often durning the winter so the Tundra heats the garage and the house very well for it location far as the house goes. Heat demand is not as bad now and durning real cold weather I burn the inside stove some and the house stays in the mid 70's. I been letting things get cold to see what the Tundra can do as I improve on it and the ducting as I can. Getting really good honestly. It heats the house alone just fine unless its like -10. even single digits it hangs on but didn't test that on being gone beyond 8 hrs.

brenndatomu · Feb 16, 2016

centennial60 said:
Digger, 3fordasho, are you running a lined chimney or double layer insulated? I'm just running into an 8x8 clay lined 15ish foot located in the house. I'm wondering if it might maintain draft better with a liner.

You will run better with a 6" liner...even more so if it is insulated. My Tundra does OK on a 8" insulated liner in a 27-28' tall chimney...but I do notice draft start to die off above 40*. My other stove is on a 6" insulated liner, only 17-18' tall, and it will still draft OK clear up to 60*

Digger79 said:
Brenndatamo what you say about all this?

Well, I have wrestled with the whole baro, or not, issue...Yukon says that you absolutely have to use one on their stuff (they run a pretty low draft, -.o3" WC) so I started out with one, but over time I have gotten away from using it most of the time. I still have it installed, but I keep it covered with HD aluminum foil unless I see draft getting high, then I will use it. I had to use it a few weeks back when we had the real cold spell there.
I like to use a key damper instead because of the creosote potential with a baro (which is less running a clean burning Tundra...and using real dry wood) but the key damper makes me nervous if I am allowing the tstat to control the intake damper...if heat is called for later in the burn, when draft is already dying down, and then the intake damper opens, with the key damper closed...potential CO in the house, not good! That's why SBI says not to use them.
How's that for a convoluted answer?!

brenndatomu · Feb 16, 2016

Digger79 said:
I built a Brenndatamo fire! Lol

View attachment 175050

Now THAT is cool! ;lol

Digger79 · Feb 16, 2016

laynes69 said:
Digger, how strong of heat demand is needed on your home? I'll get our furnace up to operating temperatures, then when the damper closes, it won't call for heat until the coaling stage hits. Like 3fordasho, our damper remains closed a majority of the time. I'm not running a barometric damper, but I've closed off my secondaries about 2/3 and my damper opens a fraction it did from factory. My draft is .1+ and the fire remains stable.

Heat demand is pretty high. I don't own I rent unfortunately. I did insulate the attic with near and r-90 blown in ... lol not kidding I damn near filled it up! House is real bad drafty windows are horrible. One window you could see thru to the outside and not thru the glass. lol. I have wrapped windows in plastic, sealed up as much draft as I can but its every where and I don't think the walls are insulated areas of the home. Certainly not properly at least the attic had R-13 2x4 wall bats laid in 2x6 joists. My house is a crummy built little 1200 sqft'er. Its gotten much better as I worked on it but my first winter here years ago cost over $2000 to heat... I know tell me about it. part of the problem was squirrel nest in the duct lines and disconnect duct work under the house and a huge split in the furnace plenum for the gas furnace. Even with fixing that propane was still running me 1500 at least a year. So I tried elect oil radiant, cost went down to like 8-900, then I got the drolet insert in the fireplace.. lol really I can heat my house with it alone and actually way better than the Tundra but thats cause Tundra is actually in a detached garage 2' next to the house and piped in thru the crawl.. lmao cold air come out the kitchen window. I have a upper window and a lower cold air register in my kitchen windows. Horrible place for cold air return. Odor wise that is. Kitchen are bad but my house is a studio with bedrooms added on. Kitchen, laundry, living all in same big room.(the old cabin part the bedrooms are modern construction.) Any ways as long as I can be home drolet insert heats house fine loading every 6 hours no matter how cold. but Im gone 8-12 hours often durning the winter so the Tundra heats the garage and the house very well for it location far as the house goes. Heat demand is not as bad now and durning real cold weather I burn the inside stove some and the house stays in the mid 70's. I been letting things get cold to see what the Tundra can do as I improve on it and the ducting as I can. Getting really good honestly. It heats the house alone just fine unless its like -10. even single digits it hangs on but didn't test that on being gone beyond 8 hrs. By closing of your secondaries and open the main damper a fraction you are reversing the process slightly to old wood burning are you not? Your letting more air into the coals and pulling less thru the secondary tubes. I would never choke down the secondaries but then again sound like you cranked your draft way up. .10 steadily is crazy high so you better shut the air intakes down a ton or you'd be in big trouble I believe running at those draft speeds all the time. This is making more sense. You seem to be twerking that air down super tight but letting it scream up the flu, or letting flu get real hot so it pulls harder on your super tight inlets. My inlets are factory other than timing controls. I got a nice 12 hour burn out of a 75% ash load today and house only dropped to 64 from around 71 at it highest today. Thats pretty good I'd say considering its in the garage heating the separate garage and the house. barely hit 33 here today. This morning when I loaded the house was around 67-68. So seems the draft speed kept me from waisting wood and heated the house relatively efficiently for not being home. only had to rise it 5-6 deg to get back to 70. Im really curious and interested in what your doing keeping that draft high and inlets real tight though. Curious how much better it may be working for you. Keep in mind our setups far as location and heating demands are probably quite different.

brenndatomu · Feb 16, 2016

brenndatomu said:
Now THAT is cool!

I got up late this AM, I raked coals to the front, loaded wood, set timer, and was out the door in no time. So easy to run these things! I would have been late to work if I got up late when I was running the Yukon

Digger79 · Feb 16, 2016

brenndatomu said:
You will run better with a 6" liner...even more so if it is insulated. My Tundra does OK on a 8" insulated liner in a 27-28' tall chimney...but I do notice draft start to die off above 40*. My other stove is on a 6" insulated liner, only 17-18' tall, and it will still draft OK clear up to 60*

Well, I have wrestled with the whole baro, or not, issue...Yukon says that you absolutely have to use one on their stuff (they run a pretty low draft, -.o3" WC) so I started out with one, but over time I have gotten away from using it most of the time. I still have it installed, but I keep it covered with HD aluminum foil unless I see draft getting high, then I will use it. I had to use it a few weeks back when we had the real cold spell there.
I like to use a key damper instead because of the creosote potential with a baro (which is less running a clean burning Tundra...and using real dry wood) but the key damper makes me nervous if I am allowing the tstat to control the intake damper...if heat is called for later in the burn, when draft is already dying down, and then the intake damper opens, with the key damper closed...potential CO in the house, not good! That's why SBI says not to use them.
How's that for a convoluted answer?!

lol perfect. I don't like inline dampers after using baro's personally but thats just me. no what you say makes sense. It may not be needed and honestly with what SBI did with the high limit I don't see how you could over draft this stove if you put gasoline in it! lmao ok, okay thats silly but you get the Idea. !!!

Digger79 · Feb 16, 2016

all this baro talk the reality I just mentioned to brenndatomu is the newer model tundras are virtually impossible to over draft anyhow.. With the settings and locations of the high limit and fan switch it just won't go up to .10 for long and never over. I just loaded it with basically kindling stacked in a tower in the middle of mostly ash and few hickory splits. stacked it tall near top of box. Went ahead and let it rip with baro tightened down. You guys 3fordasho and such are correct. it didn't go over .10, this newer model didn't even get that hot before the high limit hit anyhow and shut er down. now this was a light load but pretty damn hot n fast. honestly one of the cooler burns there Brenndatomu(we gotta shorten that name

), it filled the entire furnace with huge rolling flames like I'd never quite seen it! lol. all that room instead of full of wood sure allowed big billows of flames to roll around. was cool but has only driven the house up like 2-3 degrees in a littler under and hour. I could of made it a little bigger with the real thin splits.. around 2" thick but wanted to be careful. I am sure even with the high limit set so low and fan coming on so soon if you loaded this thing full with lets say dry brush.. you could achieve damage or over draft and issues.

Digger79 · Feb 16, 2016

brenndatomu said:
I got up late this AM, I raked coals to the front, loaded wood, set timer, and was out the door in no time. So easy to run these things! I would have been late to work if I got up late when I was running the Yukon

yeah this setup you helped me tune in is great. Takes some of the fun out of it when your milling around the house but yeah you don't need and hour to properly fire the stove or 30 mins whatever it may take pending your methods. yup 5 mins and go. I still leave the door cracked for a few minutes until the flames fill up. My loads now take about 5 minutes if coals are hotter and often they are it can take as little as 30 sec to a minute for me to feel comfortable shutting the door and leaving the house.

Digger79 · Feb 16, 2016

Digger79 said:
Heat demand is pretty high. I don't own I rent unfortunately. I did insulate the attic with near and r-90 blown in ... lol not kidding I damn near filled it up! House is real bad drafty windows are horrible. One window you could see thru to the outside and not thru the glass. lol. I have wrapped windows in plastic, sealed up as much draft as I can but its every where and I don't think the walls are insulated areas of the home. Certainly not properly at least the attic had R-13 2x4 wall bats laid in 2x6 joists. My house is a crummy built little 1200 sqft'er. Its gotten much better as I worked on it but my first winter here years ago cost over $2000 to heat... I know tell me about it. part of the problem was squirrel nest in the duct lines and disconnect duct work under the house and a huge split in the furnace plenum for the gas furnace. Even with fixing that propane was still running me 1500 at least a year. So I tried elect oil radiant, cost went down to like 8-900, then I got the drolet insert in the fireplace.. lol really I can heat my house with it alone and actually way better than the Tundra but thats cause Tundra is actually in a detached garage 2' next to the house and piped in thru the crawl.. lmao cold air come out the kitchen window. I have a upper window and a lower cold air register in my kitchen windows. Horrible place for cold air return. Odor wise that is. Kitchen are bad but my house is a studio with bedrooms added on. Kitchen, laundry, living all in same big room.(the old cabin part the bedrooms are modern construction.) Any ways as long as I can be home drolet insert heats house fine loading every 6 hours no matter how cold. but Im gone 8-12 hours often durning the winter so the Tundra heats the garage and the house very well for it location far as the house goes. Heat demand is not as bad now and durning real cold weather I burn the inside stove some and the house stays in the mid 70's. I been letting things get cold to see what the Tundra can do as I improve on it and the ducting as I can. Getting really good honestly. It heats the house alone just fine unless its like -10. even single digits it hangs on but didn't test that on being gone beyond 8 hrs. By closing of your secondaries and open the main damper a fraction you are reversing the process slightly to old wood burning are you not? Your letting more air into the coals and pulling less thru the secondary tubes. I would never choke down the secondaries but then again sound like you cranked your draft way up. .10 steadily is crazy high so you better shut the air intakes down a ton or you'd be in big trouble I believe running at those draft speeds all the time. This is making more sense. You seem to be twerking that air down super tight but letting it scream up the flu, or letting flu get real hot so it pulls harder on your super tight inlets. My inlets are factory other than timing controls. I got a nice 12 hour burn out of a 75% ash load today and house only dropped to 64 from around 71 at it highest today. Thats pretty good I'd say considering its in the garage heating the separate garage and the house. barely hit 33 here today. This morning when I loaded the house was around 67-68. So seems the draft speed kept me from waisting wood and heated the house relatively efficiently for not being home. only had to rise it 5-6 deg to get back to 70. Im really curious and interested in what your doing keeping that draft high and inlets real tight though. Curious how much better it may be working for you. Keep in mind our setups far as location and heating demands are probably quite different.

Holy crap! I sound like a 5th grader.. no a 1st grader when I try to type messages on here on my phone. lol. And I type stuff and finish typing stuff later so apparently it gets pretty lengthy like several posts. lol. I'll work on that.

laynes69 · Feb 16, 2016

Geez.....I wake up, walk past the thermostat and open it. I walk to the basement, remove ash, load the woodburner and go upstairs. I'll shower, pack lunch and before walking out the door, set the thermostat and leave. It's that easy. If I forget, it's no problem. The house will hit the 1 or 2 degree increase and close the damper. If I'm home, it might be 72 in the house when I wake up. I will set the thermostat to 73 or 74, load and let it go. By the time things get hot, the damper closes, the house hits it's setpoint and I don't touch it till later.

Digger79 · Feb 16, 2016

laynes69 said:
Digger, a 15' chimney should not require a barometric damper. Draft will peak with the damper open, but should quickly fall when the damper closes and temps level out. I think part of the problem is a short chimney and the use of a baro.

hey Laynes69 and 3fordasho.. Are your saying your inlet dampers stay closed most the burn. How long exactly? 8 hrs? 10? I get 8-12 hr burns. I have plenty of coals at 12,13,even 14 hours if I'm burning better stuff like Hickory. Man I love that stuff! lol. Are your inlets staying open in the last few hours or hour of the burns? again mine currently is set to cycle and keep draft ideal. draft goes down below -.04 inlet opens. Draft gets back up to -.06 I shut it back down. This is what I been shooting for lately trying to get it to run at -.05 as much long as possible. This cycle only occurs once or twice depending if its a full load or a half load. Then the damper rides shut till the last 2-3 hours of the burns then cycles a few times again and stays open after that. Seems I am maintaining a -.05 draft as long as possible. Are there better methods that produce more efficiency? Like high draft and low inlet air? laynes69 thats your setup right? high -.10+ draft and secondaries choked way down damper barely opens and mostly stays shut? I guess I'm trying to operate as close to SBI's recommendations as possible. I mean they did have engineers design these things but then again they had a bunch of them crack! lol. I doubt that was the engineers fault. somehow I doubt it.

Digger79 · Feb 16, 2016

laynes69 said:
Geez.....I wake up, walk past the thermostat and open it. I walk to the basement, remove ash, load the woodburner and go upstairs. I'll shower, pack lunch and before walking out the door, set the thermostat and leave. It's that easy. If I forget, it's no problem. The house will hit the 1 or 2 degree increase and close the damper. If I'm home, it might be 72 in the house when I wake up. I will set the thermostat to 73 or 74, load and let it go. By the time things get hot, the damper closes, the house hits it's setpoint and I don't touch it till later.

I think you have a stronger better built stove than my Tundra. Your talking about a Caddy right?

sloeffle · Feb 16, 2016

@laynes69 How much gap do you have between your damper and stove ? I changed mine tonight to maybe an 1/8th of an inch and it seemed to burn pretty efficiently ( very little smoke out of the chimney ) without sending a bunch of heat up the chimney.

I also messed around with using smaller splits. You definitely get a lot more heat faster with smaller splits.

laynes69 · Feb 16, 2016

My damper stays open maybe a 1/16th of an inch. The manual does specify to adjust based on fuel. Smaller splits will require less air, larger hardwoods will require a little more. Just like a few others, my furnace never runs wide open unless it's on a reload and that's no more than a half hour, which half of that is used to take off. When the damper closes, heat output increases. Occasionally it will open within the first hour or two, but for only a couple minutes to satisfy the thermostat when it's cold. If any furnace needs to run full bore for an extended period of time, it's too small. On the coaling stage however, that's completely different.

I choose to reduce the amount of incoming air to imitate a shorter chimney. The minimum air portion however is unchanged so proper combustion is maintained.

Digger79 · Feb 16, 2016

laynes69 said:
My damper stays open maybe a 1/16th of an inch. The manual does specify to adjust based on fuel. Smaller splits will require less air, larger hardwoods will require a little more. Just like a few others, my furnace never runs wide open unless it's on a reload and that's no more than a half hour, which half of that is used to take off. When the damper closes, heat output increases. Occasionally it will open within the first hour or two, but for only a couple minutes to satisfy the thermostat when it's cold. If any furnace needs to run full bore for an extended period of time, it's too small. On the coaling stage however, that's completely different.

I choose to reduce the amount of incoming air to imitate a shorter chimney. The minimum air portion however is unchanged so proper combustion is maintained.

wow. ok so my Tundra is running pretty much exactly like that. open first 30 mins. mostly closed from then on out and cycles later. I been messing w making it cycle a few times after a shorter timer setting like 15-20 mins instead of 30 but yeah mines operating pretty much the same exact the damper opens all the way when it opens then shuts completely. That last part you said is what the wow was for. Really confused me. Don't feel bad. not hard to do. lol

Digger79 · Feb 16, 2016

Digger79 said:
wow. ok so my Tundra is running pretty much exactly like that. open first 30 mins. mostly closed from then on out and cycles later. I been messing w making it cycle a few times after a shorter timer setting like 15-20 mins instead of 30 but yeah mines operating pretty much the same exact the damper opens all the way when it opens then shuts completely. That last part you said is what the wow was for. Really confused me. Don't feel bad. not hard to do. lol

oh crap I see where I was getting confused.. when you say it stay open a 1/16 or 1/8 inch you mean all the time.. when its closed. not when heat call comes from t stat or temp controller right? yeah I messed with the paper clip. Causes my wood to burn out. lol didn't like it didn't close down the trietary burn intake any either. I thought you guys meant when you had heat call from t stat dampers only opened a 1/16 of an inch. Im and idiot. lol I was banging my head wondering how the stove was getting any air. lol. no my therm does not call for heat until like 1 or 2 in the after noon after loading between 5-7 am in the morning. The temp controller controls the draft. keeps it at -.05. seems good 14 hour burns and plenty of coals left. If I chose to drive the house up to the middle 70's its always 69 or 70 when I get home no problem. just burns to much wood up and I can easily bring the house up with the gas furnace if I want based on time of day or remotely with my phone... or just build a few brenndatomu fires for fun to jack it up to 70 then load for the night around 10.. speaking of..

3fordasho · Feb 16, 2016

Digger79 said:
hey Laynes69 and 3fordasho.. Are your saying your inlet dampers stay closed most the burn. How long exactly? 8 hrs? 10? I get 8-12 hr burns. I have plenty of coals at 12,13,even 14 hours if I'm burning better stuff like Hickory. Man I love that stuff! lol. Are your inlets staying open in the last few hours or hour of the burns? again mine currently is set to cycle and keep draft ideal. draft goes down below -.04 inlet opens. Draft gets back up to -.06 I shut it back down. This is what I been shooting for lately trying to get it to run at -.05 as much long as possible. This cycle only occurs once or twice depending if its a full load or a half load. Then the damper rides shut till the last 2-3 hours of the burns then cycles a few times again and stays open after that. Seems I am maintaining a -.05 draft as long as possible. Are there better methods that produce more efficiency? Like high draft and low inlet air? laynes69 thats your setup right? high -.10+ draft and secondaries choked way down damper barely opens and mostly stays shut? I guess I'm trying to operate as close to SBI's recommendations as possible. I mean they did have engineers design these things but then again they had a bunch of them crack! lol. I doubt that was the engineers fault. somehow I doubt it.

Both my tundras are in the 1340's for Serial number. They have some of the upgrades but not all. By the time these were made SBI was doing a better job of sealing the ash pan area and reduced two of the three inlet air openings. I have since installed the front firebrick to help protect the areas around the door. SBI supplied the pre-cut brick.

As far as fan on/off temps I noticed quite a difference between my two tundras. The one in the house seems about right but the other would get much hotter before kicking the fan on. These snap switches have quite a bit of variation between them and to make things worse I think SBI also suppled different temp switches as production progressed.

I ended up replacing one of my fan snap switches with an adjustable one so I could dial it in to my liking.

As far as how long the damper is closed on my typical burn, I have my add on temp control monitoring that too.
The temp control basically does two things:
First it acts has a high flue temp shut down. Once the flue temp hits the set point (currently 625f) it shuts the air inlet. The only time this usually happens is on start up or reload when I set the timer too long. So with the air inlet held open by the timer or thermostat the air inlet will close once temps hit 625 and reopen once it drops to 425. Once the timer runs out the furnace settles into cruise mode with the air inlet shut for best wood efficiency. Basically this function is similar to the factory limit but is adjustable and monitors flue temps rather than air temp above the firebox.

Second the temp control will reopen the air inlet once flue temps hit a low alarm setting on the temp control. I currently have my set to open the inlet at 265 and close again at 365. When does this come into play? Say I don't set the timer long enough on a reload or cold start to get things hot enough to maintain secondary burn. the temp control takes care of this and keeps the firebox at an efficient temp. About half way through a burn temps naturally start to drop off, the temp control will start to cycle the air inlet open and closed and eventually stay open till my next reload... I find this useful in that it reduces excessive coal beds and helps get more heat towards the end of the burn.

Digger79 · Feb 16, 2016

3fordasho said:
Both my tundras are in the 1340's for Serial number. They have some of the upgrades but not all. By the time these were made SBI was doing a better job of sealing the ash pan area and reduced two of the three inlet air openings. I have since installed the front firebrick to help protect the areas around the door. SBI supplied the pre-cut brick.

As far as fan on/off temps I noticed quite a difference between my two tundras. The one in the house seems about right but the other would get much hotter before kicking the fan on. These snap switches have quite a bit of variation between them and to make things worse I think SBI also suppled different temp switches as production progressed.

I ended up replacing one of my fan snap switches with an adjustable one so I could dial it in to my liking.

As far as how long the damper is closed on my typical burn, I have my add on temp control monitoring that too.
The temp control basically does two things:
First it acts has a high flue temp shut down. Once the flue temp hits the set point (currently 625f) it shuts the air inlet. The only time this usually happens is on start up or reload when I set the timer too long. So with the damper held open by the timer or thermostat the air inlet will close once temps hit 625 and reopen once it drops to 425. Once the timer runs out the furnace settles into cruise mode with the air inlet shut for best wood efficiency. Basically this function is similar to the factory limit but is adjustable and monitors flue temps rather than air temp above the firebox.

Second the temp control will reopen the air inlet once flue temps hit a low alarm setting on the temp control. I currently have my set to open the inlet at 265 and close again at 365. When does this come into play? Say I don't set the timer long enough on a reload or cold start to get things hot enough to maintain secondary burn. the temp control takes care of this and keeps the firebox at an efficient temp. About half way through a burn temps naturally start to drop off, the temp control will start to cycle open and closed and eventually stay open till my next reload... I find this useful in that it reduces excessive coal beds and helps get more heat towards the end of the burn.

Man thats freakin cool. got it. my setup up is basically exactly the same other than my temp controller is limited at 600 so I use C and measure on the surface with the prob. lol. so my reading are diff but I kinda got the conversions down by now. anyways something else is wrong other than that with the temp controller... I get readings as high as 500 C.. no freakin way. lol. the old school spring steel surface therm never goes over 400 ever. its fairly accurate. Two things are very different. First my stove is not running anywhere near as hot as yours I don't believe as far as flu temps go. I figure flu temps measured externally over 500 are a to high. Have yet to measure properly internally. Second I do not have the temp controller wired in like you do so I cannot have the second cycle at the lower temps like you do. My temp controller opens and closes at high draft and low draft one time only using the HYS. no lower cycle setting. Need to figure that out and think I a new temp controller. sounds like it would be most helpful.

Digger79 · Feb 16, 2016

laynes69 said:
My damper stays open maybe a 1/16th of an inch. The manual does specify to adjust based on fuel. Smaller splits will require less air, larger hardwoods will require a little more. Just like a few others, my furnace never runs wide open unless it's on a reload and that's no more than a half hour, which half of that is used to take off. When the damper closes, heat output increases. Occasionally it will open within the first hour or two, but for only a couple minutes to satisfy the thermostat when it's cold. If any furnace needs to run full bore for an extended period of time, it's too small. On the coaling stage however, that's completely different.

I choose to reduce the amount of incoming air to imitate a shorter chimney. The minimum air portion however is unchanged so proper combustion is maintained.

Don't get me wrong man I got it set to load and go when I need to. I don't need to watch it and control it from my phone I just enjoy being able to do that and see what it does. not to mention have control over things if something should ever go wrong and monitoring. I can set alarms that will send to my phone but have yet to mess with all that. When Im busy and can't mess with it I just leave therm at 70 load and go. rest takes care of itself. I can load and go in about 3-5 minutes if I need to.

Digger79 · Feb 17, 2016

Ok fellas so seems you may be on to something with letting that baro stay shut. I dialed it up so it wouldnt acuate. Freaked me out a little when draft bumped to -.09 , -.10 an I opened it a touch but then decided it was ok. stove n flu temps remained fine an high limit came on before timer shut off so seems the slight overdraft in load is ok. Now thats w this newer unit. The first model I believe this would be bad cause the fan cones on way too late, HE n plenum get way to hot. Same prob w high limit on the first stoves. Not safe. W the newer ones even if people leave therms wide open, the new high limit setting won't allow damage to stove anymore from damper staying open. Here's what I had at 6:45 am today after last nights full load of hickory. U guys were right. Damper stated shut all night an house was 69.5 at 6:30am. Now thats from 11pm load though so only 7.5 hrs.

Load at 11 pm

This morning at 6:45

An draft readings during firing

Digger79 · Feb 17, 2016

A few pics of my remote monitoing an controlling features. I also have power control on/off over everything thru wifi plugs.

Remote camera w zoom, pan, tilt features...

Wood furnace T stat control..

Gas furnace T stat controls..

KARB2014 · Feb 17, 2016

I know they say not to use a grate but it works wonders for me. As I said almost 8 pages ago I went back to using the grate and I will only take it out once the weather warms up and I'm back to burning soft woods. With grate I have absolutely no issues with coals. I have a very high heat demand and I would produce coals like a charcoal factory. I would spend two hours every night burning coals off and deal with a house that was colder than I had the thermo set to. Again its not for everybody but with the grate I can pump out the btu's for quick recovery. My secondaries are very intense with the grate. My grate is .375 304 stainless and no joke for the first 5 hrs of burn it glows red. This latest cold spell we just had was the coldest I have ever had it here. The wind was strong and on my house that is what affects my inside temp the most. On those days I was keeping my house at 72-75 with 6.5 to 7 hour burns. And the best part only a hand full of coals left for a restart. With the grate I don't get the coals only red hot in the front and black in the back, I get a fire box full of coals with blue ghost flames rising out of them. The pictures aren't the best and you can't see the grate, but that load right there heated my house for 8hrs with an outside temp of 12degs and inside 75 dropping to 72 before reload. It does change the way it burns. It more of burns the whole length instead of front to back.

Digger79 · Feb 17, 2016

KARB2014 said:
I know they say not to use a grate but it works wonders for me. As I said almost 8 pages ago I went back to using the grate and I will only take it out once the weather warms up and I'm back to burning soft woods. With grate I have absolutely no issues with coals. I have a very high heat demand and I would produce coals like a charcoal factory. I would spend two hours every night burning coals off and deal with a house that was colder than I had the thermo set to. Again its not for everybody but with the grate I can pump out the btu's for quick recovery. My secondaries are very intense with the grate. My grate is .375 304 stainless and no joke for the first 5 hrs of burn it glows red. This latest cold spell we just had was the coldest I have ever had it here. The wind was strong and on my house that is what affects my inside temp the most. On those days I was keeping my house at 72-75 with 6.5 to 7 hour burns. And the best part only a hand full of coals left for a restart. With the grate I don't get the coals only red hot in the front and black in the back, I get a fire box full of coals with blue ghost flames rising out of them. The pictures aren't the best and you can't see the grate, but that load right there heated my house for 8hrs with an outside temp of 12degs and inside 75 dropping to 72 before reload. It does change the way it burns. It more of burns the whole length instead of front to back.

Funny u should mention that grate cause I was brainstorming about coaling issues last night.. Now I really don't have bad coaling issues but always room for improvement. My idea is to use a grate but not at the bottom! Set tall so grate is closer to middle height of firebox. The thought was loading stove w the grate right in the middle of the load so it helps not only keep ash from covering lower coals it also makes it easy to build a "Brenndatamo" fire w small splits being held close to the top of the box for those quick high heat fires. Ya know when u want to warm up a little but not load stove for 12 hrs. Whatya u guys think bout that? 3fordasho, lynes69, Brenn??

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