Rule of Thumb for Draft Controls?

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1parkpointer

New Member
Dec 3, 2007
17
Farmington NH
My installation has the flue pipe coming out the rear of the wood furnace, and then sloping up to the chimney and out. According to the directions for installing the Field R-C Barometric Draft Control, all of the references are for horizontal or vertical installations, but have nothing for sloped pipes. I do not have a manometer, so I cannot check flue draft accurately. I have the adjustment weight on the right slot for vertical flues and it is set at .08; as I wasn't able to get it set any lower. I've not tried it on the horizontal side (left hand slot). If anyone has any thoughts, I'd like to hear them?
 
I use one, dont know what to say about the setting, for I don't have a manometer either. Mine it set on maximum draft, and still opens to slow the draft on the furnace. Mine is angled also. I just leveled the ring with the damper on it. I set mine for vertical I believe. You can set it by watching the firing rate and the chimney. If your not getting enough draft, then allow for a greater setting.
 
Typically, anything angled 45 degrees or above is considered vertical, and anything angled less than 45 degrees is considered horizontal.

You really need to set the thing up with a manometer, though. If you don't have one, check around for local heating companies. Not the big-name ones (oil companies and the like) - look in a local paper or for signs along the road, and find someone who will be willing to come out for little money and put a gauge on it for you. Most bigger companies will charge an arm and a leg just to show up, given the price of gas. If you can find someone who lives in the same town, or a neighboring town, you can probably get by for much less money.

Alternately, if your oil system needs service, schedule a cleaning and have the tech put a gauge on your wood system while he's already there.

Joe
 
Thanks, wasn't aware how sloped fitted in with vertical or horizontal. I checked my slope at 25-degrees. I moved from the vertical side at .07 of the RC-draft control to the horizontal side and readjusted to about .05 for now. It'll be a wait and see how it works. Thanks again!
 
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