Hello all, this is my 2nd winter burning with a Garn 2000. In the last few days I've noticed a significant air circulation problem with my unit. At first I noticed puffing on the initial burn, when it really shouldn't have been puffing. I attributed it to my kindling wood being too dry, but as the days passed I noticed it puffing more often, and I noticed weaker and weaker air flow. Also, there was an almost constant pulsating when I stuck my hand up to the intake hood on the back of the unit. Now I can hardly get a fire going because the air flow is so bad. I cleaned the unit last summer, and I inspected all the tubes a couple days ago and everything looked good. Try as I may, I can't seem to find any blockages. Unfortunately over the holidays there was some miscommunication among my in-laws, and my brother-in-law tried to fire the unit a few times without running the draft fan, ugh. But when we got back the unit seemed to be working fine. We had a power outage last week, and i was firing the Garn at the time. Because of those two incidents, the door gasket seems to be toasted and in bad shape, so I'm assuming that's the problem. But it doesn't make intuitive sense to me that I would experience back puffing if the door gasket went bad i.e. backpuffing due to lack of air and a bad door seal would just help bring in more air. I've felt around the the door gasket during operation and nothing seems to be leaking out. I thought maybe since it got really bad after the power outage that my draft fan may be damaged and running on low rpm's, but it sounds no different than before. Anyway, I'll be contacting Garn tomorrow and ordering a new door gasket, hoping that will fix the problem, but if any of you experts have any input I'm all ears.
Garn puffing problem
- Thread starter Chirons_Dad
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No expert here by any means, but I doubt the damaged door seal is starving the fire of oxygen, which is the root cause of puffing as I understand it. It seems like something must be blocked. If you can access the exhaust, turn the fan on and have someone open and close the door. See if that changes the air flow. If it does, your blockage is probably upstream of the door?
Jim K in PA
Minister of Fire
Did you pull the fan and clean out plate with the temp gauge in it? Make sure the fan impeller is clear and the passage is not blocked. You should also make sure nothing is blocking the elbows at the far ends of the pipe runs in the flue piping. Sometimes if a chunk of partially burned wood gets stuck there, it can collect more debris and block the flow. Usually it burns away but sometimes not. Door gasket will have little effect on the operation in this regard.
Kemer
Member
It is also possible for the air collar cavity where the primary air port opens to the firebox to be clogged with ash ect. Try sticking a vacuum down the primary air port. Also maybe remove the combustion air inlet hood and shine a flashlight towards the air collar.You said you checked the flue tubes, how about the class a flue.
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