Consolodated Dutchwest FA264CCL - Very little air coming out of top vents

Taking nthis guy apart may be a can of worms. Or not, but I think getting the t'stat working would be first. Once you know quantitatively that there's plenty of heat, that will help. The old Taiwanese CDW's don't alwayscome apart and go back together well. I've done many, and I can't explain any better than that, but if you must start taking it down, keep it to a minimum. Remember that convection happens with or without a blowah...

I have the larger one and I had to take most of mine apart and reseal the furnace cement. I used 3/8 inch rope to seal the top instead of cement so in case I needed to get in there it would not be a PITA. Have you done a leak test on it? good luck

beatle78 said:

Hi folks,

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just picked up this stove this week. I grew up with the FA224CCL so I'm sort of familiar with it.

This came with the fan mounted on the side. There were no plates blocking the bottom vents so I cut out some sheet metal and bolted them on(they're not airtight, but very little air blows by at this point).

I took the Fasco fan off and mounted it to the rear and the airflow is still very low out of the top vents.

Could it be possible that I need to take the top off and reseal around the air chambers? It looks like I may be able to feel some slight airflow coming through the seems where there used to be furnace cement.

Also the rear panel that's held on by 4 bolts. It mounts flush up near the top, but there is a noticeable gap(1/16") towards the bottom near the ash pan. In fact, if I hit the back plate near the bottom some ash dust falls out. See where I circled in yellow in the attached pic.

I have the stove running nice & hot with the cat engaged(not sure of temp b/c the numbers on the gauge are all burnt off) but I am not able to heat an 11'x36' room that it's in at 28F.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
beatle78

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I owned the exact same stove and sold it a few months ago.. The top comes from the factory sealed with furnace cement and to remove it there are 4 bolts located on the left and right sides of the top plus one inside located dead center in the front under the hot plate on the outer edge.. If you remove the top scrape out all the furnace cement, I used an old screw driver and hammer to chip out all the old cement.. I packed in rope gasket anyplace the gap was large around the cat chamber area.. The area of critical concern is the rectangle area directly around the cat chamber and the rest is just air chamber so pay close attention the cat area.. I would also suggest you look at your bypass damper gasket while you have the top off and yes it goes all the way around.. You must remove the damper to replace the rope gasket. While the top is off you can inspect the gap you're concerned about on back plate in the rear which I believe is just an air chamber for the convection part of the stove.. If you have ashes in there you will need to reseal the back inner firebox seam but I would try to seal it from inside the stove as this could be a major can of worms to disassemble.. If you search here about fa264ccl you'll find lots of info.. These stoves last a very long time if properly cared for..

Good Luck!
Ray

beatle78 said:

Thanks guys! This morning I closed the damper while starting the fire and smoke came out of the top in the rear right above the flu outlet & also the front door center seam at the top. I guess that means it's time to pop the top off and scrape
e-cement it. While I have it off, it sounds like it will be a god idea to replace the bypass gasket. I saw the 24 page thread on this stove. It had a lot of great info. I saw the picture where the top was off. Great info!

Can I just clean & re-cement inside the firebox

In regards to using 3/8" rope gasket instead of furnace cement. How long ago did you do that? Is it more likely to have to be redone sooner than if you used furnace cement?

Thanks!
beatle78

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I strongly suggest you check your chimney, cap and flue pipe! I think you have a clogged chimney because with a good draft those seams should be sucking in air not blowing out smoke! I ran into this once and that was the problem.. When was the last time you cleaned your chimney? Have you been burning wood that's not seasoned properly?

Ray

beatle78 said:

raybonz said:

beatle78 said:

Thanks guys! This morning I closed the damper while starting the fire and smoke came out of the top in the rear right above the flu outlet & also the front door center seam at the top. I guess that means it's time to pop the top off and scrape
e-cement it. While I have it off, it sounds like it will be a god idea to replace the bypass gasket. I saw the 24 page thread on this stove. It had a lot of great info. I saw the picture where the top was off. Great info!

Can I just clean & re-cement inside the firebox

In regards to using 3/8" rope gasket instead of furnace cement. How long ago did you do that? Is it more likely to have to be redone sooner than if you used furnace cement?

Thanks!
beatle78

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I strongly suggest you check your chimney, cap and flue pipe! I think you have a clogged chimney because with a good draft those seams should be sucking in air not blowing out smoke! I ran into this once and that was the problem.. When was the last time you cleaned your chimney? Have you been burning wood that's not seasoned properly?

Ray

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Wow, thanks Ray! So should those seems be sucking in air even if I close the flu damper? I had the ash door open so the massive air intake was helping to get the fire started good. While the ash door was open, I closed the flu damper, this is when the smoke came out of the top rear seam & the front door. I thought maybe that was b/c the massive amount of air intake needed some place to go since I closed the flu damper.

We just bought the house. I thought the inspector said the chimney looked good, but there is a chimney cap, so I'm not sure how good he could even see it. The flu pipes are all new. I guess I should go up on the roof and check out the chimney myself. My wood is all dead drops from the woods. They are seasoned, but may be damp if it rains before I can get a load into the house.

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Ah OK that's a different story..I never used that primary air on my stove and didn't need it either.. I found the 264ccl ran best with the ash bin full too so I never emptied it.. I would not use the flue damper unless you had very heavy winds as the cat gives enough restriction on it's own (I ran that stove without the flue damper for years) .. Sounds like your chimney is OK as it was inspected.. The learning curve on your stove can be steep and i suggest you read the many posts here and it will help you out.. I bet your wood is wet too.. Wet wood will give you more grief than you can imagine and this is the single most important part of the formula to satisfactory wood burning.. I hope Backwoods Savage reads this as he is the authority here on that subject and can explain it better than anyone I know.. I suggest you read through the hearth section here as there is loads of info there..

Ray

beatle78 said:

Thanks Ray! My wood is seasoned but it is def damp from all the rain we had here in RI a couple days ago.

My ashbin is almost full, I'll leave it that way. I'm going to search the forum on how to run the CDW stoves. Thanks again!

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Glad I could help! If your wood is damp from the rain it will give you problems.. Get the wood off the ground you can use pallets for this and cover just the top of your stacked wood this way the wind and sun can get to the wood.. If you need a manual for your stove you can download the pdf online here:

http://fergusonfireplace.com/Dutchwest_Pre_90.pdf

Ray

beatle78 said:

I'm getting pallets today to stack the wood on! I'm stuck at around 700F right now on the CAT temp. I've had some fires in here where it was around 1200F(based on needle position and a picture that I found online, my temp has all the numbers burnt off)

The hotter fires were probably some of the dry wood from before the rain!

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Interesting my cat thermometer was still legible after running the stove for 23 years makes me wonder if that stove was over-fired.. Take a good look and make sure the inner top is flat and not warped or cracked.. If it is you're better off replacing that stove.. Wet wood will definitely keep the cat cool plus adding wet wood to a fire can cause ceramic cats to crack and crumble due to thermal shock.. BTW the cat thermometer is replaceable if the stove checks out OK..

Ray

beatle78 said:

Here's a pic of inside the firebox. The top metal plate with holes leading to the cat is warped, but that's just plate steal, not cast iron. Was that what you were referring to or were you talking about the cat iron on the top of the firebox?

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Ok 1st off that plate you're referring to is cast iron and part of the inner top casting which by the way should not have a bolt in it which leads me to believe it got overfired and cracked at some point (that "plate" is the cat air feed or the small brass knob on the stove), 2nd that gizmo with the holes in it is the cat baffle which needs replacing and is around $25.00 (it looks like it's oriented incorrectly, I believe the smallest holes should be nearest the side loading door, 3rd the inside of your stove is shiny black that means you're burning wet wood and that shiny black is creosote not a problem in the stove but a problem in your chimney for sure.. I messaged Backwoods Savage about wood so he can shed light on that subject.. Thanx for picture it spoke volumes to me..

Ray

beatle78 said:

You're right. It looked like plate steal fro the top. OK So here's the replacement baffle: http://www.blackswanhome.com/product/baffle-consolidated-dutchwest

Are you saying that bolt in the cat air supply box should not be there?

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Yup no bolt there.. Not sure what that means.. I wonder if they cracked that air supply then bolted a plate to it? I don't recall a bolt being there.. I do know the inner top is not a part you can buy any more.. I upgraded this year because of the obsolescence issue plus I just wanted a new stove for other reasons.. If you can make it safe it could carry you through the winter.. As for the cat baffle it's main purpose is to prevent flame impingement to the cat so you may be OK to leave the baffle as-is for now..

Ray

beatle78 said:

ok, I took the top off. After I clean all old cement out, it looks like I redo some inner seams, but as far as the top goes, do I just fill in all the grooves on top and then flips it over and put it into place?

Also, they didn't use any cement around the outer air ducts so air can seep out of those gaps instead of going out the front air ducts. Should I seal the entire top? Or just the inner firebox portion like they did in the factory?

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I sealed the whole top but I don't understand the air duct part.. If you post some pics it will be easier to see what you are referring to in your post..

Ray

beatle78 said:

See in this pic. The yellow is where the factory applied the cement. The red area where the air ducts are had no cement. I noticed a good amount of air leakage through the sides before I took the top off. Now I know why.

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Odd my stove was the same exact one and they had cement around the whole thing.. It will not hurt anything to just seal the cat area but if it were me I would and did seal the whole top on.. Thanx for posting the pic.. Did you look at the bypass damper gasket? It would be easy to do that now that the top is off if it needs replacing..

Ray

beatle78 said:

I have the damper gasket all chiseled out. I think it's pretty decent. I sealed all the inner seams of the cat chamber with furnace cement last night. It was still pretty softmoist in most areas this morning. Some had setup pretty good, dry & hard.

It's 3/8" rope gasket for the damper & all the doors on this stove, right? The guy before me used 1/2" gasket on all the doors.

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I think he used the right gasket.. Earlier in this post I posted a link to the PDF manual for your stove it has all the info about what size gasket and where to use and how much you need.. Save this manual to your PC for reference.. I am pretty sure the doors are 1/2" and the bypass is 3/8" but read the manual to be sure..

Ray