another 'my first' post

[vwboomer]

Hello all.
Recently bought a 3 br brick ranch. Kinda small at 1250sqft but it's just me and Kat now. Part of the attraction is the wood burner in the basement. I haven't been able to find any information on it other than the company went out of business.
It's a King Automatic model 6600 A1.

There are two squirrel cage fans about 15' from the enclosure that the stove is mounted in. 1 4" pipe feeds just the kitchen. A 6" feeds the rest of the house and puts out practically nothing since it's way undersized for the application.

I am looking for any information about the setup, but primarily what temps are safe to run? I have a gauge on the door side. I try to keep it between 350 and 500 but it's extremely difficult to regulate. When I try to load it up so it's burning all night it either smolders or rages, even with both intake and damper at half. When going to work, it's the same thing.
Might not be so bad if I could rig up a bigger blower to suck the radiant heat off and through the ducts to heat evenly but the kitchen is usually 5-10degrees warmer.

Any knowledge on this burner or ideas on an efficient, quiet, high cfm blower that could hook up for the entire run of ducts?

 

[the_dude]

I don't think I can help much, but it sounds like you have a wood furnace there. Have you had the unit inspected by a professional chimney sweep? A sweep may be familiar with the setup, and may be a wealth of knowledge on the best way to utilize it. I think you will likely get some help from the experts here if you posted some pictures.

 

[begreen]

Sounds like two separate issues here, old stove and an inherited jerry-rigged ventilation system. Is that correct? For the stove, have you inspected it carefully to be sure there are no cracks? How are the door gaskets sealing, tightly all the way around?

For ventilation, blow cool air, low, towards the stove. Try using a basic table or box fan located in the cooler part of the house and point it to blow towards the stove.

 

[vwboomer]

The stove is in the basement so no help blowing air towards it.
Part of the reason I was looking for info on it was to find out exactly how it was configured from the factory vs if it was cobbled together. Of course the enclosure was built by whoever installed it - whether the homeowner/builder or someone else. The only inspection I had was the home inspection and he looked it over and said with new brick it was good to go. The baffle plate is rusted but I would expect that due to heat.
Couple pics:
Damper control and thermostat for fans:

Front of unit with enclosure door lifted:

I doubt the box above the firebox is factory, but I have no pictures that I can find or information.
There are no smoke leaks coming from it, and I did replace the door gasket last which which made a big difference in controlling the flame, but I still can't get a slow steady burn out of it despite fiddling with it for a month.

Granted, there's only 2" insulation in the attic and I need to remedy that, but things are very iffy at work and I'm afraid to spend the couple hundred to do it.

 

[webbie]

This whole thing was homemade - I had a number of stoves like that - it is an oval shaped sheet metal unit with cast door and thermostatic control.

To be honest with you, the entire setup looks suspect and dangerous....to say nothing of being against every sort of mechanical code.

I personally would not use it as a furnace - if I was going to use it at all.

 

[vwboomer]

Why do you say it looks dangerous and against code?
There are no combustibles in the area. The expansion chamber (or whatever you call it) doesn't leak a bit and neither does the box itself. Granted sucking radiant heat from the enclosure isn't the greatest solution, but it seems to work ok.

I'd really like to get a proper add on wood furnace. I'm not sure if I can in the city tho ( I know outdoor units are banned at least). More importantly, I don't have the 1200 for the unit plus whatever duct work I'd need done.
I def wouldn't use it if I didn't feel safe and if there is something that makes it unsafe I'd sure like to know about it - still kinda paranoid but the inspector said it was good to go so I dunno.