At my wit's end...

[jbeamer]

Some background - I purchased a house in August 2010 with a Greenwood 100 boiler in an outside shed. Due to inexperience (on my part), I had some problems with overheating my first few months, but then I got the hang of it and it had been burning well ever since.

In October 2011, I did a thorough cleaning (I also did one a few months after moving in). I also installed a piece of sheet metal over my back panel as there were some rust spots in the skin that were pretty much all the way through (not sure what the last guy did that caused this). I also placed foil tape along all of the seams of the panels (once you remove a side panel, they aren't exact as flat as smooth as they started out to be!)

A few weeks ago, I started to notice that my furnace wasn't burning properly. Instead of flames, the wood smoldered a lot (except for the wood near the air intake pipes in the back). Lots of smoke out the chimney. Lots of smoke when I opened the door to the fire box. If the fire box door was left open for a minute, the wood would flame up like normal. It definitely seemed like the firebox wasn't getting a proper draft. The temperature had a hard time staying at 155 (so my oil furnace was consistently kicking on!)

So, a week ago I shut the furnace down and found that there was a decent amount of ash in the chimney pipe (around the elbow near the back of the furnace). That seemed pretty quick to have happened, but we've had a mild winter thus far and my wood is a little on the green side.

For the first few days after firing it back up, things seemed to be going well (burning hot, burning well). Now, the same issues have returned - fire not burning well, temperature only around 155, wood only flaming near the air inlets, lots of smoke. I'm at a loss and can't figure out what's going on. The only thing I know to do is to take the side panel off and see if there are any obstructions, but it's only been a few months since I did this.

My damper is working fine (it's actually not closing because the temp isn't getting up). My wood isn't any greener than it was last year at this time. The only thing that has changed is the addition of the back panel (which I installed right over the old skin).

Any wisdom out there for me? Am I on the right track to take the panel off again, just to be sure? Should I consider a draft inducer on the chimney pipe? I'm not the most handy guy, so if something major needs to be done, I'll gladly call someone.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Pat53]

How high is your chimney? Also, you may want to check your air inlet pipes, they can get plugged with creosote too.

Pat

 

[jbeamer]

How high is your chimney? Also, you may want to check your air inlet pipes, they can get plugged with creosote too.

Pat

Chimney extends through ceiling (eight foot?) and then another three feet (?) above the roof. Air inlets are clear.

As I mentioned earlier, the strange thing is that I didn't have this problem last winter.

 

[maple1]

11 feet of chimney? That is not very much at all.

 

[jbeamer]

11 feet of chimney? That is not very much at all.

Okay, my estimate was a little off. I just had my wife measure, and I have about 16 feet from the back of my stove to the top of the chimney. How's that?

 

[maple1]

Do you know what the recommended draft is for it? Does it have a barometric damper? I'm still kind of thinking more chimney might help, but not sure - you could jamb on a couple of lengths of stove pipe to your chimney top as a trial to check.

I'll let ones who know more about Greenwoods jump in...

 

[jbeamer]

Do you know what the recommended draft is for it? Does it have a barometric damper? I'm still kind of thinking more chimney might help, but not sure - you could jamb on a couple of lengths of stove pipe to your chimney top as a trial to check.

I'll let ones who know more about Greenwoods jump in...

I think I had looked at this when I first moved in and it met the recommended height. I can review again when I get home.

 

[Chris Hoskin]

if the intake and exhaust passages are clear, I would suggest your wood is greener than you think. Cut up a couple of oak pallets and see how they burn in comparison.

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

I would definitely recommend NOT taking your side or any other skins off.

1)Go to the back and look down the air inlet tubes. Shine a good light down in there. Anything broken or partially plugged?

2)Assuming #1 above is a 'No' then, well, as you'll get used to hearing around here your wood sucks.

If the best you could maintain was 155 °F over the past two nights (Sat/Sun) then you might better have let the fire finish going out. Yer not gonna heat in negative Fahrenheit with 155 °F

 

[jbeamer]

I would definitely recommend NOT taking your side or any other skins off.

1)Go to the back and look down the air inlet tubes. Shine a good light down in there. Anything broken or partially plugged?

2)Assuming #1 above is a 'No' then, well, as you'll get used to hearing around here your wood sucks.

If the best you could maintain was 155 °F over the past two nights (Sat/Sun) then you might better have let the fire finish going out. Yer not gonna heat in negative Fahrenheit with 155 °F

The skins are meant to come off for cleaning, although it should only have to be done once a year. Nothing looked broken or plugged when I was checking the other day, but I'll look again. I buy my wood by the triaxle, and these logs sat for a year. Yes, they're green, but so was my load last year.

I may try to track down some seasoned wood and do a comparison. That would verify the wood as the problem theory.

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

Removing the skin would only make sense if the verticle part of the HX tubes were plugged. But that should not create a smouldering fire. In fact it should create higher flue temps as less heat is being extracted by the HX.

During the life of my GW, I can't remember a time when it couldn't keep temps up and the problem ended up being anything other than poor quality wood.

I've never even checked my draft.

Now. . . . about this getting your wife to go measure the chimney . . .

 

[jbeamer]

Removing the skin would only make sense if the verticle part of the HX tubes were plugged. But that should not create a smouldering fire. In fact it should create higher flue temps as less heat is being extracted by the HX.

During the life of my GW, I can't remember a time when it couldn't keep temps up and the problem ended up being anything other than poor quality wood.

I've never even checked my draft.

Now. . . . about this getting your wife to go measure the chimney . . .

I guess the reason I was leaning toward a draft issue was that the fire ignites forcefully every time we open the firebox door (ie, when we let oxygen in). As soon as the door is closed, it goes back to only being lit in the back of the box (near the inlets). If the wood is of poor quality, I wouldn't expect it to do this.

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

But your draft was the same last year as this year, no?

Firewood is like Real Estate . . . no two pieces are the same. I bet I'm not the only person here that's been goin' along burning fine and all of a sudden finds myself reaching in and pulling shi+ out. I thought it was wood when I put it in, but the trial by fire said no.

Well, ok, this has prolly never happened to Dennis :vampire:

Oh, BTW . . . why is the stove pipe filling up with ash?

8" all the way? only 1 90*?

Yes to both, and we have another indicator yer burning 'bad wood'.

 

[griff8907]

i can always tell when im getting good draft on my GW when the damper is opening you can hear the air rushing into the champer thru the inlets. Is their any ash blocking the inlet in the chamber?

 

[jbeamer]

But your draft was the same last year as this year, no?

Firewood is like Real Estate . . . no two pieces are the same. I bet I'm not the only person here that's been goin' along burning fine and all of a sudden finds myself reaching in and pulling shi+ out. I thought it was wood when I put it in, but the trial by fire said no.

Well, ok, this has prolly never happened to Dennis :vampire:

Oh, BTW . . . why is the stove pipe filling up with ash?

8" all the way? only 1 90*?

Yes to both, and we have another indicator yer burning 'bad wood'.

Goes from 8 inch to six inch. only 1 turn.

 

[Pat53]

you should be running all 8" with that unit, that would help the draft for sure I would think

 

[henfruit]

I had a greewood and ran 6 inch all the way worked fine.They like round wood splits equal to much surface area=lots of smoke.Once you get a good bed of coals built up it should burn most any thing you put in there but the wetter more energy to dry to burn.

 

[maple1]

I would definitely recommend NOT taking your side or any other skins off.

1)Go to the back and look down the air inlet tubes. Shine a good light down in there. Anything broken or partially plugged?

2)Assuming #1 above is a 'No' then, well, as you'll get used to hearing around here your wood sucks.

If the best you could maintain was 155 °F over the past two nights (Sat/Sun) then you might better have let the fire finish going out. Yer not gonna heat in negative Fahrenheit with 155 °F

The skins are meant to come off for cleaning, although it should only have to be done once a year. Nothing looked broken or plugged when I was checking the other day, but I'll look again. I buy my wood by the triaxle, and these logs sat for a year. Yes, they're green, but so was my load last year.

I may try to track down some seasoned wood and do a comparison. That would verify the wood as the problem theory.

How long has it been cut & split? Is it possible the wood you got last year had been cut for longer before you got it? Maybe some standing dead? Whole logs won't dry very good at all. Even cut up wood of any size won't dry very good in the middle of it's not split, without a lot of quality drying.