Need a "Door was Left Open" Reminder

[mrkool]

Just fire up my 20 something year old Hardy last night and darned if I didn't walk off and leave the ash door cracked open.

Got up to 56 deg this morning thinking I didn't add enough wood, then walked out and the temp was HI and I thought,

what's going on here, looked outside and steam was fuming out the water stack and looked down and there was the ash

door cracked open about an inch, man-o-man, something's going on with my brain matter, or lack thereof I should say.

So, over the past 15 years, this will be the 4th time I've turned all 130 gallons of water into steam, so now I'm ready for

a way to attached a light or bell or something to tell me, before I walk off, that the ash door is open.

Any ideas?

 

[soupy1957]

Assuming you have nobody around to double check you...............YOU have to "double check" you!!

-Soupy1957

 

[maplewood]

I left my damper open in the Econoburn once, after loading the fire box with some nice dry soft wood.
About 1.5 hours later my youngest son ran and got me in the garage, saying, "The boiler chimney pipe is on fire!".
The red fire resistant caulking on my flue (not the chimney) was smoking and starting to catch on fire, and the pipe was glowing.
Wow - what a "whoops" on my part! I immediately closed the damper, and the temps came down quickly.
Funny - that's when I found out that the gasser dumps a lot of fine ash in the flue, because the top 4/5th of my pipe was effected,
but not the bottom 1/5th, where the ash was acting as an insulator.

So - to your question. Yes, we have to add controls to our systems to keep us from acting carelessly. Buzzers, lights, open circuits -
whatever it takes. Lest we use up our 9 lives and burn the house down and make the kittens homeless!

 

[Nofossil]

In the industrial controls world, we use something called a 'microswitch' (the name was coined way back in the dark ages when something an inch long counted as 'micro'. They're designed to be easily mounted to almost anything / anywhere, and the flexible actuator allows a fair degree of latitude in the physical contact with the actuating object.

In the simplest case, wire one of these to a light that you would see on your way out of the basement.

For more complexity, wire one of these to a timer and an alarm.

When you go to mount it, DON"T drill and tap mounting holes in the water jacket ;-)

I'd use a low-voltage circuit - maybe a 12V wall-wart and an automotive light bulb.

 

[soupy1957]

NoFossil: I'm curious............I can't visualize "how" you would use that switch on a wood stove..........care to show me an example of a good way to utilize that switch on a wood stove?

Because it is plastic, and there would be wires involved, I'd think it would melt?

-Nutmegger1957

 

[Nofossil]

NoFossil: I'm curious............I can't visualize "how" you would use that switch on a wood stove..........care to show me an example of a good way to utilize that switch on a wood stove?

Because it is plastic, and there would be wires involved, I'd think it would melt?

-Nutmegger1957

There are plenty of places that you can mount a switch that are cool enough. You could get fancy and use actuator linkages, but I'd start with something like this, mocked up with double sided tape to start, then implemented with a metal bracket. You could easily attach an adjustable rod (screw) to the edge of the door to make contact with the actuator.

 

[Countryboy1966]

Nice suggestion Nofossil!

I'm re-inventing my system and I am hoping to install a few dummy lights for various things if possible. I'm hoping to put in a low temp light, high temp light, and a boil light.

Planning to make them from old equipment logic systems I will pillage over at the local industrial surplus.

 

[barkeatr]

switch is a great idea...or u could try a digital thermometer with an alarm...if the boiler is getting too hot it will sound an alarm. this covers you also for other issues rather than just leaving the door open ( although i have done this also). i got the thermometer im using from another user on hearth...it is called redi check and it has two inputs. you could put two in, one in your house and one near the boiler..so then your covered pretty good.

 

[Rory]

Funny thing, I almost never light with the ash door open, but I did last night when the regular method didn't catch. I wandered off with the firebox door open a crack as usual. When I returned 10 minutes later to a room full of smoke I realized that I had left the ash door open as well, bad move on my part.

 

[b33p3r]

Lit a fire this week and luckily I was just outside the boiler shed stacking wood. It wasn't long before I realized it wasn't burning like it should according to the smoke billowing out of the stack. Into the shed I go and the temp inside the shed was alot warmer than normal. The stack temp was way higher than normal. Finally realized I didn't pull the damper closed after loading with wood. My wife always said she thinks I have assheimers.

 

[rkusek]

Last winter I would usually take my wagon out to the woodpile to bring in a load or two after starting a fire with the lower door open. It worked great for the most part giving me that 10-15" to get a couple small splits to the stage where gassification was instant when I loaded it fully. Once or twice I got myself interrupted by a cell phone call, ran into a neighbor, playing fetch with dog and the 10-15" minutes was more like 25-30". Fortunately a few small splits in a cold boiler with the lower door open is not the same as having it half full or more. Several times after loading it competely, verifying it was gassing, circs were plugged in, etc. I would double and triple check to make sure the bypass was closed as well. I actually fear forgetting to do this or pressing the START button more than leaving a door open. Several times when walking back to the house, I would turn around and walk back to double check the bypass because I did not remember checking it before walking out of the shed. This winter I will add a webcam pointed at the boiler front to see the readouts as well as the doors and levers. It would be nice to be able to check things from my phone whenever I feel the urge since my Arduino stuff is going to be a work in progress for some time. I like the microswitch idea and will probably incorporate that into my Arduino project.

 

[jebatty]

And anyone can forget to close the door all the way, which I just did yesterday on the Tarm. Fortunately, I have a PID temperature controller with a K-type sensor in the stack that I have wired to shutdown the draft fan if the stack gets too hot. It saved the day and maybe more. This is easy to do. Just wire in series with the hot lead to the draft fan. If stack temp goes higher than your setting, fan shuts down. Many temp controllers also have an alarm which can come in handy too.

 

[steam man]

I don't know if I want to post this but here goes. This is my version of tying string around your finger so not to forget something. I used to quite often transfer hundreds of tons of bunker C fuel oil to some tanks almost daily. It would have been catastrophic to overflow the tanks, especially into the water. Soooooo....while transferiing fuel I just put a red wire with alligator clips on it around my neck to remind me I was doing something very important. Never overflowed a tank.

Sorry about being so low tech guys.