Wood/Oil Furnace Combo - Max Caddy questions

[Roxburyeric]

I am currently considering replacing my oil hot air furnace with the Max Caddy and had some questions:

A little background: In Connecticut, 2500 sq. ft. two story house built in 1999, plus 800 sq ft finished basement. 2 zones (one for each floor - no real heat in the basement) Currently have a Oil fired hot air furnace with a 5 ton A/C until as well. Furnace needs a new blower unit and tune up, so considering changing it. Nat Gas is not an option. I have a Jotul 550 wood insert that heats the house pretty well but I would rather use the furnace if I could.

Questions: Can the Caddy combo unit be hooked into my chimney just like my current oil funace is? or does it need a SS liner like the Jotul 550 needed. And with the combo unit does it just need the one flue? I assume an add-on wood furnace would need its own flue, so I am looking at the combo.

Can the Max Caddy handle a 5 ton A/C unit hooked into the system?

Duck work - are there any special things I need to consider - like does the sheet metal ducking need to be not touching wood for X number of feet from the furnace?

Thanks

Eric

 

[FyreBug]

Hi Eric, I work for PSG and we make the Caddy line.

You best bet would be to download the manual first as it answers all your questions then some... http://www.psg-distribution.com/for...=images/poeles/manuel_en/5643141082012447.pdf

Yes your Max Caddy can be hooked up to your current chimney. If it's a wood oil combo your are considering then if your flue is bigger than 7" you will need a 7" liner all the way down. This will service both oil & wood.

If you are only installing wood, then you need to downsize to 6".

Yes you can hook up an AC coil with the Max Caddy. The manual show a couple different options on how to do that.

Again the manual shows you will have a 1" top plenum clearance to combustible for 6 feet.

Let us know if you have any questions. All the best and please post pics of your install.

 

[Roxburyeric]

Fryebug, thanks for the information. I will read it over and come back with any other questions.

 

[STIHLY DAN]

Isn't the nfpa code, 6 inches clearance for the first 6 ft then 1 in there after?

 

[FyreBug]

Hey Stihly! Glad to see you made it to the dark side.

You are right BTW... it is 6" for the first 6 ft. My bad...

 

[STIHLY DAN]

Thanks, been lurking for awhile, thought it was time to jump in.

 

[Roxburyeric]

For now I have deceided to stay with my insert and oil furnace. Several reasons: Overall total cost of the system given that my current system works for my needs at this time. It would be nice to get the wood out of the house and into the basement and it seems like it would be easier to heat the whole house with the wood furnace (100% of the time) The upgrades I would need to make to the duct work and chimney add to the total cost but the one item I am back here to say to FyreBug is that of the three dealers I called in my area CT/NY two had no one that could speak to me about the issues I raised in my first post and the third one said their Sales Guy would call me back and they never did. So my impression is that PSG is not being represented very well in this area - which would be one of the reasons there are very few Caddy owners here. Now it looks like a great product and if I needed a complete new furnace it could be the way to go. Thanks for your help and sorry for the rant.