Blowers or no blowers?

The sticker is what’s inside the black box on top left of the furnace. Thought maybe that the numbers were 120-130 degrees?

They are tied into my gas furnace ducts I believe. Only reason I leave the one duct open directly above the stove is because it blows directly at my steps, I leave the basement door open and it works as a giant register lol. The duct that is open runs to my spare bedrooms, and kitchen and since the living room and kitchen are open floor plan, and the basement door is right at the end of the kitchen, it seems to work better that way. As far as if I’m burning hot enough, I will include a picture of dampener position, and it is 10 degrees outside right now, so it’s open more than usual. At this position, the gas furnace has still kicked on approx 3 times in the last hour or so. I will also show a pic of my fire, last time wood was added was about 2.5 hrs ago. As you can see with the fire, it’s wanting more wood again, already. And the gas furnace is still kicking on occasionally... the propane bill is the main cause of all my frustration lol

Yes, actually the time before the picture was taken, the wife actually filled it so she probably didn’t fill it clear full. But generally, I pretty much stuff the thing with wood.

I appreciate everyone’s input by the way. I’ve had several people look at it, trying to decipher a problem. Unfortunately, everyone says it should keep us plenty of warm, and the negative side would be that it eats the wood. It definitely eats the wood, but doesn’t do that great of a job heating the house in return. I would like to buy a max caddy or heat pro but as of right now that’s not in the budget.

I burn roughly a truck load a week. And have been bad at keeping track of it this year but it’s been a lot. I have all the wood for next year cut split and stacked, so if I still have the furnace then, I’m going to really keep track of how much I burn. Luckily I enjoy cutting wood

brenndatomu said:

A lot of unknowns here...what is the chimney draft? How about the stove pipe temp?
What is the moisture content of the wood? (this really sounds like wet wood to me)
How long has the wood been cut/split/stacked? Was it top covered?
With the rainy year almost everybody in the states had this year, there has been an even higher than usual rate of "wet wood" problems popping up here (and it usually happens a lot)

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Although I can’t yet answer the chimney draft, or stove pipe temp questions, I can assure this is dry wood. I burnt most of the greener stuff earlier in the year before the temps really started dropping. Most of the wood I am burning now has been split and stacked for a year In a building with rough cut lumber as siding so it had gaps for air to pass through, and as open face on the building. Some of that wood is even older, right around the 2 year mark of being stacked in the building. I am burning various types of wood though, most of it is elm and ash, with some locust and oak. The locust and oak is the greener of the types of wood, however I would defenitly consider it dry seasoned wood.

laynes69 said:

Where do you live in ohio? That's alot of wood to receive little heat.

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I actually just looked at your profile, I’m not too far from you. Small town called Glenmont down in Holmes county

brenndatomu said:

Oh, and if this Woodblast is not making heat with that wood, a Max Caddy would be doing even worse...they gotta have DRY wood.

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Interesting, can’t say I knew that! Thanks for the info

brenndatomu said:

Welcome.
All of the new efficient and clean burning stoves/furnaces are that way...not just the Max.
If you can build up a 3 year supply C/S/S firewood, you will not have problems.

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I start Saturday cutting firewood on a buddies 3 acre prop that was all timber and they clear cut it all except for a quarter acre. I’m hoping to be about 5 yrs or more ahead by the time in finished this spring, now just need to find good storage lol

And to laynes69, I will try that and see what happens. I feel like that may be effective.

brenndatomu said:

I keep all but what I need for the coming winter outside...its just top covered, sides open.
In the fall, when it is still hot n dry out, I bring what I will need for the upcoming winter into the shed (on racks...then I haul them to the attached garage with my mini forklift one by one as they are needed. We typically burn about 4 cords per winter...5 on a cold winter. So that's probably 8-10 "truckloads" for the whole winter...

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I just emptied the shed with the last load I brought into the house, the rest is outside on pallets, top covered. It’s mostly ash

laynes69 said:

Well if you had a plenum and a larger blower, you wouldn't have an issue with heat. Its hard saying, sometimes the old school furnaces burned hotter and other times not so much due to incomplete combustion.

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As you can tell I’m sure, I’m still rather green myself when it comes to wood furnaces. How do I go about adding a plenum system? I understand removing those ducts, but what does the plenum hook to then? I’m slow at work with the weather and this would be a great project for my evenings!