draft...damper....barometric....hmmmm

[ssupercoolss]

i think i am going to install a cast iron damper on my new yorker wc-90. i am playing around with my barometric damper, i dont have a nano, but last night my baro was swinging pretty much wide open, but at the same time my flue temp was way down in the nasty zone. i have been reading plenty about baro's on a wood fired device - still seems like something to debate, but thats not what i wanna learn. with my baro covered over with foil, flue temps went up into the happy zone. like up around 450. but, am i pushing too much heat up the chimney? what is the ideal flue temp? i have read to pretty much close the damper down until you smell smoke, then open it up a little past there. i would think i have a good draft, i never have smoke issues starting a fire. i do however get a little smoke when loading, which i think is common. if i close the damper some, will i have to open it full to load? i am still in the rookie stages with this burning wood thing, however i am never really satisfied with something unless i have tinkered with it over and over, until i feel like its running to the best of its ability.

 

[pybyr]

i think i am going to install a cast iron damper on my new yorker wc-90. i am playing around with my barometric damper, i dont have a nano, but last night my baro was swinging pretty much wide open, but at the same time my flue temp was way down in the nasty zone. i have been reading plenty about baro's on a wood fired device - still seems like something to debate, but thats not what i wanna learn. with my baro covered over with foil, flue temps went up into the happy zone. like up around 450. but, am i pushing too much heat up the chimney? what is the ideal flue temp? i have read to pretty much close the damper down until you smell smoke, then open it up a little past there. i would think i have a good draft, i never have smoke issues starting a fire. i do however get a little smoke when loading, which i think is common. if i close the damper some, will i have to open it full to load? i am still in the rookie stages with this burning wood thing, however i am never really satisfied with something unless i have tinkered with it over and over, until i feel like its running to the best of its ability.

you need enough heat to get it up the chimney without condensation; how much heat that is will vary with your install

my old wood hot air furnace had a stack butterfly damper, and while it was better than nothing, it was not great either.

the setting that worked well with one batch of wood in one set of weather could be either too restricted or too wide open with a different set of variables

contact whoever built whatever boiler you are running, and include the barometric if they say so, and get or borrow a draft gauge to set it up right to maintain the specific draft that the manufacturer tells you to.

The damper setting is sufficiently subtle that I don't believe you can really do a good job by some seat of pants method. I usually have a pretty good intuitive sense of adjusting machinery, and I'd tried the intuitive method with a barometric damper on my oil furnace to try to keep it from clanging, and once I got a gauge, I discovered that I'd not even been near the correct setting (then again, neither had the person who'd set it before me...). Set up with the draft gauge, it never goes zany, and my oil furnace's stack is always drawing and at the right temps.

So that's the approach that I am going to use when I set up the wood unit too