englander 28-3500 love/hate relationship

[steve s]

I have recently installed an Englander 28-3500 wood stove in the basement of my 2800 sq ft home. I love the heat I am getting from it (25 outside/ 71 inside) and that is with a home under remodeling repair (almost 1/2 down to the studs and no insulation!!) I hate worryimg about the exhaust pipe though. I am having a hard time keeping the pipe hot. It is usually 275deg to 300deg if the damper is about 1/2 open, otherwise is hoovers around 200deg. My setup goes like this: The exhaust pipe exits the top of the stove. Vertically for 2 ft then a 90deg elbow. It then runs horizontally for 3ft with upward slope of about 1 1/2". The pipe is single wall black stove pipe. Actually the other day there was creosote running down the outside of the pipe. I tried dampering the stove down overnight to get a longer burn, and this was the result. My basement is quite large and drafty. I belive this is my menesis regarding my pipe. I am thinking of replacing the single wall pipe with triple track pipe. I am wondering if this will make a difference before I spend the extra money, as it is holiday season. I also do not want to put my family in harms way either. Thanks for any input with this problem> HAPPY HOLIDAYS

 

[begreen]

Sounds more like unseasoned wood than the pipe. Unseasoned wood is going to burn cool.

 

[Jags]

2ft - 90 degree elbow - then 3 ft horizontal...then what does it connect to? Changing the 5 ft of single wall to double wall pipe is probably not going to gain you a bunch. It might help, but I wouldn't bet on that being the fix. What is the rest of the setup? Is it going into a masonry chimney? Maybe an outside double wall run??

What kind of temps are the stove itself running at? Just a knee jerk reaction, but it sounds like slow draft, or unseasoned wood, but we will need a little more info.

 

[steve s]

Thanks for the quick response!! The stove pipe then ends inside the chimney. The chimney is a masonary chimney with a clay flue liner. The flue is 8 x 12. When I had a chimney sweep inspect the chimney for me he said the size would be ok. The chimney is a double flue flue chimney. 1 flue has my gas furnace and and gas hot water heater in it. The second flue has the wood stove. I have put the temp gauge on the front of the stove and it was reading app. 200deg. Not sure if it was very accurate because the stove is a sealed unit. I am under the impression a sealed unit is much cooler on the outside. I can almost place my hand on the outside of the stove while it is running. The wood I am burning was purchased locally and he told me it was seasoned firewood?? It does not have many if any "check" marks on the ends. It does sizzle when I first put it in but was thinking this may be due to the fact it was covered in snow and ice when it was delivered. It has been stacked in my basement for about 3 1/2 weeks now with the stove and a dehumidifier running constantly. As far as the draft goes I don't smell any smoke in the house ever. Even when I open the door quickly any ashes and smoke stay in the stove and actually drift away from the door. I have used a mirror and flashlight to look up the chimney from the cleanout door and can see the smoke going up it rapidly (at least to my untrained eye) The chimney is quite large- almost 45ft tall. Don't know if this makes a difference??

 

[lexybird]

I have the exact same stove ,keep in mind its pretty big and doesnt have the fancy features so it wont burn like a lot of the smaller advanced stoves youll read about on here ,i have found it likes to have some lower draft air to get hot temps consistently ,mine varies depending on the climate and wind but you should typcialy see 425- 500 degree flue temps though ,i suspect your wood isnt as dry as you think,also it may be or your not giving it enoughtime to burn before you damper it down i can get my 2,000 sq/ft house over 90 degrees upstairs pretty easy on my 28-3500 ,I am really pleased with mine ,that stove works great sounds more like operator error and soggy wood ,get some home depot wood and try that test out

 

[steve s]

lexybird, Thanks for the input on the stove. I do not have the lower draft control open at all. I will try this and see if it makes a difference. As far as waiting before I damper it down-- 5 to 10 minutes?? not long enough?? I do agree I love the stove too. I think it is operator error as well. Another ? if you have a moment. It may be the wood, but it seems to build up alot of ashes in the stove even if the ashpan is empty. I sometimes get 4 or 5 inches of hot coals in the stove. These are large pieces of coals not just little pieces, could this be because I am not burning the stove hot enough or low quality of wood. Any advice you have on this stove would be invaluable as I have never burned wood before. Thank you sooooo much for your time.

 

[lexybird]

lexybird, Thanks for the input on the stove. I do not have the lower draft control open at all. I will try this and see if it makes a difference. As far as waiting before I damper it down-- 5 to 10 minutes?? not long enough?? I do agree I love the stove too. I think it is operator error as well. Another ? if you have a moment. It may be the wood, but it seems to build up alot of ashes in the stove even if the ashpan is empty. I sometimes get 4 or 5 inches of hot coals in the stove. These are large pieces of coals not just little pieces, could this be because I am not burning the stove hot enough or low quality of wood. Any advice you have on this stove would be invaluable as I have never burned wood before. Thank you sooooo much for your time.

the big coal-like ash pieces that didnt burn says that your not getting an effecient burn IMHO another sign is heavy dark colored thick ashes and blackened glass on the door ,donot use a traditonal flue damper with this stove it doesnt need or require one open the slide damper above the door half way and id totally unscrew bottom ash damper inlet for most air ,get some wood from walmart or home depot they have these small 4 $ bundles of kiln dried wood for testing this will work perfect to see if the wood is your problem and tel lif we cant get those flue temps up higher dont throw in any of your wood just try this experiment first , okay so once the fire takesoff ..screw the ash damper several turns in almost al l the way ..let it run ..then after an hour or so when its roaring tighten her up (lower screw damper) do this before before bed and for long burn cycles..keep in mind every stove and draft is different but thise may get you close takes some experimenting to see what it likes .i bet your wood is wet and it only seems dry ,i can tell you this tip for sure .....this furnace hates half wet wood

 

[steve s]

Lexybird, Your absolutely right It's all in the wood. I stopped and got some Home Depot wood. What a difference The exhaust pipe actuall got to 600 deg. and the smoke detector was going off because of the heat from the pipe! I also cracked the lower damper open a little. (mabe a full turn) The fire is burning much hotter now. I have a question regarding the thermostat on the back of the stove. I have my "on" set at the highest level. To where the limit is. I then have the "off" set at 150deg. I think. If you look at the pointer the right side (longer side) looks like it is around 150. How often and for how long does your blower run? Mine runs every 30-40 seconds for mabye a minute. Constantly on and off. Jut thinking it isn't good for the blower motor to do this. I was wondering if there was a setting that could leave the motor running longer more often. I have tried fiddling with the limits but if I lower the off too low, it cools the exhaust pipe and blows not so warm air upstairs. Most likely operator error again ( I am very green to wood burning) Just hoping there was a magical setting to at least get me in the ballpark. Sorry I was unable to reply yesterday I was shoveling the 12 inches of snow we got!!

 

[laynes69]

Lowering the off or on has much of nothing to do with the exhaust air. My wood furnace runs constantly, like it should providing nice heat. I have my on set at 140 and off around 90. Heats the house just fine. Also with these settings, I see more heat with my wood. The blower will run till it gets down to a few coals, then I just reaload.

 

[steve s]

laynes69, I am open to any suggestions and will try this with the settings on the thermostat. Right now it is 16deg. outside and I am barely keeping it 69deg. in the house. I know the wood I had was wet, but had new wood delivered today. This wood is dry for sure. It ignites right away and burns much hotter than the wood I had previously. I was under the impression the higher the thermostat setting the warmer it would make it upstairs. It is worth a shot. I'll let you know. Thanks for the input

 

[laynes69]

What happens when its too high is it will take a while for the fans to kick on, due to the higher temperatures. Therefore while its trying to warm up, you are losing heat in the house. If it takes a while to kick on and then kicks off too quickly, once again, no blowers you are losing heat. By lowering that on and off, you allow for the fan to run more often. It may not be hotter air coming from the registers, but constant. You'd be suprised what warm air will heat when its constant. If you don't like the settings, play with them a little bit. Just remember, if the on/off are too close, the fans will not run too long, before shutting off.

 

[steve s]

laynes69, You are amazing I lowered the settings on the thermostat about 1 hour ago. I set them to 140 on and 90 off like you said. The blower motor has not turned off since. In fact the temp outside has dropped to 12deg and the inside temp is now 72deg!! I cannot thank you, lexybird or pyro extrordinaire enough. In a few days you have helped me figure out what I have been working on for a few weeks!! As I said before, this is the first time I have ever burned wood for heat. The input you three have given me is priceless. If you have any more advice I am always open. Thank you,god bless and happy holidays!

 

[laynes69]

Very good! Glad to see you are back in business.

 

[lexybird]

awesome im glad to have helped you ,i kept my thermostat settings untouched on mine once i start it , it will fire intermittenly on and off till about an hour then once the bricks get hot and steel plate body temperature is high enough the blower just stays on running till my flue* temps drops to id say about 250 degrees
or os ...the factory limit switch setting is fine for me .Im telling you this stove is picky about wood moisture and the difference between good seasoned dry wood and some partially green fair wood is hundreds of stove degrees and premature male pattern baldness . keeping the top slide open some cracking the lower screw damper really works wonders with mine ,it runs great and likes air from underneath i have found and locking everything up tight will eventually smolder and just smoke your logs

 

[steve s]

Just wanted to say Happy Holidays!! Again thanks for the help!! I have an update for you. I have been burning the stove for about 1month continuosly. (24/7) On Sunday it was actually 60' outside so I shut the stove down and decided to clean out the chimney. I used a wire brush type chimney cleaner then I took the black stove pipe out of the stove and cleaned that as well. Long story short, after cleaning it all out I had very little creosote. There was just enough ash type debris to fill a kitchen type dustpan. So again thanks for all the help I feel much more confidant and safe with the new stove!!