Fire Chief FC1000 or Royall 8095?

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Mrpelletburner

Mrpelletburner

Minister of Fire
Jan 20, 2011
626
Maine
Looking to replace a home made setup with a “real” setup.

This is our 2nd year of burning wood and would like to purchase a more efficient setup. Our house is a cape style (2,000 sq ft), 2x6 construction and at the moment the stove is only ducted to the first floor via 3 vents. Current setup keeps the floors warm and the first floor 72degs. So far we have burned about 2.5 - 3 cords of wood.
 
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I just purchased a Fire Chief FC1000 for $2k delivered. So far, I can assure you that you should have a 6" diameter flue all the way to the roof cap or you may have draft issues. Also, make sure your wood is 20% moisture content (MC) or less; it does not like to burn wood that is higher than that. Otherwise, the unit is great and is ready to tie in to your existing ducting system with two 8" diameter heat ducts. I am just starting to have success running the unit and it's great so far.

I see you are in central MA. If you would like to stop by and check mine out you are welcome to.
 
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I installed the SF1000 shelter version. The only issues I have had are draft to keep the fire burning while the inducer is not in use. Other than that with Ash, Oak, and some elm I can keep the house at 74-75 on 20 degree days with 6-9 hour burn times.
 
I'm going to make a blanket statement here that if you are going to buy the FC1000 (or even the SF1000), make sure you have the appropriate ducting to put the air where you want it. Mine is currently in the basement and not hooked up to any ducting right now, and it's very difficult to heat my house without an appropriate duct system. I'm certainly not getting the kind of heat movement that I should be with it, I can tell you that much. I was quoted roughly $2,000 for a DIY kit to install in my house. Can't swing that kind of coin right now, but maybe this summer I will take a stab at putting together a system.
 
With my current home made setup, I have (1) 8" duct which runs the full length (side to side) and supplies 3 floor registers. The folks at Fire Chief stated that you must have a max of 100 sq in and use both 8" ducts or else risk the stove of overheating. The next step is to supply heat to the 2nd floor, still trying to figure out where to run duct inside inner walls. Also would like to supply our unheated mud room.

From what I read, it seems that the FC1000/SF1000 requires very seasoned wood as there is no adjustments, besides opening the ash cleanout. With the older FC500 style, you had a draft baffle that you could adjust for cases that the wood is not 100% seasoned.

The other concern I have is the inner walls of the FC1000 appear to be sheet metal. When loading, are they getting dented and will they ?eventually need to be replaced?

Speaking with the tech at FC, he stated either the FC500 or FC1000 would satisfy our house requirement.
 
Mrpelletburner said:
With my current home made setup, I have (1) 8" duct which runs the full length (side to side) and supplies 3 floor registers. The folks at Fire Chief stated that you must have a max of 100 sq in and use both 8" ducts or else risk the stove of overheating. The next step is to supply heat to the 2nd floor, still trying to figure out where to run duct inside inner walls. Also would like to supply our unheated mud room.

From what I read, it seems that the FC1000/SF1000 requires very seasoned wood as there is no adjustments, besides opening the ash cleanout. With the older FC500 style, you had a draft baffle that you could adjust for cases that the wood is not 100% seasoned.

The other concern I have is the inner walls of the FC1000 appear to be sheet metal. When loading, are they getting dented and will they ?eventually need to be replaced?

Speaking with the tech at FC, he stated either the FC500 or FC1000 would satisfy our house requirement.
Click to expand...
You are correct. There are no damper adjustments on the FC1000. I am having a difficult time with wood that is over 20% MC. It seems that hitting upwards of 400deg on the stack first is key to driving out the moisture, then closing the door and letting it burn. I will say that I haven't let it go more than an hour without feeding it though, so it's definitely burning through a lot of wood (mostly smaller splits given the high MC).

Next year will be different, having larger splits at 20% I think will yield longer burn times for sure.

You are halfway correct about the interior. The first 5-6" of the walls are firebrick but the rest is heavy gauge sheet metal. I wouldn't be so concerned about denting, you wouldn't treat the sheet metal any better or worse than you would fire brick. Just don't slam the wood in there and you'll be fine. I'm sure FC will stand behind their product.
 
It is amazing.. I can't locate any feedback regarding the Royall furnace, even a different model.

Also, tried 3 times now reaching a tech at Royall without a call back. Had placed 1 call to hy-c and talked to a guy for over an hr regarding the FC1000.
 
Mrpelletburner said:
It is amazing.. I can't locate any feedback regarding the Royall furnace, even a different model.

Also, tried 3 times now reaching a tech at Royall without a call back. Had placed 1 call to hy-c and talked to a guy for over an hr regarding the FC1000.
Click to expand...

They are in the same town I work in (Reedsburg, WI). I'm about 5 minutes away from them as I type. I'm pretty sure they can't legally sell them new anymore because they are dirty, hungry smoke dragons.
 
Mrpelletburner said:
Did you have to line your chimney?
Click to expand...

Mrpelletburner said:
With my current home made setup, I have (1) 8" duct which runs the full length (side to side) and supplies 3 floor registers. The folks at Fire Chief stated that you must have a max of 100 sq in and use both 8" ducts or else risk the stove of overheating. The next step is to supply heat to the 2nd floor, still trying to figure out where to run duct inside inner walls. Also would like to supply our unheated mud room.

From what I read, it seems that the FC1000/SF1000 requires very seasoned wood as there is no adjustments, besides opening the ash cleanout. With the older FC500 style, you had a draft baffle that you could adjust for cases that the wood is not 100% seasoned.

The other concern I have is the inner walls of the FC1000 appear to be sheet metal. When loading, are they getting dented and will they ?eventually need to be replaced?

Speaking with the tech at FC, he stated either the FC500 or FC1000 would satisfy our house requirement.
Click to expand...

I have a Class 3 8" that was existing for the old burner.

As far as ducting goes. I tied mine directly into the plenum for the Furnace and CA with 1 8" run and split a second 8 into three 6" for two floor registers and eventually the one in the basement will go in the garage. I installed dampers on every run to balance the air. I have yet to kick out the high limit and that is with the ash getting a little out of control and getting the front a little red.

As far a seasoned wood goes it is better but, too much seasoned wood and it will back puff a little on days over 35 degrees. I add some ash that is only seasoned this year with each load and that seams to help. I use both large and smaller splits and a mix of ash and oak in almost every load. I have not found a difference as it seams to heat long after the wood has burnt to coal chunks with the inducer. I pack it fairly full and it is about 1/3 to 1/4 full of coals when I reload and it is still heating. I do hit 500-550 before closing the door and it takes a while to find the setting on the damper over the blower for optimal burning.

The sides inside the box are thick insulated panels and I have not dented them or done anything to damage them. I believe they are warrantied if needed.

My only suggestion to Fire Chief would be a deeper fire box ressesed below the door for east of cleanout and loading.

Other than that I am very happy and this will serve me well till I go to a gasification boiler when I build my new shop. I'll tie the floor heat and house into that and out this in the shop to remove the chill and heat offices upstairs.
 
TF

This will last me all night. I started cold because I got off a 36 hour EMS shift. A layer of three and four inch ash then add large oak splits and let them get burning one at a time while the inducer is running. If you try to add too fast it will never get a good burn, just get hot and burn up the wood in no time. I have the slidernonly open about 1/4 inch as I do this. once everything is charred and burning a blue flame I open the slider to 3/8 and let it do its thing. I hope this helps.

[Hearth.com] Fire Chief FC1000 or Royall 8095?

[Hearth.com] Fire Chief FC1000 or Royall 8095?
 
Medic21 said:
TF
I have the slidernonly open about 1/4 inch as I do this. once everything is charred and burning a blue flame I open the slider to 3/8 and let it do its thing.
Click to expand...

The stove has a draft adjustment? Being a newbie, guess I am not following what the slider is. Can you show a pic or explain?
 
Mrpelletburner said:
The stove has a draft adjustment? Being a newbie, guess I am not following what the slider is. Can you show a pic or explain?
Click to expand...
The outdoor units do have a manual draft adjustment. The indoor units do not. I’m not sure why they don’t but it may be related to the shorter length of the stack on the outdoor models.
 
Thanks for the photos! Wonder what S/N mine will be.

Did you use the stove during this warm weekend? My old school setup baked us out of the house.
 
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Mrpelletburner said:
Thanks for the photos! Wonder what S/N mine will be.

Did you use the stove during this warm weekend? My old school setup baked us out of the house.
Click to expand...
I did; however, circulating the air to the upstairs without the use of the duct work is really hampering my efforts. I'm also fighting wet wood again, which is having a huge effect on BTU output. With both stoves running I'm having a hard time keeping the house warm.

My objective this week is to get the ductwork issue sorted out and go from there. I am also going to construct a mini solar kiln to see if I can get any improvement on drying, seeing as how this continues to plague me this season.
 
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