How is a Drolet heat commander supposed to work?

[Citationls]

10-12 hours out of one load should be easy if your house stays that warm from the sun. You're saying your gas furnace still kicks on with the HC running at mild temps?

I reloaded my HC last night on top of a bed of coals. Loaded it about 75% full and here it is 10 hours later. Thermostat was calling for heat probably 25-50% of the time. When I woke up the thermostat was not calling for heat so I raked all the coals to the middle and bumped up the thermostat so it would call for heat. 10 minutes after doing that I took this picture. P damper was wide open, G damper was open about an inch.

My P damper is usually wide open once the fire is past the hottest stages. G damper is usually fully closed when the fire is hot. Once the fire dies down a bit the G damper will crack open. Having either of the dampers acting up can definitely cut your burn times/heat output.

 

[fields_mj]

You're saying your gas furnace still kicks on with the HC running at mild temps?

I reloaded my HC last night on top of a bed of coals. Loaded it about 75% full and here it is 10 hours later. Thermostat was calling for heat probably 25-50% of the time. When I woke up the thermostat was not calling for heat so I raked all the coals to the middle and bumped up the thermostat so it would call for heat. 10 minutes after doing that I took this picture. P damper was wide open, G damper was open about an inch.

My P damper is usually wide open once the fire is past the hottest stages. G damper is usually fully closed when the fire is hot. Once the fire dies down a bit the G damper will crack open. Having either of the dampers acting up can definitely cut your burn times/heat output.

Not really. If my gas furnace kicks on its because I'm down to a bed of coals, and its cold enough outside that I need more heat.

My G damper still isn't working correctly. I need to contact SBI bout it now that I've had a chance to put the unit through its paces for several days. They were going to send me a replacement, but wanted me to get a few of the other bugs worked out first to make sure that it was still needed.

Oh, and what picture

 

[Citationls]

Not sure why, but it wont let me edit my other post to add the picture. Just saw your other response.

Im with you on forgetting that you cracked the ash pan door! Made that mistake once due to having the attention span of a gold fish. Now I dont walk away from the HC if the door is cracked.

Those splits dont too big. I do find that the bigger splits take longer to get past the smokey phase after reloading. They also make it take longer for the unit to heat up. All my splits used to be about as big as yours when I first got my HC due to my old wood furnace being bigger, just like youre saying. Since then ive started using splits about half the size. Its made starting a clean fire much easier and the glass stays cleaner. Cutting the all the 24 inch splits in half really sucked. On the upside the 12 inch splits were really convenient for small fires.

 

[Citationls]

Haha glad you liked the first picture 😄. I seem to keep posting at the same time as you so sorry for the redundant posts!

Hopefully SBI can get the G damper sorted out quickly. You'll be walking around in a t shirt and shorts once the HC is running right!

 

[JRHAWK9]

Not sure why, but it wont let me edit my other post to add the picture. Just saw your other response.

Im with you on forgetting that you cracked the ash pan door! Made that mistake once due to having the attention span of a gold fish. Now I dont walk away from the HC if the door is cracked.

Those splits dont too big. I do find that the bigger splits take longer to get past the smokey phase after reloading. They also make it take longer for the unit to heat up. All my splits used to be about as big as yours when I first got my HC due to my old wood furnace being bigger, just like youre saying. Since then ive started using splits about half the size. Its made starting a clean fire much easier and the glass stays cleaner. Cutting the all the 24 inch splits in half really sucked. On the upside the 12 inch splits were really convenient for small fires.

Holy crap that's a mound of coals/ashes! So what do you typically do with them when you need to load?

 

[trx250r87]

Are you sure the G and P wires are not plugged into the the opposite ports on the board? I have hi I everything should be labeled or easy enough to figure out where each go.

Eric

 

[fields_mj]

Are you sure the G and P wires are not plugged into the the opposite ports on the board? I have hi I everything should be labeled or easy enough to figure out where each go.

Eric

Its wired correctly. I checked the signal back at the board. P is working fine now, but the servo motor for the G damper runs non-stop when the blower isn't running.

 

[fields_mj]

Not sure why, but it wont let me edit my other post to add the picture. Just saw your other response.

Im with you on forgetting that you cracked the ash pan door! Made that mistake once due to having the attention span of a gold fish. Now I dont walk away from the HC if the door is cracked.

Those splits dont too big. I do find that the bigger splits take longer to get past the smokey phase after reloading. They also make it take longer for the unit to heat up. All my splits used to be about as big as yours when I first got my HC due to my old wood furnace being bigger, just like youre saying. Since then ive started using splits about half the size. Its made starting a clean fire much easier and the glass stays cleaner. Cutting the all the 24 inch splits in half really sucked. On the upside the 12 inch splits were really convenient for small fires.

Since my G damper isn't really working right, I don't normally get that much heat out of a good bed of coals. Once that's fixed, I think everything will work great.

Long term, I will probably try to do a better mix on split sizes. I'm content with my 4"-6" splits, but I can see where it would be really good to have some even smaller stuff mixed in to get the temps up faster. Having smaller splits to mix in would also allow me to fit more wood in it Once the G damper is working right, I'll play around with split sizes and see how it effects my heat output and burn times.

 

[brenndatomu]

the servo motor for the G damper runs non-stop when the blower isn't running.

That sounds like a control board issue to me
Once the G is working right you'll be able to get some decent heat from the coals

 

[brenndatomu]

Are you sure the G and P wires are not plugged into the the opposite ports on the board? I have hi I everything should be labeled or easy enough to figure out where each go.

Eric

Yup, mine was wire backwards (correct spot, just wrong polarity) when it was fired up first time.
Sounds like SBI has a dyslexic person on the assembly line!

 

[Citationls]

Holy crap that's a mound of coals/ashes! So what do you typically do with them when you need to load?

I also have added an extra layer of firebricks on the bottom of my unit so might make it looked bigger than it is. Still a lot of coals though. That was from an overnight burn with close to full firebox. I wait for the coals to burn down then reload when there's a few handful of coals left if my next load will be medium size. Rake them over the grate and reload to start the process over.

 

[Citationls]

Long term, I will probably try to do a better mix on split sizes. I'm content with my 4"-6" splits, but I can see where it would be really good to have some even smaller stuff mixed in to get the temps up faster. Having smaller splits to mix in would also allow me to fit more wood in it Once the G damper is working right, I'll play around with split sizes and see how it effects my heat output and burn times.

Having different size splits definitely helps with the tetris portion of reloading! Also has kept my glass significantly cleaner.

 

[fields_mj]

Yup, mine was wire backwards (correct spot, just wrong polarity) when it was fired up first time.
Sounds like SBI has a dyslexic person on the assembly line!

Polarity should not mater. They are just a mechanical limit switch that closes the circuit when the spring arm is triggered. My issue is absolutely a control board issue. When the damper closes and the limit switch is made, I can see 0 ohms between the terminals on the board. Now, I HAVEN'T measured to see if I'm actually seeing any control voltage on either of those connections. The P damper, motor, and limit switch are all working correctly now so if I'm not getting control voltage on the G circuit, it would still be a board issue and not a blow fuse. Blown fuse would cause the same problem on the P side.

 

[brenndatomu]

Polarity should not mater. They are just a mechanical limit switch that closes the circuit when the spring arm is triggered. My issue is absolutely a control board issue. When the damper closes and the limit switch is made, I can see 0 ohms between the terminals on the board. Now, I HAVEN'T measured to see if I'm actually seeing any control voltage on either of those connections. The P damper, motor, and limit switch are all working correctly now so if I'm not getting control voltage on the G circuit, it would still be a board issue and not a blow fuse. Blown fuse would cause the same problem on the P side.

Sorry, I didn't finish my thought/explain too well...the thermocouples had the polarity reversed...made it act REALLY weird! I think there were a few of them that went out that way a couple years back.