How to get a longer burn on my Clayton 1600g Wood Furnace.

[garmford]

I've been reading many forums around the internet and I noticed some guys complaining about only getting a 6 hr burn on the same unit as mine. I typically only get a 2-3 hr burn. I am burning mostly oak and other dense hardwoods and go through about a cord a month. Am I doing something wrong? I am open to some new ideas Thanks for reading!

 

[laynes69]

Is your furnace on a thermostat in the home? How tall is the chimney? A cord a month doesn't sound excessive for a wood furnace like that for the short burns. Are you filling the furnace each time? That furnace has a large firebox, 2-3 hours is awfully short. Also whats the square footage?

 

[garmford]

Yes it's got its own thermostat that will run the forced draft blower. Once the fire is burning hot I usually turn the fan off. Chimney is roughly 28' long. I usually fill the box half full. House is 8 yrs old and is 2300 sq feet.

 

[laynes69]

You running a barometric damper? The chimney is tall which will produce excessive draft. Do you set back your furnace at night, and is your wood seasoned if so how long? A larger load will also extend burns.

 

[garmford]

I don't have any damper above the stove. I'm not too sure if I could even put one on. I only have about 3' of vertical black pipe b4 it 45's over to the support box. What do you mean by setting the furnace back at night? I don't do anything with thermostat, after the fire is good and hot and I switch off the forced draft blower. I shut the flap on the blower and spin out the ash pan vent about a turn and a half. Should I jamb that firebox tight with wood? I usually put 5-6 pieces in at a crack. That fills the box about half way. I cut my wood about 22 inches long and split them into 6" wide chunks. The wood sits outside with no cover all year long. All of my wood seasons at least a year if not longer.

 

[laynes69]

I was thinking if the furnace was controlled via thermostat, you could lower the temp at night. Sounds like you just use it for reloads. I would suspect part of your problem is high draft. A barometric damper controls the draft, which can also reduce the rate of fire. I think it would be helpful. You don't need to pack the furnace, but go with a few more pieces.

 

[JustWood]

+1 what laynes has mentioned.
Larger splits or rounds may help lengthen burn also.

 

[garmford]

I've looked into BD's b4 and got mixed thoughts about them. Some people say you should never use one with wood, too much creosote, blah blah blah. lol Perhaps I should go buy one and install and see what happens. I should probably pipe some outside air so I don't let the house start to vacum.

 

[laynes69]

We use one and there's little buildup. Some units will see more creosote than others. With our furnace a half load for your Clayton is a full load for us. The other night it was in the mid teens, after 9 hours I woke to a coal bed and a 70 degree house. It's all in the design of the unit. I think you would benefit from a baro.

 

[maple1]

Extent of creosote build up from a BD also depends on where the BD is situated - along with other things like flue temps & length of flue. The longer the path from the BD to the top of chimney, the more time for temps to cool down to the condensing point. Couple things to try to do to minimize the creosote from the BD, is put the BD where ambient air temp is the warmest (like up higher in a place where radiant heat off the pipe gathers) to reduce the incoming cold air effect, and the BD could also be plumbed into the pipe farther away from the actual smoke stream - like maybe tee'd out a ways from the smoke pipe. I have a BD, and it does accumulate creosote around it - it could be situated in a better spot for sure, but it is easy to clean with an odd shaped metal scraper thingy that I scrounged up, and actually provides a good clean out spot that I can stick my arm in and scrape each way to avoid taking the smoke pipe down for a cleaning.

 

[stee6043]

I sure hope you can get your furnace tweaked. 1 cord a month for 2300 sq.ft. is a whole lotta wood, especially since we're not even cold yet.

For what it's worth most oaks will not season in one year. Some folks on this board will tell you it's barely ready to use in three years.

 

[garmford]

Thank you for all of the great information!! I just want to make sure I cover every angle, the last thing I would like to happen is to burn our house down! I measured the chimney and it is 26' from the cap to the support box. 9' of it is inside the house, 14' in the attic and 3' above roof. I also attached a picture of the stove pipe from the stove to the support box. The vertical section is about 27". I'm guessing that is the only place that I could install a BD. Should I also get a thermometer for the pipe?

 

[laynes69]

With you having a forced draft, a baro is your only option for reducing draft. With a stable draft, you lengthen burns and increase heat transfer to the house. As long as you monitor your flue pipe and chimney and clean as needed there's no worry for a fire. I would install the Baro on the vertical portion of the flue. After installation using a manometer, set the draft to the manual usually around .06" WC.

 

[garmford]

Alright you talked me into it! I hope to go shopping this week-end and pick up a BD. Do you know where a fella could find a manometer?

 

[laynes69]

I bought ours online, here is a link for 34.00. You could verify the draft with the manometer before purchasing the baro, but I believe draft is the culprit. Good luck!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003NUVVV6/ref=aw_cr_d_industrial?qid=1324081495&sr=8-5

 

[garmford]

I now have a brand new Volgelzang BD installed and calibrated. It seems to be working really well! I'm getting a solid 3 hr burn everytime! It definatly beats my 2 hr burn b4 the damper. The house seems to heat up faster too! After you get a hot fire going do you cut off all of the air to the fire box? I tend to keep the vent craked just a hair. If I choke it fully off combustion air it may burn longer but it seems to be really smokey and I'm sure the chimney is getting all sooted up. It is still hard to believe that some people are getting 6+ hour burns! Thanks for the helpful info! I'm always open to more helpful suggestions!!

 

[laynes69]

I've never seen someone happy with a 3 hour burn, your the first lol. I'm glad it's working better. You should be able to run off coals, which is a good amount of heat after the wood quits off gassing. Have you stretched the reloads out a bit to allow for the coals to burn down? I would load larger loads and see how far the furnace will go. The problem with a furnace that doesn't have a good secondary burn is the unit needs more air to burn cleaner. This lowers burn times a bit. I would experiment and see what works best.

 

[garmford]

I base my burn times from when I fuel the fire to when the high limit switch turns off the fan to the duct work. I know that the fan with cycle on and off for at least an hour b4 all of the coals are diminished. (That all depends on how long I've been burning for the day.) So I guess I'm getting about a 4 hr burn if I look at it that way. I'll try some bigger loads and maybe not load it everytime I hear the blower turn off. I'll leave it cycle for a while between loads! Thanks again!

 

[gblass1]

I've been reading many forums around the internet and I noticed some guys complaining about only getting a 6 hr burn on the same unit as mine. I typically only get a 2-3 hr burn. I am burning mostly oak and other dense hardwoods and go through about a cord a month. Am I doing something wrong? I am open to some new ideas Thanks for reading!

I'm getting 6-8 hours on my Clayton 1600. I'm on my way out now but will post a detailed procedure on how I get those burn times when I get home tonight.

George

 

[gblass1]

A couple of things I see that are causing you to have short burn times.

First I would remove the force air draft and replace it with the original spin draft. I've seen post where guys say all the FAD does is eat wood.

Second put a manual pipe damper in. This will let you control the draft and keep more heat in the firebox. I actually mounted a manometer on my furnace permanently and buy using the pipe damper I can dial in what ever draft I want. I have a 21' triple wall chminey and if I open her up my draft will go up to .15 ( I normally run .03-.05 )

Third do not use the ash pan draft unless you are trying to get the fire going. Once the fire is going you don't want to use the ash pan draft. By using the ash pan draft your letting air in under the coals and burning them up. Your looking to have a nice bed of coals in the morning so you can throw a couple of splits on and get it going.

Forth keep 3-4 inches of ash in the fire box. Do not shake it down to the grates.

Here is my procedure every night at 10:00 I go down load up the stove. I usually load it 3/4 of the way full unless its going down into he teens then I pack it full. After I load I open the pipe damper and the firebox and ash pan draft all the way open. I wait for the fire to get going good with the temp above the loading door at 500-600 deg and a pipe temp of about the same. Next I close the ash
pan draft and set the firebox draft 1/2 - 1 turn open then close the damper to bring my draft down to. 03-.05

In the morning I have a nice bed of coals and the house is 70 deg.

George

 

[garmford]

Thank you George for the help! The unit came with the FAD so I don't have a spin draft to put on it. I only use it to get the fire started, after that I switch it off and it doesn't run until the next time I need to start another fire. You're right that fan is nothing but a wood eater!! I learned that shortly after I started using the furnace. The FAD does have a flapper on it and that I am using as my "spin draft". After the fire is going hot I swivel it down so there is just a small sliver of a opening for combustion air to enter the firebox. I do keep the ash draft shut after the fire is started. I tried it for a little while but it didn't seem to help. That is a great idea with the manual pipe damper. I just installed a barometric damper last Sunday and so far very good. I last loaded the stove last night at 10, I happened to wake up around 4 and the fan was still cycling. When I finally got my lazy butt out of bed at 6:30 there was plenty of red coals in the firebox to get the fire going again. This makes me giddy as hell!! Now it feels like the furnace is much more efficient and there is less chance of my LP furnace to run. I'm hoping to load the stove heavy at night so I can re-stoke at 5am when I get up during the week, have my wife top it off at 7:30am b4 work, and I should be able to re-stoke it at 4pm when I get home. This means the gas furnace will not run which = $$ in my pocket!! Thank you all for all of the great advice!! It has all been very beneficial!! Merry Christmas!!

 

[gblass1]

Garmford I'm glad things are working out for you stick with it , once you learn the furnace it will treat you well. As far as burning 24/7 its very doable , worst case if I get home late I throw a few pieces of kindling on for 10 min before I reload but still no need to light a match.

Merry Christmas

 

[garmford]

One more question for you guys with the BD's. What do you do on a windy day? I'm talking 40+ mph winds. We had a couple of windy days like that over the weekend and I noticed some creosote build-up on the flapper. Should I cover up the BD or just choose not to burn on days like that? PS I do plan on sweeping my chimney later this week when the snow melts from my roof!

 

[maple1]

Just burn as usual - that is what the BD does, create an even draft at your appliance even when it varies greatly up higher. If you're worried about creosote buildup on/around the BD, just scrape it off/out. You can do that anytime, even when there's a fire going - with a scraper the proper size & shape for your tight space. It should scrape off quite easy.

 

[thundar]

I have had a Clayton 1600g for 11 years. We live in Ohio, so although it's not as cold as Wisconsin, we still have cold winters.
If temperatures are somewhat "normal" (highs in the 20s-30s, lows in the teens), I always get 8 hours out of a load. If it is cold, like highs in the teens and lows around zero, I still get 6 hours. I burn all seasoned hardwood. Some have said on this thread they think the forced air draft blower was a bad thing - for me it has been the exact opposite. Here's why....
Like you, I used to load the furnace, then turn the thermostat way down. I thought this would keep the furnace from burning so much wood. But when it was cold, the furnace would not keep the house warm enough - the temperature would drop down in the 60s in the house. I fought this for several years, then I pulled out my manual. It said to set the thermostat 4 degrees higher than your normal thermostat (4 degrees warmer than your backup gas/electric furnace). So I tried it....and it worked! And I actually have longer burn times. Why? The FAD helps your furnace maintain a hot, even burn. And, maybe most importantly, it is easier for the furnace to keep the house at 72-74 degrees than let it cool down, then try to warm it back up. My FAD does not run all the time... It just cycles off and on as told by the thermostat. And like I said - I always get 8 hours or even more. This morning it was 12 derees here with snow on the ground, and I loaded the furnace at 11:30, and didn't load it again until 8:00 this morning. The house was 71 degrees when I got up, the thermostat had been set on 72, and there was a nice bed of coals left. I keep the flap on my FAD set to about a half an inch opening - I just tape it in place with masking tape.
Everything else I keep tight - the spin draft and the top damper.
Hope this helps - when I made this switch 3 years ago, it made me changed from being so frustrated I was ready to get rid of it, to the furnace doing a great job through our last 3 winters - 3 of the coldest, snowiest we've had in 20-30 years. (obviously not as cold this winter for everybody ) The Clayton did a great job throughout.