I need help, I am freezing!!! The fire is hot, but the house is cold!

[mxreed472]

Hello, I need someones help. We have a wood/fuel oil burner. The only identifaction I can find on it is: Intertek Warnock Hersey Caddy. The fire in it is so hot but the heat coming from the registers are barely luke warm. My house is so cold, maybe 60. I thought maybe the heat was being lost in the ducts but the duct work 6 inches above the fire isnt even warm, The duct coming right out of the stove is not even warm at all. So my uneducated guess is that something is clogged. Can someone please help.

 

[edthedawg]

Can you post some photos of the setup? Sounds like all the heat is going out the stack, as opposed to firing up whatever heat exchanger there is for the ducts. Not being at all familiar with the brand you've noted, there may be some adjustment or other setting that we could see and help with...

 

[smokinj]

Its a caddy post in the boiler room lots of people owen the caddy they should be able to help you!

 

[mxreed472]

I will try... just a min. Thank you

 

[edthedawg]

Yeek - hope it's not a dry boiler!! shut it down if that's what it is! is there water visible in the sight glass??? Don't dump fresh water into a dry boiler!

 

[Eric Johnson]

So as I understand it, you have a Caddy wood-fired forced-air furnace. We need some more information:

1.) You say the furnace is hot. Is it overheating--smelling hot, making noises?
2.) Is there a fan or blower somewhere that is supposed to blow hot air up into your ductwork?
3.) If so, is it running?
4.) Does your chimney outlet have a damper on it? I'm thinking that perhaps much of your heat is going up the stack instead of the house.
5.) Do you have a thermostat controlling a combustion blower on the furnace?

Anyway, details such as these are important to troubleshooting a problem like this. Bottom line, if the furnace is burning good and producing heat, then it has to be going somewhere. If it's not getting into the house, then we have to find out where it's going and try to recover it.

 

[mxreed472]

Yes it is hot but not overheating.
we do have a chimney... how do i adjust that?
it is controlled by a thermostat. I have tried turning it down to see if I had it to wide open, no luck. I have tried turning it all the way up... same. I have tried everywhere in the middle.

 

[mxreed472]

Oh and yes it has a blower that blows it out of the ducts and it is working

 

[smokinj]

Oh and yes it has a blower that blows it out of the ducts and it is working

is there a cold air return? where are you pulling the air form that goes in to the furance?

 

[laynes69]

Sounds to me like an overdraft. You will lose alot of heat through a chimney. Do you have a barometric damper on the unit? Is it operating properly. If your draft is okay, Have you cleaned the heat exchanger over the loading door? They should be swept periodically. From what I read, you pull the baffle forward, and run your cleaning tool down those tubes. Forgot to add, it is in series, or parallel for the installation?

 

[mxreed472]

I am not sure where to find the barometric damper, what it does or how to adjust it. I cleaned the heat exchanger yesterday, should you be able to see straight through to the chimmney from the heat exchanger access door?
There is cold air return registers in the house.

 

[laynes69]

There are 3 tubes under that cover up top. The outer 2 go together into the center then out the chimney. The middle one goes into the flue, but those outer 2 should be clean also. Is there a tee in your flue with a flapper that will open and close? If so just make sure it will open and close. Other than that, not sure what to tell you. Shoot a couple pics and post them. If you get a thermometer, that will tell you where you are with burning. Its hard to say its hot or not w/o a magnetic thermometer.

 

[smokinj]

I am not sure where to find the barometric damper, what it does or how to adjust it. I cleaned the heat exchanger yesterday, should you be able to see straight through to the chimmney from the heat exchanger access door?
There is cold air return registers in the house.

barometric damper you would know if you had one! are the winds Hi right now where your at? have you had any problems with the furance before now? and how long have you been running it?

 

[mxreed472]

There is a flapper that comes out of the fuel oil part but not the wood part. The winds are high and it is real cold, but we have always had this problem. It just seems like a big problem today because it is so cold. We would just run the fuel oil part but we are out and dont have enough money to get anymore. Thanks for trying to help.

 

[smokinj]

There is a flapper that comes out of the fuel oil part but not the wood part. The winds are high and it is real cold, but we have always had this problem. It just seems like a big problem today because it is so cold. We would just run the fuel oil part but we are out and dont have enough money to get anymore. Thanks for trying to help.

ok your welcome what is the low limit switch set on should be a dial thing on the back of the furance what temp is it set on?

 

[mxreed472]

one is set at 100 and there is another knob at 250. The chimney is hot, but the duct work is cold. All the heat is going straight out the chimney.

 

[smokinj]

one is set at 100 and there is another knob at 250. The chimney is hot, but the duct work is cold. All the heat is going straight out the chimney.

if you have a damper cock it at 45 degrees and move the one thats at 100, to 105 to 110(and you may even turn the damper to the horizonal see if that helps any. Do you have a damper on it?

 

[laynes69]

One thing that wasn't mentioned was square footage and insulation. Depending on the 2, no matter what you do you may not be able to keep up. I have found that 90 off and 140 on for the limit control has produced very good results. We never have had issues heating our home, but when it was -4 last night with -28 wind chills, It was all I could do to keep the house 68-70 w/o lp. When its 20 out, we can get it 80 in here. Heat loss in a structure can reap havok, when the temps fall below a certain number.

 

[mxreed472]

we have a 2100 sqft house. It is rated for 2500 sqft. It seems to well insulated. With fuel oil it gets real warm. And it stays cool in the summer. Thank you for your help.

 

[smokinj]

we have a 2100 sqft house. It is rated for 2500 sqft. It seems to well insulated. With fuel oil it gets real warm. And it stays cool in the summer. Thank you for your help.

if you dont have a damper you can get on for about 5 bucks damper it down will help alot with the over draft

 

[Duetech]

Hello, I need someones help. We have a wood/fuel oil burner. The only identifaction I can find on it is: Intertek Warnock Hersey Caddy. The fire in it is so hot but the heat coming from the registers are barely luke warm. My house is so cold, maybe 60. I thought maybe the heat was being lost in the ducts but the duct work 6 inches above the fire isnt even warm, The duct coming right out of the stove is not even warm at all. So my uneducated guess is that something is clogged. Can someone please help.

Is the fuel oil portion of the unit warm? (if so then the air is going into the oil portion of the unit) Is the chimney of the fuel oil portion warm (if so your heat may be escaping into the oil burner fire pot area and up the oil burner chimney) or does it have only one chimney?. Can you turn on the blower (blower only) to the fuel oil portion to run with the blower for the wood portion? Are your cold air return ducts for the oil portion warm? (if so then the air from your wood burner is back flowing through the oil burner cold air returns) or do the two portions use the same ducting?

We used to have a wood add on furnace that was too small. It put out heat but just not much volume. Your out put and duct work should be warm, because the stove is hot, even if the blower for the wood furnace is inadequate for the needed air displacement. It sounds as if the air from your wood blower is not getting to all of the parts of the wood stove like there is a blockage like you were thinking. Is there a baffle that controls air flow between the oil and wood portions of the unit that could be redirecting the air flow? I am not familiar with your unit but in principle the only way the air is not getting heated up is because it is not getting to the hot surfaces to change temperature.

 

[LeonMSPT]

Not knowing much about the combination units...

Is there a controller to divert the airflow through one side of the boiler or the other? Seems like there might/would be. Is it set to send the airflow through the oil side of the exchanger?

Might be a stupid question with a smart answer...