Install a range hood to exhaust smoke on loading?

[muncybob]

I seem to have more smoke than usual when loading latley. Not sure if it's the type of wood I'm loading or maybe it's loading when there is still wood to burn...but at any rate I don't want the smoke issue. AHS sells an exhaust hood but I'm thinking a cheap or used range hood should suffice? I see there are vented and non vented hoods available. I would rather not vent but would a non vented range hood take care of the smoke? It seems to me that they are probably better suited to eliminate cooking odors and not esp. smoke issues?

 

[91220da]

You are correct on the non vented being just for odor. You will need to be vented to the outside to remove smoke. I am not sure that even a vented hood will move enough air. I fabricated a steel hood with metal exhaust duct to a 12 volt boat bilge blower motor vented to the outside. Worked great for a week or two until I left the door open and fan run to long on too hot of a fire and of course it melted the fan blades on the blower. Duh! I now have a 12" whole house fan with an aluminum exhaust shutter mounted on the side wall about 3 feet above the front of the boiler. Smoke rolls out the door straight up and makes a 90 degree swoosh to the outside. Plenty of vacuum and air volume moved. Trial and trial again.

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

I seem to have more smoke than usual when loading latley. Not sure if it's the type of wood I'm loading or maybe it's loading when there is still wood to burn...but at any rate I don't want the smoke issue. AHS sells an exhaust hood but I'm thinking a cheap or used range hood should suffice? I see there are vented and non vented hoods available. I would rather not vent but would a non vented range hood take care of the smoke? It seems to me that they are probably better suited to eliminate cooking odors and not esp. smoke issues?

Bob; Spend some more of that money & buy a decent hood. I mentioned this awhile back. A range hood has a squirrel cage fan & this isn't going to do the job unless you get some HD commercial unit. AHS sells 2 optional hoods in different cfm ratings. These will do the job, Good luck, Randy

 

[Nofossil]

Just a devil's advocate sort of question:

How hard would it be to not open the door when there's still wood burning? I finally broke myself of the habit and only add wood when there's coals remaining.

 

[timberr]

I agree with nofossil, I usually open the door once about 1 hr into the burn just to make sure there is no bridging then I let it run, when I see the temp holding in the low 180* for 30 mins or more I know I am down to coals then I add wood if needed. Once I figure this out I found I used a little less wood and the boiler idles less since It doesn't shut down as much.

 

[muncybob]

Randy...I was just hoping not to need the hood but I think I'll be looking into it.
The opening of the door while wood is still available normally happens at bedtime...I'll check to see if wood is needed to make it overnight and depending on the need through that day it may or may not be just coals. I would rather be able to just throw more wood in even though it may not need it at that time rather than have to re-visit the boiler after estimating how long it will take to burn down. Keep in mind we are still in the "learning curve" with the boiler and while I could probably "learn" when the boiler is down to coals based on outdoor temps that day, etc ...I doubt the Mrs will.
It would be nice to have a wireless thermometer in the upstairs living area that would tell me at a glance what the boiler temp is.

 

[91220da]

MuncyBob
I am using a 2 probe thermometer used for smokers. I have one probe taped to the copper supply and one on the return to my wood boiler where they enter and exit my oil boiler. I can sit in my recliner in the living room and tell at a glance what is coming out of the wood boiler and what temp is returning. The probes and the sender are in the basement and the receiver is in the living room. Even works if I take it another flight upstairs. Redicheck remote smoker thermometer.

 

[stee6043]

For a non-hood fix to this problem, with PLENTY of cfm's to clear a room, check out this gem:

http://www.amazon.com/Aloha-Flowpro...f=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1261415605&sr=8-13

I picked one up along with the hose that goes with it. My primary reason to buy this was to catch any and all ash when I clean out my lower chamber and flue. It does all that and more. If you want to add wood mid-load you can simply position the hose over your upper door and let 'er rip. I have mine vented outside via. my cold air intakes in the utility room. Great little setup for less than $200....but still not better solution than waiting for coals-only before a reload...

 

[Gator eye]

In a perfect world you would never have to load wood when wood is burning or smoking but sometimes it just doesn't work that way.

I put a bathroom vent fan in above my wood furnace and it works very well at less cost than the vented range hood. Yes it is vented outside.

 

[ohbie1]

Just a different take on solving this problem:
Suppose you duct some air from the outside down to the floor of your boiler room, and then put a (inexpensive) duct fan in the end of the duct blowing in. This pressurizes the room, so when you open the door, the air wants to rush out the flue through the fire box, taking the smoke with it. You could put a switch on the duct fan and only put it on when you want to prevent smoke. Having the cold air ducted to the floor prevents the boiler room from getting cold.

This has worked well for me. I used a 6" flexible dryer duct.

 

[sbleiweiss]

You could try closing the air inlet damper before opening the door so more air is drawn in the front of the boiler. The smoke flap does seem to help on mine. I can leave the E140 front door open at pretty much any stage of the burn and don't get smoke. You can check the wood status by looking through the air valve door rather than opening the loading door. This is guaranteed to be smoke-free.

I put a thermometer upstairs to monitor boiler outlet and storage tank temps. It is not wireless, but works well. It is made by Azel $50:
http://www.accentshopping.com/product.asp?P_ID=149655
just remember that if you are taking the temperature on the outlet pipe, it is only accurate if the circulator is running.

 

[muncybob]

Scottb...closing the damper makes sense to me. Will try that tonight. If it doesn't help then it's onto plan B(next cheapest option!).

 

[chiefburritt]

If you weren't having a problem before and now you are? Is the load chamber clean and each nozzle opening visible? I once got a buildup of heavy ash particulate that clogged the nozzles allowing smoke to roll out the door when open. The fire still burned and the boiler was working just not as efficient. The draft fan should be sufficient to pull almost all the smoke when nozzles are unobstructed. Just saying.

 

[chiefburritt]

BTW... too large of a bed of coals can also be a culprit of this. I like to keep my coal bed smaller to allow better air movement and gasification. Coals should be white hot or brilliant orange with fan running. just saying again!

 

[muncybob]

Don't know how large a bed would be to be too large...but they are glowing orange. I will have to pay more attention to the nozzle. Will def. let the wood burn down tonight before trying anything. Hoping no more $$ needs to be spent on this as the Mrs. is griping already about the initail costs(that was new appliance $$ we spent on the boiler!). I will give her credit though, she likes the unit and has been bringing in each week's worth of wood on her own...I just have to stack it.

 

[chiefburritt]

Don't know how large a bed would be to be too large...but they are glowing orange. I will have to pay more attention to the nozzle. Will def. let the wood burn down tonight before trying anything. Hoping no more $$ needs to be spent on this as the Mrs. is griping already about the initail costs(that was new appliance $$ we spent on the boiler!). I will give her credit though, she likes the unit and has been bringing in each week's worth of wood on her own...I just have to stack it.

Maybe she can talk to my wife about that

Went to the doctor he asked if I had any pain or discomfort
?
I said no she went to work.

 

[ISeeDeadBTUs]

Three options:

1)hood/fan to remove escaping smoke

2) Discontinue putting wood in the unit

3) Do not open the load door untill there is no solid fuel left in the combustion chamber.

Not listed in any particular order.

My recommendation would be # 3. But #2 will guarantee that you have no more escaping smoke. And #1 will garantee you end up with less jingle in your pocket.

Jimbo

 

[ManiacPD]

Close the draft, open the damper, wait 8-10 seconds, then slowly open the door.

The firebox can only draw air from the door so very little smoke should come out.

The Memco belched smoke like crazy before. No problems since I started doing it this way.

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

Bob; I understand your hesitation on the factory hood. I don't know of anybody that liked the $350.00(small one (I believe) price. You can possibly get a radial blade blower, I believe that is what they are called, off Ebay. If you make a hood out of tin you would probably have 50 bucks in it. Radial blowers really move air. As to why the factory 1hp induced draft blower will not exhaust the smoke is beyond me, every WG I have seen or heard about has this problem. As you get more familiar with the WG you might be able to run it more like Nofossil suggests. Franks suggestion about pressurizing the room was also interesting, Randy

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

The WG really should have had a bypass valve where the top chamber had a decent size opening to exhaust smoke with an open door. Trying to pull smoke through plugged nozzles with a open door is frustrating. Is it possible to open the bottom door & get in the burn tube with a bent wire(about 1/4" dia) & clear the nozzles, shut the door & then open the upper door to load wood? Not sure if this will work, I'm also not sure if this is safe to try, Randy

 

[muncybob]

I have found that opening either of the bottom doors with wood available in the loading door is a no no. Lots of smoke if the door is open long enough! I tried cleaning the WG last weekend and that was the result. Will wait until just coals next time!

Clsoing the air intake damper did help somewhat last night.