Kozy Heat No Heat

[Rich12]

I have had my Kozy Heat Z42 zero clearance fireplace since the fall of 2007. I have had experience with high efficiency wood stoves. I know the heat that should be expected from this unit. I am frustrated to see so many satisfied folks on this forum with this unit. My dealer did a full inspection of the unit including a blower door test of the house. They said the unit is operating as it should.There just does not seem to have any heat coming from the firebox exchange area. The only heat that comes from the unit is radiant from the glass. I upgraded the fan to a double unit to move more air during the first heating season. It now moves more air, but that air is not warm air. When I open the top grate and place my hand on top of the firebox, it isn't even warm.

Any help out in the way of suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[dave_376]

90% of the posts like yours all come from not having dry wood, or dry enough. It was the problem I had to deal with the very first year burning. The wood will burn but not as well as it should, the heat is being used to dry the wood rather than to heat your stove. The way I got around this was to load some 2x4 scraps and get the stove hot then load on my wood. I was able to get a lot of heat out of the stove. I suggest you get some dryer wood and try it. You can also split your wood much smaller and try that.

 

[dave_376]

also check out these links there is a lot of good info. Some of them will be just like your issue.

 

[superbee69]

I have had my Kozy Heat Z42 zero clearance fireplace since the fall of 2007. I have had experience with high efficiency wood stoves. I know the heat that should be expected from this unit. I am frustrated to see so many satisfied folks on this forum with this unit. My dealer did a full inspection of the unit including a blower door test of the house. They said the unit is operating as it should.There just does not seem to have any heat coming from the firebox exchange area. The only heat that comes from the unit is radiant from the glass. I upgraded the fan to a double unit to move more air during the first heating season. It now moves more air, but that air is not warm air. When I open the top grate and place my hand on top of the firebox, it isn't even warm.

Any help out in the way of suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Rich, I have a Kozy Z42 CD. As others have stated, dry wood makes a big difference. I would check the temperature on the face of the unit (not the doors) to see what the temp is getting to. Are you able to get the secondaries to engage? I check the face with an IR gun and when the face reaches 300 degrees I close down the air and the temps continue to rise to about 420-450F. Also how big of a load of wood do you generally add? I have found that the bigger the load the better. Also with no fans running you should feel a warm naturaly current of air coming out of the top vent.

 

[xtrordinair]

I think as stated already your wood makes all the difference in the heat out put.We burn this unit almost everyday in the winter, its installed in a room that has open rafters and no insulation and it keeps the room toasty.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Also, the more air you move over the surface, the cooler the surface will be. You may be pulling so much heat off the stove that the fire suffers.

 

[andybaker]

I have a Kozy Heat Z42 also. I found like the other stated, you have to have dry wood. I get so much heat off mine I don't ever use the fan. Last night it's 12F outside and I've got the window open to help cut down on the heat. Later realized the upstairs fan wasn't on pushing colder air into the room If your glass is getting black, your wood is too wet. My glass with wet wood will get black in one day. With dry wood I can go a month and still not bad. My biggest complaint is not long enough burn times.

 

[rwhite]

This is just my opinion and observation from owning an insert. I think to many people try an use inserts like a forced air furnace. Sure you can move heat off the unit with a fan but your cooling the unit and the air if you move it to fast. You have to let your stove reach a temp that the secondaries will light off. For me thats about 400. I feel they work best with the fan on low and just barely moving the air. Remember your trying to heat objects, not air, with a wood stove. Off course if your wood is to wet all bets are off.

 

[andybaker]

I think your on to something rwhite. Like a said with my mine. I almost never use a fan and if I do it's at night when all are sleeping. I get so much heat I've afraid to piss off everyone that they can't stay in the room. I on the other hand blow some cold air into the room from upstairs and use natural air flow to force the heat to displace to the stair well and flow upstairs. Working pretty well if I must say so myself. Thanks to the guys here I come up with that. I use to do the opposite with less than half the success. Personally I find the sound of the fan annoying.

 

[Rich12]

Thanks for all of the input everyone. After all these years I finally found the problem. I opened up the wall behind the fireplace. We had it installed by a dealer through the rear of the stone work. What I found was that the builder type fireplace that was installed prior was using a fresh air supply which was hooked up to a 4 inch metal flex duct. The metal duct was snaked all over the chase and terminated about 10 feet high into the cathedral ceiling into the attic crawl space. This area is unheated. According to the instructions, they say explicitly to limit the length of the duct and NOT to terminate in an attic. The installers were just lazy and did not run a new duct for combustion air.
As soon as I disconnected the duct, the unit started heating up to full temperature. The firebox area was only getting to 250 degrees prior, and now gets to 450 plus degrees. It's really too bad that the dealer never considered that they may have made a mistake in the install.

 

[begreen]

That kind of carelessness is inexcusable. Sorry you had to go through these years of disappointment, but now it's like Christmas in February. Enjoy the warmth.

 

[JRHAWK9]

Thanks for all of the input everyone. After all these years I finally found the problem. I opened up the wall behind the fireplace. We had it installed by a dealer through the rear of the stone work. What I found was that the builder type fireplace that was installed prior was using a fresh air supply which was hooked up to a 4 inch metal flex duct. The metal duct was snaked all over the chase and terminated about 10 feet high into the cathedral ceiling into the attic crawl space. This area is unheated. According to the instructions, they say explicitly to limit the length of the duct and NOT to terminate in an attic. The installers were just lazy and did not run a new duct for combustion air.
As soon as I disconnected the duct, the unit started heating up to full temperature. The firebox area was only getting to 250 degrees prior, and now gets to 450 plus degrees. It's really too bad that the dealer never considered that they may have made a mistake in the install.

Who was the installer?

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

You went through 6 years of this?

 

[northwinds]

Who was the installer?

I'm kinda curious about that too. Rich12, I'm just down the road east of you. A few years ago, we had a hearth.com meet and greet at the Roxbury Tavern.