My first Outdoor Hydronic Furnace build....OHF

[all night moe]

I dunno what this Boiler Commander does exactly, but if it just monitors and controls the stack temp, that can be done easily with an Auber PID temp controller and a thermocouple...maybe $60-80 worth of parts

Universal 1/16 DIN PID Temperature Controller [SYL-2362] - $41.25 : Auber Instruments, Inc., Temperature control solutions for home and industry

Auber Instruments, Inc. Universal 1/16 DIN PID Temperature Controller [SYL-2362] - This temperature controller offers great value for its price as it is accurate, smart, reliable and equipped with more features than most controllers on the market (not just the similarly priced units). It is the...

www.auberins.com

It's supposed to keep stack temp hot enough to keep a natural draft ''flowing,'' and keep the boiler from hitting the bottom of the differential longer. Keeps the draft fan off until needed at low temp setting. The unit takes place of the aquastat as well.

There's a guy on youtube who made his own as well, although he used an Ink bird controller for the stack temp. I'll see if I can find the vid and I'll share it here.

@cumminstinkerer and @jblnut most likely will have a bit more clearer info than I.

 

[jblnut]

It's supposed to keep stack temp hot enough to keep a natural draft ''flowing,'' and keep the boiler from hitting the bottom of the differential longer. Keeps the draft fan off until needed at low temp setting. The unit takes place of the aquastat as well.

It can also increase the draft fan to over 100% until the stack temp rises to get the fire going quicker. When it gets warmer out I have to keep the draft fan up fairly high or it’ll create such thick smoke inside that it’ll ignite the smoke and blow the water level indicator onto the ground. Not a big fan of that.

There's a guy on youtube who made his own as well, although he used an Ink bird controller for the stack temp. I'll see if I can find the vid and I'll share it here.

If it’s the guy that pulled the center of his multi pass out to clean it while he installed his Boiler Commmander he got the InkBird with the Commander from Joe. If it’s not him I haven’t seen it yet. Either way I’m excited to get it installed.

 

[all night moe]

If it’s the guy that pulled the center of his multi pass out to clean it while he installed his Boiler Commmander he got the InkBird with the Commander from Joe. I’d it’s not him I haven’t seen it yet. Either way I’m excited to get it installed.

No, it's not him. This guy sourced all his own parts off of ebay.

Hey, I'm just as excited as you are! From the sounds of it, you're saying this will change the fan speeds as well? I was wondering if it did this.

 

[jblnut]

No, it's not him. This guy sourced all his own parts off of ebay.

Hey, I'm just as excited as you are! From the sounds of it, you're saying this will change the fan speeds as well? I was wondering if it did this.

Yes it changes fan speeds based on the exhaust temp. Starts the fan up more than full blast and winds down as things get up to temp with it all but shutting off the fan but not closing the draft doors. At least that’s what he said.

I have an InkBird BBQ thermometer on the supply/return lines now and can check the stoves status from anywhere. Having the ability to control it from anywhere will be nice as well. I have a few InkBird devices doing various things around here.

They all show a graph if you want to see history. Red is shop supply. Blue is shop return. Orange is house return. The green one died yesterday and I haven’t swapped probes yet. You can set alarms for over/under temps. I have them all set to alarm at 188f on the high side and 120f on the cool side so I will get a alert if it’s too hot or chilled down too far and I need to go out and check things.