New to fire with a Newmac BCO-160!

[mispellled]

Hi all! I'm really excited to have found this forum. My wife and I recently moved to the Upper Valley in New Hampshire and closed on a house with a Newmac BCO-160. The furnace heats the whole house via radiant floors and heats the hot water for the home. We have a full oil tank, but it seems wildly inefficient to run oil just to keep the water hot. Ideally, I'd like to get into a groove of lighting a fire 2-3x a week to keep our water up to temp and get familiar with the routine of heating via fire. We've had a total of three fires in the last week and a half, experimenting with setup and seeing what temps we can get. I've browsed the forum a bit and noticed there's some real advanced advice that I'm excited to learn more about--but right now I'm in need of some basics.

The previous owner built the home and told me they basically never used the oil to heat the home at all--let's set that as an aspirational goal. We got a chance to meet twice, and he walked me through how he used the Newmac, but I'm realizing now I have a chance to embrace best practices instead of inheriting someone else's habits. If there's a good beginners guide on the forum, feel free to point me in that direction. I've got some specific questions (and pictures) below. Hopefully you all can help me out. I apologize in advance for not knowing the names for certain parts/areas of the furnace--happy to get educated there as well.

1. The previous owner cleaned the 'tubes' in the upper section by running a small shop vac down each one. I did this before starting the first fire and it seemed to work for the most part. Is this sufficient or should I get a wire brush of some kind?
2. He told me to throw some Rutland Creosote Remover on the coals occasionally, but didn't speak much on what to do after. The Rutland directions are more specific (eg put them on coals then get good fire going). Should I be doing this once a week? Should I be scrubbing the creosote after?
3. How big a fire do you all go for? I've been taking some split kindling and making a square base, then putting two logs parallel across the kindling and one perpendicular on top of those logs. I don't want to build too big, but if I can get a little more heat safely I'd be interested.
4. Can I shopvac the ash out of the bottom once the fire's good and done? I've been using a small wood stove shovel and it's... tedious.
5. Speaking of ash, what do you all do with it? I've got 3 acres of woods and a garden, but I don't think my soil needs that much pH balance!
6. If I want to swap back to oil after heating via fire (let's say it's winter and we're out of town and want to keep the house at a base temp to avoid pipe freeze). What steps should I take before swapping over?
7. I've noticed some creosote buildup after just the three fires (you'll see it in the pics below). Is that as simple as having a fire with the Rutland to fix? Should I give this thing a big cleaning before lighting up again?

That's a ton of questions. I'm about to run some errands, but thank you in advance. Excited to get back and hopefully start some best (if not better) practices.

 

[3fordasho]

I have not seen anyone else here with that make/model boiler so I don't know if you'll get anyone with direct experience.
That said - my thoughts:
This being a non-gasifing boiler will be a cresote maker unless you can run it wide open charging 500-1000 gallons of storage, or if your heat load is such that it takes most of the boilers capacity for the duration of a burn.

Assuming no storage, any time this boiler is fired but not under load it will smoke and burn dirty. (idling - air inlet damper mostly closed)

I would not recommend running it over the summer just to make hot tap water again because it will idle and burn dirty.

It maybe possible to find a mix of idle/loaded burn that will minimize the creosote production and burning wood with a moisture content under 20% will be critical.

I've never use the rutland cresote remover so no advice there, I do use a wire brush spun by a cordless drill to clean my heat exchanger tubes once a week. Example here - https://www.mcmaster.com/7232T16/

 

[Laner811]

Hi mispellled, I bought my BC160 new over 10 years ago and love it, albeit now discontinued and tough to find parts. Send me a DM and I'll fill you in on how I have mine running. In the meantime see below for my answers to your questions

1. The previous owner cleaned the 'tubes' in the upper section by running a small shop vac down each one. I did this before starting the first fire and it seemed to work for the most part. Is this sufficient or should I get a wire brush of some kind?
   1. I have a small round wire brush that goes on the end of a twisted wire handle so it can be pushed in and out to clean it. It then shop vac the tubes and clean out in the back.
2. He told me to throw some Rutland Creosote Remover on the coals occasionally, but didn't speak much on what to do after. The Rutland directions are more specific (eg put them on coals then get good fire going). Should I be doing this once a week? Should I be scrubbing the creosote after?
   1. I do the same with a standard creosote inhibitor. Low burning coals is the best time to sprinkle that stuff on but I do my own chimney sweeping quarterly so I don't do it often.
3. How big a fire do you all go for? I've been taking some split kindling and making a square base, then putting two logs parallel across the kindling and one perpendicular on top of those logs. I don't want to build too big, but if I can get a little more heat safely I'd be interested.
   1. The size of the fire depends on the need for the house. I have a 1200 square foot house with two zones, the basement being the dump zone. My two teenage boys have long showers so I know to put in a good fire in the morning. This is a little bit of trial and error as you get to understand the needs of your home at various times of the year.
4. Can I shopvac the ash out of the bottom once the fire's good and done? I've been using a small wood stove shovel and it's... tedious.
   1. I leave the ashes in the bottom until it gets several inches thick and then I take out a 2 gallon pail full spreading out the rest of the ashes for a good coal bed. Probably once every two weeks in the winter.
5. Speaking of ash, what do you all do with it? I've got 3 acres of woods and a garden, but I don't think my soil needs that much pH balance!
   1. Mine all go in my compost pile, after a few days of cooling outside of course.
6. If I want to swap back to oil after heating via fire (let's say it's winter and we're out of town and want to keep the house at a base temp to avoid pipe freeze). What steps should I take before swapping over?
   1. I don't take any. Once you the fire you had in is almost out or just coals you can then throw the two switches on the box to oil only and you are off to the races.
7. I've noticed some creosote buildup after just the three fires (you'll see it in the pics below). Is that as simple as having a fire with the Rutland to fix? Should I give this thing a big cleaning before lighting up again?
   1. Along with a poker I had a local machinist make a 'poker' with a 4x5 inch piece of steel at the end on a 45 degree angle. It then use it to scrap off the creosote from the fire box. Everywhere else you can do the same so the heat gets to the bare metal.

Hope this helps

 

[kellygreen]

I bought a house in 2014 with a Newmac wood/oil combination furnance. The sellers walked me through its operation a couple of times and gave me one piece of excellent advice: read the manual. I did read the manual way back then, but then last year during a power outage (my first of any length) I proceeded to build a fire without referring to the manual and over-fired the thing and, I believe, cracked the heat exchanger. I discovered the crack this heating season, and now require a new furnace. My advice is: read the manual as time goes by to make sure you are following Newmac's instructions.