Newbie with a caddy.. Looking for advice!

[Lord Preston]

Hi,
I've been googling a lot of my wood furnace questions lately and most of the info lately has come from these forums.. So here is my first post.

So I recently built a house 1200 sqft main floor and 1200 sqft basement... We are heating with a caddy wood/electric combo. Living in Northern Ontario.. Been running the furnace since early november now..

Anyways I have a slew of questions as I want to make sure I am on track.. We are heating 99.9% with wood.

My questions have to do with Jack pine, creosote, running hot/too hot/too cold and chimeny maintenance..

First off, we have a butt load of jack pine to go thru.. I've read this stuff can burn out a furnace if run too hot (and I think I have done that a few times) but will gum up the chimeny if run too cold.. Lately I've been just burning small to medium sized fires just to take the chill out.. The thermostat usually keeps the damper open until its just coals. The house usually stays warm enough for about 8 hrs after that, however there really isnt much left in the firebox after about 2.5 hrs.. Any advice on burning jack pine in this type of furnace??

Next quesion is about creosote.. I'm a little paranoid about this.. Just swept the chimeny for the first time this season (from the bottom). It was mostly fluffy type stuff but I can see there is a bit of the flaky stuff in there that I cant seem to get out with the brush.. Not sure if there is any glaze under there Any advice on chimeny logs/products and best methods?? Use just before or after a sweep??

I also just bought a flue thermometer... says to place 18" above the stove.. My pipe comes out the back does a couple quick elbows then straigt up.. I've just got it on the straight part where it goes up.. Does it really matter much on this type of furnace where the thermometer should be placed?? As well, when it gets going with the damper open the thermometer makes its way to the "good zone", but when the damper closes or just coals left, i'm back in the "creosote zone" Any advice on this??

I plan on having the whole system inspected this spring/summer for obvious safety reasons as well as to see how well I did my first winter..

Anyways, any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[Spinny]

Welcome to the forum. I'm jealous of your caddy. Would love to try one out someday. My advice:

Burn temp: If all you have is pine watch you split size. The bigger the split the less chance you have of overfiring. If you throw a bunch of small splits that are dry in there you definitely have overfire potential, especially if you chimney pulls hard and the computer on that thing is calling for more heat.

Creosote: Something you just have to get a feel for and adjust accordingly. Clean you flue every month at first if you think you are getting buildup. By monitoring your buildup you can see where you need to make adjustments. Keep it clean. It is worth the extra time. My neighbor just about burnt his house down with a creosote fire earlier this week.

Thermometer: All I know is that your caddy is burning a whole lot cleaner than my hitzer at the same flue temp. Again, monitor your buildup and adjust accordingly. If it stays clean at the low temp, leave it there, if you're getting buildup adjust for a higher temp.

 

[laynes69]

With the thermostat open till coals, it's pushing too much heat up the flue, not to mention it lowers efficiency. Load the furnace 1/2 to 3/4 full, get it nice and hot where the fuel load is charred, then close the damper. I don't fully close our damper, it's adjusted to be slightly opened when closed. From there, it will burn for hours. Even box elder which is no better than pine, will burn for 6 hours or more. Don't worry about flue temps, we average 150-200 external on single wall, with a rip roaring fire, they are very efficient. If your furnace is doing it's job, you don't have to worry about creosote. If your trying to keep the furnace in the "burn zone", you'll eat a load of wood in no time. They aren't made to run full open, get it hot, close it down. I forgot to add, the dryer the wood the better. These furnace's need good seasoned wood to work correctly.

 

[sloeffle]

I have a fan limit switch on my Caddy hooked up to a thermostat. I am not sure if it is the same setup as you and laynes have. You will need to check the manual but I believe when the thermostat is calling for heat the flap up front should only be open a 1/4" or so. I know I had to tweak mine a little to get it set correctly per the manual. IWe also have very low ( 200 max ) external temps on single wall pipe when the furnace is burning flat out.

I season my wood ( all hardwood ) usually for around a year and do a mid year brushing of my double wall pipe and usually get around two cups of ash / dried creosote. I try to load my furnace so when the thermostat no longer calls for heat that I only have hot coals left. Idling = creosote buildup.

I would not recommend and chimney / CSL type logs on a stainless steel chimney.

 

[Spinny]

I have a fan limit switch on my Caddy hooked up to a thermostat. I am not sure if it is the same setup as you and laynes have. You will need to check the manual but I believe when the thermostat is calling for heat the flap up front should only be open a 1/4" or so. I know I had to tweak mine a little to get it set correctly per the manual. IWe also have very low ( 200 max ) external temps on single wall pipe when the furnace is burning flat out.

I season my wood ( all hardwood ) usually for around a year and do a mid year brushing of my double wall pipe and usually get around two cups of ash / dried creosote. I try to load my furnace so when the thermostat no longer calls for heat that I only have hot coals left. Idling = creosote buildup.

I would not recommend and chimney / CSL type logs on a stainless steel chimney.

I have never heard of not using creosote logs on a steel chimney. Was thinking of getting one for my new stainless chimney but maybe I'll reconsider. What is the reasoning behind not using them?

 

[laynes69]

Yeah, our furnace is tied into a thermostat on the wall. If the damper is closed, we open it for a little while before closing it. Letting the temperature drop a degree or two when reloading ensures a good hot fire before closing. We run with our primary air slightly open when closed. We see better heat output, and the burntimes are good.

 

[Lord Preston]

Thanks for all the replies!! I've been trying to run the damper a little more manually the last couple of days.. Sometimes if the temperature in the house is say 5 degrees below the setpoint the damper will stay open and burn through the whole load just to get the houe up to temp. I've been letting the fire get good and roaring a bit then turn down the thermostat but wedge the damper open ever so slightly, then after 10 mins let close.. So far it seems to work ok..


Another question I had is where in the plenum do people have their fan limit controls?? My dad has the same furnace and his is installed on the left side in the back.. Mine is on the left side but much closer to the front (this is how the heating contractor installed it). I have noticed that the front of the plenum heats up more quickly than the back.. Also, once the fire gets hot, my fan runs continuously.. sometimes for an hour or more, whereas my dads cycles more, even when a fire is going good and hot..

Any thoughts on fan limit control location??

Thanks!!

 

[laynes69]

If there's a gap in temp like 5 degrees like your saying, once it's hot I will just close the damper. The next 3 or so degrees I want a rise from will slowly happen. That way I don't burn up my fuel load too fast. Overnight I set the furnace at 72, and 90% o the time I wake to a 71 degree house.

Your dad's limit/control sounds like it's mounted correctly. I'm not sure if the newer Caddy's use a limit mount, but ours have a place specifically located for a mount and sensor. There's deflectors in there, pointing the air to the exchanger. If that sensor isn't located correctly, it will give false readings. Once our furnace is good and hot, it doesn't cycle often, but I run our damper slightly open. If it closes completely, it will cycle. Are you running a barometric damper? If so what's your draft speeds?

 

[Spinny]

If there's a gap in temp like 5 degrees like your saying, once it's hot I will just close the damper. The next 3 or so degrees I want a rise from will slowly happen. That way I don't burn up my fuel load too fast. Overnight I set the furnace at 72, and 90% o the time I wake to a 71 degree house.

Your dad's limit/control sounds like it's mounted correctly. I'm not sure if the newer Caddy's use a limit mount, but ours have a place specifically located for a mount and sensor. There's deflectors in there, pointing the air to the exchanger. If that sensor isn't located correctly, it will give false readings. Once our furnace is good and hot, it doesn't cycle often, but I run our damper slightly open. If it closes completely, it will cycle. Are you running a barometric damper? If so what's your draft speeds?

When you talk about running your damper slightly open, do you place something behind the damper so it physically can't close all the way? I do with my setup, I use a piece of aluminum coil stock bent in half which I place on one corner to keep it propped open about 1/16". I did this to help prevent smoldering and give me a more even burn vs an off, on, off, on type burn.

 

[laynes69]

The tab on the Caddy is adjustable. Even with more combustion air, it still does well. Last night it wasn't as cold, lower 30's, so a half load around 10:00pm lasted until 8:00am when I reloaded it. It will burn completely shut down, but burning good dense wood, it does better with the air slightly open.

 

[sloeffle]

I have never heard of not using creosote logs on a steel chimney. Was thinking of getting one for my new stainless chimney but maybe I'll reconsider. What is the reasoning behind not using them?

The CSL folks say that you can use them on SS. IMHO if you are burning seasoned wood and doing yearly cleanings of your chimney you should not need one.

More discussion

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/csl-logs-w-stainless-chimney.55896/

 

[sloeffle]

The tab on the Caddy is adjustable. Even with more combustion air, it still does well. Last night it wasn't as cold, lower 30's, so a half load around 10:00pm lasted until 8:00am when I reloaded it. It will burn completely shut down, but burning good dense wood, it does better with the air slightly open.

I was doing something similar to this last year and was having issues with creosote build up in my chimney cap. Do you have any creosote issues ?

Now I just load the furnace up around 9PM and let it burn out. When I get home I start a new fire. I let the "regular" furnace run in the mean time. That is where a boiler with storage comes in handy. The price tag however is a little too steep for me.

 

[laynes69]

No issues with creosote. Things are burning much better with some excess air. I keep the damper open an 1/8th of an inch or so. The furnace seems much happier with these settings. We run 24/7, but during the day we rarely burn full loads. I was stuck in old school mode that more air meant more wood, but it's the opposite. The firebox remains lit all the time. When it dropped in the mid teens, I was seeing 10.5 hours on a full load overnight, with the house at 70 in the am. Not too shabby.