# Englander 28-3500. Need some tips for best performance



## avengerrt (Feb 1, 2015)

Ok. Just got my Englander 28-3500 running two days ago.  It is located in the basement near my furnace. It is connected to the ductwork.  I have a two story 2500 sq ft house. I am unable to run the furnace fan without the actual furnace running. Guess it is not wired for that. Unless I'm doing something horribly wrong, I am not able to get my house as warm as some of the other members that I have read with similar layouts.  I had hopes of this being my only source of heat in the house, as propane is expensive. I am a newbie when it comes to using a wood stove add on.  On the first day of use, I noticed the temp in my house slowly decline.  I'm pretty sure the size and layout of my house is the main factor so I'm just looking for some tips on getting the most out of this unit.   Thanks for any help anyone can give.


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## laynes69 (Feb 1, 2015)

The Englander has it's own distribution blower, therefore the main furnace's blower shouldn't have to run. If they both are running at the same time, the heat from the wood furnace is triggering the snapdisc or fan control on the central furnace. To eliminate this, you should have a backdraft damper in the central furnace to keep the wood from backfeeding. We have a 2500 sqft 2 story home, plus basement. I couldn't imagine heating the home with a single 8" duct off the wood furnace. How is your woodfurnace ducted into the system? Does your square footage include basement?


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## avengerrt (Feb 1, 2015)

Square footage does not include basement. Wood stove is ducted into trunk of furnace right above the plenum.  Yes the stock blower on wood furnace is not adequate enough to feed the whole house.  I guess I was hoping for more.  I have a damper plate in the duct coming from the wood stove just before it goes into trunk.  It is just a manual plate that I have to open and close.  I am currently only running furnace once in the morning to heat house then it does not run the rest of  the day.  I leave damper plate open unless I have furnace running. Guess that part of it confuses me.


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## laynes69 (Feb 1, 2015)

If there is not a backdraft damper in the plenum of the central furnace, the air from the woodfurnace can just go backwards and out the return of the other furnace. This will create little to no air from the registers above. Just as an experiment, turn off the central furnace and block the return air. If your flow and heat increases upstairs then you found part of your problem.

When it come to heating performance, it varies like the wind from one person to the next. In your case, it will be pretty much impossible to heat the entire home with an 8" duct. So if the furnace supplements heat and allows for less fuel to be burned, it's still a good thing unless there's alot of cost involved with firewood. Ideally, you need a furnace with a large plenum opening and a good blower. Even a furnace like the Tundra with 2-8" openings will push twice the volume of heat.


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## avengerrt (Feb 1, 2015)

How do you block return air?  Sorry this is all new to me and I'm really trying to learn here.  Thank you for your response. I really appreciate it.


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## laynes69 (Feb 1, 2015)

I'm sorry, I got you mixed up with another thread. Turn off the power on the central furnace and place a piece of cardboard in beside the filter to block any backflow. Don't do this long, and make sure to remove it when done. If air improves at the registers, then a backflow damper should be installed. Even shutting off the central furnace and feeling things will tell you if it's backfeeding. If the return portion of the central furnace is warm, it's backfeeding.


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## avengerrt (Feb 1, 2015)

Ok. So where would back flow damper be installed then?  And are backlflow dampers powered in some way that make them close and open automatically?   The furnace has not  run all day. Where the filter is definitely doesn't feel cold but I installed wood stove according to instructions.   So I guess I'm not sure where I went wrong, that is if I did.


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## laynes69 (Feb 1, 2015)

A backflow damper would usually go in the plenum above the heat exchanger. When the blow kicks on, it opens from the air pressure and when the blower shuts off, it closes. It also could be installed in the trunk as long as the woodfurnace is ducted ahead of it. The way you have it installed now isn't wrong, it just will work better with a damper in place.


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## avengerrt (Feb 1, 2015)

Ok. I'll have to do a little research. AC coil is installed on top of furnace and then the trunk.  Hot air duct from add on is right above that.  I put in a damper plate in hot air duct from addon just before it goes into trunk. Is that plate useless?  It seems to me I may have misunderstood that part of things.


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## laynes69 (Feb 1, 2015)

Do you have any pics? Here is a diagram from another site. The backdraft damper would be installed ahead of the coil to keep the heat from the woodfurnace away.


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## avengerrt (Feb 1, 2015)

Here is a diagram from stove manual and a pic of my installation. (Though they may appear sideways).  It doesn't look like any backdraft damper is on my furnace.


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## laynes69 (Feb 1, 2015)

To protect the coil from heat, I would install a damper above the coil to prevent backfeeding. A simple sheetmetal damper is all that's needed. If the temperature sensor on the central furnace is being triggered by the woodfurnace, there's alot of heat going backwards.


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## Finney95 (Jan 24, 2017)

Hey guys first time posting but I'm having the same problem as this gentleman is. I'll have to up load some pics to show my exact set up due to mine being a little different


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## FaithfulWoodsman (Jan 28, 2017)

Hey fellas. I have the 28-3500 and it's a great stove.......If ducted for optimum potential. We don't use our furnace or fan at all anymore. The first year I ducted the 8" heat line into the plenum. It was okay but nothing like the reviews. Very little air movement from vents and it was backfeeding some into the furnace return. We also had wood that was not the best either. The Englander needs wood that is <20% moisture content to really work well. It will heat with wetter wood, but not very well (you should know how hot you are burning with guages).....So that is one issue to make sure is not part of your problem. We have two trunks off our plenum one to kitchen/dining and one to rest of house. Year two I installed a damper in the trunk running to the main house just past the plenum and installed the heat line from the stove ahead of the damper, affectively cutting off the plenum, other trunk and air return. Works perfectly now. We have an open area from living room to dining/kithlchen so air flows in freely. It's a little cooler,but only when it's very cold. We went from barely keeping the house 68 to easily heating us out by changing the ducting and using dryer wood. House is 2500sq ft including basement which we heat and half is straight block with drywall, no insulation. I could get it 80° if we wanted. At the least you will need to install a plenum damper below your line from the stove to protect the ac coil and stop backfeed. Tying directly into a trunk ahead of a damper may even be better. You can split the 8" line into two if need as well to feed two separate trunks. I guess what I'm saying is don't give up. It's amazing what small adjustments can change about this stove. Any questions, just ask.


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## FaithfulWoodsman (Jan 28, 2017)

Here is my setup. Stove is beside furnace. Two trunks split off of plenum, one left which the stove line is ran to and the other goes right (above the stove) and is not fed air. The damper is placed in the trunk right behind where the stove ties in. It keeps all the warm air and pressure in that trunk and keeps it away from the plenum and other trunk. I remove the stove line in spring and the damper allows ac air to flow just fine. FYI, the stove line passes under the cold air return trunk before entering the main house trunk. Hope this helps.


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## Bootstrap (Jan 28, 2017)

I run a 28-3500 as well. I think that the heat retention of each house is going to greatly effect everyones experience. I ducted my wood furnace straight into the main trunk coming off my gas furnace. I didn't put a backdraft damper in, or even an elbow. Maybe its just the characteristics of my gas furnace or whatever, but I don't notice any heat being pushed into the return side. Only time the house ever cools off is during the overnight burns when I sleep straight through 8 hours. In that situation when I get up theres still some coals left to start the fire. If I make the mistake and load softer wood in besides oak, It doesn't last as long, obviously.
When I load it up with all oak, the house is always considerably warmer when I get up, usually close to 70 degrees and we usually sleep from 830-5am.
I have been leaving the bottom knob open about 1/2 turn, and the top slider is about 1/3" open from the right.
I will say that it will burn a wet log but only if you have a good coal base and other logs in there too.
We've been burning 24hrs since sometime in November and are just past the 3 cord mark. Should end the season under 5 cords because the first 3 were mostly mixed hard wood with almost no oak and the last two will be almost exclusively oak.


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## mustash29 (Jan 28, 2017)

I ran a 28-3500 for 4 years.  The first season was not the best, poor quality oak.  Performance improved drastically with 2-3 year oak.

I ran mine like a stove with a blower.  Instead of the factory blower I had 2 little 4" muffin fans (old computer cabinet vent fans from work) blowing into the air jacket and dumping the heat to my walk basement, rec room of 350 sqft.  A 10" industrial quality muffin fan and short duct blows to the far end of the house.

Only having 1800 sqft to heat, I had to wait for colder temps to burn.  Shoulder season fires were out of the question unless you wore nothing at all.  In modest temps it drove us out of the house.  I could get the place over in single digit temps.

We burnt 1/4 tank of oil this fall, started running the 28-3500 and was still having to choke it down too much.  I got 3 gal of dry flaky crap out of the chimney when I cleaned it at x-mas.  That was a years worth of crap.

I swapped back to the old stove (that has 1994 vintage secondary burn) at x-mas and have been burning almost nonstop since and using less wood.  Rec room is 75-80, bedroom is 68, house is 70-72 around the clock.  We are much steadier on temps, burning no oil unless it gets into the single digits and burning less wood.  The best part is the 3 gal SS stockpot on top of the stove that will cook off 5-8 gal of water a day.  We barely run the humidifier now.  With the Englander and humidifier cranking it was still too dry in here.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the quality and basics of the furnace, it was just more than we needed.  I pounds out the heat with good wood and will hold a good bed of coals and radiate for a long time.  If I had swapped from the cheesy 6" duct booster fan to the heavy duty 10" muffin fan 4 years ago, I would not have had the opportunity to try the Englander.


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## Bootstrap (Jan 29, 2017)

You were cooking yourself out at 1800 sq-ft? I only heat 1250 and its been ideal. That's not counting the basement where the furnace is. My oak has only been seasoning since around August and its burning great. I don't cover my wood pile till December and I think the rain actually helps dry out wood faster.


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## Bogash (Mar 14, 2017)

Bootstrap said:


> You were cooking yourself out at 1800 sq-ft? I only heat 1250 and its been ideal. That's not counting the basement where the furnace is. My oak has only been seasoning since around August and its burning great. I don't cover my wood pile till December and I think the rain actually helps dry out wood faster.



Hi all. Thought I'd finally chime in after months of trolling. I installed the England last weekend and was worried about the plenum back draft as well. What I did was put a 90 in the plenum with 18 inches additional pipe pointing directly to the main duct split in my system. No need for a plenum backdraft. It stays cold since the air is directed far away from the A coil and exchanger. It was kind of a pain to get it fished in and positioned but I did not have to fabricate a plenum damper so it was worth it. 

Only on 4th day but so far keeping a 3000 SF cape cod at 70 to 73. Not bad for the total price of about 1000 gals of LP. $850 for the stove, $800 for the stainless liner and $350 for all piping, this and that, and a nice fire extinguisher.


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## Junebug90 (Mar 15, 2017)

I've had mine for a few years now.  Our duct runs into the main plenum for the propain furnace.  We have that blower tied in as well so when the wood is on the main blower turns of as well.  If we don't run it that way the air never makes it to our second story.  

Background is house had no insulation year one and we burned about 6 cord of wood and a tank of propane to keep warm.  Then we redid the exterior of the house insulation was key. Now we use about 4 cords of wood and 1/3 propane.  My brother has same furnace but burns wetter wood, less insulated house and has trouble getting heat in places due to his house has flex duct work which is terrible. 

I have played a lot with our stove and if done right we keep the house around 74,  7ish hour reload times.  It took a lot of playing around to find the sweet spot but it also takes tinkering to keep it there.  newer stoves adjust themselves but a good setting for us is 1/2 turn on the bottom air and 1/4ish of an inch open on top. And our flue maybe1/4 closed.  Good heat and don't have to mess with it if we do that. But only get like 5to6 hrs depending how full it is.

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