# New Yukon-Eagle Husky Wood/coal/propane furnace on the way.....



## Motor7

My old Hearthstone H1 can heat my house with no problems. However, with wood as a sole source of heat, leaving for any length of time during sub zero weather can be a huge issue. Besides, I really don't trust my wife to feed it when I am not home...her nickname is "Sidetrack Sally". 

So I ordered a Husky with these options:

Plenum
fresh air intake vent for the basement wall
Hot Rod water heater
extra set of wood furnace grates
upgraded the blower from 1/3 hp to 1/2

Yukon said it will be here sometime next week....will post pic's of the install along with the ducting to my floor vents.


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## brenndatomu

Wow, I'm surprised they can get one out to you that quick, I would think they'd be backed up past the new year.
I bought my Yukon used and it came with the gas burner. I removed the gas burner and installed a fairly new Beckett oil burner that I kept from my old coal-converted-to-oil furnace. Oh, and my Yukon had the optional coal grates in it too. So I think I should be able to stay warm because I can burn wood, coal, oil, or with a simple burner change, NG. Aaand, with the gas burner installed, a further the flip of a switch allows propane!

Do you have easy install access? (walkout basement or?) I have a basement garage but due to a narrow door way to the "furnace room" I hauled it in piece by piece, firebox being the biggest single piece. Did it by myself and it was pretty easy to take apart and reassemble. Good thing about doing this was getting to know this 900 lb.monster inside and out.
Definitely get us some install pics!  Doesn't seem to be too many Husky owners on these wood burner forums. That may be due to this unit appealing more to the set-it-and-forget-it crowd...


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## artmos

Have a Husky wood oil furnace here in N.ky .Am in the process of having it gone over for increased efficiency. enlarging one main duct. Adding a new duct in the great room .Put a new high-capacity blower in it.Just with the new blower we notice a huge increase in heat delivered. The old belt drive unit just wouldn't cut it anymore.Overall a good unit. Ours is about 32 years old and still burnin the wood! Haven't used any oil to fire it in  years.Just break a compressed wood/wax fire starter in half and put it between the logs and in 15 minutes we have a roaring fire in the box. cost about 0-50 bux a year instead of 3.50 a gallon for oil. A real no-brainer! Good luck with your new Husky! I think you will love it! Yukon makes a solid product. Art


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## Motor7

Well, it arrived yesterday. I could have had it long before Thanksgiving except for Yukon's outsourced Finance Company....I give them two thumbs down. They offer a zero percent for 6 months...great, I'll take it,......... immediately approved. A day to three go by before they send me the paperwork that requires signatures...I'm ok with this even though they don't require them to be notarized(Mickey Mouse could have signed them). They email me forms that I later found out had to be re-sized to print correctly, so I was missing part of the document. But they wanted them mailed back..."what the ....". Then, I had typed in our names on the line that says, "Print Here"...you know the ones below where you actually sign? So I mail them back signed and they reject them, wanted me to actually print my name in that line and not type.....good grief! 

By this time 10 days had gone by so after some very interesting conversation with the finance person I canceled their deal. Called Yukon and just put the darn thing on my credit card(which I should have done in the first place). Anyway it's here and I brought into my basement with my tractor & forks:






I'm reading the installation manual now. I need to drop another 120v circuit, and just realized I need another Duravent DVL "T" for the barometric draft control. I'll start taking pic's as I put this beast together.

Bren, yes walkout with a 9' wide garage door right next to my wood burner. Current set up looks like this:





Art...32 years?? WOW!


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## newyorker

nice looking furnace


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## Motor7

Getting it off the pallet by myself was interesting...the thing weighs 800 lbs. I ended up using a Dolly to lift one end, shove a 1" x3' section of pvc pipe under, repeat at other end, then I just rolled it off onto two small furniture dolly's. Now I can maneuver it around with ease. 

I got most of the bit's and pieces on it:





Firebox is impressive, all SS with SS re-burn tubes on three sides:





Ash bin(really looking forward to using this)





Propane burner installed:


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## Motor7

Secondary air intake for wood burning:





Massive SS firebox view from the top:





And this is where it's going:


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## Motor7

Question:

Should I set this right on the floor, or raise it up, say on some 2x3 steel square tube? or even better, build a frame/stand for it?


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## laynes69

When did they start making fireboxes from stainless? I think that's for the tubes and heat exchanger only.


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## Jags

Motor7 said:


> Question:
> 
> Should I set this right on the floor, or raise it up, say on some 2x3 steel square tube? or even better, build a frame/stand for it?


I would think a couple inches of elevation would be a good thing.  Don't even give condensation a chance.


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## Motor7

laynes69 said:


> When did they start making fireboxes from stainless? I think that's for the tubes and heat exchanger only.



Hmmm, I'll have to stick my head back in there...I could be wrong. 



Jags said:


> I would think a couple inches of elevation would be a good thing.  Don't even give condensation a chance.



At 6'4 the only thing I don't like about it is how low the firebox is, so raising it would have a few benefits, condensation is one of them for sure.


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## Motor7

Also, does anyone here know much about Tempering Tanks? I ordered the Hot Rod water heater option, and looking at the instructions it recommends a Temper tank, then on to the Hot Water Tank. I don't have a hot water tank, I am tankless propane, so I need to figure out if I can go straight from a Temper tank to the Tankless, or if I also have to install a hot water heater or maybe just a insulated storage tank.


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## brenndatomu

Motor7 said:


> Question:
> Should I set this right on the floor, or raise it up, say on some 2x3 steel square tube? or even better, build a frame/stand for it?


 I set mine on (6) 1" thick solid steel blocks, (4) under the firebox area and (2) under the far end. I would have used six regular bricks but I needed all the room I could get above the furnace.



laynes69 said:


> When did they start making fireboxes from stainless? I think that's for the tubes and heat exchanger only.


 You are correct, steel firebox with SS tubes and heat exchanger. The brick holders may be SS too...



Motor7 said:


> Also, does anyone here know much about Tempering Tanks? I ordered the Hot Rod water heater option, and looking at the instructions it recommends a Temper tank, then on to the Hot Water Tank. I don't have a hot water tank, I am tankless propane, so I need to figure out if I can go straight from a Temper tank to the Tankless, or if I also have to install a hot water heater or maybe just a insulated storage tank.


I'd start a separate thread on this. If you can get the attention of the boiler guys they will fix ya right up.


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## Motor7

Good idea on the new thread on the water.

Bren, how do you get the door open to clean the burner tubes?...Just remove the flue pipe? I am thinking of a steel cart with casters under the furnace, then I could just disconnect and roll it back a couple of feet as long as I left enough play in the flex gas & electric lines.


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## brenndatomu

Motor7 said:


> Good idea on the new thread on the water.
> 
> Bren, how do you get the door open to clean the burner tubes?...Just remove the flue pipe? I am thinking of a steel cart with casters under the furnace, then I could just disconnect and roll it back a couple of feet as long as I left enough play in the flex gas & electric lines.


You mean to clean the heat exchanger? Move the furnace...what about the duct work? Looks like you are going straight up with the flue pipe? Does it 90 at the top? On mine I have a tee on the furnace (easy to take the cap off the tee to look in with a light and mirror, see if you need to clean or not) then my pipe goes up at about a 30* angle back toward the wall where there is a adjustable 90* (reconfigured to be a 30*) where it ties into the chimney. I can pull the tee off at the furnace and rotate the pipe out enough to open the door because the adjustable "90" back at the wall allows it to rotate. I hang the pipe from a piece of wire while cleaning.
Can you use a piece of telescoping pipe?
Even with regular stove pipe, most of the time you can get enough free play in the pipe connections to wiggle things apart if you remove the (3) screws at each connection, no moving anything then.
A couple tips for you.
1. Use SS pipe if you can for the flue, or at the very least the tee at the furnace. My steel tee rotted out after 3 years, it has a SS one on it now. I found a lil amish shop locally that makes SS stove pipe parts for about 10-20% more than what regular steel stuff costs in the stores!
2. Put a key damper between the tee for the baro, and the wall/ceiling, (or in other words, downstream from the baro) When it is cold and windy out, if you have a decent chimney, the baro will be wide open and the draft is still too high! With a key damper in there you can throttle the chimney off a bit and keep that baro from dumping so much cool air in there. NOW, attention here... when I have that key damper throttled, the oil burner thermostat is turned OFF! If the burner kicked on and the key damper was closed it could dump fumes out of the baro into the house! (I only use the oil burner when we are gone for a couple days)


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## Motor7

The section of pipe above the Hearthstone is a 48" telescoping section. Yes, going straight out of the Furnace right into a Baro "T", then right into the existing "T" you see above the stove

Crap...I already ordered a Duravent dbl wall Black T....oh well. I think I have a 8" key damper laying around somewhere and I do have a real strong draft now...mine is 26' straight up with no turns.


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## Motor7

Like this:


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## brenndatomu

Yeah, you could put it like that. If you have enough room to squeeze between the wall and the pipe I'd put the side connection of the tee straight up onto the pipe and the cap on the end of the tee toward the wall. By doing that you could run the brush through the middle two heat exchanger tunnels, maybe all of them, without taking anything besides the tee cap off. I would have done mine like this except for where my chimney connection was I had to put the side tee connection on the furnace to keep things lined up as best possible. So now I have to use a mirror and light to look at things instead of being able to look straight into the HE.
Just tryin to give you some things to consider, maybe you can bypass some of the "oh, DUH!" moments that I had along the way. 

EDIT: I think after rereading what you wrote that you were planning a baro in that tee on the furnace? Look in the Yukon manual, I think that is maybe one of the no-no spots to put it?


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## Motor7

Ok, yes I see what you are saying on the T. According to the manual that location is correct...unless I am reading it wrong. It is kind of confusing, they show a picture on one page exactly how I have it drawn in red. Then on the next page it says you need 1"" rise per foot minimum from furnace to Flue. Even at that, with the draft I have, I don't think being 18-20" away in a straight line will make any difference in draft over a stupid elbow that is a restriction point.


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## brenndatomu

OK, yeah, your are right. I had to look it up again, I guess I was thinking of when the BD is on the end of the tee at the furnace, that is a no-no. You will have no draft issues at all, that chimney should suck like Hoover!


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## Motor7

Ok, thanks...the only issue I might have with turning the "T" your way would be when I am cleaning the flue with my Sooteater...kinda make a hard turn there at the get go.


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## Motor7

another thing, I am having a hard time figuring out the wiring...the instructions are really lacking or my pea brain is really overloaded......


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## brenndatomu

Motor7 said:


> I am having a hard time figuring out the wiring..


What part?


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## JustWood

Motor7 said:


> At 6'4 the only thing I don't like about it is how low the firebox is, so raising it would have a few benefits, condensation is one of them for sure.


I'm 6'5"
I raised my Woodchuck 526furnace up 10".
Sure made loading and raking the coals easier


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## Motor7

Sorry it has been so long, but we drove to MB Canada for Christmas and my heat & air guy was unable to get my duct work done before we left. Anyway, he was here today and ....ta da...I have it up and running. Trying to get rid of that "new car smell" and it's associated smoke. It's been 3 hours and it is finally dissipating somewhat. Set off all the smoke alarms after the first fire.

None of my H&A guys have ever seen a Yukon. All of us were heavily discussing the barometric damper.....it's kinda un-nerving seeing the inside of your 8" flue while the system is running and not getting smoke pouring out of it. I have it set at .2, and the flue temp was reading 180 on the vertical pipe above the T and this is what it looked like:





So, I hope another Yukon owner will chime in and tell me if I am running it correctly. I do not have a manometer, so setting the damper is just guesswork. Also, it is apparent that my old flue temps on my stove will have nothing in common with the flue temps on the furnace? I am getting really good heat out of all my registers, so it is at least doing it's job. I am just not sure how to optimally adjust my intake and damper. Zero smoke is coming out of the chimney.

Here are some more pic's of the install and duct work:


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## brenndatomu

Hey, there ya are! I wondered what ever happened with this!



Motor7 said:


> None of my H&A guys have ever seen a Yukon


 Yeah, they must not do too much wood furnace work...flex duct on wood furnaces is not legal...or wise. Especially right off the supply plenum. If you have a power outage right after you throw a fresh load in...well...things can get pretty hot. Well beyond what the flex duct can handle.

Without a manometer it is pretty tough to set the baro exactly. You can get the Dwyer Mark II manometer on fleabay for $20 or so if you are willing to shop a bit. I have bought two that way now.



Motor7 said:


> I am just not sure how to optimally adjust my intake and damper.


Intake? You mean the secondary air? 3-4 turns out is what Yukon says. I say set it however it seems to work the best for you. Damper? Intake damper should be wire to a FocusPro 6000 thermostat



Motor7 said:


> flue temp was reading 180 on the vertical pipe above the T


I find it is hard to get an accurate flue temp downstream of the baro, flue gasses are too diluted with cold air, but not consistant due to fluctuating nature of a baro at work. Get your temp between the baro and the heat exchanger cleanout


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## Motor7

i do not have the gas side piped in yet....my priority was wood. I also think once I have it plumbed, I am going to let the gas company come over and test everything.....don't wanna go "boom".







If you look down at the floor I used some 3/4 emt under it to roll it into place. I think I am going to cut them off flush and leave them there, that way I can roll it back when cleaning the flue and chambers:


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## Motor7

brenndatomu said:


> Hey, there ya are! I wondered what ever happened with this!
> 
> Yeah, they must not do too much wood furnace work...flex duct on wood furnaces is not legal...or wise. Especially right off the supply plenum. If you have a power outage right after you throw a fresh load in...well...things can get pretty hot. Well beyond what the flex duct can handle.
> 
> Without a manometer it is pretty tough to set the baro exactly. You can get the Dwyer Mark II manometer on fleabay for $20 or so if you are willing to shop a bit. I have bought two that way now.
> 
> 
> Intake? You mean the secondary air? 3-4 turns out is what Yukon says. I say set it however it seems to work the best for you. Damper? Intake damper should be wire to a FocusPro 6000 thermostat
> 
> 
> I find it is hard to get an accurate flue temp downstream of the baro, flue gasses are too diluted with cold air, but not consistant due to fluctuating nature of a baro at work. Get your temp between the baro and the heat exchanger cleanout



Hmmm, had not thought of the flex pipe issue. So would it be sufficient to hard pipe it up to the flex in the trusses?

I'll hunt for a manometer on the bay.

Yep secondary...sorry. 

Intake damper is wired to the 6000, so it's all auto then?

Ok, I will move my digital probe to the right of the baro. What temp will I be shooting for when it's settled down and running?


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## brenndatomu

I would probably go metal duct up to the trusses and then for 10' or so horizontally. I don't understand the science behind it, but ducts temps drop quite a bit whenever there is a 90* turn made.
Another thing that I did on mine so that I could sleep better above this monster was to install the emergency heat dump door that Yukon offers. It's only a lil more than $100, cheap peace of mind IMO. I have some less than 100% perfect duct clearances that could not be remedied with out jacking up my house and replacing it with a new one!
Yup, the 'stats should do everything except load the wood. BTW, I misspoke, the wood side is a FocusPro 5000, fossil fuel side is a 6000
Flue temps...ah man, mine are all over the place depending on what is going on at the time.
Fresh load of wood, with damper open...maybe 5-600* (internal), settles down to 300 or so after the damper is closed for a while then tapers off as the load burns down.
I can run as high as 800* or so internal flue temps when running the oil burner...


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## Motor7

Ok, I will have them come back and hard pipe it, that will be two and a  half 90's to get into the trusses.

I had read the Safety Heat Dump info:

"A safety heat dump is necessary when a conventional up-flow furnace attaches to ductwork that pushes heated air under the floor through ducts. (Such as homes without basements). This is what the heating industry refers to as counter-flow. All wood/coal fuel furnaces must allow heated air to gravity flow upwards from the furnace through the ducts and into the home in the event of an electric power outage or furnace fan failure. Our heat dump has a temperature control device that allows the power failure register to open into the furnace room if the temperature in the furnace plenum becomes excessively hot."

Since I have a basement install, I opted not to get the Heat Dump. I guess I'll call Yukon and clarify this since now I am confused.......


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## brenndatomu

I would say that the heat dump door would be more of an insurance policy than a necessity in your situation. Metal duct is a _real_ good idea though


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## Motor7

Ok, I found it while off a gogglin....The Heat Dump is designed for main floor furnace applications where duct work must go down from the furnace under the floor.

Definitely......... metal is on the way...thanks.


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## brenndatomu

Yeah, my place was originally designed with a forced air coal furnace so the ducts are capable of gravity heat, and our electric is really pretty reliable, guess I'm just not much of a gambler.  The heat dump has been in place over a year now, haven't "used" it yet


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## Motor7

First all night burn:

PM outside temp    20F
Am outside temp   11F

10:30- House Temp 72F- loaded 6 small/med splits(3-4") on top of a fire past it's prime(load was level to the top of the vertical bricks)
5:30- House temp 68F- furnace was still warm, but only a few small coals remained on the grate, built a fire from kindling
5:45- blower kicked in

While I am a bit disappointed that I had to build a fire after only  6 hours, the house, only had a 4 degree swing all night. I would say it took half the wood my Hearthstone would have used to have the same swing. However the Hearthstone would have had a huge bed of coals which would not require a new fire. The old H-1 is also capable of going an easy 10 hrs on that bigger load and still have good coals...however the house would have more like a 6 degree swing. so if I can figure out how to get a couple of more hours out of my all night burn I will be happy-er.

With the H-1 & my computer fans under the ducts I could heat my house, but the bedroom and master bath were always 5 degrees colder than the great room. With the Yukon, the entire house is warm, no cold spots at all....the wife loves the fact that the bathroom is now warm. Just guessing , I might be using 1/4th less wood to get this better heat distribution.


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## brenndatomu

Motor7 said:


> so if I can figure out how to get a couple of more hours out of my all night burn I will be happy-er.


Let the ashes build up a bit on the grates, couple inches or maybe a lil more, you'll figure it out. That helps a lot with holding coals. My first few fires in the fall (starting with a clean firebox) are short lived and not much coaling action until I build the ash bed back up. I suppose the fact that I'm burning softwoods at that point would be part of it too, but once I get the usual ash bed back, we are back to normal. Normal for me is _at least_ 8 hours between the need to reload, 10-12 hours when the heat load is lighter.
The main skill here is to learn the balance between having the ash bed "loose" enough to let the intake air come up through, but not to the point of everything just falling through leaving a bare grate. Sometimes I will just rake one spot, let the fire breath through that.
I have a poker rod left over from the old coal furnace, it is basically just a 1/2" rod with a 3-4" 90* bent on the business end and a handle on the other. I will stick the rod down through the coals/ashes, laying the end flat on the grates, and work the bottom side of the ash a bit. That will knock the fine ash on through, but leave the coals for the most part.

Having the whole house warm is really nice. I only heated with a stove from the basement for one year before going to a furnace due to many cold spots on the main floor.


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## Motor7

Ran it almost 11 hrs last night. Zero coals and a 8 degree swing. I know that is a long time on a burn, and I have not installed the OAK yet, so could that have something to do with the heat loss?


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## brenndatomu

It could be. How tight is your house? The baro will definetly pull a lot of CFMs so you may as well control where that is coming from.
Any idea how many BTUS it takes to heat your house? Like maybe how much oil/gas you would use typically in a year (for heat)?


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## Motor7

Nope, only heated with wood since I finished building it 2 years ago. Our power bill averages $60 a month. I definitely need the manometer, since it looks like I am making some creosote. I closed the baro up to .03. No, the house is cedar log and not tight at all which is why I was thinking i could get away without the OAK...I could be wrong, since the furnace does pull a lot of air.

Silly idea, but I have a cat door about 12' away from the stove. I think I am going to pick up a couple of coils of dryer vent hose, stick one end through the cat door, the other in front of the firebox and see what happens.

I moved the digital thermo upstream from the baro...it's reading in the mid to low 200's on a settled in burn....I think I need to close the baro more?

It hit the 40's today and I am still feeding too much wood....it's warm in here


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## brenndatomu

CDAK, (catdoorairkit) I like it!  Here's an idea for ya, run the dryer hose over to a bucket, connect the hose to the side of the bucket at the bottom. That will act as a "trap" for the cold air so it doesn't just "flood" your basement. It's more like the furnace/baro "pulls" the air out as needed.
As far as the flue temps, if that is a temp from when the damper has been closed for a while then yeah, that's probably about right. That is that monster heat exchanger doing it's job. 
Best thing to control creosote is to have really dry wood and not overheat the house too much to where the thermostat never calls for heat. And the best way to do that is to not overload the firebox for how cold/warm it is. It take some time to learn because it is different for every house/climate.  Once it gets more than 40* out I hafta shut the big dog down. It just makes a ton of creosote if you are trying to just make a little heat. At that point you need to fire the oil or gas burner side. Or do what I did, put a small stove in the fireplace upstairs, that is my heater when I just need a little heat.
If I remember correctly, the Yukon rep that used to be over on AS said that the thermostat calling for heat once in a while, opening the damper, getting the fire going hot every once in a while was how they deal with the creosote that is made while it is "idling". That doesn't work out too well when the house is already 5* over your set temp!


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## Motor7

Got a flashlight and started looking around...lot's of creosote and even with 3 sticks I could not get above 200 degrees. My wood is marginal on moisture content & all hardwood, 1 year dried but no hissing at all. This year I built a storage drying rack that holds 6 cord(all but one bay is full now):






When the damper is closed it was going right into smoulder mode. I farted around with the baro, then as a test just took it out and put in the block off plate. Flue temps are now between 250 and 300 on a medium fire I built to burn off some of that creosote.

Gotta get that manometer and getting the CDAK in...........


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## brenndatomu

Looks like you have a nice place there. Those wood racks ought to work out right well too!  
If your wood is marginal then you are gonna have creosote, it is what it is until you can get ahead 2-3 years on your wood supply. I am finally 3 years ahead on mine and it makes a huge difference! One thing that can help to get you by until you can get through to truly dry wood is to cut up some old pallets and add a few pieces to each load. 1 or 2 ECO bricks (or whatever the local name is) added in can help things burn hotter too. There will still be some creosote though...only way around that is to burn clear through the load with the air wide open...probably not gonna happen


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## Motor7

I talked to Bill at Yukon today. He said that removing the Baro will have the opposite effect I thought...it will choke down the air to the wood even more. He also said that 99% of the time the outside air kit solves any smouldering problem, so I reckon I need to drill a 6" hole in my Log wall 9" up above the basement block wall. I have the kit, just was hesitant to drill the BIG hole.


Hooked up the propane line today and fired it up with the baro still out ...flue tems got to just under 700 before I shut things down. Hopefully it fried some of that cresote that had coated everything. Baro going back in now and I will re-fire the propane burner and see what happens.


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## laynes69

If I owned a log home, I don't think I could force myself to bore a 6" hole in the side of it. I've always questioned why they require such a large hole for make-up air. I assume it's due to the barometric damper taking massive amounts of air to dilute the draft to .03". I don't see how make up air solves smoldering. Most, if not all modern stoves use a 3" duct for outdoor air. Personally, before drilling a hole that size in the wall, I would crack a window. If things improve, then consider outside air. A draft speed of .03" is very low, even if that's what yukon requires. With their design of multiple baffles and a heat exchanger, it just seems like a low draft requirement.


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## maple1

What do you have for a chimney?


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## brenndatomu

laynes69 said:


> I've always questioned why they require such a large hole for make-up air.





laynes69 said:


> A draft speed of .03" is very low, even if that's what yukon requires. With their design of multiple baffles and a heat exchanger, it just seems like a low draft requirement.


8" flue...tons of air flow. I tried higher draft speeds, temps go crazy very quickly


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## Motor7

maple1 said:


> What do you have for a chimney?



26' straight run 8".....9' of Duravent dbl wall, 17' of Class A. 



laynes69 said:


> If I owned a log home, I don't think I could force myself to bore a 6" hole in the side of it. I've always questioned why they require such a large hole for make-up air. I assume it's due to the barometric damper taking massive amounts of air to dilute the draft to .03". I don't see how make up air solves smoldering. Most, if not all modern stoves use a 3" duct for outdoor air. Personally, before drilling a hole that size in the wall, I would crack a window. If things improve, then consider outside air. A draft speed of .03" is very low, even if that's what yukon requires. With their design of multiple baffles and a heat exchanger, it just seems like a low draft requirement.



Those are my thoughts exactly. Bill didn't seem to want to speculate on any other possible issue until I have the OAK hooked up. Even when I burned practically green wood(in stoves)I never saw creosote form so fast as I have running the Husky for just a few days.....it's down right scary. 

I'm going to get to the bottom of this, manometer is in route, and I am borrowing a moisture meter to confirm my firewood is well under 20%.


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## Motor7

brenndatomu said:


> 8" flue...tons of air flow. I tried higher draft speeds, temps go crazy very quickly



You are burning mostly softwoods right? On oak, beech, & hickory with the baro on .02 or no baro and the hole blocked off makes no difference in flue temps. 

Running on propane now to stay warm. Flue temps hit about 650ish. I see lots of yellow flame so I am pretty sure the burner needs adjusting. There is no instructions to do this...it says to have a "professional furnace person' do this. Not even sure where to start looking for a "pro furnace guy" in this neck of the woods.


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## Motor7

One more thing. When the intake damper is closed, I am pretty sure the only air the firebox gets then is the secondary air from the dial up at the top of the firebox. If this is the case, there is insufficient air to feed a fire and keep temps above 250 degrees. Bill at Yukon confirmed that the damper is either open or closed...there is no other setting.  Even my 1986 Hearthstone has a Bi-metallic coil that closes down the intake air on a hot fire, then opens it back up as the temps drop. It's a stupid simple system but the thing works perfect.


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## brenndatomu

Motor7 said:


> You are burning mostly softwoods right?


No, mostly hardwoods.



Motor7 said:


> On oak, beech, & hickory with the baro on .02 or no baro and the hole blocked off makes no difference in flue temps.


That's odd...



Motor7 said:


> I see lots of yellow flame so I am pretty sure the burner needs adjusting. There is no instructions to do this...it says to have a "professional furnace person' do this. Not even sure where to start looking for a "pro furnace guy" in this neck of the woods.


I'd go ahead and mess with the air a bit, if it is yellow you can't make it much worse can you? Even if it isn't perfect, I would think you can easily make it better. I'm no expert on this but I believe your are looking for a blue flame that has a "smooth" sound to it. 
I would find it hard to believe there is anywhere in the states that there isn't a HVAC (furnace) guy available, everybody needs furnace repair sooner or later...heck, even Floridians!


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## Motor7

More info;

I was out of town for a while and my wife was running it on propane while I was gone. The cat door trick definitely helps the burn so I am installing the OAK asap. Tested my wood and it is between 14 and 17, not optimum  but not soggy. My biggest problem is I am over feeding the furnace, it's gets to temp upstairs and the intake door shuts which smoulders the wood. So, as suggested I have to build smaller and fewer fires, & after feeding the wood hog Hearthstone, this will take some getting used to. 

Now I have a new problem, the day after I got home, the gas burner would not come on. Blower does, but no ignition at all after that. The Flume Sensor has tripped and locked out ignition. Tried to reset it and it tripps immediately. I have no idea of why this happened so I will be calling them today.


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## j7art2

My buddy just got one of these. WATCH OUT for creosote build up. His house is 120 years old and something like 2000-2400 sqft, and he's got some 3/8" black tar creosote in his pipes from his Yukon Eagle. I keep telling him he needs to see if he can tinker with it and tone it down some. I guess he can't run the furnace hot enough to burn out the creosote, so it sits and smolders the majority of the time, which makes a ton of creosote.


----------



## brenndatomu

Sounds like his heat load is too small for the amount of wood he is loading. Gotta let that thermostat call for heat once in a while. _Dry wood_ and smaller loads will help reduce the creosote assuming his install/setup is 100% correct. Running the oil or gas burner for a while everyday will help dry the creosote out until he gets a handle on it.


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## Motor7

I understand what is going on with the creosote. What I don't understand is why Yukon chooses to shut off all air to the burn(except the secondaries) when temps reach the setting on the thermostat. Any fire requires enough air to burn properly above 250 degrees(I prefer more like 300-350). When my set temp is reached and the primary air intake closes all I get is smoulder and under the circumstance I don't see how it can do anything more than smoulder. So, I can either send my furnace back to Yukon, or modify it....of course I am thinking MODIFY  

But first I am going to satisfy all Yukons requirements and try things their way.....then at least I know who is right and who is wrong. Manometer arrived yesterday, so soon I will know the exact draw of my flue.


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## brenndatomu

Motor7 said:


> I understand what is going on with the creosote.


Sorry, I was responding to j7art2, guess I shoulda quoted him. 
Yeah I don't get the primary air being cut off 100% either. I didn't have any issues until I realized that part of the foam seal on the damper door had fallen off so I replaced it. Had some creosote issues to work through then...


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## simple.serf

I  had one of those Wayne burners on a Hobart  CRO rack oven that was in my care at work. You said you had yellow flame. I  have seen the flame sensors get sooted up in a day of two if the burner was running dirty. That can cause the unit to lockout on startup. They light and monitor a pilot for flame presence. If the sensor/ignitor is dirty, you either  won't  get ignition,  or it won't  sense the flame.  To get one to burn right, you need to set gas pressure and the damper on the blower intake.  Preferably with a combustion analyzer because flame color alone does not tell you exactly what is happening.


----------



## Motor7

simple.serf said:


> I  had one of those Wayne burners on a Hobart  CRO rack oven that was in my care at work. You said you had yellow flame. I  have seen the flame sensors get sooted up in a day of two if the burner was running dirty. That can cause the unit to lockout on startup. They light and monitor a pilot for flame presence. If the sensor/ignitor is dirty, you either  won't  get ignition,  or it won't  sense the flame.  To get one to burn right, you need to set gas pressure and the damper on the blower intake.  Preferably with a combustion analyzer because flame color alone does not tell you exactly what is happening.



Thanks, I had a suspicion that it could be my fault for not getting the burner set up properly. I have called a couple pf places but so far I have not found one that works on gas furnaces...mostly all electric or coal in my area. I will be on the phone again today.......


----------



## j7art2

brenndatomu said:


> Sounds like his heat load is too small for the amount of wood he is loading. Gotta let that thermostat call for heat once in a while. _Dry wood_ and smaller loads will help reduce the creosote assuming his install/setup is 100% correct. Running the oil or gas burner for a while everyday will help dry the creosote out until he gets a handle on it.



He won't run oil. Fuel oil here can be upwards of $4-5+ a gallon. He's using it as a learning curve, but the nice thing is, with that barometric flapper, you can see exactly what's going on in your pipes with no guesswork as to how nasty it is. I almost wish I installed one on mine, but I'd probably flood the basement with smoke since I have a dinosaur. 

I just read the topic and figured I'd chime in my two cents from the very little I know of the units. I'm probably going to get a Yukon Superjack when mine goes, as they seem to be a quality company.


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## Motor7

You would think with  big old drafty 120 year old house he would be running the furnace hard...or has it been remodeled and insulated correctly?

I just finished installing the dang OAK...what a pain. Of course the spot I chose to cut a 6" hole in my log wall contained one of about 2,000 10" Log Hog screws....there was a lot of sawsall-ing and swearing going on.........


----------



## brenndatomu

Motor7 said:


> Of course the spot I chose to cut a 6" hole in my log wall contained one of about 2,000 10" Log Hog screws....there was a lot of sawsall-ing and swearing going on.........


LOL, yeah, and if you wanna drill an anchor hole in concrete...yup, found the rebar!


----------



## brenndatomu

j7art2 said:


> He won't run oil. Fuel oil here can be upwards of $4-5+ a gallon.


Run the oil burner for 15 minutes to dry things out...$1 to 1.25 worth of oil.


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## j7art2

Just texted him the info. He said he's gotta cool it down and clean it Thursday anyway since the buildup is so bad, so he said he'd give it a whirl. Thanks!


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## Motor7

Well it looks like Yukon-Eagle was right and I was...wr..wrrr..wrrrrong. Since I added the outside air kit I am not getting the smoulder. But in my defense I have started all fires with a stick of cedar to get things off to a hotter start.

I also have a gas furnace guy inbound next week to properly set up my burner....things are looking ^up


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## j7art2

My buddy also added a fresh air intake this weekend and 100% of his problems are gone. He went from having an 80% clog, to having fine soot in his pipes now after cleaning. Flue temps went on average from 100-150 to 300-400. He also talked to Yukon Eagle, and sure enough they told him the exact same thing.

I decided to try it myself, and also saw an improvement in performance in my old dinosaur. Unfortunately, my fresh air intake is 20' away, but even that little bit seems to help.

for $40, it's the best 'mod' i've found thus far for a basement installed wood furnace.


----------



## brenndatomu

I have tried...
1. No OAK
2. A 4" OAK pulling air from the garage
3. A 6" OAK pulling air from outside (currently using)
For me, I have seen no differences between any of them, at all, and that's with a Yukon BJ previously and the Yukon Husky currently. Our house is not what I would call drafty, but obviously it must not be exactly air tight either!


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## Motor7

Bren I would add 3' or 4' of flue pipe and see what happens then. 

One drawback of the OAK, no way to get an overnight burn....about 5 hours is max. I added a register to my Plenum so I can dump some heat into the basement and not overdrive the house so much. I have cut way back in my firewood use compared to the Hearthstone. If I ran the Husky wide open I would use 16 sticks a day which is what I was going thru with the old Beast everyday. The Husky has made wusses out of us.....68 used to be just right, now it's 72 :/


----------



## brenndatomu

Chimney is at 28' now, I'm gonna need red lites on top of it if I go much higher!  No, seriously, it drafts like a hoover, if I open the door when the fire is going good, I hafta be careful when closing, it'll suck the handle outta your hand! Baro lays wide open to hold draft down to -.03" when it's cold.
I have 'er running pretty good now, only use about six to nine 4-5" splits per day when it's warmish (30s) and maybe 12 of those when it gets cold. If it gets REAL cold I run the Yukon the same way and just ad a small load in the lil stove upstairs, that'll take us up to 75* in the house on the coldest of days!
I hear ya on the 68 is now 72 thing! 



Motor7 said:


> One drawback of the OAK, no way to get an overnight burn....about 5 hours is max. I added a register to my Plenum so I can dump some heat into the basement and not overdrive the house so much.


So what is happening to the house temp during this time? Is it holding temp OK or dropping more than you'd like?
Also, how far open is your secondary air?

EDIT: I read on here about somebody using thermal storage and I knew they had a forced air wood furnace, I'm thinking "say what?!" Thermal storage is normally where the boiler guys fire their boiler once a day, run it wide open clear through the burn, dump that heat into a large insulated water storage tank and then the house pulls from the tank as heat is called for. So I was a lil confused how to do that with forced air, but what he was talking about was using the house itself as storage. Probably doesn't work too well if your place is real drafty, but it makes sense, once the walls and floors, furniture and whatnot are up to temp, not to mention the "storage" in having a 1000# furnace good and hot to pull heat from, you kinda can do thermal storage with forced air. As long as you don't mind a few degree swing in the household temps anyways.
Another thing that helps is to let the ash bed build up a bit on the grates, a couple inches. Just scratch a spot open for air to come up through, let the rest go, coals will lay ona bed of ashes MUCH longer than bare grates. I still have enough coals to do a matchless reload after 10 hours almost daily (at work) and 8 hours is NO problem at all, heck, I can get six hours on a load of pine (no coals though) For example, I loaded 3 Red Oak splits and 1 soft Maple this morning at 6:15, it is now 4:30 pm and the house is 70* with it being 25-30* outside today. There is still 100* heat coming out of the registers by gravity, (it would drop quickly if the blower was forced on) Gonna go down for another "feeding" right now. See ya!


----------



## STIHLY DAN

brenndatomu said:


> Chimney is at 28' now, I'm gonna need red lites on top of it if I go much higher!  No, seriously, it drafts like a hoover, if I open the door when the fire is going good, I hafta be careful when closing, it'll suck the handle outta your hand! Baro lays wide open to hold draft down to -.03" when it's cold.
> I have 'er running pretty good now, only use about six to nine 4-5" splits per day when it's warmish (30s) and maybe 12 of those when it gets cold. If it gets REAL cold I run the Yukon the same way and just ad a small load in the lil stove upstairs, that'll take us up to 75* in the house on the coldest of days!
> I hear ya on the 68 is now 72 thing!
> 
> 
> So what is happening to the house temp during this time? Is it holding temp OK or dropping more than you'd like?
> Also, how far open is your secondary air?
> I read on here about somebody using thermal storage and I knew they had a forced air wood furnace, I'm thinking "say what?!" Thermal storage is normally where the boiler guys fire their boiler once a day, run it wide open clear through the burn, dump that heat into a large insulated water storage tank and then the house pulls from the tank as heat is called for. So I was a lil confused how to do that with forced air, but what he was talking about was using the house itself as storage. Probably doesn't work too well if your place is real drafty, but it makes sense, once the walls and floors, furniture and whatnot are up to temp, not to mention the "storage" in having a 1000# furnace good and hot to pull heat from, you kinda can do thermal storage with forced air. As long as you don't mind a few degree swing in the household temps anyways.
> Another thing that helps is to let the ash bed build up a bit on the grates, a couple inches. Just scratch a spot open for air to come up through, let the rest go, coals will lay ona bed of ashes MUCH longer than bare grates. I still have enough coals to do a matchless reload after 10 hours almost daily (at work) 8 hours is NO problem at all, heck, I can get six hours on a load of pine (no coals though) For example, I loaded 3 Red Oak splits and 1 soft Maple this morning at 6:15, it is now 4:30 pm and the house is 70* with it being 25-30* outside today. There is still 100* heat coming out of the registers by gravity, (it would drop quickly if the blower was forced on) Gonna go down for another "feeding" right now. See ya!



What size are those splits, and how long? That seems really good.


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## Motor7

House temps hang in the mid 70's, then fall off towards morning to the mid to high 60's. If I put on too much wood we sweat in bed...not the good kinda sweat 
Today we started out with 20 degrees outside, & 68 inside at dawn. I built a small fire of 4 splits(3-4" in diameter) of oak/hickory. Temps during the day hit high 40's(I even took the Motor out for a ride) & right now, 12 hours later the house is still at 68, so I call it a win  I will build another 4 split fire before we go to bed.....


----------



## Motor7

j7art2 said:


> My buddy also added a fresh air intake this weekend and 100% of his problems are gone. He went from having an 80% clog, to having fine soot in his pipes now after cleaning. Flue temps went on average from 100-150 to 300-400. He also talked to Yukon Eagle, and sure enough they told him the exact same thing.
> 
> I decided to try it myself, and also saw an improvement in performance in my old dinosaur. Unfortunately, my fresh air intake is 20' away, but even that little bit seems to help.
> 
> for $40, it's the best 'mod' i've found thus far for a basement installed wood furnace.


----------



## brenndatomu

STIHLY DAN said:


> What size are those splits, and how long? That seems really good.


I try to cut at 22" long and they are average 4" x 4", some 3" x 5", you know...average firewood. Yeah I'm pretty happy with that. I have been able to make huge improvements from where I started as far as how clean she burns,  but I'm still not completely satisfied with things yet. I just pulled the cap off the tee tonight to check the pipe and heat exchanger, sooty but not worth cleaning, I haven't cleaned yet this year. But I'm still jealous of the tan powder you Kuuma guys end up with in your flues!


----------



## STIHLY DAN

brenndatomu said:


> I try to cut at 22" long and they are average 4" x 4", some 3" x 5", you know...average firewood. Yeah I'm pretty happy with that. I have been able to make huge improvements from where I started as far as how clean she burns,  but I'm still not completely satisfied with things yet. I just pulled the cap off the tee tonight to check the pipe and heat exchanger, sooty but not worth cleaning, I haven't cleaned yet this year. But I'm still jealous of the tan powder you Kuuma guys end up with in your flues!



Your confusing me Mr. I reread what I quoted you on and in the 1st paragraph you say 6-9  4,5" splits when it's 30* out. But the last paragraph you said 3 oak 1 maple 4-5 " at 25-30*.  Which is it Mr. That's right, nailing you to the wall journalistic style.


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## brenndatomu

Ha! OK Mr journalist, that was six to nine 4" to 5" (X 22" long) sized splits for the whole day when the temps are running in the 30s. The last part there was the load this morning, with the temp range for the day.
I recently thought of weighing and recording what I load each time, just for curiosity sake. I'd be good info for you detail oriented journalistic types too! 
Wouldn't be hard, hang some fish scales and a 15 gallon bucket...


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## brenndatomu

Motor7 said:


> I even took the Motor out for a ride


Whatcha ridin?


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## Motor7

A '07 DL650 that I bought with 46K on it last summer. I put 10K(and 8 States) on it already and am loving the thing. Winter project is to get my new Rostra eeee-lec-tronic cruise control all hooked up....headed to Seattle this spring:

Loaded for a trip:







Southern Rim:


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## brenndatomu

Ah yes, the ole Vstrom. That's a nice lil bike. I was a mechanic at the local bike shop for about 10 years...
Nice pics!


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## Motor7

They should have named it a Warthog...beautiful in a kinda hideous way


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## brenndatomu

Any updates on the beast in the basement?


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## Motor7

Update...

It's been awhile, but last winter I got all the issues worked out. Reference the gas problem it was the wrong jets. I assumed the when I placed my order for a propane set up it would ship with installed propane jets...nope they were natural gas jets. The heat & air guy also had to bump up the line pressure at the tank regulator, now the gas side works flawlessly.

As for the wood side, I am using somewhere between 30-40% less wood than with my old Hearthstone. I am extremely pleased with the Yukon...worth every penny.

Due to the emerald ash borer, I am over 2 years ahead on wood. This summer I dropped 15 ash trees just along my driveway....many more back in the woods. Sure is nice being ahead.....for a change.


----------



## Jags

What is the efficiency rating while burning propane in that thing?


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## brenndatomu

Jags said:


> What is the efficiency rating while burning propane in that thing?


They are rated at 80%


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## Jags

Thanks for that.


----------



## Motor7

Annual update:

I'm now 3 years ahead on firewood, still cutting and splitting dead Ash. Furnace is working well & I clean the flue/heat exchanger twice a season. Each time I get about a quart of creosote.
Even the dogs are happy


----------



## brenndatomu

Boy, sounds like you have had excellent results with it!


----------



## bbauer161

So this is my first year burning wood to heat the house.  I live in MD so don't get super cold winters, but cold enough that I spent around $2k to heat my 3200 sq ft house last year). Over the summer I had a brand new, masonry chimney built where I previously had a prefabricated chimney.  It was in rough shape, leaking, and needed some massive overhaul or be rebuilt. Since I wanted to burn wood, I ended up having it rebuilt from the ground up.  Ran two flues to my basement. One for the new yukon furnace and one to the oil fired water heater.  I've been burning wood on and off for about a month. Sometimes only burning at night since we are still getting into the 50's during the day here and there.  

(1) I have not turned on the oil except once which was to test it out. Do you suggest that I hire someone to come in and "tune" the burner?  Honestly, I don't plan to use it often at all since I will likely use our pellet stove during the fall/spring. It's what we used in October and parts of November when getting a fire going wasn't necessary.  I guess if I go away for a period of time, I would need to run the oil. 
(2) Since we have not had significantly cold weather, I have had days where I have let the fire die down, or perhaps I'd only throw 1-2 logs on it every 3-4 hours during the day so the house keeps warm, but doesn't get up to 77-78 degrees (which I have done a few times while still learning the unit). This evening I looked in the damper and noticed what appears to be creosote.  Can someone confirm from the picture which is attached?  I'm using wood that has been split for 12-18 months. So I know that isn't the issue.  Is this amount of build up normal and I have nothing to be concerned about?

Could this be because of the fact that I'm not burning hot fires all of the time?  I was hoping to burn all winter and clean everything once when I'm finished burning. However, given what you see in the picture, would you suggest I do a mid season cleaning (chimney sweep & cleaning of internal piping)?  I will likely burn into March, but not the entire month.  

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Bryce


----------



## brenndatomu

bbauer161 said:


> I'm using wood that has been split for 12-18 months. So I know that isn't the issue


That is part of the issue for sure...depending on what kind of wood it is that is only half of the time it needs to dry.
And yeah, the Yooks make creosote if you are burning low n slow...you will definitely need a mid season cleaning


----------



## bbauer161

brenndatomu said:


> That is part of the issue for sure...depending on what kind of wood it is that is only half of the time it needs to dry.
> And yeah, the Yooks make creosote if you are burning low n slow...you will definitely need a mid season cleaning




Really? I split the wood in April/May of 2015.  Was thinking that was enough time.  I have a moisture tester so I'm going to split a piece this evening and test it.  I did cut the pieces smaller in hopes it would season faster (at the time, I was thinking I was going to put in a wood stove and would be burning it last season). 

Couple questions:

1) Does the picture of the pipe that I posted concern you as far as safety?  Pretty sure there needs to be more creosote build up to run the risk of a chimney fire, correct?  Either way, I'll plan to clean everything in early January.
2) What kind of burn times do you get with the Yukon at night? If I pack it good with wood around 10:30, generally if I check it around 7am, it's completely out. Maybe one or two small coals.  Once or twice I've gotten up (b/c kids got out of bed) around 3:30 - 4:00 and there were enough coals to throw on 3-4 pieces, close the door and it would get going again.  Curious to know your routine before turning off the lights for the night.......how many logs, thicker diameter pieces, do you turn down the secondary burn vent, etc.


Thanks for any help/insight.  I burned wood growing up with my dad but never really cared to learn. Now that I'm doing it in my house, trying to learn as much as possible.


----------



## brenndatomu

bbauer161 said:


> Does the picture of the pipe that I posted concern you as far as safety?


Not especially...BUT, yes, that is enough creosote to get a fire going if the circumstances were right. You'd have to get the pipe pretty hot though.
That is why they have the clearance codes for everything, its not about "normal operation" its for those "OH CRAP!" moments when maybe there is a problem...gotta prepare for worst case scenario...so everything and everybody comes out unharmed 


bbauer161 said:


> What kind of burn times do you get with the Yukon at night?


I could go (not using the Yook right now) 12 hours in 30-40* weather and 8 was no problem when it got cold. I usually load a few bigger pieces and a few smaller ones on top...tailor your wood load to your heat demand...if its really cold, load 'er up...if its kinda warm, don't load as much and maybe smaller pieces too. You'll get the hang of it with some experience. Like I said before I load twice a day in warmer weather and 3 times in colder. That's a part of the key too, let the house cool off a bit so that the tstat is calling for heat and the firebox can get fully up to temp and not just sit there and smolder trying to maintain a steady 72* in the house at all times. Don't have the gas/oil tstat set 2* behind the wood tstat, I'd go _at least_ 5* behind.

Oh, and one trick I found was to let the ashes build up on the grates, it will hold coals MUCH better that way. I run at least 2-3 inches, often 4-6" of ashes. I just take a poker and scratch a little hole in the ashes toward the front so the fire can get _some_ air up through the grates, rake hot coals around the hole, load n light (I usually throw a match at the kindlin/splitter trash that I put on the hot coals so it lights _immediately_ instead of smoking until it lights on its own...smoke = creosote) The whole routine takes maybe 4-5 minutes.
Secondary air adjustment doesn't seem to be real touchy...3 turns or so should do it. Keeping ash on the grates makes _much_ more difference in how long the coals last than the secondary air adjustment.
What else ya got?


----------



## brenndatomu

And another thought here, even though that pipe might not need cleaned, check the chimney itself...those baros cool the flue gasses enough to cause nasty creosote in the chimney sometimes...especially near the top. The other thing is to check your heat exchanger tubes...a little soot buildup on those makes a big difference in efficiency (how much heat goes to the house vs up the chimney) Honestly having to clean them every week or two wouldn't surprise me...you can't do it too often. I cheated on mine, I'd pop the end off the tee and just clean the center two tubes regularly and then the outer two when I pulled the pipe apart for cleaning...not optimal but better than nothing...PITA to take my tee off so I can open the cleanout door for a proper cleaning


----------



## brenndatomu

bbauer161 said:


> Really? I split the wood in April/May of 2015. Was thinking that was enough time. I have a moisture tester so I'm going to split a piece this evening and test it


Well, it did get two summers on it...so the faster drying stuff (not Oak) may be OK...let us know what your results are.
Going back to leaving the ashes build up...on another furnace I covered 75% of the grate with an old piece of 1/8" sheet metal so to not have to worry about knocking too much ash through the grate where I wanted to keep things covered...I've heard of people using cheap firebrick (like the ones you can buy at TSC, the hardware, etc) to do this too...


----------



## bbauer161

brenndatomu said:


> And another thought here, even though that pipe might not need cleaned, check the chimney itself...those baros cool the flue gasses enough to cause nasty creosote in the chimney sometimes...especially near the top. The other thing is to check your heat exchanger tubes...a little soot buildup on those makes a big difference in efficiency (how much heat goes to the house vs up the chimney) Honestly having to clean them every week or two wouldn't surprise me...you can't do it too often. I cheated on mine, I'd pop the end off the tee and just clean the center two tubes regularly and then the outer two when I pulled the pipe apart for cleaning...not optimal but better than nothing...PITA to take my tee off so I can open the cleanout door for a proper cleaning



Yeah - I wish I could but the chimney is about 30 feet tall (another reason to check it, right? Longer chimney means those gasses are a lot colder at 30 ft vs 10 ft) and at the moment, my largest extension ladder is only about 25 ft. 

I don't have a T, my baro damper is right before my 90 turn into the chimney. So for me I think it's all or nothing when in want to clean the heat exchanger tubes. Fortunately, I think the unit is plenty for my house and I won't have trouble heating it. we'll see once January and February roll around. 

Thanks for the info!


----------



## bbauer161

brenndatomu said:


> Not especially...BUT, yes, that is enough creosote to get a fire going if the circumstances were right. You'd have to get the pipe pretty hot though.
> That is why they have the clearance codes for everything, its not about "normal operation" its for those "OH CRAP!" moments when maybe there is a problem...gotta prepare for worst case scenario...so everything and everybody comes out unharmed
> 
> I could go (not using the Yook right now) 12 hours in 30-40* weather and 8 was no problem when it got cold. I usually load a few bigger pieces and a few smaller ones on top...tailor your wood load to your heat demand...if its really cold, load 'er up...if its kinda warm, don't load as much and maybe smaller pieces too. You'll get the hang of it with some experience. Like I said before I load twice a day in warmer weather and 3 times in colder. That's a part of the key too, let the house cool off a bit so that the tstat is calling for heat and the firebox can get fully up to temp and not just sit there and smolder trying to maintain a steady 72* in the house at all times. Don't have the gas/oil tstat set 2* behind the wood tstat, I'd go _at least_ 5* behind.
> 
> Oh, and one trick I found was to let the ashes build up on the grates, it will hold coals MUCH better that way. I run at least 2-3 inches, often 4-6" of ashes. I just take a poker and scratch a little hole in the ashes toward the front so the fire can get _some_ air up through the grates, rake hot coals around the hole, load n light (I usually throw a match at the kindlin/splitter trash that I put on the hot coals so it lights _immediately_ instead of smoking until it lights on its own...smoke = creosote) The whole routine takes maybe 4-5 minutes.
> Secondary air adjustment doesn't seem to be real touchy...3 turns or so should do it. Keeping ash on the grates makes _much_ more difference in how long the coals last than the secondary air adjustment.
> What else ya got?




Thanks for this. My wife has enjoyed the warmth so she's keeps it around 74. When running, it never gets below that unless we let it die out. I've let the ashes build up as much as I can for the past few days. I purchased the shaker grates in case I ever wanted to burn coal, and I wonder if they don't hold ash as well. It's very hard to keep the ash from falling down into the ash pan. Do you have the shaker grate?

My oil t stat is turned off. Hoping to not turn it on all winter , unless we get some cold nights....even then, I would guess ill be fine getting through the night and re lighting in the AM.


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## brenndatomu

bbauer161 said:


> Do you have the shaker grate?


Yes. After a few days of not scraping the ash down it will start to build up (especially if the ash pan is full ) and then after some time goes by it will get kinda hard and then it is a lot harder to accidentally knock it through the grate. Like I said you could always lay some cheap 9x4.5x1 firebrick on the grate too...


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## bbauer161

brenndatomu said:


> Well, it did get two summers on it...so the faster drying stuff (not Oak) may be OK...let us know what your results are.
> Going back to leaving the ashes build up...on another furnace I covered 75% of the grate with an old piece of 1/8" sheet metal so to not have to worry about knocking too much ash through the grate where I wanted to keep things covered...I've heard of people using cheap firebrick (like the ones you can buy at TSC, the hardware, etc) to do this too...



I might consider try this to help keep the ash built up. 

Tested the moisture.  It was all between 10 and 14 percent.  I tested some other oak that I have separate from the wood I'm burning (I've burned it a few times at night because it's thicker pieces of wood) and the highest I saw was 16.5%.  I'm gonna try and stop burning that at night.....it just lasts longer than the drier wood. 

I have 3 large oak trees that fell in my woods in September of 2015. I have not yet cut/split them. Will these need 18-24 months of seasoning once split since they have already been down for 15 months? Was hoping it would be less since they have been down for a while already.


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## bbauer161

brenndatomu said:


> Yes. After a few days of not scraping the ash down it will start to build up (especially if the ash pan is full ) and then after some time goes by it will get kinda hard and then it is a lot harder to accidentally knock it through the grate. Like I said you could always lay some cheap 9x4.5x1 firebrick on the grate too...



Good to know. Thanks.


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## brenndatomu

bbauer161 said:


> Tested the moisture. It was all between 10 and 14 percent.


Is that after re-splitting and testing the fresh face of the wood?


bbauer161 said:


> have 3 large oak trees that fell in my woods in September of 2015. I have not yet cut/split them. Will these need 18-24 months of seasoning once split since they have already been down for 15 months?


No, I'm afraid it'll need _at least_ 24 months, wood drys VERY little until it is split...especially Oak. My experience has been that 2 year Cut/Split/Stacked (CSS) Oak burns just kinda OK...but 3 year CSS Oak burns nice!


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## bbauer161

brenndatomu said:


> Is that after re-splitting and testing the fresh face of the wood?




Yes - I split a piece a tested in the middle. 



brenndatomu said:


> No, I'm afraid it'll need _at least_ 24 months, wood drys VERY little until it is split...especially Oak. My experience has been that 2 year Cut/Split/Stacked (CSS) Oak burns just kinda OK...but 3 year CSS Oak burns nice!



Thanks - I need to get out there soon then.


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## bbauer161

Can someone give me a manometer 101?  Right now my barometric damper is closed 100 percent of the time. I have not tested the flue draft yet, and wondering if I need to make some adjustments. 

Also, I think I'm running into similar issues others had on here where I'll reach the temp set on my thermostat and then it'll close the air intake and the fire will smoulder, causing a lot more smoke which is leading to more and more creosote build up. Do I need to install an outside ait kit? I have a small basement window in the room with the furnace. Wondering if I can utilize this somehow to create a balance of outside air but not freezing my basement. 

We had two cold days where high was around 25, night time lows in the teens, and wind chills in the single digits to 0. Furnace did fine and kept us between 66 and 70, but I did notice it took more wood given the fact that the air intake was open the entire time. 

Thanks for the help!


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## brenndatomu

bbauer161 said:


> Can someone give me a manometer 101?  Right now my barometric damper is closed 100 percent of the time. I have not tested the flue draft yet, and wondering if I need to make some adjustments.
> 
> Also, I think I'm running into similar issues others had on here where I'll reach the temp set on my thermostat and then it'll close the air intake and the fire will smoulder, causing a lot more smoke which is leading to more and more creosote build up. Do I need to install an outside ait kit? I have a small basement window in the room with the furnace. Wondering if I can utilize this somehow to create a balance of outside air but not freezing my basement.
> 
> We had two cold days where high was around 25, night time lows in the teens, and wind chills in the single digits to 0. Furnace did fine and kept us between 66 and 70, but I did notice it took more wood given the fact that the air intake was open the entire time.
> 
> Thanks for the help!


Do you have a manometer? If so you need to get a reading...draft makes a huge difference in how these things work. If you don't have one, I have some for sale over in the classified forum.
It is possible that you need to install a Outside Air Kit (OAK) crack that window a bit for a day or two and see if it helps.
If your baro is closed all the time you either have really bad draft or the baro is WAY off adjustment (or stuck , which is likely if you have had creosote issues)
I leave my manometer connected all the time so I can see if something goes amiss.


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## bbauer161

brenndatomu said:


> Do you have a manometer? If so you need to get a reading...draft makes a huge difference in how these things work. If you don't have one, I have some for sale over in the classified forum.
> It is possible that you need to install a Outside Air Kit (OAK) crack that window a bit for a day or two and see if it helps.
> If your baro is closed all the time you either have really bad draft or the baro is WAY off adjustment (or stuck , which is likely if you have had creosote issues)
> I leave my manometer connected all the time so I can see if something goes amiss.




I do not have one. I'll check them out. 

The baro was never adjusted to begin with. I was thinking that opening it and introducing cooler air would make the creosote worse.


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## brenndatomu

bbauer161 said:


> I was thinking that opening it and introducing cooler air would make the creosote worse.


Yeah, its kind of a double edged sword...


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## bbauer161

Ok, hoping to get this manometer installed this weekend.  

(1) Mount the unit, filling it with the gage fluid and zero it out.
(2) Drill a hole in the flue pipe between the furnace and the baro damper? This will be the "high" tube. 
(3) Connect the "low" tube to the manometer but leave it unconnected and pulling the room air?


Is this correct?

The higher the reading, the more draft, correct?  Where do I want it to be holding? 

Sorry for so many questions....


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## bbauer161

I should add that I have an 8 inch, terra-cotta/block chimney that is roughly 30 feet tall.  It is not lined/insulated.


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## brenndatomu

bbauer161 said:


> Ok, hoping to get this manometer installed this weekend.
> 
> (1) Mount the unit, filling it with the gage fluid and zero it out.
> (2) Drill a hole in the flue pipe between the furnace and the baro damper? This will be the "high" tube.
> (3) Connect the "low" tube to the manometer but leave it unconnected and pulling the room air?
> 
> 
> Is this correct?
> 
> The higher the reading, the more draft, correct?  Where do I want it to be holding?
> 
> Sorry for so many questions....


Yeah that sound right. If you want you can peel those rubber tubes apart and not even hook up to the low side.
Yukon calls for -0.03" WC...so that will be 3 marks right of zero.
No worrys on the questions...fire away


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## maple1

Ya, I only have the one tube hooked up to mine. I guess hooking up the other one might keep dirt out of the hole.

(Make sure you level it, also).


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## bbauer161

ok, manometer is installed.  See pictures below.  I had a small fire going all day, but clearly not a roaring fire.  When connected, the manometer read -.02.....(or is this .02 based on brenndatomu's comments above that negative was to the right of zero?)

This is also when the baro is completely closed.  When I manually open the baro with my hand, it moves closer to zero.

Should I wait to "read" it until I've got a larger fire?  

Thanks for the help!


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## brenndatomu

I guess I should clarify a bit here, move that hose over to the right port so that the gauge reads to the right of zero, it will work the same, but give you an expanded scale. The gauge is labeled for "pressure" on that side but we all know that we are actually reading negative pressure.(I suppose this is really just a personal preference, no reason you can't leave it where it is)(unless you get real high draft when its windy...how would you ever know with the gauge reading on the left of zero?!) 
To answer your question...yeah you need to set the baro after you load and have a well established fire going (gotta fully warm the chimney...Yukon says to run the oil/gas burner for 10 minutes, then set the draft. It should never go much over -0.03" WC at the highest...(like -0.04" is too much) you will notice that it starts dropping off a bit after the intake damper is closed for a while...or at the end when the fire is getting burned out...and it will obviously read low or nothing at all when started a new fire with a cold chimney.


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## bbauer161

brenndatomu said:


> I guess I should clarify a bit here, move that hose over to the right port so that the gauge reads to the right of zero, it will work the same, but give you an expanded scale. The gauge is labeled for "pressure" on that side but we all know that we are actually reading negative pressure.(I suppose this is really just a personal preference, no reason you can't leave it where it is)(unless you get real high draft when its windy...how would you ever know with the gauge reading on the left of zero?!)
> To answer your question...yeah you need to set the baro after you load and have a well established fire going (gotta fully warm the chimney...Yukon says to run the oil/gas burner for 10 minutes, then set the draft. It should never go much over -0.03" WC at the highest...(like -0.04" is too much) you will notice that it starts dropping off a bit after the intake damper is closed for a while...or at the end when the fire is getting burned out...and it will obviously read low or nothing at all when started a new fire with a cold chimney.



Thanks - I get what you mean now.  I've adjusted it and am running .02.....I'll keep checking it, especially when I get the fire really going. Given that the fire has been running all day, my guess is the chimney is warm, but definitely not as hot as last week when it was much colder outside and I was running the fire much harder/hotter.

I'll run the oil burner over the weekend and set it. 

Thanks!  Next project.....mid season clean in mid/late january before I get busy with tax season.


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## bbauer161

So I did my first cleaning about a week ago. Attached are some pictures that I took.  The picture of the chimney pipe is about 2 feet after coming out of the furnace.  I felt like it was a lot of creosote. However, I started burning pretty early. I burned probably 1-1.5 cords between November and December.  Wood is seasoned, but its pretty junky.  It definitely smoked a lot....probably more than if I'm burning really hot w/ well seasoned oak.   Not concerned about cleaning the chimney pipe inside, I'll do it again in the end of January. Will likely do it 2-3 times every season.  However, wondering you would expect more or less creosote to build up in the exterior chimney vs the interior pipe?   Likely going to call a chimney sweep this week.

Another question.  The past 2-3 days we have had some cold temps for Maryland.  Highs in low 20's, lows around 10-12 with wind chills in the single digits. My house was build in 1987, is about 2400 sq ft with a 900 sq ft finished basement, and seems relatively well insulated.  Thermostat is on the main floor.  The upstairs is always colder and I believe it is due to poor duct work (for example, my large master only has one return and one supply for the bedroom because since the house is post and beam construction, there is only one spot in the house for duct work and water lines to go from basement up to the top floor). Over the 2-3 cold days, the furnace was able to bring the house up to 70 during the daytime. Once the sun went down and temps dropped to the teens, the temperature started dropping in the house. Went to bed with the house being about 67 degrees.  Woke up at 2:30am to stoke it again (don't normally do this, but did last night because of the outside temps) and it was down to 63, if I remember correctly. It had a bed of HOT coals at 2:30.  I really would have thought the furnace would be able to keep up with these lower temps and at a minimum, hold the house temp around 65-67.  

Would you suggest adjusting my fan so it kicks on at a lower firebox temperature (I believe its currently set to kick on once the firebox hits 90 degrees)?

Thanks!


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## laynes69

With a heat exchanger dirty like that, it won't exchange heat like it should. Unfortunately, the design makes that difficult to clean things out. I'll let others with experience with the yukon chine in.


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## brenndatomu

So your house is 2400 ft + the basement, or _with_ the basement? Either way, that's a lot of creosote buildup there...do you use the oil/gas burner at all? A good hard run on wood daily, or letting the oil/gas kick on once a day or so will help keep it from building up like that.

It sounds like you have your fan kicking on way too soon...I think mine is something like 150* on 120* off (140/110?...can't remember) IIRC Yukon suggests 150-160* on and 120-130* off. The fan cycling always drove me nuts...that's part of the reason I am using the Tundra for wood mainly now...but it turns out it cycles too, at least after the hot part of the burn is over...so I installed a speed controller on the blower motor...best thing I could have done...if I ever decide to go back to using the Yook full time it will get a speed controller on the blower too...cheap enough, and easy to do. I'm kinda waiting to see what Yukon comes out with here soon to meet the new EPA regs before I do anything.

A bit of background for anybody that doesn't know...I put in a Drolet Tundra wood furnace as an "add-on" to the Yukon after snagging a cracked one pretty cheap. I just wanted to see how it would do compared to my Yook because I was getting creosote similar to what you have there with your Yukon, so I did some mods to it...that cleaned things up quite a bit, but it made it very cantankerous to operate...I wanted something that my wife could run if needed...just load n go (which the Tundra is) So for right now I have just been using the Tundra and the wood stove up stairs, the Yukon will only be used on oil if we go away for more than a day. The last time I cleaned the Yukon HE I found a rusted through spot, which I repaired, (not bad for 32 years old!) but I don't want to use it much until that is either replaced with one of the new SS HE's, or just upgrade the whole unit if I like what they come up with to meet the new EPA regs...so kind of in a holding pattern here right now.

When ever there is a cold snap coming like we just had, I always try to clean the heat exchanger right before that so it is as efficient as possible...it makes a big difference.


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## Brokenstone

This Yukon thread finally made me register after lurking for 3 years. I just had to throw my 2 cents in.

I have been running a Husky for the last 4 years and in my opinion that creosote build up is not all that bad for a cord and a half of wood in mild temperatures. Plus, I also suspect your wood isn't quite where it ought to be moisture wise given that this is your first year with the Yukon.

You know it is time to clean the exchanger on a Yukon when you open up the door and it smokes.

I know I could produce that much buildup in 2 weeks with wood at 30% or greater. Buildup like that is the nature of a wood furnace that cycles on and off with a thermostat demand for heat. It's the nature of the beast so to speak.

I am now 3 years head on my wood supply and a burning at about 15% moisture on average and I get a lot less buildup now. The way my furnace is set up I can clean the flue in about 15 minutes and I do so about 4 times a season.


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## brenndatomu

Brokenstone said:


> This Yukon thread finally made me register after lurking for 3 years. I just had to throw my 2 cents in.


Well welcome to Hearth fellow Yook owner!


Brokenstone said:


> The way my furnace is set up I can clean the flue in about 15 minutes and I do so about 4 times a season.


I wish they made the cleanout door hinge pins removable instead of the way they are...it would save me a ton of time wrestling my tee off and then back on.


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## Brokenstone

Thank you for the welcome. It probably wouldn't be all that hard to modify the cleanout door so it had removable hinge pins.

 One thing for sure the Yukon's are capable of putting out some serious heat.


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## brenndatomu

Brokenstone said:


> Thank you for the welcome. It probably wouldn't be all that hard to modify the cleanout door so it had removable hinge pins.
> 
> One thing for sure the Yukon's are capable of putting out some serious heat.


Yeah, you're right, it wouldn't be that hard really...I just haven't done it yet. I probably won't fool with it for now as my ole Yook is is need of a new heat exchanger soon (its one of the old steel ones, before they switched to SS)


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## docsj125

Hey Guys,not to jack this thread, another newbie here,installed sj125 early Dec and very happy with the results.
I lurked around to gather wood burning knowledge
Azam


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