Caddy Install

[joes169]

I think I'll be taking the ask clean out door out and replacing it with a firebrick. Even after all the times I've already scooped sh out, I still tend to forget tha tstupid thing is sticking up.......

As for flue temps, I've got to be playing "catch-up" for an hour or two for my temps to get near 350 degrees, and they most often stay in the low 200's.....

 

[newyorker]

just curious what you guys have you fan limit switch set points at

 

[joes169]

150 F on, 110 F off with the fan speed set at 2 (low/medium).

I've played with it a little last year and found that to be about the best for my situation.

As Laynes noted, the air is cooler than conventional fossil fueled furnaces, so the fan may need to run more often to give out the same heat in comparison.......

 

[newyorker]

What about the high limit? Ibwas thinking of lowering it

 

[STIHLY DAN]

I have 110 on 95 off. Low speed fan.

 

[STIHLY DAN]

I have 110 on 95 off. low speed fan, high speed kicks on for a call for heat.

 

[brenndatomu]

160 on, 120 off, 200 high limit. I run my temps on the higher side of normal, it seems to help keep my heat exchanger a bit cleaner. The heat exchanger on the Yukon is huge and it captures a ton of heat from the exhaust stream so it is easy to drop temps to creosote level.

 

[joes169]

My high limit is set at 200 F, and I can't say I've ever been remotely close to it yet. I have the cover off of the fan limit switch, and my office is in the basement near the furnace, so I get to monitor it pretty regularily, and I don't think I've ever seen it over 165 F..........

 

[JRHAWK9]

I have 110 on 95 off. Low speed fan.

I have mine set at the factory 105° on.......

Is the off always 15° lower than the on and non-adjustable?

Do you like the 110° on better than the 105°? I thought about raising mine, but haven't yet.

 

[STIHLY DAN]

Yes it is a locked in 15* diff, I lower it to 105 when it gets to winter. I find changing the temps for the season helps with even heat.

 

[JRHAWK9]

I just upped mine to 110°. It's 11° outside right now -HERE- with a low of 9°, so we'll see.

 

[STIHLY DAN]

110 will actually blow less heat. As in the fan wont run, you are only getting gravity heat.

 

[JRHAWK9]

110 will actually blow less heat. As in the fan wont run, you are only getting gravity heat.

yep, found that out last night. I figured that may be the case, as the fan doesn't run once it nears the end of the burn. It was just an experiment. I now have it back to 105°

 

[STIHLY DAN]

When it gets to below zero temps I'll put it to 100.

 

[JRHAWK9]

hmm, I may keep that in mind and try that out Supposed to be all single digit nights almost all next week.

 

[tobes]

I have double wall dvl stove pipe with a double wall tee. The baro damper just plugged right into the tee. You buy the baro damper separately.
I'll try to post a (not current) picture:

Sorry for the slow response. That Baro looks a lot nicer than mine ! The Baro I have came with a single wall tee. The problem is the baro is designed to fit in the female part of the tee and the double wall has a crimped inner pipe, which because of the crimp is a smaller diameter. I have made a few calls this past week and found out a few things. After talking with the pipe manufacturer (Selkirk) apparently it isn't against code (CSA B365) to go from single wall to double, the catch is that the double wall now takes on the single wall clearences....18". She did however say that if the furnace manufacturer recommends a Barometric damper, at the discretion of the person doing the WETT insection, that could be considered part of the furnace. So the double wall upstream of my tee and Baro could be considered where the flue pipe starts allowing me to use the 6" dounle wall clearences. I spoke with the guy who is going to do the inspection and explained everything and he was satisfied. So long story short I am going to stick with my single wall tee and Baro for now, unless he changes his mind when he does the inspection this Friday !

 

[newyorker]

if i wanted to change the blower setting on my caddy to i just move the red wire to which ever speed i want?

 

[tobes]

I have my caddy up and running, happy so far, a bit of a learning curve though. For the past 5 years we have been burning wood in our old cookstove in the kitchen, this is a totally different animal.
When my electrician and I hooked up the electric back up element we noticed a 3/8" gap between the electric housing and furnace panel wall. There is no way to adjust the position of the element housing, and the screw holes line up, so not sure about this gap. Has anyone seen this issue before ?(I'll try and post a pic) I contacted the dealer a week ago and e-mailed a pic. He is supposed get in touch with SBI but is now on holidays for a week.
Also, still figuring out how much to load the furnace depending on the demand (weather has been all over the place....+10C.....-15) not just loading it right up every time. I have noticed creosote on the back of the damper and am a little concerned. Would this be from overloading it and have a smouldering fire ? I have also been raking a trough from the bottom front combustion gas port to the back of the furnace to get some air to the coals. It seems if I don't I end up with just chared wood at the back of the firebox in the morning. Is this normal operation ? Sorry for the berrage of questions ....

 

[laynes69]

Not sure about the electric elements. With creosote and unburnt coals, it sounds like a few things that could be going on. First would be the wood, is it seasoned and how large is your splits? Second would be lack of draft, did they test your draft, do you have a barometric damper? How tall and what size is your chimney. Then last, what's the square footage of your home, and is it tight and well insulated?

If your loading too large of loads and the damper is closing soon after loading, it will smoke. The furnace needs to come up to temperature before closing the damper. We have our damper adjusted to stay open slightly during the burn. If we were burning small splits or soft woods, I wouln't need to.

 

[tobes]

The wood is seasoned and the splits vary. I had a cord of maple split and stacked last winter for the cook we didn't decide to buy the furnace until this past summer so we were stuck buying the rest of our wood for this year. We bought 4 cord of Ash and Maple from a friend. It was blocked up last fall but split recently.
we live in a 120 year old century farm house with approximately 1600 square feet to heat. It is moderately insulated, 2"paperback insulation with drywall. I have replaced half the windows and have the rest sitting in the garage. Just trying to find time to stall them. The flue consists of approximately 2' of single wall ( 45 elbow and tee with damper) 3' of double wall,to a double wall 45 into a 6" x 2" insulated wall kit. From there it is 27' up the outside of the house to the cap. I have a barometric damper and set it with a digital manometer...I set the draft to 0.05 - 0.06. Before I set the damper I was drafting an easy 0.10. I also wondering about keeping the furnace damper open a hair to slow a little more combustion air. I tried a paper clip on the damper itsel, it worked well. The coal bed burnt down secondary combustion looked good, but it almost put out too much heat. The furnace blower would constantly go and the house temp kept climbing. I'm learning as I go, this past week I have increase the thermostat to call for heat when loading the furnace. After I load it I let it build for 15-20 then turn the stat back down. That seems to keep a good lingering flame.

 

[laynes69]

It sounds like your wood, while it does season in rounds, it seasons better once split. You'll find next season when your ahead on wood, it will be easier. As long as the firebox is hot, you'll get heat. You might try reducing the fan speed one setting, or load smaller loads to match heating demand. As your finding out, they can produce alot of heat. When we don't need a ton of heat in the 30's, I let the furnace cycle off a coalbed for a while. Your draft speeds sound fine. Initially I thought something was wrong with our furnace, but there's numerous threads where Epa stove owners can't shut their air down 100% and it's no different with the furnace. If I was burning dimensional lumber then yeah its easy, but the larger denser hardwoods require a little extra air. It doesn't hurt the burn times, and it improves combustion. Sounds like you'll need to experiment and burn based on our needs. I load a few splits in mild weather, and if a constant heating demand is needed, I'll load tightly and let the thermostat cycle the furnace.

 

[tobes]

Thanks for the help ! I was wondering if it was the wood, but hoping it wasn't because there isn't much I can do about it. We are looking to get a load of logs this winter, so that should get us head for a few years. I'll try fighting the urge to load it right up on milder days as well. I keep reading a smaller, hotter fire is better.
Do you find you need to keep a clear line from the front air vent to the rear of the firebox ? I have been raking a trough down the centre to the back for air flow, it's a bit of a pain in the ass though

 

[laynes69]

No, I don't keep the doghouse air clear to the rear of the box. I do keep it clean in front, but load with a gap in the wood in that area like a tunnel. Many times, a few large splits will carry is for quite some time depending on heating demand. I just make sure to leave some gaps or spaces around the splits and it will keep a nice bright fire that way. At the end of a burn, usually the front of the firebox is all ash. I scoop that out, pull coals forward and load on that. If I have too large of a coalbed and need heat, I'll place a softwood split on top and open the damper. Once it's burned down to what I want, I load. Other than one night where we hit 8° F with -20°F windchills, I have yet to fully load our furnace. As our home gets tighter, things get better.

 

[tobes]

Finally managed to post a picture of the gap in the electric insert

 

[tobes]

Looking for a little advice. I have been running our Caddy Wood/electric since the beginning of November and all around impressed with how it is running, for the most part. -25C evenings we are getting around 7 hour burn times with about a 5 degree drop in the house temp overnight, not bad for a drafty old farm house. I have a batometric damper installed in a tee about 15" from the back of the furnace. With a week of starting the furnace up I noticed creosote building up in the back of the damper and gumming up the hinge. To avoids this I turned the "T" down and placed a 45 degree elbow in it, then placed the Baro on the elbow. This seemed to keep it out of the smoke path and still regulate my draft. All was good, until last weekend. I noticed I wasn't getting any draft. I checked it with my manometer and was reading .01" and smoke was weeping out of my flue pipe. My rain cap, with spark arrestor, was completely plugged at the top of my 27' chimney. My wood situation this year is less than perfect, not totally seasoned, some of it between 25-30 moisture content.the guy who cleaned my chimney said to remove the Baro and run it hot 400-450 once a day to clean out the cap. I have done this but am now worries about over firing. When I load the stove now with a call for heat I get 450 F withinh 15 minutes and the draft is reaching 14" WC. Not sure what to do now. I'm stuck with this wood for this year. Any suggestions ? Sorry for the rant.