I personally think it isn't necessary to have an accurate prove in this furnace. A Rutland exterior magnet will work just fine and will tell you what you should steady know
Englander 28-3500 tips
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I have two magnet thermometers. One on the flue about 2 foot up and the other above the door. The door one is about 150 low and the flue one is about 100 low. I now keep an IR thermometer by the stove and when ever i go down there I check the temps. It allows me to check different spots and i can see the temp rise or fall where the other thermometers take some warming up or cooling down. I also found best is small hot fires. For us it saves on wood since we super insulated our house. At 30 ish out one fire at 6am get the 2200sf house to about 78. Fire dies out around 10am. Then when I get home around 7pm it is 72 to 70 ish and that fire lasts the night. I havnt had real good luck with burns over 6 hours. Mainly because I always am checking the temps to make sure they are over 300.
Update. It has been relatively warm in South NJ so we have not been burning with the exception of a few cool nights. This past Friday we lit her and she's been burning since then. I have got to say, I've been getting 6 hour ish burn times. When it comes time for a reload, there is a nice bed of coals and restarting a larger fire has been easy. Creosote creation has been kept at bay mostly to small hot fires and letting her get nice and hot before loading and banking it down for the night. This creosote is mostly in the back / bottom of the stove just inside of where the blower fan air enters the rear of the box. I think that this cooling effect is the major cause here.
I also checked the flue and the lining has a minor greyish dusty ash buildup, but there is no creosote to speak of.
The lower spin damper control has been open a 1/4 turn and the top slide damper 1/4 from closed. It is 30 degrees outside and 75 in the house.
Once set there is no or almost no visible smoke.
Thank you all for your help and advice on getting this beast under control.
I will post another update once we really get into winter.
I also checked the flue and the lining has a minor greyish dusty ash buildup, but there is no creosote to speak of.
The lower spin damper control has been open a 1/4 turn and the top slide damper 1/4 from closed. It is 30 degrees outside and 75 in the house.
Once set there is no or almost no visible smoke.
Thank you all for your help and advice on getting this beast under control.
I will post another update once we really get into winter.
I have been experimenting with top down fires. They seem to take a bit longer to set up and heat up but they seem to be bring better. We've been getting 8 ish hours of heat while maintaining 300+ degree flue temps. The top down method also seems to keep the house a steady 75 vs hitting the mid 80s.
I absolutely love this furnace. We have had a few very cold nights and the amount of heat that this thing puts out is amazing. Top temp is outside, bottom is inside. 2800 Sq ft house. I found that for us the sweet spot is with the spin draft slightly past 1/4 turn open, and the top slide draft at 1/4. I am getting 7hr burn times. I dont usually use the top down method...mostly because the pyro in me wants to fiddle with the fire and watch it burn....lol, however in the past I have used it with success. During the burn season, I dont usually get a chance to re-light from cold, I am mostly rekindling the last fire.
bbottom is inside.,
![[Hearth.com] Englander 28-3500 tips](https://www.hearth.com/talk/attachments/20160105_222353-webp.171713/ "[Hearth.com] Englander 28-3500 tips")
bbottom is inside.,
FaithfulWoodsman
Minister of Fire
Getting the same results on year two with it. Dry wood is a huge factor, as well as adding the damper and learning the fine tuning points. Did have a problem couple days ago. Had a great fire at night and decided to throw a couple more medium splits in on an already lit load. Since the fire was hot and cruising and the wood was dry I figured it wouldn't be an issue. Woke up the next morning to that black watery stuff leaking out of the ash door. I have had a small amount in the back before and none this year because of the dryer wood. Wood is ash c/s/s a year ago and most I checked were below 20%. I've done this before with no issue. Just surprised by the amount of it, never seen that much since I've owned it and we had wetter wood last year. Did I just happen to grab a couple wetter splits or is this from not allowing the new ones to char? Thoughts?
Hey Faithful Woodsman... I had the same runny...water like stuff too. I thought that it was creosote but a few people told me that it was moisture "squeezed out" from the new fire brick that I had. Since after the first 5 or so burns... I've not had that return. I only get very small amounts of tarry creosote or the remnants of it burned off as crispy flakes.
Did you have any new fire brick in your stove?
The only issues that I have run into lately was dark coaling (basically making charcoal) from not enough air... but I found that the problem was the ash clogging up the air slots...maple ash mostly.. but that was resolved by cleaning the slots..
Did you have any new fire brick in your stove?
The only issues that I have run into lately was dark coaling (basically making charcoal) from not enough air... but I found that the problem was the ash clogging up the air slots...maple ash mostly.. but that was resolved by cleaning the slots..
FaithfulWoodsman
Minister of Fire
Did you have any new fire brick in your stove?
I did put a couple new firebricks in the front to protect the door welds after a crack was fixed this fall, but at least a dozen fires had been in it before the leak. Maybe it just wasn't hot enough? Haven't had any issues since, but also haven't thrown in fresh splits without letting it roar for a bit.
I get some black coals no matter what, but most are smaller than a golf ball or much less. I would say that's normal with this unit, but if you are getting large black coals then you might want to consider more air. I added a damper this year like you did, but most of the time I only shut it 25% so as not to affect the draft. It's great to control the stove when the wind is howling as we have a strong draft. It's been great this year, 70's inside and singles outside, but I am just starting to dip into my less than a year seasoned ash wood. We'll see how we fair, hoping it's dry enough.
I did put a couple new firebricks in the front to protect the door welds after a crack was fixed this fall, but at least a dozen fires had been in it before the leak. Maybe it just wasn't hot enough? Haven't had any issues since, but also haven't thrown in fresh splits without letting it roar for a bit.
I get some black coals no matter what, but most are smaller than a golf ball or much less. I would say that's normal with this unit, but if you are getting large black coals then you might want to consider more air. I added a damper this year like you did, but most of the time I only shut it 25% so as not to affect the draft. It's great to control the stove when the wind is howling as we have a strong draft. It's been great this year, 70's inside and singles outside, but I am just starting to dip into my less than a year seasoned ash wood. We'll see how we fair, hoping it's dry enough.
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