Everything Drolet Tundra - Heatmax...

[jb6l6gc]

hey guys quick question. I have been running mine pretty solid for the last month.
One issue I am having is when the furnace is not completely warmed up the air inlet damper is binding up and not closing comepletely, once shes at higher temps it seems to close completely.
I took off the damper control cover but didnt see anything out of sorts. I know from reading a few people have had issues with this, where should I bee looking for the problem?

 

[DoubleB]

I, and I think everyone else, that had the hanging open damper found the problem was under the cover on the front right side of the furnace. You noticed that the connecting rod is bent into a loop at the end, the loop pulling the damper flap open. The loop also can make a flat in which the damper flap rests upon (partially) closing, instead of allowing the flap to rotate all the way shut. I believe that problem has always been fixed on here by just tweaking the loop a little bit to prevent the flap from getting caught in the loop.

Of course there's a chance that you have a different source causing the non-closing problem. Can you clarify whether you could see the flap stay open when you had the cover off? If not, I'd just leave the cover off until you can witness the problem occur, and possibly see if the loop is the source. Otherwise, it might be that the connecting rod is slightly too short and needs to be placed into a different (closer) slot in the damper motor in the control box in the rear of the furnace.

By the way, I didn't find a picture of the loop in this thread. If you have a chance to take a picture for others to see, that would be helpful.

 

[brenndatomu]

Yeah, it has to be the linkage pivot, or 1 of the 2 flap pivot pins. About the only possibilities unless the flap arm is rubbing the linkage cover. Like DB said ^^^, leave the cover off and watch it a bit.

 

[TDD11]

What a difference some wet wood makes. Have some year old split ash that wasn't covered up the best. HUGE difference compared to the dry ash I was burning. Even on a good bed of coals, 30 minutes on the timer was not really enough and there was no chance of secondary burn. I realize it'll shorten my burn time but I moved my low alarm temp from 215 to 260.

I've got a friend who sells firewood and said he's got 10 loads of 4 year old split/stacked/covered ash that he would trade me load for load for fresh cut/split/stacked, assuming I do all of the labor. I told him he's got a deal. Get me through this winter with dry wood and the rest will be a breeze.

 

[brenndatomu]

What a difference some wet wood makes

You preachin to the choir brotha!

 

[JRHAWK9]

What a difference some wet wood makes.

Don't tell an OWB guy this. He'll continue to tell you how he gets better burn times with wet wood. Then, if you're like me, you'll try explaining how you'll get more BTU's out of dry wood. Then you'll just get that blank stare.......... Been there done that with a Home Depot employee. Now I just keep my mouth shut.

 

[Jacksprat]

well folks it is -16F here in Ontario and my house is at 72F after a 11 hour burn still a very nice bed of coals and took about 10 minutes to get the Tundra back up to temp this is great still have lots of extra heat available if needed

 

[jb6l6gc]

well folks it is -16F here in Ontario and my house is at 72F after a 11 hour burn still a very nice bed of coals and took about 10 minutes to get the Tundra back up to temp this is great still have lots of extra heat available if needed

Yep close to the same here however my house drops down over night a bit as it's on the big side for the heatmax!

 

[Jacksprat]

i cheated a bit had the house about 76F at 8 oclock pm so had a bit of a cushion for over the night

 

[brenndatomu]

i cheated a bit had the house about 76F at 8 oclock pm so had a bit of a cushion for over the night

That does make a difference...if you can keep the tstat from calling for more heat (keep the intake damper closed) it makes a big difference in burn time.
That's why I like using my temp controller so much, because it will keep the damper closed once the firebox is up to temp and chugging along early on, then toward the end of the burn when the tstat starts to call for heat, the temp controller allows the damper to open, which helps keep the duct temps up and burns down the coals.

 

[JRHAWK9]

well folks it is -16F here in Ontario and my house is at 72F after a 11 hour burn still a very nice bed of coals and took about 10 minutes to get the Tundra back up to temp this is great still have lots of extra heat available if needed

very impressive! You must have a very well insulated home.

We were at -11°F this morning and the house was 70°F at the end of a 9 hour burn. Was 73°F when we went to bed at 10pm. This house is a pig though....doing the heat loss calc found on this site it came to 65K BTU/hr at 0° outside and keeping the house at 70°F. My 75,000 BTU/hr LP furnace ran almost 30 hours out of a possible 60 hours when we were gone this past weekend just to keep the main house 66°F in roughly 17°F weather. Basement is not heated with LP, but is heated by the wood furnace.

 

[Builderml]

Noticing some interesting things with ole Tundra recently...I have been burning some slab wood that my in-laws donated to me when they moved recently...and it seems to burn nice and hot, but still seems to last almost as long and regular splits! My old Yukon would be lucky to go 3-4 hours on a load of slabs, let a lone 8-12 hours!
And another thing is, these things love dry Pine! I have a ton of construction cut-offs to burn up from a large project at work so I have been putting a piece or two on top of my regular loads...it burns hot! My supply duct air temps run about 5* hotter for an hour or so when I do this

Brenn, you must think I was crazy or something at the time. You don't recall me saying all I burn is pine and how great the tundra was performing, this was around the time everyone was comparing duct temps and you wondered how mine were so high. Maybe you were thinking I was running it hard but all I was doing was burning pine. These stoves are so efficient that one will do very well with pine. Now that my wood variety has expanded when I end up with coal build up due to hardwood my next couple loads will be of just pine.Don't tell everyone or the price of pine may go up.

 

[brenndatomu]

Brenn, you must think I was crazy or something at the time. You don't recall me saying all I burn is pine and how great the tundra was performing, this was around the time everyone was comparing duct temps and you wondered how mine were so high. Maybe you were thinking I was running it hard but all I was doing was burning pine. These stoves are so efficient that one will do very well with pine. Now that my wood variety has expanded when I end up with coal build up due to hardwood my next couple loads will be of just pine.Don't tell everyone or the price of pine may go up.

No way man, I totally had you in mind when I was doing this and I meant to mention you in my post. Sorry!
These things completely fly in the face of old school burning techniques and tricks

 

[Builderml]

No way man, I totally had you in mind when I was doing this and I meant to mention you in my post. Sorry!
These things completely fly in the face of old school burning techniques and tricks

I just filled up the wood bin today in the basement, going to be a cold one tomorrow. Now that I have hardwood for this year when I do bring wood in I always try to bring in a 50/50 mix of pine/hardwood. People always tell me don't waste your time with the softwood it's not worth it. I just smile, sometimes you really can't teach an old dog new tricks. Only thing I like the hardwood for is long overnight burns so I still have nice coals left in the morning (8hours +) aside from that I get plenty from the pine.

 

[brenndatomu]

when I do bring wood in I always try to bring in a 50/50 mix of pine/hardwood. People always tell me don't waste your time with the softwood it's not worth it. I just smile

I busted my hump getting a load of hard Maple and Pin Oak last Saturday...by the time I was done my back hurt too bad to "top off" the load with some of the pine that was laying there too...I do have some Pine in the stacks though...its cut shorter to fit in the fireplace stove...may hafta tap into that for some Tundra snacks

 

[brenndatomu]

around the time everyone was comparing duct temps and you wondered how mine were so high

I don't recall what kind of temps you were seeing, but I know I'm running at least 15* higher duct temps after all my repairs, mods, tweaks and now wood species. Get into the mid and upper 120s for a while after loading
(and BTW, that's with the intake damper closed too)
I bet I could get the temps up a lil more if I pulled return air off the ceiling like @JRHAWK9 has talked about...and maybe pulled some air from the front of the furnace where it is so blasted hot (like the Caddy does) (I have the metal sitting next to the Tundra for it...just haven't settled on a design yet)

 

[STIHLY DAN]

Its a return, flex will be just fine.

 

[brenndatomu]

Its a return, flex will be just fine.

Yeah for the run I'd do flex, but I still need some sort of a...uuuum, plenum(?) around the front of the furnace to collect all that hot air...

 

[Builderml]

I don't recall what kind of temps you were seeing, but I know I'm running at least 15* higher duct temps after all my repairs, mods, tweaks and now wood species. Get into the mid and upper 120s for a while after loading
(and BTW, that's with the intake damper closed too)
I bet I could get the temps up a lil more if I pulled return air off the ceiling like @JRHAWK9 has talked about...and maybe pulled some air from the front of the furnace where it is so blasted hot (like the Caddy does) (I have the metal sitting next to the Tundra for it...just haven't settled on a design yet)

I think your correct it wasn't duct temps it was surface temps in different areas across the top of the unit.

 

[STIHLY DAN]

Yeah for the run I'd do flex, but I still need some sort of a...uuuum, plenum(?) around the front of the furnace to collect all that hot air...

Nah, look at jrhawk9's avatar. No plenum needed. A bit ugly though.

 

[brenndatomu]

Nah, look at jrhawk9's avatar

Hey @JRHAWK9 , have any better pics of what you did there?

 

[JRHAWK9]

lol....better pics will only, like Stihly said, make it look even uglier. It's definitely a function over form setup.

Here's photos of my setup before I got the cold air plenum and tied the "manifold" into it. I ended up wiring up a manual switch to turn the blower off when loading to keep it from sucking in who knows what. One also has to make sure your doors are adjusted so you won't be pulling in unwanted smoke. We do have CO detectors up stairs just in case.

 

[garmford]

Mine is a little broader version of jr's but I do believe it makes a difference. Is it ugly? Heck yeah! What do I care? It's in the corner of the basement where nobody goes. I'm all about getting more bang for my buck.

 

[jb6l6gc]

I, and I think everyone else, that had the hanging open damper found the problem was under the cover on the front right side of the furnace. You noticed that the connecting rod is bent into a loop at the end, the loop pulling the damper flap open. The loop also can make a flat in which the damper flap rests upon (partially) closing, instead of allowing the flap to rotate all the way shut. I believe that problem has always been fixed on here by just tweaking the loop a little bit to prevent the flap from getting caught in the loop.

Of course there's a chance that you have a different source causing the non-closing problem. Can you clarify whether you could see the flap stay open when you had the cover off? If not, I'd just leave the cover off until you can witness the problem occur, and possibly see if the loop is the source. Otherwise, it might be that the connecting rod is slightly too short and needs to be placed into a different (closer) slot in the damper motor in the control box in the rear of the furnace.

By the way, I didn't find a picture of the loop in this thread. If you have a chance to take a picture for others to see, that would be helpful.

I believe mine is being caused by the door itself eventually moving a bit to the left causing rod to bind in notch figured I could put a washer on the right side to keep that from happening! Going to change my ducts to side to side too once it's warmer on Saturday.

 

[jb6l6gc]

View attachment 190485 Mine is a little broader version of jr's but I do believe it makes a difference. Is it ugly? Heck yeah! What do I care? It's in the corner of the basement where nobody goes. I'm all about getting more bang for my buck.

Wouldn't a return duct that close to air inlets on unit violate code. Co risk?