Fire Chief FC1000 year 2

[Medic21]

I think its for sale

Do you deliver lol

 

[JRHAWK9]

Do you deliver lol

License get revoked? LOL

 

[brenndatomu]

Do you deliver lol

For the right price.
Gonna be high though...I already made my trip to Wisconsin for the year.

 

[Medic21]

License get revoked? LOL

Harvest time would be the best time for that to happen lol. Unfortunately no, I get to go from a 14hr shift on the boo boo bus to the semi in the morning.

 

[brenndatomu]

boo boo bus

never heard that one before

to the semi in the morning.

Hauling corn?​

 

[Medic21]

never heard that one before

Hauling corn?​

Corn and soy beans. We had just gotten harvest started and got hit with 3 inches of rain friday

 

[brenndatomu]

Corn and soy beans. We had just gotten harvest started and got hit with 3 inches of rain friday

Yeah we have had rain every few days for the last month, they are using 4x4 tractors with duals the whole way around and pulling dump carts to get the corn out to the trucks on the road due to the mud

 

[Medic21]

Yeah we have had rain every few days for the last month, they are using 4x4 tractors with duals the whole way around and pulling dump carts to get the corn out to the trucks on the road due to the mud

Doesn’t look like it will be much better this week, heavy rains tomorrow now. Also gonna lose the warm drying days starting Friday. Lows down into the 30’s this weekend.

 

[sloeffle]

Harvest time would be the best time for that to happen lol. Unfortunately no, I get to go from a 14hr shift on the boo boo bus to the semi in the morning.

Took me a minute to get what boo boo bus meant. That is pretty good.

 

[JRHAWK9]

Took me a minute to get what boo boo bus meant. That is pretty good.

Glad I'm not the only one, I actually had to GOOGLE the freakin' thing. LOL

 

[Mrpelletburner]

So far HY-C has still been involved, lots of calls back and forth. Believe they are working on making things right. In a couple of weeks, I should have more to report.

While I have had issues with the stove, their customer service has been outstanding. I mean, they flew out to my house to double check the setup and go back to the lab to brainstorm.

 

[brenndatomu]

they flew out to my house to double check the setup and go back to the lab to brainstorm.

Not much brainstorming needed...just need to walk down the hall to engineering, pull the page out of their book that has the FC1000 primary/secondary air system design on it, feed it to the engineer that came up with it, then fire him/her, find the next engineer in line and tell them to do better (which should be pretty easy to do)

 

[Medic21]

Just lit mine for the first time after installing 5 more feet of chimney. Looks like I’m getting a better burn I’ll see what happens. Only needs to run for a couple hours tonight.

 

[Medic21]

Ok, after raising my chimney, it is at or just above the peak of the roof from the eve. I built a small fire, followed the instructions to a T. When the kindling and small pieces were down to coals I added three 6” splits at 16% moisture. They were fully burning and charred with a stack temp of 600 degrees. I closed it up and it burned for 4 hours with the inducer on continuously and raised the house from 64-71 degrees without problem. Cold and rainy night so I loaded three more and charred them then three more on top of that. I closed it up when everything was burning good, I was at 625 on the stack. Set the thermostat to 73 and went to bed. 9 hours later it was 74 in the house and left at coals. It was sunny yesterday so I left it go out. Not one puff of smoke from it over night.

The conditions were such that before raising the chimney I was not able to burn. North wind, 35 degrees, and rain. The other huge improvement I made was replacing a garage door that a screen door would have been as adequate for sealing. I got a lot longer run times on the fan with a cooler firebox pulling more heat instead of it basically sucking outside air right into it.

Still a pain in the butt process to start the fire but, worked much better until I can get a boiler installed. This will give you nothing but problems if you try to close it up too fast when lighting or loading. My wood is also more seasoned this year after another year in the leantoo.

 

[Mrpelletburner]

Couple updates...

Have the draft flapper adjusted a just past the riveted spot. I have the non opened end tapped to cut down on the air opening. If you own the stove, you should know what I am talking about.

Cold starts... I now can get the stove going in 15-20mins with a crisscross stack of small splits, using a torch to ignite. Once the center of the stack starts burning at a rate where the torch is no longer required, I remove the torch and close the door. I give the stove 20 mins and then add 3 more splits on the sides. Splits are smaller. This I find allows the fire to grow from the center without adding to much fuel. After about an hour, I can load the box up.

Warm starts... rake the hot coals to the front, stack splits to the back and close the door. Depending on the outside temps and the load, takes about ½ hour or a bit longer for the stove to take off and almost no smoke out the stack.

Now I am still having random back puffs. They usually happens when the draft blower and turns off the first time. Fills the basement with a cloud of smoke. Turning on the draft blower helps eliminate the back puff, however it can still happen. Very frustrating to deal with!!

I have worked a lot with the folks at HY-C, they have from day one always returned calls, visited my house and provided suggestions. They have agreed to switch out the stove for the another model as we can’t seem to find the right formula for my application. There is no doubt this stove takes time to dial in and learn how it works. It is a budget stove with a very sensitive design. I think for X amount of applications out there, this stove would work as advertised. However, for some reason, it just can’t get over the back puffing hump.

One thing that I have noticed as I have become more educated is my stack doesn’t burn clear. When the stove should not have any smoke from the stack, my application has a small cloud of condensation which quickly evaporates into the air. Thinking of pouring vermiculite between the SS liner and the clay lining, see if it helps increase the upper stack temps.

Also, as far as I can tell, I am not having the creosol build up like I did last season.

 

[laynes69]

Water is a byproduct of combustion in wood. We see condensation until the moisture is burned from the wood. If what is seen from the stack dissipates quickly there's no concern. If its grey, blue or a thick white and hangs around then it's an issue.

 

[Mrpelletburner]

Video removed

 

[maple1]

That looks like water vapour. Most prevalent after loading. The more there is, the more moisture in the wood.

 

[brenndatomu]

That looks like water vapour.

Agreed

 

[Mrpelletburner]

That looks like water vapour. Most prevalent after loading. The more there is, the more moisture in the wood.

The video was recorded 1.5hrs after loading. Very prevalent after loading for 1/2hr or a bit longer. No longer having the creosol build up as I had last year.

Could the vapor also be from the flue temps dropping, creating condensation? I do not have insulation wrapped around my SS liner, trying to gauge if add vermiculite would help.

 

[maple1]

It will condense whenever it hits temps cool enough to make it. That could be in the air as soon as it hits the air, or it could be somewhere in the pipe if the pipe can get cool enough - doing it in the pipe will also dirty the pipe up, since it also caused the nasties to condense along with it.

Also - all the condensation does not come from moisture in the wood itself. It could also come from moisture in the intake air. Even the cleanest of fossil burners can make stuff like that out their exhaust - or your car or truck even. So even the very driest of wood will still make what looks like that, under the right conditions.

 

[JRHAWK9]

That looks like water vapor. Most prevalent after loading. The more there is, the more moisture in the wood.

sorry, had to "correct" it.....every time I read it I tried to break out in a French accent.

 

[Medic21]

Couple updates...

Have the draft flapper adjusted a just past the riveted spot. I have the non opened end tapped to cut down on the air opening. If you own the stove, you should know what I am talking about.

Cold starts... I now can get the stove going in 15-20mins with a crisscross stack of small splits, using a torch to ignite. Once the center of the stack starts burning at a rate where the torch is no longer required, I remove the torch and close the door. I give the stove 20 mins and then add 3 more splits on the sides. Splits are smaller. This I find allows the fire to grow from the center without adding to much fuel. After about an hour, I can load the box up.

Warm starts... rake the hot coals to the front, stack splits to the back and close the door. Depending on the outside temps and the load, takes about ½ hour or a bit longer for the stove to take off and almost no smoke out the stack.

Now I am still having random back puffs. They usually happens when the draft blower and turns off the first time. Fills the basement with a cloud of smoke. Turning on the draft blower helps eliminate the back puff, however it can still happen. Very frustrating to deal with!!

I have worked a lot with the folks at HY-C, they have from day one always returned calls, visited my house and provided suggestions. They have agreed to switch out the stove for the another model as we can’t seem to find the right formula for my application. There is no doubt this stove takes time to dial in and learn how it works. It is a budget stove with a very sensitive design. I think for X amount of applications out there, this stove would work as advertised. However, for some reason, it just can’t get over the back puffing hump.

One thing that I have noticed as I have become more educated is my stack doesn’t burn clear. When the stove should not have any smoke from the stack, my application has a small cloud of condensation which quickly evaporates into the air. Thinking of pouring vermiculite between the SS liner and the clay lining, see if it helps increase the upper stack temps.

Also, as far as I can tell, I am not having the creosol build up like I did last season.

Question. Where is your thermostat set at when firing? I had the exact same issue and set mine to where the blower will not shut off for a good hour and that cleared up. Works good when the house is down to 65. My biggest issue so far this year has been keeping the house consistent on temp. I don’t mind the 65 in the morning but, I have to get it to 75 before I can set the thermostat to 72 or it will puff.

I attribute it to the lack of air when it is idleing.

 

[Mrpelletburner]

Question. Where is your thermostat set at when firing? I had the exact same issue and set mine to where the blower will not shut off for a good hour and that cleared up. Works good when the house is down to 65. My biggest issue so far this year has been keeping the house consistent on temp. I don’t mind the 65 in the morning but, I have to get it to 75 before I can set the thermostat to 72 or it will puff.

I attribute it to the lack of air when it is idleing.

 

[Mrpelletburner]

This is how and how much I have been loading the stove. Hot coals to the front, splits to the back angled up on the hot coals. This I have found allows the wood to catch at a rate the stove can handle.