Fire Chief FC1500 install

[Mrpelletburner]

HY-C made things good and agreed to ship the FC1500. The differences between the two stoves is clear as soon as you remove the packing.

Will be providing a detailed report, just wanted to kick things off with the trip from the garage to the basement. Took about 3hrs, still not connected, but did do the first burn in the driveway last weekend.

 

[brenndatomu]

Well, I'll be a monkeys uncle! I would have lost that bet...I really thought they were gonna string you along until you just went away!
So what differences are there in the firebox/intake track?

 

[maple1]

Wow. Good luck - you deserve some. Really looking forward to reading about how this goes.

 

[JRHAWK9]

That's great! Hopefully your new one doesn't keep us all entertained on here all winter like the last one did!

 

[Mrpelletburner]

Not overly excited about it, but I will end up with a 48” run with a 8” rise. The other option would be to rotate the stove and have three 90’s, which is also not a great option.

My concern is with the longer run my stack temps will drop faster allowing condensation to build up inside stainless steel liner.

Am I over thinking things?

 

[Mrpelletburner]

......

 

[JRHAWK9]

Why can't you remove the blocks it's sitting on in order to drop it down to increase the slope on your stove pipe?

 

[Mrpelletburner]

Basement floods Even my wood is 8” off the floor.

Adding a 2nd sump pump is on the list.

 

[maple1]

Is there a reason you can't move it closer to the chimney? I guess it would be 6 of one and 6 of another w.r.t. duct flows too.

I don't think the overall length of stove pipe is a concern here. Just should be uphill as much as possible with few bends as possible. I think mine is at least that long, overall. I have a good tall strong drafting chimney though.

Does the water really get that high? Looks like it would be kinda deep. Even a few inches lower would help some.

 

[Mrpelletburner]

Is there a reason you can't move it closer to the chimney? I guess it would be 6 of one and 6 of another w.r.t. duct flows too.

I thought about this last night. One issue with the current location facing is on the back of the stove there is a box that houses the draft blower, this prevents the stove pipe to angle towards the wall sooner.

I could also rotate the stove clockwise and over closer to the chimney (this is how I first had the stove setup), however the blower intake would be ~ 12” from the back wall. Was told by HC-Y that this would lower the temperature of the air being drawn in and heated up.

Does the water really get that high? Looks like it would be kinda deep. Even a few inches lower would help some.

We live in a water shed area and to add on to the pain, the neighbor in the spring filled in their in ground pool and diverted the water towards our house (nothing we can do about it according to the town). Within 1 ½ hrs it is possible that we could have 8-9” of water in the basement, if the sump pump goes out (why we are adding a 2nd). Right now the stove is 8” off the floor, I could use a 4” block, but would run the risk of water reaching the bottom of the stove.

 

[brenndatomu]

Not overly excited about it, but I will end up with a 48” run with a 8” rise. The other option would be to rotate the stove and have three 90’s, which is also not a great option.

You should be fine...2" rise per ft of run is way over the minimum of 1/4" rise per ft run.
I have a 4' section that is only 1" rise per ft...no issues with it...but everything else is right though too...insulated liner in a tall chimney, etc...

 

[Mrpelletburner]

Ok, proceed on with the current setup. Connected up the stove pipe, blower fan, and ducts out of the top. Added 5 pcs of kindling to the firebox, a ball of crumpled up a ball of paper and fired it up.

First impressions, this stove is NIGHT and DAY different. Not only did it fire up right away, but the amount of smoke exiting the chimney disappeared in maybe 5 mins. Once the kindling was nice and charred, I added 3 small splits (baby steps) and closed the door. Maybe after 15-20 minutes, the blower turned on. Again I watched the smoke exiting the chimney and again after ~5 minutes, the smoke was gone. With my temperature gun, I took some surface readings of the stove pipe over the exposed pipe (exit of the stove to the flue) and a consistent 380 degrees. The FC1000 would read 380 degrees exiting the stove and drop 50 degrees before it hit the flue.

As I am in sort of a "test mode", I added 3 larger splits with the draft blower off, as I wanted to see what would happen. Again, smoke exiting the chimney for ~5 mins then clear. This never happened with the FC 1000.

Now... draft blower has been off for over an hour now and the stove is running at a steady temperature, however, the blower has not turned off (Yes, I did check the switch to make sure it is set to auto mode)????? When I fired the stove up in the driveway the blower would trigger on and off, so I know it does turn off.

Does this mean the stove is too big for my 2,200 sq ft house? It is currently 40 degrees outside, so not all that cold.

 

[laynes69]

Its 40 degrees out....if I bake something at 40 degrees out I can overheat the house. Let it hit zero outside and it's a different story. I dunno, 3 splits and zero smoke without the use of a draft blower and constant blower operation I wouldn't complain. You'll need the heat when the weather turns cold. Worse case, you build a fire and let it die down before reloading.

 

[brenndatomu]

Ok, proceed on with the current setup. Connected up the stove pipe, blower fan, and ducts out of the top. Added 5 pcs of kindling to the firebox, a ball of crumpled up a ball of paper and fired it up.

First impressions, this stove is NIGHT and DAY different. Not only did it fire up right away, but the amount of smoke exiting the chimney disappeared in maybe 5 mins. Once the kindling was nice and charred, I added 3 small splits (baby steps) and closed the door. Maybe after 15-20 minutes, the blower turned on. Again I watched the smoke exiting the chimney and again after ~5 minutes, the smoke was gone. With my temperature gun, I took some surface readings of the stove pipe over the exposed pipe (exit of the stove to the flue) and a consistent 380 degrees. The FC1000 would read 380 degrees exiting the stove and drop 50 degrees before it hit the flue.

As I am in sort of a "test mode", I added 3 larger splits with the draft blower off, as I wanted to see what would happen. Again, smoke exiting the chimney for ~5 mins then clear. This never happened with the FC 1000.

Now... draft blower has been off for over an hour now and the stove is running at a steady temperature, however, the blower has not turned off (Yes, I did check the switch to make sure it is set to auto mode)????? When I fired the stove up in the driveway the blower would trigger on and off, so I know it does turn off.

Does this mean the stove is too big for my 2,200 sq ft house? It is currently 40 degrees outside, so not all that cold.

Your gonna need to specify when you are talking about the draft blower and when you mean the house (duct) blower...it gets confusing to try to follow otherwise.
That said, I think you are saying the duct blower is running non stop...that's a good thing...one that cycles all the time SUCKS!
From a cold start the blower should come on once the furnace warms up...it may cycle a time or two until things good rolling good...but a well designed furnace with a proper install will have a blower running non stop almost to the end of the fire...then you get a bit of cycling at the end of the fire usually too.
The reason it shut off when you tested it outside was because 1. you probably had a short piece of pipe on it for a chimney...so bad draft, and the fire wasn't burning "normally" (not as hot) 2. you had no duct work hooked up so the blower was moving maximum volume, that cooled things down quickly kicking the fan switch off.
This model very well may be "too big" for your house, but that is better than "too small". If a small one can't keep up on a cold night, it can't keep up, not much you can do about it. But when you have a wood burner that is "too big" you can build small fires in it. Also, load lower BTU wood when its not as cold...and load less often. I load once per day if it is warmer out, twice per day as it cools down, and 3 times per day once winter sets in proper like....varying the load sizes each time based on current house and outside temp, along with the forecasted temp.
Sure hope this one works out better for you, seems like you are off to a much better start!

So did they give this one to you even up, or had to pay the difference? Are that taking your old one back to test on?

 

[Mrpelletburner]

Inside the firebox before firing it up.

 

[Mrpelletburner]

Your gonna need to specify when you are talking about the draft blower and when you mean the house (duct) blower...it gets confusing to try to follow otherwise.

Will do!

That said, I think you are saying the duct blower is running non stop...that's a good thing...one that cycles all the time SUCKS!
From a cold start the blower should come on once the furnace warms up...it may cycle a time or two until things good rolling good...but a well designed furnace with a proper install will have a blower running non stop almost to the end of the fire...

 

[brenndatomu]

Now knowing that the FC1000 draft blower was not supposed to cycle as often as it did, helps understand why I was having issues

How often the draft blower cycles is based on what the houses thermostat calls for, no?
What controls the secondary air flapper, computer?

 

[Mrpelletburner]

How often the draft blower cycles is based on what the houses thermostat calls for, no?
What controls the secondary air flapper, computer?

The house thermostat will turn on/off the draft blower however even with the draft blower off, the duct blower will run until the fire box has cooled off.


The secondary air flap is manually controlled.

Not the best photo, but this is how it is controlled.

 

[brenndatomu]

So you probably have a few fires under your belt by now...have you had to use your "windowstats" yet?
Whatdya think?

 

[Mrpelletburner]

So you probably have a few fires under your belt by now...have you had to use your "windowstats" yet?
Whatdya think?

Cold starts are like throwing a match on a hay pile.

After about 20 minutes, there is a nice bed of coals, add a coupe splits and the house goes from 67 to 85 fast.

Last night it was ~29 degrees out, added 8 medium splits (16” logs) around 11pm and around 1am the house reached 87 degrees. Also, by 3:30am was just a warm bed of coals. At 7:30 am there was only 1 small amber left.

So seems to heat fast and burn faster.

 

[brenndatomu]

around 1am the house reached 87 degrees.

87*!? Holy moly...you did have the windows open, didn't you?!
Heck, its probably still 78 in there!
Good to hear this one is working out better for ya!

 

[JRHAWK9]

Cold starts are like throwing a match on a hay pile.

After about 20 minutes, there is a nice bed of coals, add a coupe splits and the house goes from 67 to 85 fast.

Last night it was ~29 degrees out, added 8 medium splits (16” logs) around 11pm and around 1am the house reached 87 degrees. Also, by 3:30am was just a warm bed of coals. At 7:30 am there was only 1 small amber left.

So seems to heat fast and burn faster.

Eight medium splits doesn't tell us much, but to me it sounds like it's lacking control....? 4.5 hours and it burned through, what seems like, a fair amount of wood.

 

[maple1]

And put out what seems like a lot of heat all at once

 

[brenndatomu]

Eight medium splits doesn't tell us much, but to me it sounds like it's lacking control....? 4.5 hours and it burned through, what seems like, a fair amount of wood.

And put out what seems like a lot of heat all at once

I'm sure there will be a learning curve here...after all, he used to putting in 8 medium splits and getting no heat, just smoke!

 

[Medic21]

Does this have a 6 inch glue and how high up is it?