Did you figure out the overtemp issue or is it the ductwork thats causing that?
New Caddy Advanced owner
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The overtemp issue was primarily due to not having the barometric damper early on when I was seeing drafts of 0.07”-0.08” wc. Since adding the damper, it’s only entered over temp once and that was because I stupidly left the Ash pan door loose as a way of smoke reduction when doing a cold start.
The small size of the supply duct does have an effect on the temperature of the unit I believe, but not to the extent of overtemp. Because the duct is so small, my theory is that the hot air stays concentrated in the Plenum. The blower stays on quite a bit even when not calling for heat. That’s because the RTD kicks the blower on at 190°F, regardless if it’s calling for heat. My hope is that the blower will kick on a lot less when that hot air is able to escape. The furnace radiates quite a bit of heat, which is against what I’ve been reading on the forum. It’ll heat the basement totally, with really no need for a supply vent. That’s good for downstairs, but I need the heat flowing up stairs.
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So I've had a total of 3 HVAC contractors take a look. Long story short, the 2nd contractor to take a look discovered that the manual damper was incorrectly installed (by the initial duct contractor). The manual damper was showing open but was in fact.....CLOSED. No one thought to check it since they assumed it was installed correctly. Once I opened the manual damper, the static pressure dropped to 0.85" w.c., which is still a bit high but MUCH better than 1.3"! I feel so stupid. The vents are now flowing decently and distributing heat.
So where I'm at now is this:
Two contractors said the trunk is still a bit small, but doesn't seem to be a deal breaker since it's distributing heat, albeit still with some whistling, which is pretty annoying. But the blower doesn't sound strained like it was before. Also, in anticipation of doing the trunkwork, I exposed the trunk by ripping out all of the tongue/groove board. I asked if I should do anything while I have it all exposed. Aside from a few minor things and some efficiency upgrades, both contractors recommended to wait until I do the addition so that I would know exactly what the final demands of the house are.
But I keep going back to my trunkline only being 128 SI, and feeling like I should increase it. Then again, that could be revised once the addition comes in 2-3yrs or so. Decisions, decisions.
So where I'm at now is this:
Two contractors said the trunk is still a bit small, but doesn't seem to be a deal breaker since it's distributing heat, albeit still with some whistling, which is pretty annoying. But the blower doesn't sound strained like it was before. Also, in anticipation of doing the trunkwork, I exposed the trunk by ripping out all of the tongue/groove board. I asked if I should do anything while I have it all exposed. Aside from a few minor things and some efficiency upgrades, both contractors recommended to wait until I do the addition so that I would know exactly what the final demands of the house are.
But I keep going back to my trunkline only being 128 SI, and feeling like I should increase it. Then again, that could be revised once the addition comes in 2-3yrs or so. Decisions, decisions.
Boy, that may be the greatest plot twist I've ever read on Hearth!
I agree, run it for a while and see what you've got now.
128 inches is probably plenty most of the time...would really only come into play if the blower was called to run on high
Update:
So after going back and forth with it, I'm going to leave the slightly deficient ductwork in place until the addition is complete. I'm nervous that I'll make it sufficient for now but then it'll be too large once pressure bleeds off into the addition area. Seems to me that it's better to reassess the system as a whole once the added living space is put in place. All that means is I have to look at the ugly exposed trunkline for a couple years. No biggie, there's plenty of uglier things in the house
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The furnace itself is running well. I'm still getting the whistling sound but I stuck a piece of carboard into where it's whistling from which reduced it to a tolerable level. I'll eventually caulk it with stove caulk when I'm able to have the furnace out of use for a day. Getting decent burn time although I fight to not get smoked out everytime I reload on a hot coal bed. Cold starts are no problem, but they are few and far between at this time of year. With the hot coals, pieces start smoking immediately, and I often get my face full of smoke before I'm done reloading. Maybe I'll try a propane torch through the baro, like some other guys do.
Another thing is that I'm able to see what my wood consumption is going to be, roughly. The old Jensen would go through roughly 6 cord per year. I wanted to be about half of that, but I think it'll be around 4 cord based on the last two months. Still much better! Who knows if that'll increase once I add almost 1000 SF in a couple years. I plan to make it as insulated as possible.
Recently, I'm struggling to get the draft over 0.04" wc. Maybe I'm going through a wet batch of wood but I'm still pulling from the same pile. Maybe it just needs a cleaning.
So after going back and forth with it, I'm going to leave the slightly deficient ductwork in place until the addition is complete. I'm nervous that I'll make it sufficient for now but then it'll be too large once pressure bleeds off into the addition area. Seems to me that it's better to reassess the system as a whole once the added living space is put in place. All that means is I have to look at the ugly exposed trunkline for a couple years. No biggie, there's plenty of uglier things in the house
.The furnace itself is running well. I'm still getting the whistling sound but I stuck a piece of carboard into where it's whistling from which reduced it to a tolerable level. I'll eventually caulk it with stove caulk when I'm able to have the furnace out of use for a day. Getting decent burn time although I fight to not get smoked out everytime I reload on a hot coal bed. Cold starts are no problem, but they are few and far between at this time of year. With the hot coals, pieces start smoking immediately, and I often get my face full of smoke before I'm done reloading. Maybe I'll try a propane torch through the baro, like some other guys do.
Another thing is that I'm able to see what my wood consumption is going to be, roughly. The old Jensen would go through roughly 6 cord per year. I wanted to be about half of that, but I think it'll be around 4 cord based on the last two months. Still much better! Who knows if that'll increase once I add almost 1000 SF in a couple years. I plan to make it as insulated as possible.
Recently, I'm struggling to get the draft over 0.04" wc. Maybe I'm going through a wet batch of wood but I'm still pulling from the same pile. Maybe it just needs a cleaning.
Have you tried raking the coals towards the back or towards the intake grate when reloading instead of raking them forward. Thst seems to buy me some time. Tried closing baro, opening windows and doors to increase draft, helped a bit but still got smoke in the face.
Thats an impressive difference in wood consumption!
You're struggling to get .04" with an active fire going? Have you tried adjusting or covering the baro?
Thats an impressive difference in wood consumption!
You're struggling to get .04" with an active fire going? Have you tried adjusting or covering the baro?
I try and load fast. I get my wood all set so i can load and then close the door. I leave it cracked and press the button
Y'all ever pull your baffle boards forward to dump what's piled up on the back one, under the HX entrance holes? I've seen those get almost plugged up with debris from cleaning (even if you think you pull it all forward, you don't)
I actually just did that for the first time in 3 years ive had it. Didnt have to much up there but the TC had alot of debris buildup so i brushed it off. Not sure if it made a difference or not. I didnt like how it was burning but the wood i had was not as dry as i thought it was. Now that im into some truly dry wood its lovely again
Mines been running pretty well with one issue arising. I had two or three instances where the blower was running then it clearly should not have been. Cycled the power and operation returned to normal. Then had a case where the furnace went into overheat mode and the blower would not run. I had just loaded the furnace so I ran the propane furnace blower to get some air flow (parallel set up). Eventually got the Caddy blower to run by having the thermostat call for heat. All these issues reminded me of a sticky relay and that is what it turned out to be. The blower relay is soldered into the control board so the board had to come out (not fun with the top cold air return installed), relay desoldered/removed. I added wires and connectors for the new relay so it can be replaced in the future without removing the control board. The new relay has 30amp contacts instead of the originals 20amp contacts. So far so good and operation has returned to normal.
I thought i had a problem with my heat commander a couple weeks ago. 15 below and i wake up and the blowers not running 6 hours into the burn. Well what the heck i get up and run downstairs (i had the flu not feeling good) look at the thermostat says heat on go downstairs yep theres definately a fire. Plenums hot what the heck why aint the green light on. I crack the door thinking maybe i can get it to kick the blower on that way. Nope. So i hit the reload button and nothing. Great. Unplug it for 5 minutes plug back in and nothing. I go to turn the basement lights on so i can read the owners manual and ohhhhh! The powers out! Oops lol! In my defense i had the flu and a fever!
No because I did not ask them to. I found the OEM relay at Digikey for about $6. I ended up using a 30 amp contact rating automotive relay (also 12vdc coil) because I had some on hand and I wanted to get the furnace back up and running ASAP.
I suspect they would send out a complete control board as they would not expect a customer to replace board level components.
I also suspect they would want me to run through a bunch of trouble shooting tasks before sending anything out which would just be a waste of my time and delay getting things up a running again.
New Update:
Apparently, the reload light bulb is blown. Everything works as it should otherwise. Now I need to figure out how to replace it. It almost looks like i need to take the whole left side panel off to get to the keeper ring. Anyone ever experience this?
Apparently, the reload light bulb is blown. Everything works as it should otherwise. Now I need to figure out how to replace it. It almost looks like i need to take the whole left side panel off to get to the keeper ring. Anyone ever experience this?
Yeah it's hard to tell. I'll give SBI another call. Really not sure how to get to it. The top of the side panel is riveted.
So I called SBI and they told me to unplug it to reset it. It worked! They said that sometimes it just needs to clear some internal codes.
It does bring into question how long the light will last. It is, infact, not a separate bulb. So if it needs to ever be replaced, the whole switch needs to be replaced. This is easy on the HC, but on the Caddy, the whole side panel needs to come off.
It does bring into question how long the light will last. It is, infact, not a separate bulb. So if it needs to ever be replaced, the whole switch needs to be replaced. This is easy on the HC, but on the Caddy, the whole side panel needs to come off.
The Caddy is great! just brought in about a full cord into the basement last week. I'm really enjoying sitting in front of the fire on quiet mornings after restocking. It's so nice not having to wake up and restock. I could let it go 10hrs, come back and rake the coals, throw some pieces on and crack the door, and the fire would come right back. One thing that I've realized is that we don't have to keep as much fire starter and kindling on hand since there's almost no cold starts once the winter sets in.
Chimney draft is cruising right at 0.05" WC, and the furnace seems to really like it. The only thing puzzling to me is that the blower sometimes kicks on when the light is out (furnace is out of heat). Not sure why that's needed if there's no heat available, even if there's a call for heat. But perhaps just a design flaw?
Still getting some back pressure in the ducts and some "whistling" through the pilot hole in the front below the loading door. I just plugged it to quiet it down for now (not sure if this is a bad thing to do). I'm leaving the ductwork a bit undersized for now. We have a 26'x24' addition to the house in the works, starting in 2026. This is a first floor and full basement, adding 1248 SF to our current 1600 SF, totaling 2848 SF of conditioned space. According to PSG, this is at the top end of the Caddy's usable range, which is conservative, I think. I plan to insulate the basement walls/slab and create a tight envelope in the new addition, so that it doesn't add too much demand on the furnace. Also need to upgrade the insulation in the floor and rim joists in the existing house. Just need the time!
I'll try to update this as the addition is in progress. I suspect that I will reconfigure the entire trunkline of the duct, customizing it to suit the Caddy's fancy.
Great! I have noticed odd things with my heat commander to sometimes but overall its fantastic i think even though my setup is less than optimal.
