New Yukon-Eagle Husky Wood/coal/propane furnace on the way.....

[bbauer161]

Ok, hoping to get this manometer installed this weekend.

(1) Mount the unit, filling it with the gage fluid and zero it out.
(2) Drill a hole in the flue pipe between the furnace and the baro damper? This will be the "high" tube.
(3) Connect the "low" tube to the manometer but leave it unconnected and pulling the room air?


Is this correct?

The higher the reading, the more draft, correct? Where do I want it to be holding?

Sorry for so many questions....

 

[bbauer161]

I should add that I have an 8 inch, terra-cotta/block chimney that is roughly 30 feet tall. It is not lined/insulated.

 

[brenndatomu]

Ok, hoping to get this manometer installed this weekend.

(1) Mount the unit, filling it with the gage fluid and zero it out.
(2) Drill a hole in the flue pipe between the furnace and the baro damper? This will be the "high" tube.
(3) Connect the "low" tube to the manometer but leave it unconnected and pulling the room air?


Is this correct?

The higher the reading, the more draft, correct? Where do I want it to be holding?

Sorry for so many questions....

Yeah that sound right. If you want you can peel those rubber tubes apart and not even hook up to the low side.
Yukon calls for -0.03" WC...so that will be 3 marks right of zero.
No worrys on the questions...fire away

 

[maple1]

Ya, I only have the one tube hooked up to mine. I guess hooking up the other one might keep dirt out of the hole.

(Make sure you level it, also).

 

[bbauer161]

ok, manometer is installed. See pictures below. I had a small fire going all day, but clearly not a roaring fire. When connected, the manometer read -.02.....(or is this .02 based on brenndatomu's comments above that negative was to the right of zero?)

This is also when the baro is completely closed. When I manually open the baro with my hand, it moves closer to zero.

Should I wait to "read" it until I've got a larger fire?

Thanks for the help!

 

[brenndatomu]

I guess I should clarify a bit here, move that hose over to the right port so that the gauge reads to the right of zero, it will work the same, but give you an expanded scale. The gauge is labeled for "pressure" on that side but we all know that we are actually reading negative pressure.(I suppose this is really just a personal preference, no reason you can't leave it where it is)(unless you get real high draft when its windy...how would you ever know with the gauge reading on the left of zero?!)
To answer your question...yeah you need to set the baro after you load and have a well established fire going (gotta fully warm the chimney...Yukon says to run the oil/gas burner for 10 minutes, then set the draft. It should never go much over -0.03" WC at the highest...(like -0.04" is too much) you will notice that it starts dropping off a bit after the intake damper is closed for a while...or at the end when the fire is getting burned out...and it will obviously read low or nothing at all when started a new fire with a cold chimney.

 

[bbauer161]

I guess I should clarify a bit here, move that hose over to the right port so that the gauge reads to the right of zero, it will work the same, but give you an expanded scale. The gauge is labeled for "pressure" on that side but we all know that we are actually reading negative pressure.(I suppose this is really just a personal preference, no reason you can't leave it where it is)(unless you get real high draft when its windy...how would you ever know with the gauge reading on the left of zero?!)
To answer your question...yeah you need to set the baro after you load and have a well established fire going (gotta fully warm the chimney...Yukon says to run the oil/gas burner for 10 minutes, then set the draft. It should never go much over -0.03" WC at the highest...(like -0.04" is too much) you will notice that it starts dropping off a bit after the intake damper is closed for a while...or at the end when the fire is getting burned out...and it will obviously read low or nothing at all when started a new fire with a cold chimney.

Thanks - I get what you mean now. I've adjusted it and am running .02.....I'll keep checking it, especially when I get the fire really going. Given that the fire has been running all day, my guess is the chimney is warm, but definitely not as hot as last week when it was much colder outside and I was running the fire much harder/hotter.

I'll run the oil burner over the weekend and set it.

Thanks! Next project.....mid season clean in mid/late january before I get busy with tax season.

 

[bbauer161]

So I did my first cleaning about a week ago. Attached are some pictures that I took. The picture of the chimney pipe is about 2 feet after coming out of the furnace. I felt like it was a lot of creosote. However, I started burning pretty early. I burned probably 1-1.5 cords between November and December. Wood is seasoned, but its pretty junky. It definitely smoked a lot....probably more than if I'm burning really hot w/ well seasoned oak. Not concerned about cleaning the chimney pipe inside, I'll do it again in the end of January. Will likely do it 2-3 times every season. However, wondering you would expect more or less creosote to build up in the exterior chimney vs the interior pipe? Likely going to call a chimney sweep this week.

Another question. The past 2-3 days we have had some cold temps for Maryland. Highs in low 20's, lows around 10-12 with wind chills in the single digits. My house was build in 1987, is about 2400 sq ft with a 900 sq ft finished basement, and seems relatively well insulated. Thermostat is on the main floor. The upstairs is always colder and I believe it is due to poor duct work (for example, my large master only has one return and one supply for the bedroom because since the house is post and beam construction, there is only one spot in the house for duct work and water lines to go from basement up to the top floor). Over the 2-3 cold days, the furnace was able to bring the house up to 70 during the daytime. Once the sun went down and temps dropped to the teens, the temperature started dropping in the house. Went to bed with the house being about 67 degrees. Woke up at 2:30am to stoke it again (don't normally do this, but did last night because of the outside temps) and it was down to 63, if I remember correctly. It had a bed of HOT coals at 2:30. I really would have thought the furnace would be able to keep up with these lower temps and at a minimum, hold the house temp around 65-67.

Would you suggest adjusting my fan so it kicks on at a lower firebox temperature (I believe its currently set to kick on once the firebox hits 90 degrees)?

Thanks!

 

[laynes69]

With a heat exchanger dirty like that, it won't exchange heat like it should. Unfortunately, the design makes that difficult to clean things out. I'll let others with experience with the yukon chine in.

 

[brenndatomu]

So your house is 2400 ft + the basement, or with the basement? Either way, that's a lot of creosote buildup there...do you use the oil/gas burner at all? A good hard run on wood daily, or letting the oil/gas kick on once a day or so will help keep it from building up like that.

It sounds like you have your fan kicking on way too soon...I think mine is something like 150* on 120* off (140/110?...can't remember) IIRC Yukon suggests 150-160* on and 120-130* off. The fan cycling always drove me nuts...that's part of the reason I am using the Tundra for wood mainly now...but it turns out it cycles too, at least after the hot part of the burn is over...so I installed a speed controller on the blower motor...best thing I could have done...if I ever decide to go back to using the Yook full time it will get a speed controller on the blower too...cheap enough, and easy to do. I'm kinda waiting to see what Yukon comes out with here soon to meet the new EPA regs before I do anything.

A bit of background for anybody that doesn't know...I put in a Drolet Tundra wood furnace as an "add-on" to the Yukon after snagging a cracked one pretty cheap. I just wanted to see how it would do compared to my Yook because I was getting creosote similar to what you have there with your Yukon, so I did some mods to it...that cleaned things up quite a bit, but it made it very cantankerous to operate...I wanted something that my wife could run if needed...just load n go (which the Tundra is) So for right now I have just been using the Tundra and the wood stove up stairs, the Yukon will only be used on oil if we go away for more than a day. The last time I cleaned the Yukon HE I found a rusted through spot, which I repaired, (not bad for 32 years old!) but I don't want to use it much until that is either replaced with one of the new SS HE's, or just upgrade the whole unit if I like what they come up with to meet the new EPA regs...so kind of in a holding pattern here right now.

When ever there is a cold snap coming like we just had, I always try to clean the heat exchanger right before that so it is as efficient as possible...it makes a big difference.

 

[Brokenstone]

This Yukon thread finally made me register after lurking for 3 years. I just had to throw my 2 cents in.

I have been running a Husky for the last 4 years and in my opinion that creosote build up is not all that bad for a cord and a half of wood in mild temperatures. Plus, I also suspect your wood isn't quite where it ought to be moisture wise given that this is your first year with the Yukon.

You know it is time to clean the exchanger on a Yukon when you open up the door and it smokes.

I know I could produce that much buildup in 2 weeks with wood at 30% or greater. Buildup like that is the nature of a wood furnace that cycles on and off with a thermostat demand for heat. It's the nature of the beast so to speak.

I am now 3 years head on my wood supply and a burning at about 15% moisture on average and I get a lot less buildup now. The way my furnace is set up I can clean the flue in about 15 minutes and I do so about 4 times a season.

 

[brenndatomu]

This Yukon thread finally made me register after lurking for 3 years. I just had to throw my 2 cents in.

Well welcome to Hearth fellow Yook owner!

The way my furnace is set up I can clean the flue in about 15 minutes and I do so about 4 times a season.

I wish they made the cleanout door hinge pins removable instead of the way they are...it would save me a ton of time wrestling my tee off and then back on.

 

[Brokenstone]

Thank you for the welcome. It probably wouldn't be all that hard to modify the cleanout door so it had removable hinge pins.

One thing for sure the Yukon's are capable of putting out some serious heat.

 

[brenndatomu]

Thank you for the welcome. It probably wouldn't be all that hard to modify the cleanout door so it had removable hinge pins.

One thing for sure the Yukon's are capable of putting out some serious heat.

Yeah, you're right, it wouldn't be that hard really...I just haven't done it yet. I probably won't fool with it for now as my ole Yook is is need of a new heat exchanger soon (its one of the old steel ones, before they switched to SS)

 

[docsj125]

Hey Guys,not to jack this thread, another newbie here,installed sj125 early Dec and very happy with the results.
I lurked around to gather wood burning knowledge
Azam

 

[Motor7]

Still rocking the Yukon after 10ish years. I just found out that they went out of business in 2022....it's a damn shame as I think they built a good reliable product.

I have changed my wood loading habit a bit, and now only run 4 logs at night at a time in cold weather to keep from over heating the house. So that means I will have to re-load around 3 AM when up for a pee break. During the day, usually only 2 logs at a time.

We also added a mini split in the great room, so it takes up the slack between reload times & is much more efficient than propane.

I got behind on firewood after a snapping my Tib and Fib crashing the pig off pavement on a week long trip at the tail end of COVID. 27 screws and two metal plates. Still catching up now and filling my firewood bins. A buddy has several standing dead Empress trees that are light in weight, but long in burn time, we will attack those soon.

We stopped using the propane side of the Yukon due to cost. Last time I tried to run it the evac blower came on but it will not ignite. Have to look at the thermostats and see if that might be the issue. Other than that I have no clue.. I pulled the whole gas burner assembly out and everything on it was clean and in good shape. Not a huge loss, but gas is handy when you get home from a winter road trip and need the heat the house up fast.

It was 11F here this morning.....loving it!

 

[brenndatomu]

I'd think any HVAC tech worth his salt would be able to diagnose that burner easy enough...nothing fancy going on there