Thermo Control 135KBTU Indoor Unit

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SidneyME

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Jul 27, 2008
3
Central Maine
Getting used to my newly installed indoor boiler. I'm wondering if this thing is best used by ripping as big a fire as I can...or going with a smaller fire. I have the pump set to circulate at 160F...and the auto damper shut-down set to 180F. I'm not sure I really like the automatic damper...which seems to be either ALL THE WAY open, or ALL THE WAY closed. I have in mind to be as efficient with the wood as possible, but I fear this beast is going to be chugging through my woodpile. Anybody else use this model?
 
I have a TC2000 boiler with the same issue. Discovered this in the first week.

The "beast" as you put it is either full throttle or choked off. I agree, not the best control.

Make sure you are measuring stack temperatures - this is what had me scared initially. My stack limit switch was closing the damper 7 - 9 times per loading. Not good.

I ended up making a cap to cover the top of the inlet box. Then I added two pieces of small aluminum channel on the bottom of the inlet box that allowed me to add my own inlet damper gate (a piece of sheet metal). Moving the bottom gate about 1/16" makes a world of difference. I finally found a sweet spot to run the beast with a nominal 400 - 450 degree stack temperature. This is probably the same as adding a manual flue damper (adding a barometric flue damper on these creosote machines would probably be a bad idea).

Right now I'm thinking about some kind of inlet damper actuator controlled by a stack temperature PID controller. Yeah, I'm crazy and still researching.

Good luck.
 
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