US Stove 1537G Problems

[Snowdooer]

Thanks Chuck. I'm by no means a sheet metal guy, but with perseverence....

I do have some more playing to do. The first day was great. 75F and comfortable. Since then I've been having trouble balancing length of burn and temps in the house. I seem to only be able to achieve extremes. Either too hot in the house and a short burn or too cold with a longer burn. I think part of my problem is that my wood may be a bit too dry.

I did get the back plug out today and I agree, it doesn't do anything for me. I put it back in. I may experiment with it some more, but right now I have to work on the basics. I've been running with my under fire air damper 1/2 to 3/4 turns open and my over fire damper shut. This doesn't seem to give me enough air and I get about 300-350 flue temps max. I have a magnetic thermometer above the feed door and tends to run in the 425-475 range.

When I open the over fire damper just slightly I get nice secondary burn and my flue temp goes up about 50F. But then my burn time goes down. If I load the box heavy I can get 4-5 hrs out of it. At this rate I'll probably end up using 25 face cord, which is more than I have stacked....

 

[Snowdooer]

I've noticed a lot of you users of Hot Blast furnaces have removed your smoke doors. Does it make much of a difference in the smoke coming into the room while loading wood?

I usually open the flue damper and the bottom ash door for a few seconds before opening the front door. That seems to work well for me. That smoke curtain is a pain in the behind when loading wood, so I'd love to get rid of it.

What's the consensus?

 

[JustWood]

Someone from arboristsite.com did it with black pipe. Said it makes a difference. Just removing that plug will give close to the same effect. I would for sure open that top up. You will get alot better flow through the furnace. Looks good, and glad you have found what you were looking for. Forgot to add, I would turn down your on to 140. That way you don't have to have a roaring fire to kick in the stove. When it starts to burn the coals down you will get more heat from the unit. I am at 140 on and 85 off. It works the best for me.

Good advice for setting fan on/off limit switch. I experimented with mine and found 105/155 the best setting.
I believe every setup requires a different setting. My manual says the low should be set at 90 but at that
temp. my chimney seems to creosote up fast. Since I have set it at 105 it is pretty much self cleaning.

 

[smokinj]

Someone from arboristsite.com did it with black pipe. Said it makes a difference. Just removing that plug will give close to the same effect. I would for sure open that top up. You will get alot better flow through the furnace. Looks good, and glad you have found what you were looking for. Forgot to add, I would turn down your on to 140. That way you don't have to have a roaring fire to kick in the stove. When it starts to burn the coals down you will get more heat from the unit. I am at 140 on and 85 off. It works the best for me.

Good advice for setting fan on/off limit switch. I experimented with mine and found 105/155 the best setting.
I believe every setup requires a different setting. My manual says the low should be set at 90 but at that
temp. my chimney seems to creosote up fast. Since I have set it at 105 it is pretty much self cleaning.

Iam using the same settings,and working good.Using lots of softwood and only sweeping the chimminey once a year and its not bad at all!

 

[bigdog]

I can't really do that. My wood furnace is feeding the supply duct in the opposite direction that the propane furnace is supplying it, so the two blowers will be competing against each other and I think the propane blower will win resulting in almost no flow through the wood furnace. (or am I missing something)

I had a similar problem with the blowers competeing against each other. My chimney is between the woodburner and furnace and it wasn't practical to pipe the woodburner into the furnace plenum. I piped the 8" round into the the trunk on either side of the plenum and the stove will burn us out of the house (2400 sq ft) if I let it. The only difference between us is my setup is centrally located in the basement. My runs from the woodburner are 6 and 8 feet long respectively. The 1537g should give you enough heat. My house is old and poorly insulated (working on it little bit at a time). My HVAC friend suggested I could get a bigger blower for the woodstove from an old furnace he tears out but so far it hasn't been needed.

 

[bigdog]

OK boys....I am sitting here in my 75 deg living room typing this post. First off; thanks to all of you that helped me out with advice. I've been beating my head against the wall for weeks trying to get this furnace to heat my house. Now after following your advice I just need to learn how to control the burn and keep my house under 80F!

I spent yesterday making the mods to my furnace. I ended up cutting a larger hole in the back of my furnace and installing a single blower with a much larger capacity. I also modified the return air duct to accept the larger blower. I was going to open up the top of the furnace (and I still might), but by just adding the larger blower my house is plenty warm.

The reason I might still open up the top is that I am noticing hot spots on the furnace skin surrounding the air box. Oddly enough the hottest spot seems to be around the limit control. I figure by opening up the top it might change the air flow around the firebox enough to get better mixing.

Here are some pics of my modifications:

That install looks great.