Wood not completly burning

[kieth4548]

I'd resist the temptation to look for an exotic solution. I suspect it's something pretty simple, or some combination of simple things. Offhand I'd say, in their order of likelihood based on what you've said so far would be:

1.) clogged grates
2.) wet wood
3.) clogged chimney

I'm going with the clogged grates because Lee said he had a furnace like yours and that's what it sounded like to him. Me, too. I'd say wet wood, simply because your furnace was running fine until you got into a new run of wood, and that's a big red flag for any diagnosis. Clogged grates and/or wet wood might jam up the chimney with creosote, though the only way to determine that is by looking up the damn thing.

So I'd check all three of those and try the boiler again before messing around with the other settings. You don't want to get things so out of whack that you have to start from scratch. Long, cold weekend ahead.

Ok.. did my inspections over the weekend.. This is waht I found
1-no clogged grates
2-wood was plenty dry
3-Chimney did need cleaned. Not bad though. Pulled out about 1/2 gallon of junk out of both chimney & stove pipe.

As result of cleaning chimney like to report things are working great again. I will have to inspect this once a month.

Thanks
Kieth

 

[Shipper50]

Ok.. I thought there was another grate. i just re-read my manual and it says to adjust both the top and bottom dampers. The england tech guys have all told me keep the bottom closed and only adjust the top. Now I am wondering if this might be the problem. What's your thoughts?

I have the exact same furnace you have and have been only burning it one week. My suggestion is to turn the bottom damper about a 1/4 turn open and leave it that way. I also have burned wet wood as some standards on here. With my meter I just bought it was 38% and it was dead and leaning for who knows how long.

I have to empty my ash pan about every 2-3 days and when I put in new wood I pull the coals in the bed forward towards the door. I mainly keep the main damper all the way open as its been cold here and I need all the heat I can get.

I would also add to get your wood charred, I open the bottom door all the way open and open the top damper all the way till I get the wood burning well. Then close the bottom door and adjust the top damper to what kind of heat you need.

If this doesn't help burn the wood more completely, then I would look into your chimney.

Shipper

Thanks.... Have a quick question for you since you own one. How big is your house you are heating? What kind of air flow are you getting? Reason I ask is my furnace guy made a filterbox to cover the motor and tied two 6" air intake feeds off my cold air return to curculate/ filter the air. Since I don't know what it was like before putting it on I am trying to determin if it's cutting down my airflow.

Since I don't really know my sf, I will guess it around 2000. I live in a log home with a loft and upper bedrooms and have not taken the actual measurements yet.

My air flow is ok with just letting the wood furnace blower do its thing. I tried running my electric furnace blower and it cooled the air to much in some of the vents. My buddy did suggest putting some kind of filter on the wood blower or keep an eye on it and blow it out with air.

I did take digital heat measurements at the vent and the 3 closest to the main trunk are the hottest. On a good burn, I get anywhere from 125 to 147 degrees.

Hope this helps, good to know your chimney was clogging so soon.

Shipper

 

[Woodrat]

I have noticed over the last few days that I will get up to a cold house and go and add more wood and only the front half has burned to hot coals. The back has burnt black but only about half way down.

Thanks
Kieth

These are great units-- Just finished running one for a couple of weeks at a friend's house (house&cat;sitting while they were on vacation)
Only time I had anything like you describe happen was when (as Eric pointed out) the grates toward the back would plug up with ash. Running it with the lower air coming in may make it seem to burn the wood better, but it will overheat the unit and allow it to gobble wood at an alarming rate.What may be happening under those conditions is the turbulance of incoming air is helping to dislodge the ash----- better to do it with an "L" shaped poker.
Best wishes--Woodrat

 

[kieth4548]

Ok.. I thought there was another grate. i just re-read my manual and it says to adjust both the top and bottom dampers. The england tech guys have all told me keep the bottom closed and only adjust the top. Now I am wondering if this might be the problem. What's your thoughts?

I have the exact same furnace you have and have been only burning it one week. My suggestion is to turn the bottom damper about a 1/4 turn open and leave it that way. I also have burned wet wood as some standards on here. With my meter I just bought it was 38% and it was dead and leaning for who knows how long.

I have to empty my ash pan about every 2-3 days and when I put in new wood I pull the coals in the bed forward towards the door. I mainly keep the main damper all the way open as its been cold here and I need all the heat I can get.

I would also add to get your wood charred, I open the bottom door all the way open and open the top damper all the way till I get the wood burning well. Then close the bottom door and adjust the top damper to what kind of heat you need.

If this doesn't help burn the wood more completely, then I would look into your chimney.

Shipper

Thanks.... Have a quick question for you since you own one. How big is your house you are heating? What kind of air flow are you getting? Reason I ask is my furnace guy made a filterbox to cover the motor and tied two 6" air intake feeds off my cold air return to curculate/ filter the air. Since I don't know what it was like before putting it on I am trying to determin if it's cutting down my airflow.

Since I don't really know my sf, I will guess it around 2000. I live in a log home with a loft and upper bedrooms and have not taken the actual measurements yet.

My air flow is ok with just letting the wood furnace blower do its thing. I tried running my electric furnace blower and it cooled the air to much in some of the vents. My buddy did suggest putting some kind of filter on the wood blower or keep an eye on it and blow it out with air.

I did take digital heat measurements at the vent and the 3 closest to the main trunk are the hottest. On a good burn, I get anywhere from 125 to 147 degrees.

Hope this helps, good to know your chimney was clogging so soon.

Shipper

I have a 1500 sq/ft ranch and I measured the vents saturday and I was getting around 125-127 out of all the vents. I was suprised how even it was. I too had the same problem when I ran my blower. England tells you to run it but I don't understand how when it cools it down so fast. I even changed some wiring to slow the blower motor down and still cooled it down. The only problem that I have is that it backflows a little of the heat in the house furnace due to the filter box being hooked into the cold air return. I have to call my furnace guy on this.

 

[kieth4548]

I have noticed over the last few days that I will get up to a cold house and go and add more wood and only the front half has burned to hot coals. The back has burnt black but only about half way down.

Thanks
Kieth

These are great units-- Just finished running one for a couple of weeks at a friend's house (house&cat;sitting while they were on vacation)
Only time I had anything like you describe happen was when (as Eric pointed out) the grates toward the back would plug up with ash. Running it with the lower air coming in may make it seem to burn the wood better, but it will overheat the unit and allow it to gobble wood at an alarming rate.What may be happening under those conditions is the turbulance of incoming air is helping to dislodge the ash----- better to do it with an "L" shaped poker.
Best wishes--Woodrat

Things are much better now that I have cleaned out my chimney and stove pipes.. Over the weekend I also left the bottom vent open just a hair to get a little air to the back and now I am getting full burn from front to back. Got seven hours out of a load of wood.