IMO you’re better off getting a good burn and steady draft instead of constantly forcing air on/off with electric blowers. I think a lot of your creosote issues are coming constantly cooling off your burn. You’re going hot cold hot cold hot cold constantly instead of a good steady burn.
Hi there, I know it's been over 5 years since you posted this, but my wife and I just recently bought a house with a Hot Blast 1557m as the secondary heat source. The main furnace runs on propane from our pig outside. When we bought the house, the seller explained to us that he only fills his tank about 2 times a year, if that, as long as he runs the Hot Blast constantly. We have been excited about this but have ran it twice now and the temp in the house just decreases about a degree an hour, starting at 70. By the time it's 65 degrees, we just give up. We are very new at this. It sits in our garage in a dedicated area and has the twin stacks feeding into the basement ducts, with the cold air return running along side that, and the 6" chimney pipe runs straight up through the roof. There's a Raden Hat (from Mortal Kombat) looking metal cover thing that's supposed to be at the top of the stack but isn't there. The seller told us it blew off one year and he didn't notice any change so he never bothered climbing on the roof to reinstall it. When going to your channel, you have no uploads appearing. I am curious as to watching the rest of this video, as it looks like it was cut off. Do you still use your 1557m heater, and is there any advice you have in getting started. Propane is ungodly expensive here. We own a 2,000 Sq Ft. (per floor) 4 bed 3 bath, colonial house, with full basement. The house sits on a few acres, and I am considering building a wood or coal shed for storage, as from my research, coal is a better source for heat with no creosote. It's our first house ever and we're just trying to figure things out still. When purchasing the home, we thought it was going to be just routine maintenance keeping a fire going. But, this sucks. Any extra advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Solid fuel requires primary and secondary air for complete combustion. The primary air going through the bottom door controls the rate of oxidation of the fuel and the secondary air through the top door will mix with flammable gases above the fuel and burn providing complete combustion when set properly. The wood is not whats burning its the gases that are coming off of it. Creosote is unburnt fuel. You would cut way down on creosote build up if there were also a automatic valve that opens in the top door at the same time as the other one. Usually shoot for 1part primary air to 2or more parts secondary air. Awesome set up. I can see a lot of hard work and trial and error that you have put in to your system.
I have the red hot blast from Oscheln's. Dual 550 cfm blowers and dual heat ducts like yours. Second one I've owned and I like them. I put the filter box on mine for the air return but don't have anything for the blower like yours. I took my door off and bolted it shut so it couldn't get air. I am getting ready to install a secondary burn system in it and I'm thinking about putting a glass in the door and take the flap out. Have you thought about building a secondary heat reclaimer tank to capture more of the flu heat? Anyway, I liked your video. Keep up the good work. Maybe I will post one of mine this fall.
Love the throttle body on bottom damper GENIUS. I have the 1500 hotblast and my thermodisc seems like it doesn't kick blowers off until its getting low on wood. It's got my house roasting thinking about putting some kind of thermostat . Any ideas or suggestions would help.
jjr897 and yea I changed my blower thermodisc to a 130 degree on point, but get one that is a adjustable, range of 100 to 150 so u can find that sweet spot
If it's not shutting off the blowers then it's getting too much draft. Probably getting it through the top door. Take it apart and bolt the flap shut or take the flap out and put a ceramic stove glass in it so you can see what your fire is doing. You want to shut it down to just a glow. Then your wood will last a lot longer and you will be able to adjust your draft control better to get the house at a comfortable level. I am installing a secondary burn in mine through the inlet at the back of the stove and I recommend it to you also.
Sylvie Cbp sorry just now got your comment One thermostat that you were talking about goes up to 250° and is Adjustable, it has a gap between the flu pipe and the thermostat. Roughly a quarter of an inch that gap allows higher temperature in the flu pipe.
yes, a big help, appreciate you taking the time to make it! i'll get this thing figured out yet, been smoking myself out, so i'm doing something wrong.
is the smoke comeing out of the door with it open or closed? if u have a flue damper take it out, it is blocking the flue to much. use a damper like mine and play with it and u can get that thing buring good. also keep flue clean, buy some creosote sweeping logs and burn one every 3 to 6 months, that will help a lot with draft problems.
hey thanks. no damper hooked in anywhere. it comes out the bottom of the door if i close the damper on the ash door to tight. did have a little chimney blockage going on there too, but got that taken care of. i put tape over teh bottom of door & wired the feed door damper so it doesn't open & it's lots better. beem so frigid here, i'm sure going thru a lot of wood, so glad i'm getting if figured out, with your help!!
geargrinder387 vary glad that it was a help, I whould not remove that little door, that kepps the heat off the front door and helps the smoke move to the top better
I have a question about your furnace , if the blowers aren't on will it still heat your house somewhat? We have quite alot of power outages just wondering if I'd be out of luck without the blowers working..
yes and no, it stll give off some heat but at a vary slow rate. in a small house 1500 sqft it will prb be ok but the hot blast will get vary hot, a small gen with 700 watts should be good to run the blowers
I burn mostly coal. I don’t have any blowers into the firebox on my 1557m. I did put a temp regulated vented door on the front to have air flow over the top of the fire. My chimney etc is setup to pull enough draft to not need the blowers.
Nathan, I managed to find a thermostat that I think would work. I talked to the people at the company and they assured me it would. I have not purchased one yet, so I don't know for sure. www.alliedelec.com/selco-ora-500-qc/70098649/
IMO you’re better off getting a good burn and steady draft instead of constantly forcing air on/off with electric blowers. I think a lot of your creosote issues are coming constantly cooling off your burn. You’re going hot cold hot cold hot cold constantly instead of a good steady burn.
Hi there, I know it's been over 5 years since you posted this, but my wife and I just recently bought a house with a Hot Blast 1557m as the secondary heat source. The main furnace runs on propane from our pig outside. When we bought the house, the seller explained to us that he only fills his tank about 2 times a year, if that, as long as he runs the Hot Blast constantly. We have been excited about this but have ran it twice now and the temp in the house just decreases about a degree an hour, starting at 70. By the time it's 65 degrees, we just give up. We are very new at this. It sits in our garage in a dedicated area and has the twin stacks feeding into the basement ducts, with the cold air return running along side that, and the 6" chimney pipe runs straight up through the roof. There's a Raden Hat (from Mortal Kombat) looking metal cover thing that's supposed to be at the top of the stack but isn't there. The seller told us it blew off one year and he didn't notice any change so he never bothered climbing on the roof to reinstall it. When going to your channel, you have no uploads appearing. I am curious as to watching the rest of this video, as it looks like it was cut off. Do you still use your 1557m heater, and is there any advice you have in getting started. Propane is ungodly expensive here. We own a 2,000 Sq Ft. (per floor) 4 bed 3 bath, colonial house, with full basement. The house sits on a few acres, and I am considering building a wood or coal shed for storage, as from my research, coal is a better source for heat with no creosote. It's our first house ever and we're just trying to figure things out still. When purchasing the home, we thought it was going to be just routine maintenance keeping a fire going. But, this sucks. Any extra advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Tim Akers If I have time I can make another video explaining how I start the fire and I have two videos on this unit.
Solid fuel requires primary and secondary air for complete combustion. The primary air going through the bottom door controls the rate of oxidation of the fuel and the secondary air through the top door will mix with flammable gases above the fuel and burn providing complete combustion when set properly. The wood is not whats burning its the gases that are coming off of it. Creosote is unburnt fuel. You would cut way down on creosote build up if there were also a automatic valve that opens in the top door at the same time as the other one. Usually shoot for 1part primary air to 2or more parts secondary air. Awesome set up. I can see a lot of hard work and trial and error that you have put in to your system.
I have the red hot blast from Oscheln's. Dual 550 cfm blowers and dual heat ducts like yours. Second one I've owned and I like them. I put the filter box on mine for the air return but don't have anything for the blower like yours. I took my door off and bolted it shut so it couldn't get air. I am getting ready to install a secondary burn system in it and I'm thinking about putting a glass in the door and take the flap out. Have you thought about building a secondary heat reclaimer tank to capture more of the flu heat? Anyway, I liked your video. Keep up the good work. Maybe I will post one of mine this fall.
Last Chance no I have not thought about doing a secondary burn, and you don't want to take too much heat out of the flu or creosote will build up
Holy shit. That's some serious extra shit
Love the throttle body on bottom damper GENIUS. I have the 1500 hotblast and my thermodisc seems like it doesn't kick blowers off until its getting low on wood. It's got my house roasting thinking about putting some kind of thermostat . Any ideas or suggestions would help.
yea well I had the same prbs, that's y I did this set up with the blower and throttle
jjr897 and yea I changed my blower thermodisc to a 130 degree on point, but get one that is a adjustable, range of 100 to 150 so u can find that sweet spot
If it's not shutting off the blowers then it's getting too much draft. Probably getting it through the top door. Take it apart and bolt the flap shut or take the flap out and put a ceramic stove glass in it so you can see what your fire is doing. You want to shut it down to just a glow. Then your wood will last a lot longer and you will be able to adjust your draft control better to get the house at a comfortable level. I am installing a secondary burn in mine through the inlet at the back of the stove and I recommend it to you also.
Can you make it into a water heater
Where did you get the high temp flue button thermostat? I can seem to find one that goes up to 600 degrees. Thanks.
Sylvie Cbp sorry just now got your comment One thermostat that you were talking about goes up to 250° and is Adjustable, it has a gap between the flu pipe and the thermostat. Roughly a quarter of an inch that gap allows higher temperature in the flu pipe.
hope this vid helps with how to make yours automatic controling
yes, a big help, appreciate you taking the time to make it! i'll get this thing figured out yet, been smoking myself out, so i'm doing something wrong.
is the smoke comeing out of the door with it open or closed? if u have a flue damper take it out, it is blocking the flue to much. use a damper like mine and play with it and u can get that thing buring good. also keep flue clean, buy some creosote sweeping logs and burn one every 3 to 6 months, that will help a lot with draft problems.
hey thanks. no damper hooked in anywhere. it comes out the bottom of the door if i close the damper on the ash door to tight. did have a little chimney blockage going on there too, but got that taken care of. i put tape over teh bottom of door & wired the feed door damper so it doesn't open & it's lots better. beem so frigid here, i'm sure going thru a lot of wood, so glad i'm getting if figured out, with your help!!
geargrinder387 vary glad that it was a help, I whould not remove that little door, that kepps the heat off the front door and helps the smoke move to the top better
I have a question about your furnace , if the blowers aren't on will it still heat your house somewhat? We have quite alot of power outages just wondering if I'd be out of luck without the blowers working..
yes and no, it stll give off some heat but at a vary slow rate. in a small house 1500 sqft it will prb be ok but the hot blast will get vary hot, a small gen with 700 watts should be good to run the blowers
Depends on how big your home is and where you have the stove. Probably not though.
I burn mostly coal. I don’t have any blowers into the firebox on my 1557m. I did put a temp regulated vented door on the front to have air flow over the top of the fire. My chimney etc is setup to pull enough draft to not need the blowers.
Where did you find the limit that's in your flue? I can't find one with that high of a limit.. Thanks in advance
Nathan, I managed to find a thermostat that I think would work. I talked to the people at the company and they assured me it would. I have not purchased one yet, so I don't know for sure.
www.alliedelec.com/selco-ora-500-qc/70098649/
Sylvie Cbp awesome. I will check it out, thank you!!
The one I'm using is a 150 to 250 degree adjustable with space in between that and the flu so it's not touching it