Draft Blowers

[badwood]

:msp_wink:I was looking for some opinions on draft blower kits I have a hotblast 1400 and was thinking of adding a draft kit . Is it worth it? thanks.

 

[CrappieKeith]

Is it worth it?
Not an easy question to answer.
By adding a draft blower does the furnace have an ability to exchange the heat fast enough?
Would you be shortening the life of the firebox by making it too hot?
Is it tested and listed to UL391 to have one by the manufacture?

There are more questions....
Sorry no answers..yet.

 

[CJ1]

Do you burn alot of wet wood? Then yes. Otherwise it is just something else to break. CJ

 

[blades]

Unless you have have an extremely poor draft that 1400 does not need it. What is you particular set up like? How much draft do you have now? Draft blower for that unit is more scaled to the burning of coal than wood. I have one of the barometric dampers on mine just to slow it down ( in basement) Even then it likes to go ballistic.

 

[CrappieKeith]

The last post got me to thinking. If you are having an issue with it burning maybe there is not enough make up air in the furnace room ?????

Is there a blower on it connected to your ducting. If so is the cold air return hooked to the blower housing or is it taking it from the furnace room?

 

[laynes69]

The draft blower for those units is more of an after thought. I put one on our old furnace and it made no difference other than lowering the burns a couple of hours. Also it will do no good for coal. The air that enters the firebox from that blower is above the fuel load. Its noisy and expensive, not worth it. Its a simple design, a firebox and baffle. If your having problems with heat, check the moisture content of the wood or check your draft. We had the larger furnace (1500) which heated this home for 25 years before we retired it.

 

[badwood]

I do burn some wet wood but more dry. The only problem iam having is when I start my fires it seem to take some time(30-45mim) to heat the flue once warm it is fine.

 

[laynes69]

Is that after reloading on coals, or building a new fire? I don't think the draft blower for that furnace will make a difference. Having wood that's less than seasoned will slow that process a bit for the moisture has to be cooked from the wood. Also if your using large splits they will take a little longer to get going. We have a different furnace now, but within 15 minutes after reload we have a nice hot fire. Using seasoned wood makes it happen. You could try smaller splits to get it going, after that point on a good coal bed larger splits can be loaded. Do you have a thermometer on the furnace or flue?

 

[badwood]

It is on starting a new fire. And yes I do have a thermometer on the flue pipe. I have had this furnace for 3yr and have never been able to start a fire without a good bit of smoke pushing back in to the house. I have tried a lot of different ways but no luck the only thing that did help somewhat was to pre heat the flue but even that didn't work that good. So I thought I would see if those draft blowers would help. I will give all of your guys info a go and if anyone has anymore I will try them to thanks.

 

[CrappieKeith]

Well it appears to be a drafting issue then...so here's some things to look at....
Make sure the diameter of the flue is close to the same size the furnace/stove collar is.An over sized flue can cause back drafting.
Lack of make up air can cause back drafting.
A cold flue can cause back drafting.
Too short of flue can cause back drafting.
Too many 90 degree elbows can cause back drafting. Too long of horizontal run can cause back drafting.

 

[blades]

OK you have gotten lots of opinions, But as of yet you have not described your installation. we can help but you must give us that information. For what its worth here is mine, unit is located in basement about 3.5 ft of flue,2 90deg bends, one up out of back of unit , short straight to baro damper,short straight to next 90 into chimney, pipe single wall in to lined insulated original block chimney that is about 25 ft or so tall ( single story ranch) the high temp flue liner was removed to fit the 6" liner in. If the over all flue is cold it will backdraft completely (that was fun). What I have to do is take my shop vac and put the hose ( from the vac exhaust) into the baro damper with the nozzle exhausting vertical to create an updraft . AS the heat blowers do not turn on until a specific temp in the heat exchanger is reached they are not part of the problem it is simply a cold flue. My unit is also fed with an outside air source so negative pressure in basement is also not the problem draft wise at start up. All in all it got me bye for a while and did reduce my utility bill enough to pay for itself. Truly I hate the thing as it is very poorly designed, and the automatic Damper is a joke. as it is constantly becoming jammed in either the wide open position( which is real exciting) or sometimes closed

 

[badwood]

The unit it in a half finished basement there is no cold air return just the air space in the basement which is 26+ 40 I have 6" 90 then 3' up then 2' or so to the foundation then a pice of 8" terra cotta proximately 14" to the chimney. The Chimney is rectangular terra cotta 20"+12" give or take some. And 20' to 25' high at lease 4' above the ridge of the house.

 

[badwood]

I forgot there is one more 90 then the 2' to the foundation

 

[blades]

1. 45 would be better if possible
2. horizonal runs are to be avoided a slow rise is better than none.
3. You are going to have to enclose that chimney in a insulated chase. which will help some but because it is outside it is still going to be a start up draft problem ( cold flue)
4.some means of preventing a negative pressure atmosphere in the basement needs to be done
I would guess that the chimney size you stated was outside dimensions and not the actual size of the flue itself. If the flue size area is greater than the exhaust of the furnace that will also add to your back draft problem as well as creating a creosote collection problem.

 

[Russell larsen]

Total waste of time. Including running the t stat upstairs. Mine just sits idle and i burn fine and long.

 

[Shagbark]

I have draft issues because of my redneck chimney installation. 3 90 degree bends in 6 feet and a 6 foot exterior triple wall rise. 2 things made it very functional in those conditions. 1- out side air to the combustion chamber (dryer vent kit) 2- a Tjernland draft inducer.

10 minutes of draft induction and the flue is up to temp and I turn it off.

Before the outside combustion air, I had a lower barometric pressure in the house causing a negative draw condition that the draft inducer compensated for. I may actually add a couple of sections of triple wall out side so I don't have to burn so hot to keep the natural draft. We call the wood stove the Chernobyl Reactor because we don't dare burn it more than 8 hrs a day unless it is sub zero or we melt at 90 plus degrees in the cold end of the house.

 

[Russell larsen]

I wired mine to a manual switch and took away t stat. Sometimes i turn it on to help stoke up the fire.