Introducing Brand New Wood Furnace to Market - The Drolet Tundra!

[brenndatomu]

Cause 18" covers the bases no matter what kind of pipe you have...
If your pipe is rated for 6" then I'd go with the pipe mfg. rating. An extra piece of tin heat shield in between wouldn't be wasted insurance though...

 

[trx250r87]

I also don't understand why 24" between the air filter box and back wall is required. Add this to the 15.5" of filter and the back of the stove will need to be 39.5" away from the wall? My current piece of junk is 26" away. This means I'll have to use 26" of horizontal pipe out the back then connect to the "90" . Is this going to be an issue?

Eric

 

[brenndatomu]

Could be, if there is any way to use 45s, do it! Yeah, 24" between the back of the blower and the wall sounds like plenty for sure. It may just be so that it can be accessed for service work?

 

[Majorpain]

Very excited about the new stove question about draw collar to heat up the chimney.

 

[djkost]

I read the about the max and the tundra are the same but I saw one add that said the max held 27 inch logs. Are they the same? I just want to buy the best one out of the 2.

 

[laynes69]

Sounds like a typo. We have the exact same firebox, and I believe it's 22". We cut our wood at 16-18" and no longer.

 

[flotek]

He must be looking at a caddy max
That is not the same as the heatmax
I know they sound the same but two different units .. The tundra. / heatmax are very similar to a caddy which all take 22" length and use same firebox same blower etc ..the max caddy is the big brother to the caddy and holds longer wood and has a larger firebox . Maybe that's where your confused

 

[djkost]

So they are the same so either one will work for me.

 

[Cloud IT]

One thing to consider is the fixed thermo button thermostat fan switch ( it doesn't use a traditional adjustable thermodisk ) drolet has it so the furnace has to be super hot then it shuts off too quickly at 120 - but. In my opinion 120 on and 90 low limit is far better for this furnace and more ideal for a medium house and it only helps to run the blower longer in my experience no sense in having a nice bed of hot coals and no air blowing seems dumb to me anyways a variable dial fan switch . (5 minute swap and a 20$ adjustable universal switch at your local hvac )and this furnace cycles the fan a lot more ideal in my opinion drolet may not like it but it only helps most everyone I know sets their low limit at. 90-100.before doing that though I'd consult with drolet and then check your draft speed mine seems great I guess I was fortunate

Firebox needs to be that hot to get the secondary combustion going. By running your blower fan at a lower temp you are preventing it from reaching the firebox temps needed to gasify and will effectively kill your efficiency.

 

[Cloud IT]

Trying to run it manually doesn't work very well you need that wall thermostat to make it run correctly .sbi should have given the tundra an adjustable fan switch instead of a fixed one that had a high setting I realize their logic wanting to not cool the firebox on the unit but much heat is dormant and not getting into the ducting where it belongs . Perfect heavy bed of hot coals just sitting there and blower won't run cause its thermo switch thinks it needs to be a million degrees ..Bottom line is If that blower isn't going your house isn't being heated. The other thing is your wood has to be incredibly dry .i must have grabbed a piece the other day that was still moist boy what a mess
Because it keeps the heat in the unit it also keeps the creosote and tarry film in it too if its not burned off . Definitly better to have smaller dry splits than big wood or rounds that are questionable . It hates greenish wood

Again, the design of this furnace is to create a secondary burn. This is done by burning the smoke and can only be accomplished at super high temps and by injecting super heated air. This is why wet/green wood doesn't work either. The same way pure water will always boil at 100 degrees, steam from the wood will only get to about 370 degrees and effectively cool the firebox to the point where gasification isn't possible.

Up to 2/3rds of the energy in wood comes from the gasses inside. This furnace was engineered to take advantage of that while giving you the ability to connect a thermostat to control the burn somewhat. You must use dry wood and you will get more heat and longer burn times using smaller pieces of dry wood than the big wet rounds you are used to.

Smaller dry wood = more heat output = less time needed for damper to be open = longer burn times

Everyone reading this needs to get past using moisture (bigger wood) to control burn times and instead understand that this furnace uses air to control burn times. It's much more efficient.

 

[Cloud IT]

I'm having problems with the Tundra backdrafting , when it gets cold , air just pours down the chimney , added on a wind beater cap but it didn't help much. is there a flue fan to use to reverse the backdraft long enough to get a fire going cause after its hot I don't have any problems.

Do you have a 6" double insulated flue running all the way up or are you running a 6" pipe to a clay chimney? I'm betting on the latter. If so what is happening is that when the pipe goes from 6" to whatever is that the pressure will lower and it will instantly cool your draft. We all know that when you pressurize air it will get hotter but you have to remember that the opposite will happen.

Another issue that can cause this is negative pressure in your house. If you read the owners manual there are tons of details on how this could happen. Make sure you aren't running any bathroom fans or any other type of fan that may cause a negative pressure in your house and try cracking a window near the furnace to let some air in. This is what fresh air kits are for and I wish they made one for the heatmax. They do for the caddy line so I'm hopeful they will release it someday.

 

[Cloud IT]

I currently have a Vogelzang Norseman 2500 in the basement of my 2 year old 1700 sq/ft ranch (plus unfinished basement). I have 27' of straight vertical pipe (4' double black + 23' supervent double stainless) through a 1st floor closet then open attic to roof. I'm looking to upgrade to a Drolet Tundra, however I have a question on the dimensions listed on p.41 and 42 here http://www.drolet.ca/upload/documents/manuels/45656A_10-06-2013.pdf

My current setup uses twin wall black pipe rated for 6" clearance to combustibles, I'm right at 6". How can the manual state 18" clearance not knowing the type of pipe? What are my options?

You will be fine. Flue temps are lower with this furnace. The max i've seen is 600 degrees but that was when I was trying to heat my home up after being away for a weekend. Most of the time it's around 400.

 

[Cloud IT]

So they are the same so either one will work for me.

They are both the same. The only reason for creating different models is so that companies can market "lowest price guarantee" everywhere without fear of having to pay out because they put in the fine print that it must be the same model number. If you look at every website ever heatmax has a different model number from one website to the next. Same with the tundra's. Northern tool is the worst for this imo. If you read their "Guaranteed Lowest Prices" it says in the fine print "Guarantee not valid on competitor close-outs, misprints, special buys, special promotions, price quotes, rebates, coupons, liquidations, auction websites, items that include free shipping, or member club pricing. Item must be identical make and model#." Given the fact that they assign a unique model number to the furnace makes the "Guarantee" 100% bogus.

 

[brenndatomu]

Family Farm & Home sale...just FYI for anybody looking to buy one soon.
This was posted by a member over on Hearth, he said the tag reads sale price good until sometime in March '14! (Almont MI. store, just in case it is not a chain wide sale)

 

[Cloud IT]

killer price. I couldn't get them to ship it to me tho. I called and spoke with 2 different people but they never called me back.

 

[flotek]

My thermo fan is set lower and I have no trouble at all getting secondary action
Do you have a tundra cloud ?or are you basing that idea of using the factory fan switch on the caddy lineup instead of the furnace in question ? People who run the caddy parallel to their furnace often run them to kick off Around 90-100 the tundra is far far from that setting in factory form

 

[spadjen]

Very excited about the new stove question about draw collar to heat up the chimney.

Umm.......say what?

 

[spadjen]

just getting cold here again. around 10-15 at night. I think i am going to be using more wood then i should. I am starting to look at static pressure of the duct system. not sure if i need to take a reading at the cold air and after the 2 8" rounds feed into the hot air plenum. The reading i am getting is very low and cant be rite. I just did a quick reading and will look into it more when i get a chance.

Ok. So i am getting .05-.07 static pressure and the manual calls for .20. Any ideas?

 

[Cloud IT]

Ok. So i am getting .05-.07 static pressure and the manual calls for .20. Any ideas?

Try setting your blower speed to it's highest setting.

 

[Cloud IT]

My thermo fan is set lower and I have no trouble at all getting secondary action
Do you have a tundra cloud ?or are you basing that idea of using the factory fan switch on the caddy lineup instead of the furnace in question ? People who run the caddy parallel to their furnace often run them to kick off Around 90-100 the tundra is far far from that setting in factory form

I bought one as soon as they came out. Lowering the temp of the firebox wouldn't completely stop you from getting secondary combustion but it will for sure reduce it. The firebox won't stay at 90 and will eventually reach a temp high enough to ignite the smoke.

Why would you think they shipped it with a snap disk rated for 120 vs 90 deg to begin with? I'm certain that they do testing to certify the efficiency and they saw a better result at 120 vs 90 deg.

Your logic is that you want to get more heat out of your firebox and into your house. That's the old way of thinking. With these newer and more efficient designs you actually want to keep as much heat in the firebox as possible to get more complete combustion.