Introducing Brand New Wood Furnace to Market - The Drolet Tundra!
- Thread starter Fyrebug
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must have been that. Now my pipe is a perfect 300 degrees
Glad you like it . Over time you'll appreciate it's benefits and long burns . All the furnace asks is that you feed it good seasoned wood . Initially the furnace got a bad rap( and rightfully so ) but the manufacturer stepped up and made it right . I'd guess my wood savings at well over 30% over my other furnace even in a record wicked winter with the average temperatures 20 degrees below normal .. I still have 2 solid cords left in my wood shed .thats meaningful to me , I know this by doing it for years that Even in a mild winter that firewood in my shed would be gone by beginning of March .i have used about 4 cords total when it should have been well over. 6 cords on average . That means about 300+$ (2cords of hardwood goes for 150 a cord) in wood savings in my pocket ! the extra cost of the unit over a smoke dragon is already paying it's self off
NSMaple1
Addicted to ArboristSite
Once you get a meter, you need to measure on a freshly split surface.
So I went 9 hours with still plenty of coals left to relight it. I'm pretty sure that I have too much draft. After 4 hours my heat in my house dropped to 66 and its set at 68 when I woke up this morning it was 63 and LP was on. It was cold here though still 18 below out right now.
82mkiiltype
ArboristSite Lurker
Well, I installed the furnace and got it WETT certified yesterday. HVAC guy had never seen one, but his young assistant looked at it and said it looks very close to the Caddy he had in his own house.
It must of had a bump or two as two of my firebricks were broken, and the control rod that connects the controller to the air flap wasn't connected. Easy fixes, and minor issues but did take me a while to figure out how to light it as the draft door wouldn't open.
I did install the cold air return kit, with the different high limit switch, relocated to the top of the firebox as per instructions. I did check part numbers on the original and replacement switches and they are different. The original was a L160-40f (Opens @160, closed @115f) and is located in the rear control box. The replacement was a L200-40f (Opens @ 200, closes @ 160) and ends up dead center of the 4 air ducts right on top of the exit flue pipe. The filter definitely reduces air flow through the furnace even without duct work hooked up to it so I'm guessing that's the reason for the change but I'll give SBI a call because my curiosity is getting the best of me.
For the people changing the fan control switch ... what's the prefered temp/part# right now? It gets super hot before kicking on. I know it needs the heat for the secondary's to work ... but man it gets hot. The fan is cycling on and off but even when it's off heat rises out of the unit at very high temps.
Exhaust temp from cheap magnetic temperature gauge on single wall smoke pipe reads about 170f while running slowly. Look outside ... no smoke. Gotta love that.
After two burns and the nasty smelling "break in" smoke ... this thing is a totally different animal than an old smoke dragon. Watching the Secondary burn is just amazing, and I'm using dead/punky but very dry Elm and Ash and getting lots of heat. If I was going to fully duct in the furnace to my entire house including AC coil ... I probably would go for a Max Caddy and would be in the neighborhood of $10,000+tax all in. For a Sub $2000+tax CDN, high efficiency, add-on furnace that I installed myself to supplement propane heat... this is a very impressive unit. Sure it has a few fit/finish issues and I don't think I'll bother using the ash drawer, but "bang for buck" ... money well spent at 1/4 of the price. Lets be realistic here, it cost less than most high efficiency wood stoves... and it's a furnace!
So far, I'm very happy.
It must of had a bump or two as two of my firebricks were broken, and the control rod that connects the controller to the air flap wasn't connected. Easy fixes, and minor issues but did take me a while to figure out how to light it as the draft door wouldn't open.
I did install the cold air return kit, with the different high limit switch, relocated to the top of the firebox as per instructions. I did check part numbers on the original and replacement switches and they are different. The original was a L160-40f (Opens @160, closed @115f) and is located in the rear control box. The replacement was a L200-40f (Opens @ 200, closes @ 160) and ends up dead center of the 4 air ducts right on top of the exit flue pipe. The filter definitely reduces air flow through the furnace even without duct work hooked up to it so I'm guessing that's the reason for the change but I'll give SBI a call because my curiosity is getting the best of me.
For the people changing the fan control switch ... what's the prefered temp/part# right now? It gets super hot before kicking on. I know it needs the heat for the secondary's to work ... but man it gets hot. The fan is cycling on and off but even when it's off heat rises out of the unit at very high temps.
Exhaust temp from cheap magnetic temperature gauge on single wall smoke pipe reads about 170f while running slowly. Look outside ... no smoke. Gotta love that.
After two burns and the nasty smelling "break in" smoke ... this thing is a totally different animal than an old smoke dragon. Watching the Secondary burn is just amazing, and I'm using dead/punky but very dry Elm and Ash and getting lots of heat. If I was going to fully duct in the furnace to my entire house including AC coil ... I probably would go for a Max Caddy and would be in the neighborhood of $10,000+tax all in. For a Sub $2000+tax CDN, high efficiency, add-on furnace that I installed myself to supplement propane heat... this is a very impressive unit. Sure it has a few fit/finish issues and I don't think I'll bother using the ash drawer, but "bang for buck" ... money well spent at 1/4 of the price. Lets be realistic here, it cost less than most high efficiency wood stoves... and it's a furnace!
So far, I'm very happy.
yep just the factory disc
Let me know if you find out anything about that thermodisc.
110 on and 90 off switches can be bought for 17$ And that is proven to work for some of us ..or for around same price you can get an adjustable one and fine tune for your application is what I'd suggest
brenndatomu
Hey you woodchucks, quit chucking my wood!
Why so low guys? Most people set the adjustable type (honeywell) switches that a lot of furnaces have at roughly 150 on 110 off. 110-120 on sounds like asking for trouble because of firebox/secondary heat exchanger cooling, she'll creosote up on ya.
stihly dan
Addicted to ArboristSite
Mine comes stock set 120 on 105 off, That's good shoulder season temps. But when the real cold gets here I adjust it down to 105 on 90 off. You get a crap ton more heat for a longer time. Fire box is insulated you are burning all the gas, just taking more heat from the heat exchanger not the firebox.
I agree with Stihlydan .Your missing out on about1.5- 2 hours of a running blower by using the factory setting .i know it goes against theory but in operation The firebox doesn't really care if the blower is on or off . As long as the wood is well seasoned the secondary action will take place regardless . The heat exchanger holds the heat .I realize the fear is the furnace will cool too much and therefore the gases in the flue will condense more rapidly and make creosote in the liner /flue ..When you burn the smoke and volatiles up during secondary combustion with dry wood There really isn't any creosote to be concerned with because all that junk is already gone and if moisture is low there's nothing to condense onto the flue walls . A lot of furnaces come factory with similar settings the Englander furnace has a factory setting at low limit of 100 . No sense in having a heavy bed of coals if the blower isn't running
what blower setting do you recommend?
brenndatomu
Hey you woodchucks, quit chucking my wood!
Yeah...I can understand how the Kuuma can be set however you want, due to nothing being left in the exhaust stream to form creosote, but in my experience, a regular ole secondary burn stove will still creosote up a cold flue, so if theory follows maybe the heat exchangers too? Dunno, guess we will hafta wait and see how this works out long term for the Tundra/Heatmax guys. I'm sure after a year or two, these guys will really have 'em dialed in good
