Hot Air Jacket

I purchased a Hyfire II last winter and it seems to run fine. I have it in my basment and the big reason i purchased it was because i could tie it into my duct work with the hot air jacket. Well i get luke warm air and when i run my air handler to push the hot air through the ducts it actually drops the temp of the house.
Anyhow my basement gets nice and warm and i keep my door to the upstairs open so it helps heat the upstairs.

My question is should i just take the hot air jacket off and disconnect it from my duct work? I am thinking i may get more radiant heat rather then have the heat get sucked up into my duct work and not do anything. Would i get a warmer basement and therfore have more heat go upstairs?

I would love to have the air coming out hot or warm through my ducts but that doesnt seem like its going to happen.

Thank you.

your blower may be too big and it moves too much air. some motors you can slow down by changing the wiring.? Not sure though on yours.

How hot are your running your stove?

On my Hyfire, I only have the 2 built in blowers and a separate one for my custom jacket (total of about 600-700 cfm), it puts out about 130-150+ to the upstairs thru 2 - 8" ducts.

It was running at 91% feed rate last night, 550 degrees on the front of the stove and maintaining 68 in the living room with 6 degrees outside.

OK this is how I did mine, I have a pocono with a hot air jacket, I ducted it in on the hot side of the duct.I take the filter out and block off with a piece of insulation board,Off the stove with a 12'' duct(I believe the hyfire is 14"") and 12'' duct fan controlled by a duct stat. I have a 2 story cape code house around 1,700 sq and this set up really works for me.This morning it was -5 and the house was 71 and I was to hot in bed last night. The duct fan I bought from http://www.airboosterfans.com A member recommended to me and it moves the air, the 14'' is $80 ,I think the duct stat home depot online ?? I don't remember, $30 I believe.I'll try and get some pics up today. I tried the cold air side and furnace blower to move the air and it didn't work so well for me either,my set up now heats my house great !!!!!!!!!



Scotty

Scotty,

Thanks for the info and some pics would be great. Currently I have mine ducted into the cold air return like you did and the pipe gets hot so i know hot air is going up. I will also look into some vents.

Looking forward to some pics when you get a chance.

Jason

Jason you have already received some excellent recommendations, we are revising the instructions that come with the hot air jacket to advise a few things:
* Keep the two 265 cfm fans installed and hook them to the Coal Trol
* Utilize a fan limit in conjunction with your furnace fan to ensure it doesn't run unless the temp is up to a preset level
* Run your furnace fan on low speed if it is a three speed fan or don't use it at all and use a 14" inline duct fan hooked to the fan limit and run on a rheostat to push air into the duct work at a speed matching the outside conditions (higher speed for colder temps and higher stove temps.
* Install a damper in the cols air return to allow regulation of the inlet air coming from the house
* If possible hook one of the inlets from the 265 fans on the stove (the one that faces out is easiest) to the upstream side of the cold air return to draw some of the house air through the stove.

We are also working on a new design hot air jacket that utilizes twin 490 cfm fans (hooked to the Coal Trol) that blow air up the side of the stove as well as the back. In the mean time all of you please keep up the good work on coming up with innovative ideas for getting the best out of the Hyfire/hot air jacket configuration.

I'll try to get some pics up today ( wife has to help me !!!!) but these guy's on this site helped me so much to get my stove set up the way it is, And I'm very thankful to everyone. I went from not knowing anything about coal, to it's my primary heat with a dhwc. You'll get your stove set up perfect too ,do a little searching around the site and you'll find what u need.

I have the same set up you have and also haveing the same problem last winter.Here is what I did with great success.I did away with most of my cold air returns.I have one that pulls across the top of the stove and also pulls air the sides of th jacket.I also leave my basement door open a couple of inches to pull air downstairs.By doing this it pulls more heat from the stove.It took me 2 heating seasons to figure ths out but now it works great.Any questions pm me and I might be able to explain it better.

To test, simply wrap the blower wheel with a piece of duct tape to blind some of it, two or three if it's a big one. That should prove if your moving too much air at one time.