Clayton 1600 not getting hot

I have also experienced super servive from USSC when it comes to an issue with a new stove. I'm happy to see that they are still as good. I did not have any problems with them replacing defective parts and they shipped the parts really fast.

As for how high to fire your Clayton, I place a magnet thermometer above the feed door to gauge my temperatures. When it was below zero and the wind was blowing super cold, I had my Clayton burning at 800 degrees without a problem. I believe the Clayton can take it and would say that you are not overfiring, unless the magnet doesn't stick anymore. Even at 800 degrees, with the draft set at .05, the stovepipe read 500 degrees. Sure that wasn't the most fuel efficent way to run the Clayton, but the house was very comfortable. I would say that the lower the temperature you run the stove, the more fuel efficient it will be. I try to burn it above 250 degrees, but below 850 degrees. At those temperatures, the stovepipe should read between 100 degrees and 550 degrees. My average would be 500-600 degrees with a stovepipe temperature of 350-450 degrees.

Doug another question....are you burning pea coal to get those temps? my understanding is the smaller the coal the hotter the burn. I am burning stove coal and stuggle to get the over feed door temp to 500 esp if i keep the draft at .05 to .06. If I increase the draft on the baro to .09 then I start getting up to the 500 range.

Thanks a bunch
Liz

It's the other way around,, the larger the coal, the hotter the burn.. so stove will produce more heat than nut, more than pea.

It's based on the amount of air/oxygen that can get through the coal bed.. with stove, the air gaps/passageways through the coalbed are much larger and less restrictive compared to the smaller/tighter packed coal sizes..

Greg L

See i am totally confused LOL., Anyway just having a heck of a time trying to get this thing to burn hot. I have tried opening the ash pan draft all the way and ajusting the baro until i get the thermo below the baro to 400 degrees but it won't budge past 350 now. Even if i cover the baro with foil the temp doesn't go up. I am going nutz if i start opening up the feed door draft the temp will start to climb but that's suppose to be closed. Auuugh...I need a rum and coke and a hammock on a warm beach before I start at square one again.

I burn all different sizes of coal, from buckwheat to stove sized anthracite. The larger the coal, the higher temps you can fire. I also burn bituminous coal too. Bituminous coal fires very nicely in the Clayton wit the combustion draft fan. I'm wondering about the size diameter and height of your chimney, or if you may possibly have a restriction somehow in your chimney. Possibly an animal or soot build up in the chimney, if your chimney is the right size. You should be able to get it at least to 600 degrees on anthracite. You will be able to fire much higher with wood or bituminous coal.

The chimney is 12 tall outside 6" triple wall duravent.....it is a thru wall set up....so there is a tee in the wall then 5' horizontal black pipe to a 90 then 3' down to the stove with the baro 18" from the stove. My manometer will read .02 w/o a fire and warming it up get's it to a solid .06.....been running it higher right now have the weight set to the highest draft, I just pulled 600 on the stove with the ash pan door open then I closed the door and with the ash pan draft open all the way and about 3 spins on the feed door draft it held 600 for a lil while... then I closed the feed door draft and the temp is now dropping. I figure draft is draft with the manometer...so it should get up to temp set at .06....at .06 the stove will sit at 380 with both drafts wide open. Dunno what I am missing here.

Yeh, with that set up and draft reading, it should fire very well. HUM? I have to think about that when I have more time to concentrate._

I have a similar metalbestos chimney setup. Mine is at least 12 ft. above the roof however. If yours comes out of the wall, how high above the nearest point of the roof within 10 ft. is it. This is measured horizontally. Code in Maine is 3 ft. above nearest point in 10 ft. Also, check the screen, it might have plugged quickly when burning wood. I can pull a .10 and higher with mine.
My setup is totally different but I used to handfire in the same chimney. It seems that you are lacking either draft or air, what else is there? Bad coal? How about the house is to tight. I just installed cold air returns in my Boiler rm. and it made a huge difference. You might be getting enough for combustion but not enough to run free.

Kevin

the nearest point within 10 is the roof peak and it is 5 feet above the peak. I had just cleaned the chimney last week and all seemed clear. I haven't burned wood in for a few weeks will check the scrren on the cap and see if that is it but it was clear when i swept it. I was also wondering if there maybe some kinda defect in the furnance. Thanks guys for all your input, will start checking everything again. Would like to wait for the morning and shut it dwown the. Oh I did notice a crack in the back plate (the one with 3 holes in it)...US stove told me at usstove that should not make a difference in performance and they did send me another one have yet to install it

Couple things I've not seen discussed:

Tell us about how you have your blower set-up? wired for all 3 speeds?, what speed are you using?
In a home situation return air is in upper 60's to 70's. You're way lower than this in a greenhouse.

Tell us how you operate your slide plate damper above fire box...before breech exit?

That cast iron back plate crack wouldn't effect the performance. It is good that USSC is sending you another.

KLook has a good point about possible lack of air though. Maybe the area you have the stove located is too air tight and you don't have enough fresh outside air entering the room to provide the proper rate of combustion. You could test it by cracking a window in the room or in the next room that has one and leaving the door to the room with the furnace open to see if it will correct the problem.

The room which I have my Clayton located, I had to provide a way for fresh outside air to enter to achieve proper firing. I had a glass block window with a 4" dryer vent hole being unused, so I purchased two 4" vent covers for the hole so air would constantly flow into the room, while preventing bugs or animals to enter the hole in the glass block. I sure was amazed how doing that cured my draft problem. But before i did that, I tried cracking a window or door to the outside into the room in order to see if it would work.

The chimney not extended above the roof line or another tall building or roof line on your house, could also pose draft issues that can be intermitent. All good things to check. I checked my chimney flue gas exhausting outside when I initially started the fire while there was some smoke from the wood fire just to see the path of the exhaust during different weather conditions. I noticed when it was raining, damp, humid, or warm outside, the exhaust gases would want to flow down the roof line, so I have to compensate this by running a little hotter, but shorter wood fire to overcome this draft issue with my set up.

McGiever wrote:Couple things I've not seen discussed:

Tell us about how you have your blower set-up? wired for all 3 speeds?, what speed are you using?
In a home situation return air is in upper 60's to 70's. You're way lower than this in a greenhouse.

Tell us how you operate your slide plate damper above fire box...before breech exit?

This is the 1602m with the dual blowers....I have a honeywell fan limit switch se at 150 on 110 off. Each blower is rated at 800cfm. I run both at night. I do notice the stack temp drop when I turn the second one on usually about a 30-40 degree drop. The greenhouse is heated by oil at night as well and the temp in there is 65 though the return air box for the Clayton is near the floor.

I pull the slide plate out when reload or starting up the coal. Once the stack reaches 350 degrees I close it. With 350 degrees stack temp, the furnace temp above the feed door will be around 400.

I do have an observation maybe other clayton owners have noticed this when facing the feed door, the left side of the furnace is hot. The suface temp was measured at 350 degrees, on the right side the surface temp is 250 degrees. Just an observation, was thinking of taking the side panels off tomorrow and checking the welds.



I cleaned the furnance out t'day checking the grates and the secondary air chamber, they seem fine.

Just as puzzled as ever

Liz

I haven't found a difference in the stove temperatures regarding one side or another. I was wondering since the Clayton is located in a green house, possibly the fire is cooling too much with the cold air. I was also wondering whether installing a manual stovepipe damper between the flue collar and your barometric may increase the stove temperatures using the same higher barometric setting you stated of .08. That way you could open up the ash door draft, even all of the way, to help increase the combustion temperatures. I often considered installing a manual stovepipe damper next time I replace the stovepipe to do just that while hoping to gain better efficiency and longer burn times. Something to think about.

i will consider the manual damper. I was just back there, the left side I can't even touch, compared with the right side which is hot but I can run my hand along it.

I think I will defintitely pull the left side panel off tomorrow.

Liz

Hey Liz something just came to me, there is a layer of foil backed insulation supossed to be attached on the inside jacket panels. Possibly the one on the left side is missing?