Baro damper?

Thanks Coaledsweat,
You are the man!!!

Question on installation of barometric dampener. Field Controls does not recommend putting it horizontally on the first pipe. But that is all I have. Install on the k6 is going well but it comes out of the boiler and straight through the wall. Should I still use it or leave it out my wood stove in the house, never had one. Thanks Brian

26Weeks wrote:Question on installation of barometric dampener. Field Controls does not recommend putting it horizontally on the first pipe. But that is all I have.

Better than nothing (it's your money), put it in the horizontal and set it with a manometer so it is accurately calibrated. A baro is a no-no on a wood stove, hand dampers only.

Razzler wrote:This is right from Field Controls. http://www.fieldcontrols.com/draftcontrol.php Read about 3/4 of the way down.

Draft Control (Installation Options)

"Recommended Locations for Field Draft Controls
For gas-fired equipment, the preferred location of the control is on the bull head tee. This location provides maximum relief of downdrafts with minimum positive pressure. (See Figure 1, Diagram A-C)
With oil or solid fuels, the bull head tee is not recommended, so locate the control as shown. (See Figure 1, Diagram D-J) These locations are acceptable for gas units as well. Except on forced draft systems, locate the control as close as possible to the furnace or boiler, at least 12" beyond a stack switch on oil-fired units, and at least 18" from a combustible ceiling or wall."

The baro I installed was left over from the oil burner that was installed here in 1989. The installer determined it wasn't needed and left it behind. The instructions in the box showed the bullhead installation acceptable for solid fuel appliances. The current installation instructions indicate that this position should not be used for the damper location.

It sometimes can be used in a bullhead TEE if you have a good draft as many members here run that install. It will however alter the plate's curve in relation to the draft.

My chimney drafts like a vacuum cleaner, I opened the ash door last year and held the baro closed and the draft reached -.13" WC and was still climbing when I let the baro go and closed the ash door. The baro seems to work well in this location. A manometer is a must when setting the draft as the baro is neither horizontally or vertically installed, but rather a combination of both. The markings on the baro are meaningless. I have seen the baro flutter the past few days with the windy conditions, and the stove is cold as a well digger's shovel right now.

One advantage of this location is it makes it easy to check the horizontal pipe for fly ash accumulation.

coaledsweat wrote:Better than nothing (it's your money), put it in the horizontal and set it with a manometer so it is accurately calibrated. A baro is a no-no on a wood stove, hand dampers only.

I have my barro on the first horizontal pipe out of the stove and it has worked just fine. I only have 18 inches of stove pipe between the stove and the heat shield. The center of the T section holding my barro is at 16 inches. I could be a couple of inches closer to the heat shield but chose to put it where I wouldn’t have to cut any pipe. In hindsight, I'm glad that I put where it is so I have a couple of inches on the far side of the barro to put a magnetic thermometer. It allows me to know the after barro temp of my pipe. It's tight but the barro saved us about a 1/4 ton of coal last year. It really slowed down the burn so that I was getting longer burn times - my best was 36 hours one weekend when we went out of town. Put it on, set it with a Manometer and even if it's not the ideal location, it will save you money. Lisa

Two issues I have with my Field Controls Baro:
1) My Baro needs two washers on the dial to get the right draft setting. This has been set with a manometer. I believe I set it to about -.05. Don't really like modifying the Baro with washers. Feels like cheating to me. The only thing I can think of is that the Baro is a little closer than 18" to my stove but I don't have the space to do otherwise. Yes, the dial is on the left with a horizontal mount.
2) I can make the Baro stick open sometimes by pushing it wide open with my hand (the stove is off). This makes me nervious. However, I never saw it stick with the stove running all last year.
Tonight I'll relevel it but do you guys have any insight?

is it level?

speerstra wrote:Two issues I have with my Field Controls Baro:
1) My Baro needs two washers on the dial to get the right draft setting. This has been set with a manometer. I believe I set it to about -.05. Don't really like modifying the Baro with washers. Feels like cheating to me.

Do you burn any wood at all? If so, check the back of the baro's plate. It could be covered with creosote. If it is, that is why you have trouble and have to add weight to make it work.

No wood fires just coal. I'll check the level again. What is the best way to level one of these?

speerstra wrote:1) My Baro needs two washers on the dial to get the right draft setting

Speestra, i had to do the same thing to my RC just to get it down to a steady 04. I used a paper clip at first then put the washer in. When my stove is burning the baro is about three quarters the way open all the time.

speerstra wrote:I can make the Baro stick open sometimes by pushing it wide open with my hand (the stove is off). This makes me nervious. However, I never saw it stick with the stove running all last year.
Tonight I'll relevel it but do you guys have any insight?

I have had the same problem with it sticking open. I had to bend the little tab on the side that limits the closed and open positions, because it was binding on the side of the arc that it rides in. If you have some really good tin snips, maybe you can trim the tab so it is narrower. I have also had to re-adjust the tab a couple of times when little explosions blew through the baro and bent the tab. It's getting now so I'm afraid to bend it any more, for fear it will snap off from fatigue.

Baro is level now. Just started up for the season. It still sticks and needs the washers. May try trimming the tab as rberq suggested. Dremel tool might work for me.
I'm betting I need the washers since the Baro is too close to the stove.
Thanks Guys. Appreciate the info.

Excuse me if I change the subject just a little, but I would like to thank whoever posted the advise to cover the baro with aluminum foil. On the warm days we have had lately, I don't think I could have saved the low burning fire at times if I hadn't covered the baro. I seem to get a raise of .01 to .02 by doing so. Thanks again

Also, make sure the BACK of the baro is CLEAN, the extra fly ash (and/or rust) will cause it to go out of calibration and possible need extra weight to operate properly. I had an old one and had to put some extra weight to make it work correctly, it was all rusted on the back....

Good morning Guys,
Had a little issue with the coal stove last night. Changed over from Supiear Coal Nut to Harmony Nut (THANK GOD! I have never been so glad to be through a certain type of coal. The ash from that stuff was just nuts. Please don't kill me Coal Burner ) got the stove up to normal 500 F temp and went to bed. Got up this morning around 0700hrs and my house is freezing. Ran down stairs cussing my Coalbrookdale Darby for going out. Well it hadn’t gone out. It was burning at around 750 F however it was so damn windy outside last night that the automatic damper was all of the way open and was sucking all of my heat right out of the house and up the chimney. Oddly enough I had one of those little wint-o-green mints laying on the table and after eating that I thought it would be a good idea to see just how strong the air was going up the chimney. I put the wrapper in front of the damper and it sucked the damn thing right up the chimney!! Obviously I had a large vacuum sucking all of my heat right out of my house all night thus the rather cold temperature when I got up this morning. So... How do I stop this from happening? I close off my vents at the bottom of the stove to slow things down and after a while that worked but when I close the automatic damper it pulls so much on the stove that it gets my fire burning really hot again but all the heat goes up the damn chimney. I have read this posts 500 million times and have heard the pros and cons of all of the different options. I am thinking of putting a manual damper above and below my automatic damper to give me A LOT more control over the stove. What do you guy’s thing?


The link below is what I have now.
http://www.amazon.com/Vogelzang-Baromet ... 97&sr=8-44
Glenn