Installing US Stove Hotblast

I wouldn't worry too much about the cold air return at this point, I would just get the chimney hooked up? Also, What type of chimney are you using on the Hotblast? Add some heat ducts where you need them and get it running, you can also hook up the cold air return later.

Being your stoves are that far apart, to hook the plenums together, might be a challenge. You might be able to run one of the 10-12" duct over to the other stove below where all the hooked up pipes come out. You may just have to make up your own plenum/heat exchanger with some duct work to where you need it. Regular Galvanized or aluminum pipe is all you need to hook up the heat plenum(s).

You don't need the black pipe except for the chimney hookup from the stove to the outside chimney.

crck wrote:OK I've been trying...have no clue how to upload pictures

On the bottom of where you type the text in to post a message you'll see a tab that says "Upload Attachments" . Click the tab , click browse, find your file to select it, click add file. It will upload. Once it uploads you can repeat for more images.

First off let me say thanks to all the help you guys have given to me. With out your help trying to make this stove work probably would have been an exercise in futility. I had an Alaska stoker for years and loved it but sold the house and let it go with it. I agree with many points others have made about US Stove and disagree with some others. Everyday I visit this forum I learn something new or learn a different approach to burning coal. Some things work, some things don't but that's the fun of the whole thing. From the beginning I said I wasn't going to let this thing beat me and it hasn't. Is this the ideal stove to burn coal in? Probably not but with some patience you can learn to make it work very effectively. Would I buy another? Probably not with the knowledge I have gained from this site. I just helped my brother install a Keystoker boiler and is that slick. That will be the next stove I will buy but until then I will make what I have work. Now I can easily get a 14-16 hour burn if I need to. I did install the combustion fan on the ash door last year but it is seldom used. I have found once I get and maintain a good fire I can shut it right down and have a nice even burn for 12 hours. Open the ash door, let it rip for a bit, load it up, shake it down and top if off and I'm good to go. I did get it ducted into my cold air return. I'm no tin knocker but it works. I have some tidying up to do but its functioning. Too many things to do and never enough time.

oh one more pic, fire this morning before shutting down for the day.

drhntr855 wrote:oh one more pic, fire this morning before shutting down for the day.

OWEGO!!??

We're only a few miles apart. I'm 4 miles from Lockheed.

We should have a southern tier get together..

I'll get 10 ton delivered and you guys come over and bag it for me...heehehehehe..actually...might not be a bad idea to buy in bulk and split it between a few of us up here. I have a few friends that burn coal also. I have a large driveway and a skidsteer so moving the pile would be easy enough....

My brother with the Keystoker boiler lives in Vestal and I'm 6 miles north of Owego. He has a fifth wheel dump trailer that he goes to Pittston and picks up coal with. I don't have my bin built yet so I'm still buying bagged. Maybe after the first of the year I just go get 5 tons and dump it on the ground, but now we may have snow until March.

Yes we should have a southern tier get together.

drhntr855,

Let me ask you one question. Could you start a fire in that stove in October and know that you could , lets say a 90% sure that you could keep the fire going til April? No I'm sorry a 100%. I know I can with my Hitzer. If I loose a fire it will be because I tried to push the burn time not the stove.

Don

Hi Don,

To be honest I don't know if I could or not, I haven't tried. I usually start a wood fire to take the chill off if need be until the the outside temperature drops. I think if I couldn't it'd be because of something I did wrong. Like I have said, I by no means think this is the perfect stove, but I've learned enough from all the folks here to make it work effectively. The main thing I think is maintaining a good draft, if you have a good draft and fuel it should burn.

At this time I have the hand damper closed 80% and the little door on the draft fan(fan not running) is 90% closed. Before last week, I was running the door on the draft fan(fan not running) about 75% closed. When I got home I had good hot coals in the middle but the front and back were nearly burnt out. It had me scratching my head for a bit. Same thing at night. I didn't remember having this problem last year and like a dumby I didn't mark the location on the draft door. I did some more reading here and decided to cut the draft way down on the door, figuring if I was burning up all my fuel it was getting too much air. I'm not home during the day so I had no way to judge what was going wrong, I could only see the results. So far it's working for me.

I have the distribution fans wired to the cheap thermostat that came with the stove. I think the dead band is about 10 degrees. I will be taking care of that right shortly. I have it set on 70 and so far the fan doesn't run over night and it's 68 or so when I get up. I kick the stat on and go down and open the ash door. By the time I'm out of the shower it's 75, and it's ready for a reload.

Yes it would be nice to have a Cadillac, but I'm a Chevy truck man myself.

drhntr855
could you explain to me what ducts are going where in your pictures?
parts of it looks like that guy on the spider man movie

and I've had a little set back
I slipped on ice last night
(thanks all you southern tier people,it happened in Binghamton)
and my wrist is broken
theres a plaster 1/2 cast /splint on it till I see the orthopedic surgeon
Who they say will put a regular cast on when the swelling goes down

BUT I WILL GET THIS THING GOING
drhntr855,you are my inspiration
Yours seems to be working well for you so I know it can be done
I'm taking the suggestion to get it operational and then worry about tying it into the other furnace

I am working with this silly thing on my arm
(Drive tractor trailer)
If I can do that I can install a furnace this weekend
Plus I'm off for 4 days starting Saturday am and it seems the weather is going to cooperate

Hi crck,

It is a pretty convoluted mess, but I'll try to explain. The 2 8" ducts on top are the hot air supply. I have one ducted right into the hot air plenum on top of my oil furnace, that would be the one in the back. The other is ducted into the main trunk out of the oil furnace. I would have ducted both into the plenum on the furnace but had no space. On the back of the stove I built a return air duct to go over the fans and that is connected to the large duct on the left of the stove which is connected to the return plenum of the oil furnace. Inside the oil furnace I blocked off the return plenum so i wasn't just circulating hot air through the furnace. This is generally done with a damper in the duct work. If I needed my oil furnace I would have some fiddling around to do to put that back in service, but as always time was short and this was an easy way to accomplish this. Installing a manual damper is on my to do list and you should probably install two so each can be isolated.

If you can get your stove up and running and get your duct work piped into your current furnace's supply duct, you will have heat. You'll have heat coming out of your return air system so if this is in the greenhouse you may have to block that off temporarily. Once you get your stove up and going you can work on this stuff a little at a time. It will take some time to learn to burn coal and I'm sure you lose more than one fire but stick with it, read as much of this forum as you can and don't be afraid to ask questions. There are many folks here far more knowledgeable than I that will give you some good sound advice. As they will tell you, every set up is different and what works for me may not work for you. Learn the basics and I think you'll be ok. Good Luck!

Oh bty, sorry to hear about your little accident, hope all heals well.

Well, CRCK, Its been a few days, wondering how the saga of the Hot Blast is coming? You are making progress, I hope?

chimney is in,blowers are installed,some of the duct work is up
going to finish it up tomorrow...and fire it up....I hope
my biggest question right now is how/where to install the barometric draft control and the damper

I'm guessing the damper just gets a hole drilled straight thru and then slip the pin thru...
but I know it can't be that simple
the baro directions are as clear as mud to me
Do I cut a circle out of the pipe?
how do I cut "tabs"

I tried to goggle looking for simpler directions even a blond can understand
still searching......