Had a Scare Last Night!

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bchapman
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Joined: Tue. Aug. 12, 2008 8:04 pm
Location: Upstate NY
Hot Air Coal Stoker Furnace: Alaska 140 Dual Feed

Post by bchapman » Sun. Dec. 21, 2008 6:17 pm

When I got home from work yesterday my wife was wrapped in a blanket complaining that she hadn't been able to warm the house all day (it was only 68 :) ). I decided to start the second burner on my Alaska 140. Got the burner started then took my wife to the store. When we returned there was a sulfur smell in the house and the CO detectors were at about 40ppm. (this thing has been burning for about 2 months without a problem) Panic time! I opened a couple windows and was about to shut down and start the oil furnace when I decided to adjust the draft. I have been maintaining about a .03 - .04 I changed my draft to about .05 and the CO levels have stayed at 0. I didn't realize that starting the second burner would have this effect on the draft. This morning when I checked on the stove there was a lot of condensation in the hopper. Never had this before. My CO levels are still at 0. Is there anything else that I should be worried about?

-Bruce

 
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WNY
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Location: Cuba, NY
Hot Air Coal Stoker Stove: Keystoker 90K, Leisure Line Hyfire I
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Post by WNY » Sun. Dec. 21, 2008 6:33 pm

the draft will go up since you have MORE heat going up the chimney, causing more draft out of the stove. Readjust your baro damper and you might want to get a draft gauge to make sure you are drafting correctly. Do you have a Power vent with a baro damper? you baro should have automatically adjusted (if calibrated correctly). It could have just flared up with the extra coal on the burner and burned hot for a short period.

My hyfire with both burners running, I keep it at .04, but it does to .05 sometimes, it usually doesn't cause any problems, usually more draft, shouldn't cause the smell or CO problems.

As long your CO are 0, you should be good.

 
Matthaus
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Post by Matthaus » Sun. Dec. 21, 2008 8:14 pm

Bruce, you didn't say how you are adjusting the draft. If you are running on a power vent the additional combustion fan running with the additional burner will require the PV speed to increase so as to increase the draft. Reason being that the combustion fan tends to cause a positive pressure in the stove, As WNY said natural draft of a chimney will over come this with the additional heat of the second burner.

I'll second the advice, if you don't already have a manometer make sure you get one. We have loaners available in case you want to borrow until you find one on ebay at the price you want. :)


 
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gambler
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Post by gambler » Sun. Dec. 21, 2008 10:02 pm

Another thing you may want to check is the amount of ash build up in the stove collar and stove pipe. I just went through this and I kept getting condensation under my hopper lid and I had to keep bumping my baro setting up or I would get a slight sulphur smell. After some discussion with Jerry from LL. He said that he had never seen the need to run a LL stove with a draft reading of -.05 and something just wasn't right. He said I should do him a favor and take the stove pipe off of the stove (my pipe goes straight up from the stove and through the ceiling). To my surprise there was a bunch of built up ash in the stove collar. More ash than I had in all of last year. I never cleaned it at all last year. I vacuumed out the ash and everything went back to normal, no more condensation or slight sulphur smell and I am running with a draft of -.04 again.

 
bchapman
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Posts: 27
Joined: Tue. Aug. 12, 2008 8:04 pm
Location: Upstate NY
Hot Air Coal Stoker Furnace: Alaska 140 Dual Feed

Post by bchapman » Wed. Dec. 31, 2008 6:41 pm

Well I finally had a chance to shutdown and check the ash buildup in the pipe. I think this was my problem. I had a pretty big pile of ash just from the pipe. Thanks for the advise.

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