Any hot air furnace experts in north east NY?

I don't know if I'm in the right section, admin move if necessary.

I have a flue issue with my wood furnace. It's been a mess since I bought my house two years ago. I'm needing to clean my flue once a month due to creosote build up. I'm not happy with the install of the stainless liner the chimney company installed. There doesn't seem to enough draft. Smoke backs up in the basement when tending to the fire. And once a month or so I need to sweep my flue due to smoke backing up in the house. I've burnt 90% ash that's been seasoned for over a year this season and burn a hot fire, and still get creosote buildup.

If there are any experts close to my area, I'd pay your fuel expense and provide beer and venison for your inspection and advice.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

Point blank, wood is not dry enough internally. ( any wood will burn green eventually) Smoke backing up into basement is a common problem with a cold flue start- pre-warm flue with hair dryer or propane torch or just use the blower function of a shop vac for a bit to getting going in the right direction before lighting off. Screen on exit of flue likely plugged up if you haven't been up there for a top down cleaning- more trouble than its worth during the heating season. Can't make a comment on flue install other than is it as large as the furnace's exhaust, or larger? If larger that is a contributing factor. Just some very common problems that we hear ever season.

 

The ash is reading 15-20% MC. There is no screen in my cap. I removed that. Also I still get smoke in the basement even after the flue is to temperature.

 

Ryan I'm not an expert but I know a couple good guys. my first guess you said you had a SS liner installed is there a possibility that it is defective.. meaning some smoke is getting into a older (brick?) part of chimney which is cold causing your Temps to be to low. I have read enough of your posts to assume this is a not normal scenario because you tend to be thought out and thorough

 

Also I forgot to add, the flue is 6" from furnace to exit of flue. That is to answer Chris's question.

 

That seems possible, leaking into old clay flue. It seems to me as tho this company does half a$$ work. Also they are crooks. They were recommended to me when I purchased my house. Me, knowing not much in that particular department, went ahead with what they said. They charged me $1625 for the liner and install. With that being said, my mother and stepfather just bought a woodstove and needed a liner in their flue as well. They went with another company locally and paid half of what I paid, for the same liner! Needless to say, I will no longer do business with the company I used.

 

Should have a warranty make them come make it right.. or call better business Bureau ...

 

I think it was only a year. It's been two years now.

 

Did it do the same last year?

 

Yes, but I expected it last year. Purchasing the house when I did was bad timing. I had no intentions of buying when I did. All the wood I had cut was sold. I burned a lot of green wood last year.

 

I added two feet to the chimney this morning as well as sweeping. It seems to be pulling a better draft this afternoon. Hopefully it helps.

 

Does your furnace by chance have a secondary heat chamber? If so, could that possibly be at least partially restricted by creosote or ashes causing the back draft during restoking with a hot flu/chimney? The only access to my secondary is from the pipe connection in the rear and with a long vacuum hose and shop vac. What brand of furnace is it anyway?

 

My furnace is pre EPA, no secondaries. Woodchuck model 526.

 

I figured it was definitely pre-EPA, but I was thinking that the 526 had a damper rod to pull forward (?) to bypass a secondary chamber above the firebox until the temp increases ? Once temp is up, the rod is pushed back in to cause a serpentine effect in the flu gasses as they pass from firebox to and then through the secondary chamber then out the smoke pipe transferring a bit more heat in the process. At least that's what I remember.... It's been a few years since I've seen one, but I thought its basic design was like the Fire Chief.

Do you by chance have the original manual showing a parts breakdown? It may have a blow-up that shows the internals of the furnace eliminating any doubt.....

...just grasping at straws here...and you know about inquiring minds.....

 

Yes it's set up exactly like that. I guess I was thinking something different. But yes I run it with the damper open for quite some time.

 

RParrotte I think the only thing you need to do is add a 6" fresh air skuttle intake.
Sounds like you are starving for combustion air.
I base this assumption on the admission of poor draft and smoke buildup in the basement.
I had the same setup (basement wood furnace) in the early 90's and woke a couple times to a smoke filled basement. Talk about an instant increase in heart rate! Also tried the "extend a chimney" trick but didn't offer any noticeable help.

page 20 and 21 of this link should offer some help.

http://www.skuttle.com/pdfs/Catalog2014Web.pdf

After viewing that, just make one yourself and save some $$

I also recommend using 6" insulated flexible duct to bring the cold air in...

 

Ahhhh...good. Do they have an access panel for cleaning (or checking) the secondary chamber? Or is it totally inaccessible requiring a contortionist's abilities with a long shop vac hose coming in from the flu (like mine) and/or from the firebox through the opened bypass damper. If you in fact had heavy creosote build up in the chimney, it may be something to consider checking for partial restriction, but if there was not an excessive amount in the chimney above, there probably wouldn't be a greater buildup lower where the temps are probably the hottest.

Several manufacturers that had a rectangular secondary off the back of the main chamber had an insulated (asbestos, in the old days) vertical clean out located low and on the end of the secondary accessible through a removable panel on the shroud. I don't think there is any access to yours at all designed as it is....Other than as described above.

Is it still drawing a lot better today after your exercise of adding two feet to the height ?

 

Very good point sir. A good test would be to observe operation of the appliance by opening a door or window during the 'undesireable event'. Very rapidly the lower indoor (now negative) pressure should balance out and normal draft should resume. The longer a fossil fuel furnace burns inside a tightly built home without a window or door opening increases the resultant negative pressure. We all know fires consume great volumns of air and it has to come from somewhere.

If you wanna get real wanky, you could use a magnehelic with a .25"w.c. resolution and actually measure the pressure differential between the inside and outside during and extended heavy fire without opening a door or window. It'd probably take a while to get the readings though.

Commercially we'd like to maintain about a .04/.05"w.c. positive in a building (w/ .02 differential) to eliminate cold air infiltration but still allow the front doors to open easily and not stand open on their own. A positive pressure of .1 will cause the doors to not close....and a negative of the same makes it almost impossible for the little old 'blue-hairs' to open them without a little help. (Ladies, that's purely an endearing term)....

 

After I posted this and then bugged out for the day, I felt bad that I didn't tell you to just leave a basement window open during the burning of the wood furnace and see if it eliminates the problem or not. This should be done before you buy all I had recommended.
If it is in need of combustion air as I suspect, the need would be satisfied by the open window. Don't have to open all wide now.....just more than cracked open. Let some significant air flow into your basement, right? Yeah, it may be a little cooler with that window open, but it's a cheap test to find out, no?

 

There's no clean out. I would have to access from the back side through the flue. It's not obstructed anyway. It's fairly clean inside.

After adding the two feet it's definitely pulling a lot better.

My house is far from airtight! She's in need of some remodeling. So I don't think that's part of the problem. Plus the one window left in the basement, doesn't open.

Thank you guys for all the advice.