I have a Fire Chief wood stove that heats my house. I was looking it over tonight and I found a crack starting from the lower left corner of the furnace door. The furnace and door flange are welded plate steel and the crack starts from the root of the weld at the corner of the door flange. I know the stove has gotten very hot a few times when others have left the lower ash door open. High heat, under cut weld root, a corner and thermal cycling has cracked my furnace. I think it's okay to burn in still. To fix it I plan on drilling out the tip of the crack, grinding the crack, and welding it up. I'm open to opinions and thoughts.
Sounds like a reasonable plan...what model is it? The newer ones have a bad reputation. I had a first gen Drolet Tundra...the model that always cracked...I bought it that way, ran it that way...finally fixed it right before I sold it. Good news is that the new owner says that it has been fine and is very happy with it.
I don't know it's exact age. It is not a current EPA model. It's the older design with a simple reburn shelf that can be bypassed to increase startup draft. I'd say it's around 8 years old, maybe older.
If it’s a hairline crack and not leaking air consider just leaving it. Mark the end and see if it propagates. Our Nashua cracked over 40 years ago and nothing more since. If you do weld it peen it really well to relieve tension and maybe even again when it is up to temp.
Ironically I just posted about my parents Firechief FC500 in the "Modern EPA Stove" department. Honestly, I think this is a terrible stove design. It does a great job of heating but it eats wood and can't maintain hot enough chimney Temps. Do you use the power draft fan for the fire? They do not as it would make the fire so darn hot and eat even more wood! I'm hoping to find them a more efficient upgrade.
Remember, not all furnaces need to achieve high chimney temps to maintain a clean chimney. In fact, the more heat you send up the chimney the more heat you are losing up the chimney. I'm actually mixing and sending cold outside air up my chimney through my BD to control my draft, as I have a OAK attached to my BD. So I'm mixing cold outside air with low 300° flue gasses (when on pilot on low) at the BD and sending it up the chimney.
I don't have the EPA version. My old school version works well. Uses about 3 cords a winter. My wife and youngest kid like the house at 70F. I do use the powered fan to control air once the fire gets up to temp. To start I use the fan and ash door draft. I'll close everything up but the thermostat controlled supply fan. It will burn hot if you bank it full. If the wood load is around bottom to mid door level it burns just right. Sometimes I have to partially cover the fan inlet to keep the chimney temperature in the sweet spot. The fan can let enough air through to keep the fire going too much even when the fan cuts off. A few outdoor boiler companies have a flap that covers the inlet when the fan turns off. I want to see if I can find a boiler fan with coverthat is similar cfm. Or I need to make an extension for my blower to install a flat plate choke like on a carburator
Interesting. What size of split wood are you using? I supply them with typical "stove size" splits- not tooth picks, but not big logs that barely fit through the door. All properly dried of course. They operate in a similar fashion with the dampers. I often wonder if I need to supply them with larger splits - by that I mean just big enough to fit through the door. There's is not the epa version wither. Just a firebox with a shelf of sort when flue damper is closed. Additionally, how many times per day are you loading? I don't know what is going on then. They are easily burning a face cord per week when the Temps are lower. And this is a secondary heat source for their Geothermal!! Based on Brenndatomu's comment about smoke causing creosote, besides having properly seasoned wood (below 20 - preferably below 18), what else can be done besides a hotter fire?
I'm gonna stop by the dealer where he bought it, Brunk's (original manufacturer of the Brunco stove), and ask them for some additional insight. ....I'm also going to eyeball their cat stoves. All ready to dolly one down into my basement.
I don't burn big wood because the kids have to help feed it. The wood is just a bit bigger than what a box splitter makes. So 5x5 roughly. Bigger goes in at night but on cold nights I'll have to refill around 3am. Usually it's chilly in the morning and takes a good fueling to get everything warmed up. I don't have to feed the stove to often. But the house is empty during work hours. A nice fill early in the morning to get house going. Then one after school to warm house up for the wife after her work. Then 3 times before bed.... maybe. Typically the kids refill the wood rack next to the stove once a week or so. Wood rack is 16" x 72" x 24". I do live in a small single story 60s farm house that has updated windows. It located in Missouri so it's doesn't get too cold except for a week or two. I have the hvac blower on the stove set to low. I don't recall my thermal switch settings on the red firebox cover. Door draft is closed. Top bypass plate,smoke shelf, is closed. No damper on flue pipe connected to chimney. Stove is in basement so any heat lost from furnace body still goes into house. Larger loads have blower inlet covered 20% to temper flue temps. As designed it's hard to get the stove choked all the way down. Even closing door damper inlet a bit of air sucks in through fire grate mounting holes. But we can get it to go out and leave charcoal if we close everything.
How are you measuring flue temperatures? My stove will max out a magnetic stove pipe thermometer easy. If it's banked full with dried oak or hickory it's hard to keep the flue temps down to the "normal" range. My stove is a fc700e. Don't recall if I stated model size.
Thanks so much for all the info and details! This is priceless information. I stopped thr dealer Friday after work. They were useless. What chimney temps you run during a "normal" burn cycle? Obviously if fluctuates but are you able to keep it in the sweet spot? They have a "run of the mill" magnetic gauge about 6" I would guess and it's almost always running below - if not way below the ideal temp range. So I suspect that is the chimney problem. Trouble is, if they try to run hotter to keep the chimney temp up - they burn even more wood! Currently they are burning about 50cu.ft. of wood PER WEEK! Your only burning 16cu.ft. per week. We are doing something wrong!
what species?? Big difference in BTU's between 50CF of pine vs 50CF of oak. Weight is a much better gauge of usage when comparing between species, as ALL wood has the same BTU's/lb at the same moisture level.
All hardwood - Ash, Hard Maple, Black Locust, Cherry, Black Walnut, and an occasional Hop Hornbeam. All below 20% - CSS 2 years - none of which was "green" when it was cut down.
Well I've been burning oak and hickory last 2 years. It's bitter cold this week so we will burn more wood. I have some hedge and coal on hand to get the heat up and last through the night. I still don't think I'll burn as much as your talking about. Normal night is a couple shoulder fulls till morning. I have a larger stove but any stove should hit good flue temperatures. I use a magnetic flue temp gauge. I've checked it against higher cost equipment and it was close enough for me. I agree something is wrong but I don't know what. If I was closer I'd take a look at it. I replace the firebricks last year. I replaced all of the door gaskets, steel flue pipe, and scrubbed the chimney just before this heating season. Total chimney is probably 20-24 foot.
