G111 Continued

Nice pic Joe!!!

Thanks Tom, but I'll bet you got some of your own. Sorry you ended up "TOTP!"
(Better you than me) LOL

joeq wrote: ↑

Sun. Nov. 28, 2021 2:19 pm

Thanks Bill. The temps are slowly rising, but the house is toasty. Got your Hitzer fired yet?

Yep! Lit up Saturday before Thanksgiving.

Joe, promise me you’ll vacuum your rear clean outs once a week!

Good to see the blues in the 111

Once a week Scott?!! I don't have time for that. If that's what it takes, guess I'll be running in DD.

scalabro wrote: ↑

Mon. Nov. 29, 2021 6:36 pm

Joe, promise me you’ll vacuum your rear clean outs once a week!

X2

Joe, you can vacuum the base chamber without shutting the stove down. Just have all tools ready first and don't take too long doing it.

I never saw that requirement, in the maintenance manual. What if I use synthetic coal, can I extend the cleaning to a few months?

mntbugy wrote: ↑

Mon. Nov. 29, 2021 8:24 pm

X2

Joe, you can vacuum the base chamber without shutting the stove down. Just have all tools ready first and don't take too long doing it.

I do this with both the range and the GW#6. I use a long furnace cleaning brush from a plumbing and heating supply, and I made a PVC sink drain pipe long extension for the shop vac that reaches into the long flues.

Like Artie said, get everything ready.

I put the stove in direct draft with the MPD wide open to get it burning with a strong draft. Then pop the flue cover off. A quick brushing to loosen the fly ash on the flue top and side walls, and then run the PVC vac tube in along the flue floors.

Done often enough, it takes less than five minutes. .... unless you wait until it becomes a big PITA job.

Paul

So Christmas has just passed us by, and I spent 3 days back and forth, on the road, then home again, visiting family members. And because my furnace went down again, I relied heavily on the 111 to keep our house livable. With spans of up-wards of 12 hrs un-attended, the stove continued to operate with very little effort to get her warmed up again. I know she'll burn longer, but I haven't had the need to experiment with that...(as of yet). So altho the 111 pot has a modest capacity, it's been very accommodating to our needs. Now, to get into the dungeon.

And here we go again. the beginning of the new year, and the 50° temps are gone, and the cold has returned. (Who'ld've thunk it?)

The 111 has become our "primary" heat source, with the old and not so reliable Thermo-pride, our back-up. And of course, (once again), woke up yesterday to another "hard Lock-out" on the digital displayed HoneyWell cad controller. It did lite-off, once reset, but soon the furnace will need some new replacement parts.

How-ever, I woke up the same morning, and when I entered the up-stairs hall-way, I noticed a bit more warmth than usual. I remembered going to bed the night B4, and rather than completely closing my 111 primaries, I left them open a sliver. (about 1/16th). Usually the coal bed will be lively, but ashed up on the bottom, when I get up 8 hrs later.. It still was ashed, but a bit more spirited combustion chamber. The ceiling/floor vent in the hall-way, seems to be working now-a-days, a bit better than I originally thought. I have mounted a "temporary" fan from the living room ceiling, (by the stove...sort-a), and up into the up-stairs hall-way, outside our bedroom, just as an experiment. On low, it does move heated air up-stairs. I don't leave it on at bedtime tho. Heat just radiates up. The bottom photo above, shows the distance from the stove. Not much, plenty of heat at the ceiling there.
It isn't pretty right now, but in time, will install a wall fan, like I did a few years back, sending heated air into the kitchen, (works well), and a second one I installed into an insulated 8" tube, which is the duct from the furnace, to the up-stairs bedrm/bath. I tapped in another wall fan to that duct, but it never sends warm air from the living area, to the bedrm. The wall fan on the right, moves heated air to the kitchen, and will raise those temps over 5° in about 1/2 an hr. The left fan goes into the heating duct to the up-stairs bd/bth, and works fine when the furnace is pushing hot air up there. But when the tube is cold, (no call for heat), and I turn on the wall fan (which is teed into it), I believe, (not 100% sure) the amount of heated air form the ceiling, is being diluted with the cold air in the pipe, from the cellar. I'm thinking of installing a sliding valve, or damper below the wall fan to keep the cold air from the cellar mixing in with it. (whew...long post)
In conclusion, I think I will wire one of those fans in the floor/ceiling vent permanently, and decide on a damper to the other one later. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Nice Joe…keep trucking along. You’ll find something that works!! Trial and error my friend.

What I thought a thermo-pride was built tough for lifetime comfort? If it’s an oil furnace, there isn’t much to maintenance.

Sure looks like you got your thinkin cap on. Real good ideas.

tcalo wrote: ↑

Sat. Jan. 08, 2022 4:50 pm

Nice Joe…keep trucking along. You’ll find something that works!! Trial and error my friend.

Hounds51 wrote: ↑

Sat. Jan. 08, 2022 8:54 pm

Sure looks like you got your thinkin cap on. Real good ideas.

Thanks men, lots of members with good ideas to keep me on the straight and narrow.

Holdencoal wrote: ↑

Sat. Jan. 08, 2022 5:03 pm

What I thought a thermo-pride was built tough for lifetime comfort? If it’s an oil furnace, there isn’t much to maintenance.

"Lifetime of comfort" is a relevant term. Lifetime of what? The furnace is about 40 years old, and was reliable 2/3rds of it's life. Use-ta test in the 90+ percent range over many many years. The burner has seen better days. I just turned it on, to help out the 111, seein our oats have just dipped into the single digits. And I'm sure if the weathermen had their way, they would tell me how much worse it could be, with the wind chill.

Joe, are you a pilot?