Koker Losing Manometer Reading When Blower Turns on

Thank you all. I believe you are on the correct path. I do not have any return air ducting in place or even a return to the garage where furnace is located. The furnace was buring most of the day with the garage door to the outside wide open and I had no fumes. Once evening came I figured the chimney is warm enough the check draft so I closed garage door because it was getting cool outside. The draft tested good until the blower turned on. I noticed when the blower turns on that I could hear the door between my attached garage and my basement where I am piping the hot air squeeze shut. It was my intention to put in a return if the heat did not circulate to the above floor but it seems that I have no choice. I am going to follow some of the above recommendation to determine if the blower is causing low pressure in garage which in turn is causing a reversal of airflow out of my furnace. As for the high temps in my ductwork it sounds like I should be using something a little bigger (Would duct board be better?). Again thank you all and I will keep you posted. I am also going to look into piping in some fresh air for the combustion fan. While I am at it I believe someone mentioned adding a rheostat to control the cumbustion fan which I am going to look into. Seems like a wase to have combustion fan running full speed with the shutter closed 3/4.

Rheostat needs to be sized for the motor's amperage...it is called a Motor Speed Controller.

I wouldn't think you would have to mess with controlling the speed of the combustion fan. That is why the shutter plate is there. Seeing as how you are already having issues with your draft, I wouldn't go and start changing/adding to factory installed equipment. The more items you add to the stove, the more there is to possibly fail at in-opportune times.

Another thing is, that you are kind of doing the same thing with your convection blower. You seem to be really throttling it down by forcing it to only feed an 8" duct. My koker heats our entire house by having 2 - 8" x 16" ducts coming off its plenum. I would think you may be shortening the blower's life span by constantly making it fight turbulence as it tries to force a fraction of its potential output up the single duct.

I don't know what kind of heat you have coming off the Koker, but I would never use duct board for the supply on my mag stoker. It gets too hot for me to feel safe using anything but metal duct. Maybe on the far end of the supply run it would have cooled enough for duct board, but near the stove the duct is very hot. I even have the metal duct spaced an inch from the drywall ceiling in the workshop it gets that hots when it is firing for a while.

jkush,
Just curious, why do you have the Koker in your garage instead of your basement? I know you stated you have a newly built chimney, so I'm guessing you built it next to your garage.
You might want to consider putting the Koker in the center of the basement right under your main ducts, connect the heat and return directly to the Koker and use a power vent thru the block wall for venting. (I'm again assuming you don't have a chimney in the basement).
Anyhow, just wanted to point out that the Koker will give you a lot more heat throughout the house when it's connected to the same ductwork your original furnace uses.

Hello Everyone. You guys hit the nail on the head with this one. I zeroed my manometer and turned the blower on (The furnace was not lit). The vacum sucked the manometer to +.5. I open the door between my attached garage and the finished basement and watched manometer go back to zero. I am looking for ways to improve my ductwork (Return and hot air feed) or to possible attach to AC ductwork that runs through unfinished attic. For now you solved my problem but I am sure you will be hearing from me in the future. Again Thank You.

You are going to have to go about this very carefully.

You need make up air. That is you will have to supply a source of air to blow through the system. It may not be enough to just hook up a cold air return system. If your house is really tight, you may be back in the same situation.

Now use that manometer as much as possible. I'm glad you have 1. You will now be able to monitor any change that you make.

Keep us informed. Let us know what you are contemplating doing. We may be able to offer some guidance.

I trust that you have an adequate supply of CO monitors ??

Rick

jkush wrote:Hello Everyone. You guys hit the nail on the head with this one. I zeroed my manometer and turned the blower on (The furnace was not lit). The vacum sucked the manometer to +.5. I open the door between my attached garage and the finished basement and watched manometer go back to zero. I am looking for ways to improve my ductwork (Return and hot air feed) or to possible attach to AC ductwork that runs through unfinished attic. For now you solved my problem but I am sure you will be hearing from me in the future. Again Thank You.

Air Conditioning Duct in attic...Does this mean you have a hot water boiler system or maybe electric baseboard heat installed in the house?

Spring is just around the corner and it is time to start working on my heating system. Here is my current situation: I have a bi-level house with electric baseboard as my primary and Propane as a secondary heat source. The Payne propane furnace and Bryant AC is located in my unfinished (truss) attic. The duct work in the attic consists of some duct board with some long runs of insulated flex duct feeding the individual rooms through ceiling registers. The cold air return located in ceiling on top floor is also flex duct. Finished basement has no forced air heating. Here is what I would like to do: 1) Move Propane furnace \ AC to basement garage, 2) Move A/C compressor to other side of house next to where I am moving AC unit in basement garage. 3) Correct duct work in attic. It consists of some duct board with long runs of insulated flex duct to ceiling registers on top floor. 4) Run metal ductwork from basement garage to attic (Feed and Return). 5) The trickey part that I do not know how to do is connect the Koker into the system.

I know I am going to need some professional help to accomplish this but I would prefer to do what I can to cut down on costs. Here is my first stab at a plan: Connect Propane furnace output to Koker where blower attaches. Connect Koker output to AC coil box. Connect AC coil box to ductwork feed. Connect cold air return to Propane furnace blower. Not sure how to set the electronics so that the propane is the backup incase the koker is not fired up (Spring \ Fall). The koker fan seems to be much bigger that the Propane furnace fan and I would like to use in place of Propane furnace fan but it presents some problems with connecting to cold air return. I am hoping the above will spread the heat to all rooms evenly and correct my problem of negative flow down my chimney. Any suggestions on how to make this work? Thank You.

I agree as well you need your return air for the convection fan from outside the basement.

Not sure if this will help you...take a look at a series ducting example that I posted back some time ago.

Conversion of a Riteway #37 Into a Stoker Furnace

Now we are in a better position to make this work. I just had my ac\propane furnace moved from my attic to my basement garage. I have both feed and return ducts available. Here is my plan: run rectangle metal duct from top of koker to hot air feed coming off the ac\gas furnace. Run 2 ten inch round ducts from ac\gas cold air return to koker blower motor. My question is will I need to put in dampers? If koker blower turns on and gas blower is off the hot air will circulate through the gas stove without circulating through the house. I am thinking I will need to block koker side in summer for ac to work and gas side in winter for koker to work. When I look at koker recommended connection I see a diagonal line whet it connects. Would I be better off tying the two blowers together so that both blowers turn on at the same time?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thank you

You are on the right path. Put a damper or slide plate in above the gas unit's a-coil. Put dampers in the Koker duct to stop a/c from blowing in. Do not tie the blowers together.