Pictures of Your Manometer

Last night my house filled up with sulfur fumes and I had to shut down my Harman stoker. I have been burning coal for years and never used a manometer and I notice on most all threads related to my problem, a manometer is recommended. So I need to get it done!

Please share any pics of your permanently mounted manometer, especially on a Harman stoker.

thanks.

the story if your interested: middle of the night I woke up to a house full of sulfur (rotten egg) smell. Hopper was near full, and I have been burning the Harman for about a month now with no issues. The most significant thing I noticed odd was my fire box was full of hot coals but there were just lazy blue flames dancing on top. I have been burning the stoker at max feed rate (air shield open about an inch on combustion blower) and the fire is usually very aggressive with orange flames blasting inside the unit. Was it just a crappy atmosphere that changed pressure and reduced my draft--don't know, no manometer. If in fact that is the cause, what is the remedy?

Sorry my Manometer is a little hard to see but it's the only pictures I have of it at work. Top left side. I have a brother in the pipe fitting business and I had him customer bend 1/4" stainless line from the pipe down, acrossed the top of the stove, down the side below the hopper, to the block wall, back up the block to the top edge, and back over.
I think it came out awesome and is completely out of the way for tending and working on anything on the stove.

Thanks Dennis---that was one thing I wasn't sure of, if distance from stack pipe to the meter mattered or if the amount of bends would effect the reading.

I hope you have carbon monoxide detectors.

chimley wrote:Thanks Dennis---that was one thing I wasn't sure of, if distance from stack pipe to the meter mattered or if the amount of bends would effect the reading.

With all the bends and everything I used up about 8' of hard line and about 8" of rubber. I am going to throw a piece of rubber on the other side to keep dust out.

I have CO alarms on each level of my home. No activation.. I have one that reads ppm, but I did not look at it ...should have.

Good to hear you survived.....

Wet Coal?? Only time I ever had CO / sulfur smell trouble I had loaded some wet coal in the hopper.

Check any horizontal flue pipe for fly ash and use the chain pull tab in the exhaust collar to clear fly ash off the sloped passage leading to the exhaust port.

Workshop stoker & manometer... House stoker & manometer...

flue pipe fitting copper to flex tubing union Manometer itself....

Definately have CO detectors! a must with ANY heating appliance (except electric). I have 4.

There's another large thread on Manometer Install with many pics and ideas. Use the Search feature in the top right corner.

Manometer Install

Here are some pictures of my install. On kokers, the draft is measured at the ash door. But principle is the same, need heat resistant material close to the stove and then transition into whatever type of rubber tubing comes with your manometer. Some people use brake line material but I found that just flexible copper tubing is sufficient.

Well its hooked up on a hand job insert and not a stoker Clear tubing attached using a compression fitting to copper. I bent a 1/8" x1" flat stock drilled and tapped for a 1/4" NPT, Drilled the pipe and fastened the flat stock to the flue pipe with a long hose clamp.

Thanks for the info.

For those of you with stokers--how often do you find yourself making adjustments to combustion blower or damper based on your manometer readings?

I only adjust the combustion blower if I get a new load of coal and its noticeably larger or smaller than the previous load, so maybe once per year when I first fire up.

If I do any pipe replacement that is when the baro weight gets adjusted per the manometer reading. I will cover my baro with foil in moderate weather if temps are getting into the high 50's and the stove happens to be running. Once it is set I don't mess with the weight.

titleist1---when you are burning the Harman fairly hard, what kind of flue temperatures do you see? Can you hold a finger on the stack pipe coming out of your stoker for more than a second?

I ask because mine is not dialed in with a manometer, and my stack gets pretty hot. I would say just about as hot as the pipe I have distributing the heat.

I also had a leisure line salesman tell me that their stokers are extremely efficient, and the exhaust temperatures are minimal so that the stack pipes is only warm to the touch. Any thoughts anyone?

This may seem off topic---but I don't believe so. I'm trying to justify installing a manometer.

In this thread Stoker Stack Temperatures members are discussing stack temps--and different adjustments that they have had to make to make their furnace run correctly.

what I'm getting at is that adjustments must be made, sometimes regardless what a gauge is telling you. I think the manometer is "nice to have" , but not critical.

I'm curious your opinion.

When burning hard the flue temp is between 250 and 280....I am not touching the flue pipe. Those are internal temps measured about 12" up from the stove before the baro, with a 2" probe.

IMO the manometer is very useful with a stoker to verify you are not pressurizing the firebox by having combustion fan baffle open too far. Also useful to set the baro weight properly & early warning on fly ash build up. Although with a T at the end of my horizontal its too easy to clean to let it ever get more that 1/8" in there.