CO emitting from stack of Keystoker 105

 
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Lightning
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Post by Lightning » Sat. Feb. 17, 2018 5:49 pm

2biz wrote:
Sat. Feb. 17, 2018 2:59 pm
I believe that's what caused it for me...But your situation and installation might be different. Again, CO detectors are a must when burning any fossil fuel...Even at the lowest levels of CO, as long as you know the levels, it helps you to react accordingly...
I think it could be possible, based on the location of the cracks under the air jacket for them to leak into the convection air. The angled places on the top side of the fire box could produce a low pressure vortex as air rushes thru upward. Maybe?

 
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Post by McGiever » Sat. Feb. 17, 2018 5:52 pm

Hey Lee, I'm surprised you never used your manometer and measured your jacket/plenum positive pressure. :annoyed:

 
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Post by Lightning » Sat. Feb. 17, 2018 6:13 pm

McGiever wrote:
Sat. Feb. 17, 2018 5:52 pm
Hey Lee, I'm surprised you never used your manometer and measured your jacket/plenum positive pressure. :annoyed:
I'm gonna try that lol. I have measured the cold air return, it gets -.25"wc


 
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Post by 2biz » Sat. Feb. 17, 2018 6:26 pm

During my research on cold air returns is when I found the article about the clothes dryer vent. Then it all started making sense...It got me to thinking about the 75 cfm combustion blower and the baro on the AK-110....How many CFM is going up the stack in a typical installation? Especially if its in the living quarters or basement which is basically part of the living quarters...I'm glad my installation isn't in the living quarters. If you don't have a cold outside air supply close to the stove/furnace, might be a good idea to install one. Once you install one and feel how much air is drawn through the supply, it puts it all in to perspective.

Its funny, now I don't feel air coming in around the door seals, window seals, or outlets and switches on the wall...Yea, outlets and switches! Over the years, I'm wondering how much that little over-sight cost me??? I guess getting it worked out has helped make the AK-110 as efficient as it is. Thank goodness for the ability to research virtually anything online.

 
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Post by 2biz » Sat. Feb. 17, 2018 6:29 pm

Lightning wrote:
Sat. Feb. 17, 2018 6:13 pm
I'm gonna try that lol. I have measured the cold air return, it gets -.25"wc
Take it a step further and measure the pressure difference between the basement air and the air in the plenum....Might be an eye opener?

 
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Post by Lightning » Sat. Feb. 17, 2018 6:39 pm

2biz wrote:
Sat. Feb. 17, 2018 6:29 pm
Take it a step further and measure the pressure difference between the basement air and the air in the plenum....Might be an eye opener?
I'll do that. I'm gonna take a guess beforehand and say that it will be at or over +.20" wc.

I'm not totally sold on the dedicated cold air supply for stove use. My house is leaky anyways and I'm afraid that adding one would just increase cold air infiltration overall, but I'm not saying it isn't necessary in a tight well built home.


 
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Post by 2biz » Sat. Feb. 17, 2018 7:10 pm

The cold air supply needs to terminate close to the stove and preferably close to the draft control, combustion blower, or baro. The cold air will get drawn out of the supply and get sucked right in to what ever is pulling air out of the room.. It will not cool the room. I have my Cold air supply terminated 2" from the combustion blower. The air around the pipe is warm until you feel between the end of the pipe and combustion blower. I thought the same thing as you until after getting it into operation. When it was -7° outside, my garage stayed at 60° just from the radiant heat, even though the 3" cold air supply was sucking air in like crazy! It was just going in to the combustion blower. The key is to direct the cold air where you want it instead of letting air come in through every crack that does cool your house...Its that negative pressure I've been talking about that kills efficiency of your furnace.

Your house is leaky because you are creating negative pressure caused from all the air you are sucking out 24/7...I have gaps in my door seals where I can see day light. I don't feel air coming in any more since I fixed the negative air pressure problem.

I think we drifted a little left of center, but not too far...When you do have an issue, cracked jacket, etc...all this can make CO infiltration worse when you have negative pressure in your house.

 
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Post by franco b » Sat. Feb. 17, 2018 7:49 pm

I kind of suspect those cracks in the Hotblast were stress cracks caused by the original bending of the metal. Maybe too cold or the wrong metal alloy.

 
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Post by windyhill4.2 » Sat. Feb. 17, 2018 8:08 pm

2biz wrote:
Sat. Feb. 17, 2018 8:30 am


..I had a Hot Blast and only burned wood at lot lower temp than with coal....It cracked and spewed smoke
Wood is thrown into the firebox ,that is more likely the cause of the cracks than just the heat.

 
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Post by 2biz » Sun. Feb. 18, 2018 8:27 am

I don't think so, that doesn't explain the cracks in the front. I never bounced wood off the front of the furnace....I think it has more to do with expansion and contraction of the metal between full heat and cool-off along with the thickness of the metal. My wife and I work away from home and the furnace would be completely cooled off by the time we got home from work. It would be cooled off again in the morning. It would not hold fire for more than 8 hours, a lot less when it got real cold out. So every day it went through this cycle at least twice...Burning coal and how its tended might yield a totally different outcome.

The front plate was flat, no bends. The door frame plate was welded on...Weld can introduce its own set of stresses in the metal. So I'm thinking more in the lines of thermal expansion/contraction and the quantity of heat/cool cycles can damage more than operator induced...Either way, something to keep a very close eye on....

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