Hyfire II First Burn Concerns

I had a Hyfire II with heat jacket and the Coal-trol TS2 thermostat installed last spring by my Leisure Line dealer.
The installation is similar to the diagram posted on the LL website with the 14" duct from the heat jacket to the cold air return in my furnace. A Honeywell R8222 D 1014 relay is installed in the heat jacket and connected to TS2 and furnace.
The relay has 3 pointers inside that can be adjusted to have the furnace blower kick on\off. I have 6" stove pipe connected to a baro damper( set @ 4 )which then goes to my 8" stainless steel chimney. It is a pretty straight shot and has worked well in my 20 years of burning wood. I started my first fire this weekend ( one burner now until it gets cold enough for the second one) with no problems and set the Coal-Trol @ 69 degrees desired temp. with min. @ 6 and max. @ 38. Fire on grate looked good and I sat back and let the Coal-trol do its thing.
My concerns are as follows: I have yet to find a setting on the relay to keep the furnace fan from either coming on too often ( once every minute and staying on for less than 30 seconds) or coming on and staying on forever and blowing lukewarm air out my ducts. The range on the relay has temps from 50 degrees to 200 degrees and I have set the pointers on about every setting combination. I have talked to the dealer who has been very helpful but I am doing this by trial and error and just thought someone smarter than me can give me some direction. I have read this forum daily since I purchased my stove but have yet to find a solution. Also, as the temps get warmer, I have noticed some condensation inside to hopper lid but no warnings from my CO detector.

Thanks,
Ohiocoal

Okay, first, where are you sensing the hot air flow to turn on the blower? You will have to check with the CoalTrol Guys on that, that;s the problem with the furnance blowers, they are not variable speed, and it just tell the blower to come on/off. That is one reason I stayed with the built in blowers on mine,so it keeps a more constant heat/speed output.

Maybe post a pic of your setup.

The Condensation is from fumes getting into the hopper, probably low draft, I just went thru this with mine. Turn you min up to 8 or 10, that will get the idle temps up 20-30 degrees to keep it drawing up the chimney better, once it gets colder outside, you shouldn't have a problem.

Any thing else, just ask!!

The relay is located on near the top of the heat jacket next to the hopper of the stove.
I will try the min. settings you suggested and would you adjust those depending on outside temp or leave them go once you find a setting that seems to work?
Also, tell me more about the in line blowers.
Thanks,
Ohiocoal

The min setting shouldn't need to be touched once you have it set. It will probably work better once you get down below 40 or so outside.

I have the stock blowers on mine, but only running thru 1- 8" duct upstairs. My furnance doens't have a blower.

Hello to all! I am a newbie on the forum and also to burning coal. I have an oil burner that I have converted to burn wvo(waste vegetable oil) and am sick of it! I recentley purchased a slightly used Hyfire 2 and have it ducted to my existing plenum. I just started burning coal Tuesday night. Still have a lot to learn and understand so please bear with me if I am asking elementary questions. I also hope to be able to help answer any questions. Thanks

Hi Ohiocoal,
Since you have gone up and down the range with your fan limit control, I think that I would move it further away from the stove. I have mine in the pipe (a total of 12 to 14") away from the top of the stove. This works best for me, only a suggestion. Also, if your getting sweat on your hopper lid, its a draft problem. Dave gave you good advice, but if it doesn't work please find the problem or shut off the stove.
Good Luck,
Jerry

Jerry,
Do you have in line blowers or is the thermostat connected your furnace blower?
My current situation is that I have started both burners, outside temps are between 30-35 degrees with the forcast for more of the same the next 7-10 days; min. set @10, max. @38; coal-trol set @ 69 degrees. Furnace blower coming on approx. every 10-15 minutes and staying on for 2-3 minutes.Coal-Trol says feed rate 0, stove themostat pointers @ 75 degrees low point and 150 degrees high point. Inside temps staying @ 70-72 degrees.
I am sensing after watching this over the past week that the furnace blower thermostat is coming on just long enough to remove the heat around the heat jacket. I would like to find a longer cycle time for the furnace blower. Maybe moving the thermostat would accomplish this. Also, have not noticed the condensation inside the hopper lid since I have adjusted min. setting. Thanks WNY.
Like I said before, any other suggestions would be appreciated.
Ohiocoal

A lot of furnace blowers can be wired to run a several speeds.. take a look at the wiring for your motor and see if you can slow it down,, then it won't wash the air off the Hyfire so fast..

Do you have the Hyfire's air distribution fans removed?? I'd duct cold air returns to either the fan inlets or to the fan mounting bases Right now you are pulling cold basement air through the Hyfire.. if you duct warm once-heated air from the heated portions of the house, you will have better heat output.

Take a look at WNY's cold air return ducting on the back of his Hyfire..

Hope this helps.. Greg L

Greg,

Yes, the distribution fans have been removed and during installation I added a cold air return.
My basement where the stove is located is insulated and is the same temp. as the rest of the house.
I will look into slowing the fan down. Still tweaking but I believe I'll get it adjusted eventually.
Thanks,

Ohiocoal

Other concerns:
My fire on the grate seems to be far back, approx. 3-4", should I adjust the min\max settings on my coal-trol to bring this more toward the 1.5-2" that most people on this forum shoot for ?
Current settings are min = 8, max = 42, also what can I expect on these min\max adjustments, i.e., lower min. = less coal use or higher max = more heat output. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ohiocoal

You need to check what the feed rate is on the coaltrol when you check it...it may not be at max when you are checking your stove, I usually have 2-3" of ash unless it is really cranking.

Min. is used when Idling, so lowering that can cause it to flame out.

Max is used for the Max Feed to get the most out of the stove. I think I have mine my Max around 45-46 and Min around 8 or 10 to keep my draft up when it was warm. Unless you are running full at FR=99 and you still have a lot of ash at the end of the grate, you can turn MAX up 1-2 numbers at a time until you have the correct amount of ash without pushing hot coals off the end. You have to let it settle out for over an hour once you make any changes to see what it is doing.

You may have to up the thermostat a few degrees to get it to feed more to try and catch up and max out the feed rate. Sometimes a trial and error method to fine tune it. Each stove is different.

You can play around with them, but it won't save you much on coal too much coal, turn your Temp. on the thermostat down to save coal.

Thanks Dave,My feed rate is usually between 0 -15 when I check but I will check @ different feed rates. Maybe adjust room temp. upward to see what happens.

Ohiocoal

If you have "Max" displayed on the coal-trol, It will stay at the set max feed rate and ignore what the t-stat is calling for and it will not go back into the round robin until you exit the max setting display. That way you can change the max settings and watch the coal and ash on the grate and not have to worry about the stove changing feed rates. The same goes for the "min" display.

Ohio, That is all good information. Don't be concerned where your fire is on the grate. When at low burn the fire will almost be in the very back of the burner. This is normal.
Jerry

WNY wrote: Min. is used when Idling, so lowering that can cause it to flame out.

Max is used for the Max Feed to get the most out of the stove. I think I have mine my Max around 45-46 and Min around 8 or 10 to keep my draft up when it was warm.

You can play around with them, but it won't save you much on coal too much coal, turn your Temp. on the thermostat down to save coal.

So what exactley do you accomplish by turning the "Min" up?