Coalpail.com Forum

Based on your goal of minimizing draft to slow the fire down it's perfect!

Tell the wife that she will get used to it, my manometer is kinda in the corner but is right there in the kitchen. The wife just looked at it and shook her head.... she said "I had no idea this coal burning thing was gonna look so much like an experiment!". She thinks I can't do anything the simple way! Now she doesn't even notice all that equipment in the corner of the kitchen.

She will never get used to it. It's removed and safely tucked away in it's box. Esp. with Thanksgiving this week, I could never leave it on the wall!

I'm ready to install manometer. I have 18" vertical from top vent & elbows with "T" baro right after. Can I put it anywhere in the vertical pipe or should I put it in the "T" before the baro? Does it matter? Thanks.

spc wrote:I'm ready to install manometer. I have 18" vertical from top vent & elbows with "T" baro right after. Can I put it anywhere in the vertical pipe or should I put it in the "T" before the baro? Does it matter? Thanks.

I would say in the vertical pipe just below the first elbow.

I would measure the draft 12" from the stove and before the damper. Drill a 1/4" hole in the stovepipe and insert a foot long piece of steel brake line in the hole so that 11" sticks out. Level the manometer and open both top ports 1/4-1/2 turn so they are completely open. Zero it out and connect the right side tube to the brake line that is inserted into the pipe. Adjust your baro to achieve .05 and lock the set screws on the baro so they can't move. Now pull out the brake line and screw in a 1/4" bolt to seal the hole in the pipe. Put away the manometer as it is no longer needed until someone messes with the chimney.

I would measure the draft 12" from the stove and before the damper.

Why 12" from the stove? And how much of a difference is there if you measure just above the stove collar? (which is where mine is) I am measuring -.04 just above the stove collar and I want to be sure that I am not doing something wrong that will cause bad things to happen to me or my family.

I learned that from my stoker's installation manual. I have some old books and they all say the same thing, measure close to the stove and before the baro. 12" is probably to get a more accurate reading as the exhaust has stabilized, it might be more turbulent near the collar but I really don't know why. You can't go wrong setting the draft too high except a reduction in efficiency. If there isn't enough draft then you can have big problems with carbon monoxide and a fire going out. The difference between .04 and .06 will be too small to notice in reality so don't sweat it. As long as there is some draft you are safe as the gasses are being sucked out, you are trying to keep your heat from getting sucked out too.

With a hand fired unit, you would want about .03 minimum. Stokers can go lower than that with little trouble. This is not to say it won't work at .02 or less, just that less than .03 you should be cautius to what is going on. My HF boiler does well at .02 draft. .06 is genrally the maximum you want to see with most HF, again stokers can run much lower. Always refer to the manufacturer and follow there reccomended limits.

Hi,

I read this thread and still have a few questions. I have an Alaska Channing stove with a DV (venturi hole plugged) and a Barometric damper. In the pic you can see that the Baro is mounted at the back of my stove right before the combustion blower. Can I mount the probe a few inches behind where the flapper sits? Any ideas? Also, to fill the Manometer should I just squirt the fluid into the little hole at the top of the Mano?

Thanks

Keystoker 90K with a Direct Vent mounted on the back, there really is no place to hook a manometer up.

You can check the draft with the little hole in the ash door (hex screw removal), but nothing to monitor all the time.

I just measured from the back past the air exchager, so I hit the Fire Box about even with the burn grate and Drilled a hole in the side of the stove close to the size I needed. Tapped it, and threaded my compression fitting into it. About 2' of (3/16")copper tubing to the rubber tubing and onto the Manometer.!! Adjusted for Zero and then hooked the tubing up.

.05 Exactly. Now, I can adjust the input gate on the power vent if needed to change the draft. Also have a temp. Gauge probe up near the top in the pipe for the exhaust temp. (idle at 133 Deg.)

WNY wrote:.05 Exactly. Now, I can adjust the input gate on the power vent if needed to change the draft. Also have a temp. Gauge probe up near the top in the pipe for the exhaust temp. (idle at 133 Deg.)

Looks good, Dave. I have a hole just above the ash door on mine that's always open (no threads), but it's not in a good spot to leave a probe all the time. There's really not anywhere else on the stove that I can go through to get to the firebox without having to drill through at least two, if not four, layers of steel! I think I'll need to christen her the USS Illinois.......

Anyway, in my conversations with Don at Keystoker, he was pretty emphatic about running 0.02 draft on a direct vent stove and not much more. I try to keep it around 0.02 to 0.03.

I'm going to have to snake my Fluke thermocouple probe up my stoves, umm, exit and see what temps I'm actually running on the flue.

I went and re-adjusted the DV gate so it now reads .03", will check once it gets running hotter, shouldn't change much.

It's like 45 degrees this morning! It dropped the exhaust temp almost 5-6 degrees instantly. I think it's around 125 now.

Thanks!

It was 45 here yesterday, now it's 15 and the wind is howling with 50mph gusts! It appears the major snow accumulation associated with this low pressure storm is going to track west. The Quad Cities over by the Iowa/IL border are getting whacked with almost a foot.

Where would the best place to take a reading on a back vent model LL Pioneer?... especially with the short distance of pipe between the stove and the wall.

after that question I have one. how much is a new unit. i'v been bidding on e-bay , but I don't want to go over $25 , if a new costs $30. thank you , ken