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Pulled the trigger on a Fire Chief outdoor furnace

Started by Woodcutter_Mo, October 22, 2017, 08:07:56 PM

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Woodcutter_Mo

 Well I decided to buy a forced air outdoor wood furnace. I ended up buying a pre-owned but never used or installed fire chief fcos2200d over the weekend. I had originally planned on an indoor furnace but I figured I would give this a try. The old ashly indoor stove will remain on backup duty in the case of a power outage ect.
Now the fun part, running some ducts through my 110+ year old house  :o
 


Now I'll get to experience first hand what it like keeping an outdoor furnace fed through the winter  :D , I plan to build a small metal building over it for a wind break and to make it easier during rain and snow. I built one for my dad's outdoor furnace and he really likes it.
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thecfarm

Real simple to keep it fed through the winter. Some of the ones with indoor stoves will say, I would not want to go out in the weather and feed it. Have to go out to the wood shed and get wood? You are still outside.  ;D  Only been one snow storm that I wanted a indoor stove since 2007.  ;) Good luck with it. I would keep a spare blower on hand. Seem like them things only stop working when you are using them in the winter time.  :D
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TKehl

Feeding it is not too bad if you keep it on a schedule and feed it before it NEEDS it.  As long as there are hot coal, toss logs on and head back to the house.  The blower will kick on soon enough.  (We have a Bryan outdoor forced air unit.)

My middle of the night feedings go like this.  PJ shorts, throw on carhart, hat, gloves, headlamp, and slip on tennis shoes.  Open the box, throw in whatever it needs to get to morning, go back to the house.  I'm not outside more than two to three minutes, then I go find my wife since she always wants to snuggle.    ;D 

No cover for the stove.  The woodpile is the only windbreak.  Most of my wood is on pallets covered in sheets of tin with ugly firewood sticks on top.  Sometimes on a trailer unhooked right by the stove.  Of course, once I light the fire in November, it generally doesn't fully go out until March.   ;)
In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn

Woodcutter_Mo

 That don't sound too bad. I generally go to bed pretty late and get up fairly early so I shouldn't have too much problem then. I'll pick up a spare blower to have on hand and I might set up some kind of battery backup to run the blower and keep the furnace from overheating in the event of a power outage.
Can't wait to finally have some atleast somewhat even heating in the old house  ;D
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petefrom bearswamp

Not familiar with that brand of furnace.
Good luck with it.
TKehl, Middle of the night feeding?
The plus is snuggling with your wifey
I have a 12 yr old classic and feed it morning and late evening with 10 to  12 pieces of 2 foot wood.
Only time I fill it is when we will be gone a couple of days.
I heat a well insulated 3200 sq ft house built in 1993.
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TKehl

Pete, yes I have to feed mine more often as it's forced air not a boiler.  There's no extra thermal mass to hold the heat.  Granted, that's only on the days it gets down to about 15°. 

It would also help if I used better wood.   I burn tons of Elm, waste slabs, half rotten logs, and junk wood from timber stand improvements.  I figure people will buy Oak, Locust, and Hickory, so I burn mostly junk.  I do keep some better wood separate for when it gets real cold though.   ;)  Got real warm in the house when my wife raided my pile of Hedge.   :D  Had to open the windows a while.
In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn

Woodcutter_Mo

Here are a few quick shots after I got it unloaded and unboxed. I have since moved it to where it I want it and have started getting some measurements and prices on the ductwork. They are made in St. Louis. Its a fairly basic unit, it does have a grate and ash pan which I like but unfortunately no shaker or roller grate system like some of the other models. It's also has a forced draft so it will probably have an appetite  :o. Can't wait to get it fired up  8)





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dave_dj1

Nice score. My advice, do away with the forced draft, use plenty of chimney, let the ash build up to cover the grate, you will get longer burn times. I have mine and I can get all day and then all night out of it. I usually load it at 5-6 am, maybe a couple of sticks when I get home from work at 4 or so then again at bed time, 9-10. If it get's way below zero I keep it going and don't mind if the inside furnace kicks on.
I have a walk out ranch and have it ducted to the basement but no other duct work, I didn't see the need to tie it into the existing hot air furnace. It keeps my floors warm and the whole house is toasty all winter. One thing I had a hard time of breaking myself from putting wood in it when it really doesn't need it, like on the weekends or days off.
I have a little electric motor that opens the draft on a thermostat, I installed a manual timer in line at the stove so when I load it I set the draft to open for a few minutes then it closes.
You will probably have to experiment with it a little.

Woodcutter_Mo

Quote from: dave_dj1 on October 27, 2017, 04:36:51 AM
Nice score. My advice, do away with the forced draft, use plenty of chimney, let the ash build up to cover the grate, you will get longer burn times. I have mine and I can get all day and then all night out of it. I usually load it at 5-6 am, maybe a couple of sticks when I get home from work at 4 or so then again at bed time, 9-10. If it get's way below zero I keep it going and don't mind if the inside furnace kicks on.
I have a walk out ranch and have it ducted to the basement but no other duct work, I didn't see the need to tie it into the existing hot air furnace. It keeps my floors warm and the whole house is toasty all winter. One thing I had a hard time of breaking myself from putting wood in it when it really doesn't need it, like on the weekends or days off.
I have a little electric motor that opens the draft on a thermostat, I installed a manual timer in line at the stove so when I load it I set the draft to open for a few minutes then it closes.
You will probably have to experiment with it a little.

Thanks for the advice. I have the furnace set about 4' from the house so I'll have to run the chimney up above the peak of the roof so that should be plenty of chimney.
I believe there are other models of fire chief furnaces with an electronic draft like you described instead of the draft blower so it might be possible for me to replace the forced draft with one later on if it seems like it'll need it  :). Or I could just add a second draft setup like you described and put the current blower on a manual switch to use when starting a Fire. ???
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TKehl

You have FB insurance on your house to?  My agent said 10' from the house and it wouldn't raise rates.  Closer than that I don't know. 

Best advice, use hard wall duct.  We tried that insulated flex stuff and it's a great way to raise my blood pressure.  Ended up pulling it out and replacing it with metal duct and then wrapped with insulation and plastic to keep it dry.

The downside with a forced draft is it will extract every last bit of heat from the coals.  IE, you have to relight if you don't watch it.  I have an electric controlled damper, but no blower, which is nice.  The heat output gradually goes down so I can throw more wood on hot coals and wait a bit instead of relighting. 

Wood is cheap (free+labor+saw gas - TSI value) for me, so I don't mind burning more.
In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn

Woodcutter_Mo

Quote from: TKehl on October 27, 2017, 10:13:57 AM
You have FB insurance on your house to?  My agent said 10' from the house and it wouldn't raise rates.  Closer than that I don't know. 

Best advice, use hard wall duct.  We tried that insulated flex stuff and it's a great way to raise my blood pressure.  Ended up pulling it out and replacing it with metal duct and then wrapped with insulation and plastic to keep it dry.

The downside with a forced draft is it will extract every last bit of heat from the coals.  IE, you have to relight if you don't watch it.  I have an electric controlled damper, but no blower, which is nice.  The heat output gradually goes down so I can throw more wood on hot coals and wait a bit instead of relighting. 

Wood is cheap (free+labor+saw gas - TSI value) for me, so I don't mind burning more.

No at the moment I don't have insurance on it, but when I do decide to insure it I will have to move it out 10'. We've always had an indoor wood stove so couldn't get insurance on it.

The duct I've priced is the galvanized metal and the foil insulation wrap, I thought about using the flex duct on a couple short runs but that may be a bad idea then. Thanks for the advice :)

I will have to cut a hole in the floor for an access to the crawl space as I will be piping the duct through the current outside access.

My dad's outdoor furnace has a forced draft and like you said you do have to be careful about letting the coals go out but it does work good.
-WoodMizer LT25
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TKehl

Short protected lengths of flex are fine.  I have one bit in my duct, but under the house.  But I first tried doing the whole thing with flex to save time...   ::)  I sure didn't save any time though.   :D
In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn

Woodcutter_Mo

Today I picked up six 3' sections chimney pipe to get it above the roof peak but found that it doesn't fit the flange on the furnace. I believe the flange is for "SuperPro" and the chimney I bought is Selkirk. I'll just have to switch the flange or buy an adapter of some sort.
Not a big deal but just thought I'd post this up as something to keep in mind when installing a new furnace  :)

None of the hardware stores locally carry 10" or 12" duct work but I talked to a couple HVAC company locally that said they have or can get it for me. I plan to get all that stuff collected this week.
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dave_dj1


what is your plan for ducting?
Are you tying it in to your existing duct work?

Woodcutter_Mo

Quote from: dave_dj1 on October 29, 2017, 06:09:13 AM

what is your plan for ducting?
Are you tying it in to your existing duct work?

There is no existing ductwork in this house. My "plan" is to run the hot pipe to a central location and branch off from there. I plan to install the return in the front porch room with a filter. Was hoping having the return in the porch room would help heat it.
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Woodcutter_Mo

Here's the adapter plate I bought for the Selkirk chimney to attach to.



Also, I ordered the duct piping and the stuff to insulate it. I should be picking it up in the morning. I should hopefully be able to start putting the stuff together this weekend  8)
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OH logger

any updates about the quality of the furnace itself?? I'm lookin at the biggest indoor model they have for heating my shop and just wonderin about the quality
john

Woodcutter_Mo

 I havnt gotten to actually use mine yet, still in the process of getting my house setup to use the ducting.

The newer epa models are a bit different than mine but I doubt quality would be any less.
If you have any specific questions I can look at mine and give you opinions. In my opinion it's looks quite a bit better built than the "hot blast" furnaces my local hardware store was selling.
My dad is actually thinking of getting one like mine to replace his old outdoor furnace.
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OH logger

john

Woodcutter_Mo

 Just looking over the furnace today while I was messing with the chimney, the overall build quality and fit/finish seems good and not just slapped together.

Here's an example of the weld around the door, looks that good all the way around the door. I'd say the employees that put them together have pretty good work ethic for sure.



-WoodMizer LT25
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-Fixer-uppers/projects:
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Woodcutter_Mo

It's not ducted yet but I fired up the furnace to test it out and burn off the oil stuff from the manufacturing process. It seems to be working good. 8)
-WoodMizer LT25
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-Fixer-uppers/projects:
024AV, MS260, MS361, MS460, Shindaiwa 488, 394XPG

Woodcutter_Mo

 Last night I cut a hole in the sub floor to create a better access to the crawl space for when I run the ducting. In the process I found some issues in the floor joists and original sub floor. So I'll be tearing out my entire living room floor and replacing the joists. The up side is although the furnace install will be delayed, it will be alot easier to run the duct while the floor is out. I'm just glad I found this issue in the process before a joist broke or worse.
-WoodMizer LT25
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-Fixer-uppers/projects:
024AV, MS260, MS361, MS460, Shindaiwa 488, 394XPG

Woodcutter_Mo

 Well, for now I decided to run just one main central duct outlet into the house to use until I am able to run the rest of the duct work. This way I can give the furnace a good test atleast and be able to use it as it's going to be a while until I can finish the duct work. Today we are running the hot pipe and return into the house.  ;)
-WoodMizer LT25
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024AV, MS260, MS361, MS460, Shindaiwa 488, 394XPG

Woodcutter_Mo

 Well I got the ducts piped into the house yesterday just before the cold front got here. I will be simply installing a single outlet for now until I get the floor and joists fixed in the living room. I have a return box and grill/filter housing ordered and on the way. I will add one more section of chimney, get some electricity to it, install the thermostat inside and get it fired up this weekend to give it a good real world test.

I'll give an update on how it works out.
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samandothers

Bummer on the floor.  Glad you'll have heat soon!

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