Woodstove boiler conversion

[Deleted User]

that it was to convect up? with the circ on, if the water's traveling too fast through the hex, it won't pick up much heat

Dave_128

wood stove boiler conversion

Yeah I know it's not to code, dangerous, etc. etc. blah, blah ,blah so don't bother telling me. I installed a heat exchanger in my 70kbtu wood stove to supplement my rads. I welded it together using 1.5" steel so its' a series of S's about 10"x20" with 3/4 nipples out the back of the stove. Feed had a check valve and the out has temp/press/200degree-150psi blow out manifold. This is all in parallel w/ my rads on the same floor. I fired it up today and in 15 minutes it blew out due to high temp. I was led to believe through convection or magic it would circulate itself. So I turned on the circulator on the oil/furnace and its no longer blowing out but not transferring too much heat. I've got some ideas but would like to hear yours.

jp_2

you guessed it

magic should have made it work!

Bob Gagnon plumbing and heating

You probably need

a buffer tank, also be careful about drawing too much heat away with the water, you can create a lot of creosote in the wood stove exhaust. I built a similar log holder- heat exchanger in my fireplace, but I removed it because of the creosote and increased fire hazard. Thanks, Bob Gagnon

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Dave_128

gettin closer

i put a surface mounted aqua stat and it kicks the circ on @170/150 seems to be working ok, but only the first rad gets hot and I mean HOT! other ones hardly warm up. the circ runs about 30sec. w/ 1/2" feeds. If i set the stat higher the relief valve blows off.