USING A WOOD FURNACE INSIDE A HOME // Keep Your Home Toasty Warm!

[@GettingItDoneRepairs]

Thank you for watching! Let me know if you have a wood furnace in your home and your experience with it... Also you can watch how I make kindling fast here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qp2ni2tneqdoj6c

[@kassandrapage4379]

Question and Help; First of all thanks for the video .I have a wood burning furnace attached to the heating oil furnace. How does it work? Can you use the wood furnace ONLY or does the heating furnace need to be turn on when you are using or firing up the wood furnace? Can I just fire up the wood furnace and the blower? Right now I dont have oil in the heating furnace oil tank. I havent use any of it yet and I cant find anyone to help me clean or do the maintainance on both? Thank you in advace

[@GettingItDoneRepairs]

@@kassandrapage4379 You can use the wood furnace only. The oil furnace will be on because the blower will be used to blow the heat from the wood furnace (fire box). I adjust the thermostat so the oil furnace doesn't engage and run. At the same time the blower will work for the wood heat. Hope that make sense.

[@kassandrapage4379]

@@GettingItDoneRepairs Thank you for the response. I have one more question. Does that mean that I dont need to buy oil for the furnace to turn the fan on? A friend of mind told me she has to spend $1500 for heating oil and it only lasted one month and the thermostat was set 65 deg. F. I cant afford to pay $1,500 a month to heat the house for 4 months of winter.

[@JohnVance]

This was the first vid on KZbin that helped me, all the others are for wood stoves, but I have an older wood furnace configured very similarly to yours, and this gave me some great tips.

[@davidzeiner8338]

I have a Clayton furnace in my basement tied into the heat duct system, ours has it own blower motor. I installed it when we built our house in 85 and I still use it. Once it gets cold I no longer use the heat pump, just the wood furnace. It has served me well, paid $900 for it in 85 so far the only thing I’ve had to replace is the firebrick, and two blower motors. I can load the stove at ten at night and the fire is usually burning good at 7 in the morning, today when I got up it was 0 degrees outside the house was a little cooler then usual 68degrees but added wood got the fire going hot again and back up to 72 . I couldn’t be happier with this furnace.

[@dannyabe6452]

Cutting and stacking wood is great exercise. Good winter workout.

[@danlichtenberger6462]

@Getting it Done North of 7. Thanks for the video. I actually bought the exact same Clayton furnace in 1986. It was white as well and had the same smoke darkening up the front from just residual smoke that rolled out the front if I took to long to chuck a couple of more pieces of wood in. It happens when I have a bed of coals, but if it flames up that seems to pull the smoke up the flue. I kept that furnace when I moved from that house in 1998 because the new owner had NO interest in burning wood. In the new house that my wife and I built in 1998 I bought a new Clayton furnace because I didn’t want to put the old one in a brand new house (and let a friend use the old one which is STILL in service 36 years later) The new one is pine green now. The damper and door handles are spiraled brass instead of the black plastic knob. This was a great improvement because the heat dissipates off of those spiraled knobs immediately and is never hot to the touch. Even if the fire is roaring. I control my fire by the ash clean out door at the bottom and it’s spin cap. I keep the spin cap that you opened in the video closed at all times and really don’t even use it (as it is controlled by a thermostat on floor one). I manually open and adjust the ash door spin cap for draw from below the fire. This does mean that you need to limit the amount of ashes within the fire box. As long as there are a few holes through the ashes it will draw really well. I used to have an 8” clay tile flue and just last January 2022 I replaced it with SS liner and man does it draw now. It is 40’ tall and that creates a lot of draw to because of its height.

[@terryslipp3148]

Interesting video. I’m 65 and grew up with a wood furnace and also have heated my own house with a wood furnace for nearly 40 years. I don’t understand why your furnace smokes and you need a range hood. All wood furnaces I’ve seen have a thermostat controlled draft control. I fairly recently upgraded to a Napoleon HMF 150.

[@TheCharacter97]

I have a wood furnace.. my step dad never used the draft control automatically.. He says "I have to go every few hours anyways to put more wood" too which I agree. So now I do the same and do it manually. No big deal in my opinion.

[@joshblick]

If you just open the door slowly you won't have smoke coming out. Remember there's a draw up the chimney while the fire is burning.

[@sgtcote1]

I have an old Clarson wood boiler and use it like you to supplement oil usage. I absolutely love your vent idea over your burn chamber door. no matter how hard I try I always get smoke to escape into the basement when its time to feed the boiler. I'll be adding your hood idea to my setup. Thanks for sharing.

[@GettingItDoneRepairs]

You're welcome 😊

[@charlesosberg8678]

You can also open the damper before you open the door so the smoke goes out the chimney instead of in the house.

[@GettingItDoneRepairs]

Thanks I forgot to mention that part.

[@barrycampbell2247]

Thanks for the demo. First winter using a wood furnace and this was helpful. The fume hood is a great idea, also the temperature guage on the exhaust pipe.

[@GettingItDoneRepairs]

You're welcome! 😀 Hope you enjoy yours

[@chadbailey189]

love the smoke catcher!!! putting one on may house!!

[@TimHannaford]

Thank you for this video.. ✝️🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒🇺🇸

[@SaucysCreativeCrochet]

Good info for those that live in winter conditions and in a sticks and bricks home. ❤️⚓👩‍🍳😁

[@terryschuyler5185]

I have been watching your video can you explain how your hot water tanks are hooked up

[@92nbush]

I have the same furnace in my garage haven't used it in years. My dad had it in the house until I was born in 92 I was allergic to wood smoke so they had to quit burning wood and use oil only. He used it probably 10years before I came along. Definitely weird seeing someone use that old of furnace still but they were very well built. I seen yours has a thermostat control damper on it mine also has a small blower to get things going faster and be more efficient for burning large chunks of wood/coal. Idk if it was an orginal option or something my dad made it was all completely automatic

[@mikebartlett5797]

Thanks for video. I have a roughly, 42 year old Kerr Wood Burning Furnace (Scottie) I’ve been using it for about a year but have no clue how the system works. There is a thermostat at top of stairs that is tied to furnace some how. Do you have any suggestions on how I can find someone who can show me all I need to know?

[@cntm51]

How about maintaining and cleaning the engine that distributes the heat. I'm trying to clean mine, but don't want to take anything apart and muck it all up. It's really dirty, and keeps stalling.. most times I have to manually get in there, and give the whole drum turbine a spin just so it spins.

[@GettingItDoneRepairs]

I always have a guy come in and clean it thoroughly once a year.

[@KP4life353]

Thank you for the video. So the fan will not kick on till it hits 200 Degrees

[@popmasterfunk]

Where do you get your induction fan for the front?

[@kassandrapage4379]

@gettingitdonenorthof7 Question and Help; I have a wood burning furnace attached to the heating oil furnace. How does it work? Can you use the wood furnace ONLY or does the heating furnace need to be turn on when you are using or firing up the wood furnace? Can I just fire up the wood furnace and the blower? Right now I dont have oil in the heating furnace oil tank. I havent use any of it yet and I cant find anyone to help me clean or do the maintainance on both? Thank you in advace

[@Angelknot8]

Do you have an external flue pipe? If so when running it up the side of the house does it have to be double or triple wall if you have it braced away from the siding? How far away from siding would it need to be?

[@fastony1732]

can you do another vid going over the physics of the air flow? I am working on my parents wood furnace and I feel like it doesn't work because of a lack of incoming air to the fire and the furnace. It causes smoke to pour out when the electric furnace fan comes on to move the air through the ducts.

[@mattemmott3550]

How's the oil furnace blower work? Does it just kick on when the temp hits a certain temperature, regardless of source of heat? I guess I assumed that it automatically kicked on when the oil furnace did. I've had a wood burning furnace installed (haven't used it yet) and assumed that the wood furnace's blower would be doing all the work.

[@ByGraceIGo]

I was thinking the same thing myself, but he did actually answer your question when he said it when it got to 200 the furnace would kick on meaning I.e the blower. When I grew up we had a fuel burning furnace that my dad converted to a wood burning furnace and that's exactly what would happen it would get to a certain heat and then the blower would automatically come on when we adjusted the thermostat upstairs, and let me tell you that furnace would blast us out of the house it got so warm we'd have to open the windows at times.

[@rozchristopherson648]

I’m in Pennsylvania. I’d like one of these furnaces. Have an old farmhouse built in 1850. Has oil boiler that’s broken. What do you estimate the cost of this wood furnace to be ?

[@GettingItDoneRepairs]

Hi there, I have no clue what the cost would be. The furnace was already in the home when we moved here. Thanks for watching

[@nickabel8279]

Keep any eye on sale sites or buy new for around 3k. Droplet is a big brand

[@rozchristopherson648]

@@nickabel8279 Thank you so much for your reply. I will check out the Droplet brand.

[@nickabel8279]

Np. In pa n my oil boiler gave up. Wood stove saved me n replaced boiler with tankless. Now going to to ex boiler n focus on burning wood for financial. Wood furnance being added this year. Good luck to you

[@rozchristopherson648]

@@nickabel8279 I have had several occasions where a power outage has lasted up to 4 days during the winter months. I also want a wood stove. I think that both would be economical, and I would be assured of heat with the wood stove in case of a power outage. And yes, I too have an oil boiler that no longer works. I thought of a wood boiler since the pipes are already in place and would save on the cost of duct work. i am weighing my options. Thank you so much for your reply.

[@brianwoodin]

I just purchased a home and it has the same Clayton furnace as yours. I have a question...I'm used to using air tight wood stoves where I can stock it at night and still have plenty of coals in the morning. The few times I have used the Clayton I shut both of the vents on the front and the flu up top. But it doesn't seem to choke the fire down per se. The fire still roars. I noticed that the spin vents don't completely shut off the air flow like I thought. Do you have any advice to get longer burn time out of my wood or do I just need to keep stocking it up every few hours?

[@GettingItDoneRepairs]

mine burns for a few hours after we go to bed, When I get up and check in the morning all there is is hot coals.

[@kelleybeld7621]

My son and I have our Clayton wood stove all set and working well…..I would love to be able to have my furnace blower kick on like yours does when it reaches a designated temp…..how would I go about making that happen? Thanks in advance for any advice! 😊

[@danlichtenberger6462]

If you’re talking about the blower that is at the bottom back of your stove, its on and off ability is control by the limit switch that is on the upper right back corner (as you face the stove from behind). You can adjust the cut in and cut off temperature selections. The probe of the limit switch sticks inside that air space between the fire box and the outside shell of your furnace and it is controlled by that temp. It has always amazed me at how hot the air is (on mine) that kicks the blower on. Air cools down quickly as it moves through the ductwork. Also if you look at your actual fire box it has cooling fins on it. That firebox is not designed like a free standing stove to get hot and simply radiate heat. It needs that air from the blower going over it to cool it down. The manufacturer states that if you lose power to the Clayton wood burning furnace you are to not add any wood (obviously) and shut down intake air to it so it will not unsafely overheat. Again it is not designed like a free standing wood stove.

[@stevemino142]

Great video if you don't mind me askin what kind of wood you burn... straight oak maple

[@GettingItDoneRepairs]

I burn many hard woods

[@homesteadmike1120]

Great video! What is the burn time on the Clayton? Sorry if I missed it.

[@al3645]

So the blower only kicks on when the temp is 200? What about the thermostat for your home? Does it have one or does it just continue to burn until done?

[@danlichtenberger6462]

I responded to an earlier post about the same topic. Mine kicks on at 200 degrees (which seems crazy hot, but moving air really cools down fast) and then the blower kicks off at 90 degrees. I have a thermostat in the living space of the home and it controls a butterfly type damper at the front of the stove. I have had the forced blower and the butterfly damper on two different Clayton’s of mine and after 36 years of using one I just quit using the thermostat and control the fire by only the spin cap on the ash door at the front bottom of the furnace. I just replaced my 8” clay tile glue with a 6” SS liner and it 40 foot tall and it draws almost to good. I almost can shut the fire down enough now. Replacing all the gasket seals on both of my doors really helped in that regard and slows the burn down now. Best of luck.

[@angrygnome4779]

I just bought a used one identical to yours. I was wondering if you had any insight into how the electric draft on the front works? Mine has that as well. Most others I’ve seen have the draft blower as opposed to our electric draft controller.

[@GettingItDoneRepairs]

Hi there, my electric draft controller hasn't worked since we lived here. I do it all manually. I dont even think about it.

[@seanbaskett5506]

I don't consider felling, bucking, and splitting wood as work at all. It's a recreational activity. Why, you ask? Because it's just fun. I have also found that if you're out in the front yard splitting wood, women driving by tend to wave and smile at you a lot more often.

[@GettingItDoneRepairs]

Ok lol

[@hamburger512]

Is that oven hood a DIY solution?

[@GettingItDoneRepairs]

Yes the guy that lived here before me came up with that exhaust hood idea. It works well.

[@bm359]

How often do you have to put more wood in the furnace?

[@GettingItDoneRepairs]

I check it every hour.

[@hubster4477]

@@GettingItDoneRepairs you check the stove every hour?

[@kevinclarke992]

I have a Valley comfort and it will run for 8 to 10 hours when you load it

[@mirmehraj1607]

How much electricity need this furnance

[@rozchristopherson648]

Does this furnace need electricity to operate ?

[@GettingItDoneRepairs]

The heat is pushed up thru the house by the blower motor on the oil furnace beside it. So in a way yes but no electricity directly to the wood furnace. Thanks for watching!

[@rozchristopherson648]

Getting It Done North Of 7 Ok, now I understand. Thank you for your reply.

[@ByGraceIGo]

I wanted to laugh because you haven't gotten a bill from Washington gas if you live in the DC area, the Washington gas bills are extortionate! And I just moved to West Virginia in a cabin in the mountains kind of like more like a house though but it has a wood burning furnace down in the basement which I don't think the owner was using because he was handicapped and there's a pellet stove upstairs and I really don't want to use the baseboard heat cuz that will be expensive. I've used wood burning furnaces before when I was a young kid growing up my dad converted a fuel oils furnace to a wood burning furnace. We had a thermometer on the wall and I think that's what made the blower come on I got to figure it out that's why I clicked on your video. Tons of timber around here on this property and I know about wood being seasoned and all the rest of that. That's a really great idea to have that range hood on there to do what you said get rid of that extra smoke that might escape out. Thank you for your video!

[@GettingItDoneRepairs]

Burning wood for heat is going to be a win this winter. The price of heating fuel and electric seriously hurts.

[@ByGraceIGo]

@@GettingItDoneRepairs so I'm going to have to clean out the furnace it look like somebody was burning trash or something in it it has tons of Ash I want to clean all of that out. I've never seen this brand of furnace before it's called Leaders brand. This house was built in 1994 that means the furnace could possibly be 28 years old. There's no damper on this furnace. I'm just wondering if the blower comes on like you said, I think I saw a little temperature thing on the side. So I'm assuming it will automatically come on when the furnace reaches a certain temperature because I don't see any switches or anything like that. And when we lived in an old house and we had a wood burning furnace like I said, there was a thermostat upstairs that when it did reach a certain temperature it would blow air automatically. And that was an old house. I've read that a lot of the newer brand of these furnaces don't require dampers. We wanted to get everything inspected but the chimney people said they're backed up and wouldn't be able to even come and look at it until December and it's been getting cold around here. I'm just going to look for signs of creosote or any of that other kind of stuff, but right now it just looks like it's filled with ashes. I was also told you shouldn't burn wood that has bark on it but I guess it just depends what kind of tree it is. My dad always burned the locust trees on our property and I don't remember him taking the bark off. We never had any issues. And that was a big old furnace one of the scary looking kinds LOL

[@chainsaw3339]

i like to make a roing fire than pack it full