This is an update on my hybrid heater after 4 months of intense use. A description of my build can be found elsewhere on this forum. It is a vertical design with 2 horizontal
water tanks and a very large horizontal burn box.
I have had to make 2 minor changes to improve draft at start up.
The first was to enlarge the rectangular hole going into the riser so the top of it is even with the top of the burn box to get draft started quicker and keep smoke from coming out at times when opening the door.
The second that I did today was remove the pipe connecting the 2 tanks. There was no way to clean the inside of that pipe and
ash was piling up under the opening and restricting gas flow. There was only a few inches from the bottom of the pipe to the bottom of the tank. A diagram of construction is in the main
thread.
Today I cleaned out both tanks for the first time. There was just 6 cups of black acrid smelling fly-ash and no creosote.
I got an early harsh test with the polar vortex temps of 0- 20 degrees for 2 weeks. Due to not much insulation here and many windows the
wood use went up a lot. If temperatures stay above 30 degrees then wood use is very minimal and sometimes I can go a day or more without a fire. Its usually a small fire about every 12 hours. It's very easy to maintain a constant 70 to 80 degrees. With my old metal
wood stove it was never warm in the morning and I would always have to start a fire first thing in the cold. Never again and that’s really awesome! I haven’t tested the
oven yet for baking bread. I’m very happy with this build and would do it the same way next time.
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