Well, here's the one month anniversary report on the G200. Installed January 4th, today is February 4th.
By my best estimate (basically looking at photos on the day of installation and what's left today), I've used just at or just under one full cord of wood since the new G200 was put in. This puts my wood use slightly under what I estimated, which was a cord every 21 days. Big difference from the old Central Boiler, I am certain that I would have already exhausted my entire winter's wood supply by now and been burning more-or-less green beech and white oak already, which is actually next year's firewood. I've BTDT (been there, done that) in the past and it ain't fun.
Ash - what ash? I've cleaned out twice and gotten enough ash in total to fill a couple of #10 cans. There's a bit of pine and a fair amount of heavy bark (locust & butternut) mixed in my firewood stacks and that's probably most of it right there. I'm keeping cardboard and paper out of the OWF unless I need to start a fire, and so far I've only had to do that once since the first day.
Sticky damper - this has been covered in other threads, but every five to eight days it sticks again, I spend all of fifteen seconds slipping a thin flexible putty knife behind it and it pops right off and I'm back in business. I'm waiting until spring to shut down and give this critter a permanent fix, but it's no longer a major concern for me. I know there are other with the same problem and some have come up with solutions. I don't like seeing the red light blinking but at least it's not overheating, and I know how to fix it.
Smoke - virtually non-existent. If the OWB is low in the cycle (160-165 degrees) or in cold-start mode (see sticky damper above), and the firebox is mostly empty, I get some startup smoke. Once it starts gasifying, forget it - you can see some steam and heat but that's it. No gray, black, brown or stinky smoke clouds pouring out of this thing. During a full burn, high in the cycle, when the firebox has been "baking" for several hours, you can't see a thing. I mean nothing. If you stare at the chimney with some background, you might be able to make out a faint heat signature - like heat waves off pavement in the summer. When the unit is off and there's no demand, there's also nothing to be seen unless it has just finished the burn cycle - then I'm getting some residual smoke as the fire uses up what's left of the air in the firebox. Highest I have seen the water temp go so far is 182 degrees.
Overall, given the wood use, ease of operation, smoke, customer support from the dealer, build quality and personal satisfaction, I'd give the G200 a solid 9 out of 10. Just need to clean and fix my sticky damper and I'll be one very happy G200 user.
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Topic: G200 on the way! (Read 9367 times)