I installed my first WBF in October 1992 and my present Empyre Pro 200 is my fourth WBF.I won't go into that history because I may be able to help some of you fellas from my recent experience.What I'm going to tell you may be worthless information because I'm still experimenting and can't say for sure exactly what is fact and what is fiction.I just shut down my Pro-200 after my second heating season and went to propane for two reasons.From now to warm weather we will have 60 or 70 degree days and then it will drop to near freezing for a few nights with 50 degree days.My WBF can handle that but not as efficiently as it handles consistently cold weather.My second reason for shutting down is I'm out of wood.I wanted to burn some old wood to get my wood pile back to the best quality possible and this seemed to be a good time to do that.------The first year I used this furnace was a perfect heating season and we were comfortable.During the 2nd heating season,the blower failed in late December and my supplier botched my order for a blower and it took 10 days to get one which was finally shipped from the factory in Tennesee.The bearings in the old blower failed and this could have been from a leak in the gasket around the big ,heavy cover over the 32 boiler pipes.If fly ash could get into the fan's bearings,that could create the problem.The new fan was $150 since it was outside the 12 month warranty by a few months. Experiment #1-----For 2 years I've been adding powdered lime to my fire box to neutralize the corrosive effects of wood ash on all metal.It does have some desirable effects.The 32 boiler pipes show little rust and are easier to clean.I believe a cup of powdered lime thrown into the fire box every second day may be the proper amount.I clean the 32 pipes sometime between the 1st and 10th of each month depending on weather and any other factors.I started out cleaning pipes weekly,then twice a month and then monthly.A 40LB. bag of powdered lime costs me $4.00.Experiment#2------After trying several settings for starting the blower,I finally decided that starting at 169 degrees and stopping at 180 degrees was best for my situation.I seldom see any vapor rising from the boiler water gauge and seldom add any boiler water.Also,keeping the boiler water level at least one mark below full will not waste boiler water in vapor at my temperature setting.Experiment #3--------Each month when I clean the 32 pipes,I first remove the blower and take it into my shop for cleaning with 100#pressure air.After cleaning the pipes,I take my leaf blower and blow out all the dust from the back pump compartment of the furnace.Then I reinstall the blower and wire it up again.Experiment#4--------Before I reinstall the blower,I clean as much crud as I can from the air box.On the last cleaning,I got a quart of black hard and soft crud and there was more I couldn't reach.Also,I put about 1/4" of lime on the floor of the air box to try to neutralize the crud so it won't rust out the air box.Unless I see a reason not to put lime in the air box,I'll continue to do it each time I clean the stove.-------------I bought a spare flapper valve thinking I would keep a clean flapper to make the change quicker.My old flapper was all steel and the new one was stainless.It is such an improvement over the old valve I won't use the old one again.No more clapper noise when I load the stove.------------I hope someone benefits from the above.Feel free to ask if you have a question.-------shorman