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16

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: spray foam

« on: December 29, 2015, 08:06:17 PM »

I wasn't going to spray inside the pipe. I was thinking outside of it. And Ill be doing the work next summer when its high and dry. Ive been trying to contact local contractor to no avail. Thanks

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / spray foam

« on: December 29, 2015, 06:01:57 PM »

I am considering making my own underground piping for my owb. Now I know this is a wore out subject and apologize in advance. Here is my story. I only wish I would of found this site before buying my 3 wrap underground piping 3 yrs ago that is now water logged. Nothing new here right? And first of all Don't tell me to buy logstor, I know I know. I was thinking about trying to recuperate some of my lost money in my 3 wrap junk and re use my pex. Now, I was thinking about re-digging my ditch and installing a drain tile at the bottom that would daylight out to drain away from everything. Its all down hill from owb to house so this should be easy. Backfilling up 6'' with clean rock. Now I thought of laying in 6'' sdr 35 from end to end. Capping both ends and pressure testing to be positive all joints hold up. I was going to block up pipe every so often to hold it up from the bottom of trench. I can buy closed cell foam to encapsulate entire pipe for about $300. I should have around $300 in pipe. I could wrap all with plastic but don't really see a need. As for the pex I can either leave the foil insulation on or buy foam insulation sticks before pulling in conduit. Once all is good foam up pipe ends to seal from heat loss inside area of pipe. I want to know what you all think about my idea and the closed cell foam? I am already out the money I wasted on 3 wrap, (my bad). I just cant afford the money on logstor or equivalent. My run is about 120' Another reason for my idea is I plan to add on to my house in the next 5-10 and not sure how I will go about using my lines. If I will have a new system I will either have to add bigger lines or add another loop. Currently I have 1'' pex running a total of around 350' round trip. I have a backhoe and drain tile. Can probably even get sdr 35 cheaper. Thinking total cost somewhere between $500-$600. I am questioning how the closed cell is holding up for people as ive read others doing it just not hearing how it has worked out. Thanks

18

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Farm house high heat loss

« on: January 13, 2015, 10:57:15 PM »

I am going through the same thing now. I am to the point of not really knowing what will be the best upgrade to help stop heat loss. I found out my utility company does a home audit and they will meet you and put a negative draft on the inside of your home. This will show you exactly where your problems are the worst. It takes about 3 hours and supposedly when they leave I will know the areas to attack first. It's a $50 fee but they also give you light bulbs to sample in a value of $50. I know I work for another utility company and they also offer a similar program for energy savings. It might be worth checking out or if nothing else build a fan and shroud to do the same thing so you can physically see what areas are in need of attention. They also talk about energy efficient appliances and cost saving in other areas that may or may not be of interest to some.

19

Equipment / 4 way wedges

« on: December 31, 2014, 08:45:06 AM »

Hey all. I built a inverted log splitter for my skidsteer and made it to where I can pull a pin and switch out wedges from a single to 4-way. Sorry no pics. Anyway the wedge I built was 3/4 plate 8" deep and 10" tall. It has 2 wings about 5" up that are also 3/4 plate. I have looked at dozens online for sale and this seems to be a pretty common way to do it. Anyway within an hour I had a knotted up piece of white oak that bent the upright wedge. One of the wings caught a knot and twisted the whole plate to the right. I did not have anything else on upright as far as a wedge to beef it up. My question is has anybody built a indestructible 4 way? How did you do it? I split 95% hardwood. Oak,hickory,walnut,etc. thanks

20

Earth Outdoor Wood Furnaces / Re: Sticking blower door

« on: December 30, 2014, 08:57:38 PM »

I have tried both a clip and no clip. No noticeable difference either way. I burn really dead wood in warm weather and get a good bed of coals going. Usually have trouble keeping fire going for the first 3 days of warm weather when first lighting stove. After that I never really need a paper clip. My door seal is leaking slightly but not bad enough to change yet. I also flip my trap door every day to knock off any buildup and keep it free. Works good for me

21

Earth Outdoor Wood Furnaces / Re: Rancher 365

« on: December 30, 2014, 08:51:18 PM »

I have a rancher 365. I like it just fine. Does exactly what I want. There's a few things I would change if I could but overall I love it. I bought a used hardy before this and won't be doing that again. Also ditto on good underground. I got the stuff from dealer 3 wrap and it is leaking ground water in pipe. I will have to redo. 1400 at my expense. Ouch
If your wondering what I would change
Water overflow in front left side of mine, so I learned to fill with wood then top off water otherwise it can belch hot water on your arm. Also sometimes I wonder if I should of got a ash pan. Argue all you want but it is nicer to clean. In hindsight I chose the 365 for the bigger door which I love. Also the light isn't very good on front. I gave up and put one on my shed facing the owb and wood pile. Works better anyway. None of these are Much to complain about and I would buy another if I had to.

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Why not to put your boiler in a woodshed

« on: April 14, 2014, 08:26:52 AM »

Hi. I had planned the same idea with a shed around my owb. This is my first year with this one and I planned on building shed this summer, until about 3 weeks ago I was leaving for work in a hurry as usual and on a windy day I filled my stove. As usual I rake the coals around and mound them up with a shovel before filling. Needless to say a Half hour later my wife calls and says the wood pile about 5' away is in a full blaze. I had it stacked in front of stove but off to the side a bit. I guess while raking coals around one fell out and the wind blew it across my concrete and onto some bark and scrap wood lying on the ground. I keep my scraps shoveled up fairly good but not good enough. My stove sits 12' from a 50x70 barn. My idea was to build a lean to from barn and leave stove just outside. A lot of people use this method. The fire darn near burned down my barn and boiler. No damage to either because luckily she was home and I had a garden hose nearby already hooked up. It burned up half a cord of dried wood. If I would of had a shed built it would of burned my entire barn down. Wind was blowing 30mph that day. This changed my mind completely. I think I am going to actually move
My stove 10' further away and just use my wheelbarrow to fill. It takes 20 extra seconds. Just my 2 cents worth. 

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Purchasing a OWB

« on: March 29, 2014, 11:15:24 PM »

It is good to research this subject to death. I was in the same boat and what finally made my decision was the dealer lives right up the road. I actually liked other units but one thing I do know is they won't give you any problems when it's 70 outside. It will be 10. And I can call the dealer and if he doesn't have the part he will take one off of a new one and jump through hoops to get you going. You might want to consider that.

24

General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Generator backup and sizing?

« on: March 05, 2014, 04:23:01 AM »

Basically you need to sit down and add up all the things you want to run in your home during an outage. Keep in mind some things can be ran while others are off. There's 2 ways to look at it. Do you want to survive or live comfortable. All appliances have a rating tag. Some can be found online. Once you have considered all usage, add them up. Refrigerator freezer furnace blower well pump etc. that's where you need to start. Most people can get along fine with a 5000 watt generator for basic needs. Some even less. Now if you want to live it up put in a home standby auto start with an automatic transfer switch and sit back and enjoy life. But you will spend more money. Either way you go if you are going to try to back-feed electric service you will need a transfer switch. You can pick up a manual transfer switch pretty reasonable and mount them inside or out. This is a must unless you are going to run extension cords to everything and that's a pain. So hopefully that points you in the right direction. Let us know if you need help calculating load.

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: power outage

« on: February 20, 2014, 12:21:04 PM »

Stand alone generators are getting more and more affordable. Automatic transfer switches are very nice. I've installed hundreds and occasionally they go haywire but for the most part are great. The biggest thing people mess up on are not exercising there generators when they are home. Everybody wants to let them cycle when there gone and then they call in the middle of the storm and you find out the battery went bad months ago and it hasn't even been running once a week like it was designed. The ones I use keep a maintenance log with time and date. I just want to emphasize on transfer switches for all the readers, buy one!  If nothing else buy a manual transfer switch, mount it outside or in the basement and then use your generator of choice. When I hear someone say "oh I just shut off my main breaker" it makes me quiver. When you open up a main breaker on a panel there is a very good chance the contacts may stick or open one side and not the other. The reason for this is because the main takes the most abuse, heat from large amp load, and gets operated the least. By the time you figure this out you may of killed a lineman. Most people don't realize that a transformer works both ways. You will put high voltage back onto a power line, and thus endanger anyone working on that line, if even for a second. So please think twice about cheaping out on a transfer switch when setting up a generator. I'll jump off my soap box now. Thanks

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Underground lines waterlogged

« on: January 20, 2014, 03:07:36 PM »

Yep, I am kicking myself now, it's not even the digging back up part or the 2 days I spent raking my yard out and planting grass. It's the 1200 dollars I spent on shi@. Again I expected a bit more heat loss. Truth is wood is free and I thought for twice the price even if the heat loss is 20% more, which I doubt, wood is free. Having said that with a line full of water it's about 80% more and 1200 dollars gone.  Earth won't even return a call. I at least would like to let somebody know they are screwing people over, it would Sure make me feel better. But for now I drained it out in my crawl space, which I hate but at least my efficiency went way back up. I was burning 5-6 wheelbarrow loads of solid wood a day in 40-50* weather.  Not cool. And just to reiterate on this, my earth stove is great so far and if you look at the piping from there aspect. They have no idea how it was installed or how rocky the ground is. It's just a shame I'm the victim.

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Underground lines waterlogged

« on: January 19, 2014, 01:49:44 PM »

Yes it's the stuff earth sells. 2 -1" pex 1-1/2" pex and a Romex cable. Wrapped 3 times with a foil back fiberglass. I thought if anything it wouldn't be as efficient. I didn't think it would leak groundwater in. I drained it out in my crawl space. It just so happens to be the lowest spot in pipe also and it's not eating wood now. It was horrible. If anybody ever thinks about using this stuff do yourself a favor and give 1200 dollars to charity and smash your hand with a hammer. You'll feel better at the end of the day. The bad thing is I read this forum before and researched this stuff beforehand. I hadn't really read anyone having this bad of luck. Well I did. Again don't do it

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Underground lines waterlogged

« on: January 18, 2014, 06:33:05 PM »

I have a brand new system installed in 10-13. I bought an earth rancher 365 and the pre-made pipe from the dealer. I guess earth makes it? It's on there website. Against my better judgement especially when he unloaded this stuff and I saw how cheap it was really made. I dug the ditch myself and back filled with screenings ( just coarser than sand). I had a bad feeling about this but the ditch was dug and project on its way getting colder by the day. So I just wanted to get on with it. Well needless to say my pipe is now full of ground water and efficiency went way south. 3 months of use for $1200 is about how I figured this would happen!!!  The only good thing is this pipe comes into my crawl space first and I can drain it out. I'm sure the screenings aren't helping this matter but I was extra careful installing. Now my insulation is probably trash. The factory of coarse won't even talk to me about it and now I'm just screwed. If I can keep this drained off and meanwhile the ditch settles and lets more rainwater shed away do you think I will manage?  I think I know the answer just hate to hear it. Any other options?  Let this be a lesson to anyone reading thinking about using the cheaper pre made piping. DON'T !

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Sub $5000 OWBs

« on: January 17, 2014, 09:01:23 AM »

yes I have a rancher 365 as well. Really low the stove, don't care for the no ash pan but also like my big door. I would buy another one like it because having the extra big door is awesome when your out there in sub zero weather trying to jam every stick in there you can to last for 12+ hours until you get home. I don't like the pre-made owb piping I bought. But again all said and done I'm at around 9k. 4300 stove. 1200 underground piping, 500 concrete pad and sidewalk. 1000 for water softener, and heat exchangers pump and other misc pex fittings, another 1500. I am on a well pump with lots of lime so a water softener was a must to keep my heat exchangers cleaner. All said and done you will be out there in the cold splitting wood one day and asking yourself is this worth it? And it is if you like being outside and cutting wood. If your thinking of buying wood. Forget it all. You can't come out if you consider the time.

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Earth Outdoor Wood Furnaces / Re: Earth Woodsman 400

« on: December 26, 2013, 10:11:29 PM »

Hello I have a rancher 365 and if the damper door is the same I flip mine every other time I fill the stove. It's easier if the fans not running but it works either way. I stick my finger in there and flip the lid up and let it slam down. It knocks any creosote loose. I usually do it about 2 or 3 times and never had it stick once. My dealer told me to do this and I do it religiously. My door doesn't even get sticky. I worked on a hardy today and you have to take the door off the back and open a trap door and rod out the airway on those every time you clean out the ashes. That makes me feel pretty good about flipping mine.