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[Woodboiler]

Current Wood Boiler is a Wood Doctor 8000 Conventional.  Being an old Wood Doctor Dealer and installer of many different brands, I would not even think about stainless.  New Stainless stoves might be better nowadays, but failures with the old units that were stainless left a lot of people pissed of. 

Front load stove if purchased from a Manufacturer,  then it would be a Royal Wood Furnace.  These are pressurized units and well built.  http://www.royallfurnace.com/

Ideally, new stove would be a home built Conventional Top Loader, due to the ease of loading with my design ideas of exhaust recirculation and what not.

[Mr. Maple]

     Pretty much in the same boat here Cando, if I had looked at Heatmaster, that is the furnace that would be here instead of the P & M. This model is quoted for heating 15000 square feet, IN A PIG'S EYE!!!!!, maybe on a warmer spring day, but these nights we have been having here lately with minus 25 etc., I have to load late  at night like say 10:00 p.m, load twice as much wood in as our old Empyre took for it to carry through to 6:00 a.m, that's an 8 hour burn time!!!!!!!! Smokeless, not hardly, even neighbors driving by have mentioned seeing big billows of smoke wafting out of it. I have to go to an extra effort with this furnace to clean out between the bricks, then when I blow my nose after I see how much ash I have breathed in from having to do it. This furnace should have had a larger water jacket, like say another 100 gallons like the Empyre had.
     Funny how this topic just came up, my Father and I had just stated the other day, and again tonight the drawbacks to this furnace,
1-- Should have a light on the front for loading at night
2-- Needs a larger water jacket for  heating two houses and cushioning the "blow" when it gets real cold
3---Needs a better way of cleaning the ash out between the brick {like the Heatmaster with their moveable grates like the old Duo Furnace)
4-- Could use another pass or two for the heat exchanger, with a door at the back for cleaning out the extra passes
     If SCOTT is reading this, I am really interested in the new Heatmaster model, if the company would consider building a larger model to replace the 10000E, for 10000 square feet, with say around 280-300 gallons water jacket, I would be interested in being the guinea pig, running a demo unit

[agriffinjd]

Mr. Maple, I've found I go through less wood if I load less and keep the coals lower than the brick line.  Not sure if that would help in your case.  It seems to burn hotter faster if the firebricks are expose so the wood lasts a bit longer. 

Judging by your name I presume you burn just maple?

My 3444 has been working quite well with 5200 sq ft and Dhw.  I too wish it had a light.  I didn't have time to get the light post buried before the ground froze.

[hockeyguy]

In my 5th season with a C.B. E2300 and very happy so far. For my next boiler, either a P&M 250 gasser or something with storage like a Garn.

[Sluggo]

Mr maple,I have a Heatmaster 20,000e and I heat 8,000 sq ft.  I wouldn't even want to think of heating 20,000 with it.  I think all stove manufacturers kinda get their numbers from perfect world scenarios.

[cando attitude]

 

Love the feedback guys.  If I were a boiler manufacturer watching this unfold through the window, I would be taking some
serious puck 'n notes right now.  On numerous occasions, I've thought about designing my own stove as the next one.........probably will never happen but if someone ever asks, I'll give them an earful

Cando

[Shrek1112]

Just rolling into my third month with my Hawken HE-2100.  I have had zero issues with it thus far and it is not a fuel hog so I have been loving it.  If I had to go at it again, and couldn't buy a Hawken, I would seriously look at the HeatMaster or a Portage and Main, but I would want an draft style not a gasifier as I never know where the next load of wood will come from. 

[racnruss]

Nice thread, really enjoy the comments.

I live in city with very close neighbors, so gasifier was only choice.  Started with Nature's Comfort GT 220 for 3 year and just switched to Portage and Main 250 this year.

If I had to do it over, I'd pony up for the P&M from the start.  Not because of wood savings, because I'm not really seeing that; but for the build quality,  Better doors, easier to clean, gasifies quicker, simpler blower system.

[Mr. Maple]

 Agriffinjd, actually burn pretty much everything, mostly dead elm and ash right now, maple is for the syrup business that we are heavy into. I must admit I ignored all the red flags, talked to one owner who had the same Empyre, told me he wish he had it back over the new P & M, they of course blamed him for installing it wrong, saw another one in the summer pretty much full of ashes , now I see why as it such a hassle to get the ashes out from between the bricks when you have to load it so often to keep up with the demand.
 Sluggo, what furnace did you have before? Our Empyre kept up quite well except for really cold windy days, just wanted to cut down on wood usage. I think maybe the 20000e would sit too long between cycling.
   Cando,thinking the same thing, ideal furnace would have moveable grates like the Heatmaster , large water jacket like say 350 gallons for 8000 square feet of building,air injected above and below the fire for a complete burn, and  more passes  for the exhaust/smoke to travel through to use up more of the heat with easy access doors to clean out, say like the old cook stoves where you closed the damper after the fire was going to force the heat/smoke to travel down around the oven to get to the stack.

[slimjim]

Mr. Maple, as you know it is no longer my job to answer posts for P+M but as you seem very frustrated, I will step in and try, first perhaps overloading the stove with dead elm and ash is creating a lot of ash and coals as the lining cooks the wood much hotter than does a water jacket directly next to the fire, my suggestion would be to try some wood that has more density to it and allow that bed of coals to burn down to ash more, second, you are of course aware that the B-L series is available with shaker grates, perhaps that is what you should have ordered, third I would like to know whom that other owner is and perhaps he did do something wrong in his install, perhaps we could help him, how about inviting him to join this forum

[jreimer]

Hi Mr. Maple,

I have had interesting experiences burning elm in my optimizer 250.  There is something in elm that makes the ashes by the nozzle turn hard and actually plug the nozzle between loads.  And no, it wasn't wet elm doing this.  When burning elm I found I had to scrape the area around the nozzle and break up or remove this hard ring around the nozzle, or it would plug and not run properly.  The high heat around the nozzle seemed to fuse the ashes together.  This doesn't happen with any other species of wood I've burned.  I don't know the exact design of your furnace, but perhaps this is happening to you and it is building up and blocking something?

[Sluggo]

Mr maple,I had a 10,000e but added 3000 sq ft of shed so I upgraded.  I was heating 5,000 sq ft with the 10000e but thought 8000 sq ft would be pushing it.  I would have loved to have tried the 10000 on it but the way things worked out that just wasn't possible.

[MerrellRoofing]

I've had some ash-crust blockage develop a few times. Not sure what type of wood caused it, I have all my wood mixed, and burn about every kind. I try to let mine burn down every couple days. Stir the coals with a scraper or hoe and let it burn for a couple hours before you load it again.

[ijon]

I don't have a problem with scraping the ashes through the slots of my BL-2840. In fact its very easy way to get rid of the ashes compared to my old Woodmaster. No I am not knocking Woodmaster it gave me fourteen years of no propane bills. But the BL is easier and less dusty.

[Jwood]

I don't have a problem with scraping the ashes through the slots of my BL-2840. In fact its very easy way to get rid of the ashes compared to my old Woodmaster. No I am not knocking Woodmaster it gave me fourteen years of no propane bills. But the BL is easier and less dusty.

I agree if you overfill it constantly to try for 24 hour burns you will be producing to much coals and then you will be blocking all your grates.