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[ARE]

New to the board and wood boilers, after hours of research I was down to the e-classic and the Aspen 175. Have heard a few problems with the classic. Charlie asked for info. before in Jan. and I didn't noyice any replies. Looking at just the EPA rated high efficiency models and what I found on the web and from our local dealers I am leaning the 175 way. The dealer did stress dry wood only to eliminate any problems. Would eppreciate any info. on this model or the other high effic. models, thanks.

[willieG]

New to the board and wood boilers, after hours of research I was down to the e-classic and the Aspen 175. Have heard a few problems with the classic. Charlie asked for info. before in Jan. and I didn't noyice any replies. Looking at just the EPA rated high efficiency models and what I found on the web and from our local dealers I am leaning the 175 way. The dealer did stress dry wood only to eliminate any problems. Would eppreciate any info. on this model or the other high effic. models, thanks.

welcome ral..i can't say anything about these epa stoves as i have never even seen one in action..but i will make a guess  that all the dealers were scrambling to come up with something that would appease the concerns of the states and counties that were shutting the doors on OWB's

I am SURE that when the dealers did thier tests for the EPA acceptance documents that the conditions they tested under were the closest thing to perfect that they coud get (i think as far as even 'cooking" the wood prior to testing to make sure it was as dry as possable

i would not put anything above what the manufacturers would do to get their product on the market

they are no different than the car companies in testing...i have seen very few cars get the milage that the window sticker says. you must have heard commercials....your milage may vary due to driving habits...i am sure the OWB's would have somethinng similar to cover their butts...the typeof wood or moisture content may change your emissions and performance of the boiler (or something like that)

good luck in your search and i for one would look forward to hearing from owners of these new generation of stoves

[Scott7m]

i simply think all this stuff is "to new" at this time! seems everyone is having some problems with nearly every model,  more moving stuff, more to tearup..

[dumbodog00]

There are quite a few people on hearth.com that have E classics.  There is a thread there that has some decent information about the unit.  The general feeling is that Central Boiler is working out the bugs and have made a decent unit.

[ARE]

Watched Mark Wilber of ThisWarmHouse, which I am not familiar with but he had a video on U-Tube dealing with the 175. It all seemed legite and it showed start up to loading with logs, they cut down the video but I think it lasted 30 minutes uncut. I  was most interested in the claim of little or no smoke. Like the dealer told me they used dry wood and the video was impressive with the smoke. If anyone gets a chance to look let me know your take.

I will get a bid for the E-Classic, there is a dealer close by, thanks for the input, I will check out Hearth.com.

[charlie]

Ral
Just talked to a woodmaster dealer yesterday, Said they will have a unit just like the Aspen 175, about 2000 dollars cheaper comming out. Made by the same supplier for greenwood. I was told Greenwood had poor customer service. From what I heard thru the grapevine, only "ONE" guy burns wood at Greenwood. The rest of the crew are just theory, suit and tie people. No hands on everyday. Not my cup of tea. Just my thoughts. Correct me if I'm wrong on the above. Not trying to step on any toes. Thanks

[Dirtslinger]

Ral
Just talked to a woodmaster dealer yesterday, Said they will have a unit just like the Aspen 175, about 2000 dollars cheaper comming out. Made by the same supplier for greenwood. I was told Greenwood had poor customer service. From what I heard thru the grapevine, only "ONE" guy burns wood at Greenwood. The rest of the crew are just theory, suit and tie people. No hands on everyday. Not my cup of tea. Just my thoughts. Correct me if I'm wrong on the above. Not trying to step on any toes. Thanks

I guess I should have waited a few years before I bought my woodmaster 4400
How soon are they going to do this.

[charlie]

Dirtslinger
I was told shortly, beginning of summer. Your stove is fine . So is my 434. The thing is , next year something will come out better than the new gasifier. I realized you have to be happy with what you have. If you try to keep up with the newest stuff, you would go broke and my as well pay the oil man ,etc. I'm just glad I have the right to burn wood, and a way to avoid the fuel rip off in this country. We are all in the same boat. Just be glad you have an oar!

[Dirtslinger]

Dirtslinger
I was told shortly, beginning of summer. Your stove is fine . So is my 434. The thing is , next year something will come out better than the new gasifier. I realized you have to be happy with what you have. If you try to keep up with the newest stuff, you would go broke and my as well pay the oil man ,etc. I'm just glad I have the right to burn wood, and a way to avoid the fuel rip off in this country. We are all in the same boat. Just be glad you have an oar!

I am happy with mine. So I hope they do come out with something better because when its time I will buy from woodmaster again

[charlie]

I would buy from woodmaster again too. I've had mine going on 7 years and burn it all year long. It has treated me well. I've never been fooling with it day in and day out. Just some over the years wear and tear items. Blower fan, rubber damper  and door gaskets. It has the original aquastat and damper solenoid. Oh and a couple of circulators. It's paid for itself twice over.

[ARE]

dumbodogoo, thanks for the info on the e-classic from hearth.com, lots of info on there, seems they are working things out. When I read the problems it seems some or most would not have happened if you burnt just dry wood. I have been told this is very important. I wish I was waiting a year or two, still have not seem much on the aspen 175 but an e-classic guy is coming over next week.

Charie, I can check but do you know when the new woodmaster will be available. I am planning to decide in the next month.

Thanks all,

[charlie]

Ral
I would just call up Woodmaster,tell them your plan to buy another brand. If they want your business, they'll work with you. This late in the season, I'd see what else will be comming out. Or buy in July, when it's 90 degrees out. Bet the way the economy is there will be good deals to be had. I'll be interested to see what companies are not here next winter. Good luck..Charlie

[maine owb]

I own the Aspen 175 and live in Maine and began using it in mid january. I am working out a few problems but i do like the unit. During the 4 week period from mid january to mid february i used 1.5 cords of wood, this was a colder than normal month well below 0 many nights. I am heating a 3100 square foot house which includes a 600 square foot garage with 10' high ceilings. I am also heating my hot water. once the temp gets into the 30's the wood usage goes down. I estimate that i will use 6 cords of wood to heat my house and provide me hot water from November to May. I have kept track of every time i have loaded wood, what the weather was and how much wood i went through from week to week. During the coldest times of the winter i got a 12 hour burn time and once it's close to 40 degrees outside i get close to 24 hours. I used 1 1/4" pex buried 30 - 36" deep. Each line i insulated with 3/4" wall thickness foam and then wrapped with one layer of reflextix(looks like bubble wrap 1/4" thick). I then put each line in its own schedule 35, 4" pipe. For good measure i  put a 2' wide sheet of 2" rigid insulation on top of that. I have the boiler 75' from my house.

My wife is in the health field so it was very important to have a clean buring unit.

A few problems  i have had are that the  unit tends to drip a small amount of condensation in the front of the aspen during certain temps and i do from time to time get a bit of brown like condenstation on the foof of the boiler from the chimney. I believe this may be because the low stack temps along with dew point. You wouldnt see this in an older style wood boiler as much because the stack temps are higher. but that also means you will burn more wood and pollute more.

Freeze protection: My system has a 30% glycol solution giving me a low burst point. One good thing about the aspen is it only uses 75 gallons of water plus whats in the pex and it only costs a little over $200 to glycol the system. I believe this system has the lowest amount of water. It would cost a lot more to glycol most other systems.

My system also is isolated from my heating system using a heat exchanger. I believe this is important because the aspen like most or all outdoor wood boilers is an open loop system and hooking them directly to a closed loop system is not a good idea in my opinion. Because of this i have an aquastst that shuts the wood boiler circulator off if the water goes below 140 degrees. If the circualtor didn't shut off the oil burner it would heat the wood boiler water through the heat exchanger wasting oil. I also have a low temp aquastat on the wood boiler that turns the wood boiler circulator back on if the water drops below 35 degrees. This aquastat keeps the water between 35 and 45 degrees to further protect the system. I can now leave my house whenever for any lenghth of time without worry and without burning a bunch of oil to keep my house and wood boiler heated.

You also need a dump zone to keep the boiler from boiling over, my dump done has only come on a few times, less as i get better at understanding the wood loading part of things.

[ARE]

Update on my choice between the Aspen 175 and the E-Classic 2300, dealers both close by, only two I considered. Other reasons are they are suppose to be much more efficent by burning wood completely getting more btu's ultimently using less wood, would just as soon split some wood and burn dry then cut and haul more and I wanted one that was participating in the EPA orange and white tag programs for less emmisions, if used properly of course. I am not advocating any particular brand this is just what I figured worked best for my situation. I think both units are good from what I witnessed, just an opinion from a newbie but did a LOT of research and traveled to sites that were using them. I went during cold times so I could see both in action running full out, so not sure about the smoke between cycles but seems to be much better then other units I have witnessed running, granted they were probably burning wet wood. Very nice of OWB users to let visitors in to see there operations up front. I also talked to guys that don't like them, but from what I learned if you follow the rules they should work fine. They got the firebrick thing figured out and a couple other minor issuse's on the 2300. Actually I felt a lot better about even getting into the wood heating business after seeing them run and was pleased with the amount of smoke output. Another onsideration was the 2300 has a larger wood box, the person selling the Aspen wasn't sure I could get by with loading just twice a day to not have the LP kick in. Heating 3500 sq. ft., plus water and 900 sq. ft. garage. So I hope with the 2300 I can, time will tell. Not going to install until the frost gets out but wanted the year end discount so I bit the bullet. Only have 13 acres but plenty of wood til last me a long time, between dutch elm disease and oak wilt I don't have to go far for hardwood to burn and don't mind the exercise either. Thanks to all who answered my other questions, and will keep reading this forum and pitch in as my experience increases. And thanks to the operators for putting this forum together.

[maine owb]

RAL, I am in the plumbing industry and after research i decided to buy the aspen 175. I have lots of pics and a journal of the wood usage and weather from day one.
I also have pics of my installation. I also have some video of the unit in operation. If i can help please let me know. let me know your email and i can email you this stuff. I spent the last several months working on this. I live in Maine.