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[victor6deep]

I am sure watching their stoves smoke makes them feel excited maybe that is why they burn green wood? It is fun to watch tho...hahaha what the heck.

[willywood]

You didn't mention anything about cost.....so I would suggest you look at a Garn which in my opinion is the best wood boiler going.  www.garn.com     It has 2000 gallons of water storage onboard so one fire a day is all that is needed, does not smoke and no creosote.  Beat that!

[Scott7m]

I've looked at Garn extensively, batch burning is not for me, everyday you must build a new fire, with new kindling, and be with it for a couple hours, it often takes a couple loads of wood to bring the water temp back to 200

I was considering being a Garn distributor but once I got involved and saw how things operated with there stoves and especially the business, i had a couple sold, but they wanted so much up front, wanted the customer to wait 3-4 months, and would not give him a total cost until it was complete, at the time they were charging 1100 over retail due to material costs..   

[Boydz]

XJ,

Im in IL and would be happy to show you my Heatmaster 10,000E in action.

I too have an old farm house with minimal insualtion and heat 2 other buildings with it, no problems.

I load it before work and after work and thats it, about 10-15 minutes a day and burn anything Ive been able to find, green or not. It NEVER goes out unless it burns out. Half my time loading is spent looking at the nice fire inside and enjoying the warmth on my face - LOL
Chemicals - Seems like everything out there can benifit from some sort of chemical treatment to prevent corrosion and it literally doesnt take long at all, and it might not even have to be done yearly.
As far as mainenance, pretty sure anything will have SOMETHING to keep up on. A little caulk around the vent seems minimal and making sure its properly sucured and not moving around in the wind will go along way in preventing the silicone joint from needing attention.
The ash pan is simple simple simple - no auger. Pull out and dump. 30 seconds.
I also just added the secondary air kit to the unit now and am thouroghly impressed with the better burn and very little to no smoke even with the green stuff im burning - No joke, blew me away.
So seriously, if your somewhat close, come on over.
Lots of good brands to choose from I know - so many good models and happy customers. Decisions Decisions - haha

[XJCraver]

Fella's -

Seems like I started a bit of "contention" here, and I certainly didn't mean to.  My apologies if so.

I didn't mean to imply that I had anything against the CB units.  They look well put together to me, and I know there are plenty of satisfied customers out there.  My contention with them is my local dealer, who will absolutely get none of my money, EVER (which, incidentally, has nothing at all to do with stoves).  The next closest dealer is ~2 hrs away, and since they didn't have a stove that was on my short-list to begin with, I simply chose not to consider them.  Again, not because of the stoves, but because of the dealer.

I don't recall anywhere saying I was going to be burning exclusively green wood.  I have access to virtually unlimited timber, and already have a decent stockpile of cured wood available.  My requirement that the stove be able to burn "hot" wood such as hedge is because I have gobs of it, and even cured it is full of creosote.  It is what I have the most of, though, so I will be burning it.  I won't be burning 100% green wood in whichever stove I buy.

And I'll explain this again in case some of you missed it the first time - the wish that the stove have a side-mounted flue rather than through-the-roof is entirely a product of my experience as a roofer / carpenter.  It has nothing to do with one stove or another, it's just a design feature I would prefer.  It's solely due to the fact that a side-mounted flue will have much less chance of ever developing a leak than a roof mounted one.  I understand that there are a lot of units out there that have never had a chimney leak - that's great!  I just personally will be happier if that is one worry I never have to have. 

I truly appreciate everyone's info. so far.  You've all given me other options to look at and factors to consider.  I'm still weighing cost / options on the aforementioned "short-list" of contenders, but I'm slowly coming to a decision.  I'll let you all know which one I finally end up with!

-Joe

[Jack72]

Fella's -

Seems like I started a bit of "contention" here, and I certainly didn't mean to.  My apologies if so.

I didn't mean to imply that I had anything against the CB units.  They look well put together to me, and I know there are plenty of satisfied customers out there.  My contention with them is my local dealer, who will absolutely get none of my money, EVER (which, incidentally, has nothing at all to do with stoves).  The next closest dealer is ~2 hrs away, and since they didn't have a stove that was on my short-list to begin with, I simply chose not to consider them.  Again, not because of the stoves, but because of the dealer.

I don't recall anywhere saying I was going to be burning exclusively green wood.  I have access to virtually unlimited timber, and already have a decent stockpile of cured wood available.  My requirement that the stove be able to burn "hot" wood such as hedge is because I have gobs of it, and even cured it is full of creosote.  It is what I have the most of, though, so I will be burning it.  I won't be burning 100% green wood in whichever stove I buy.

And I'll explain this again in case some of you missed it the first time - the wish that the stove have a side-mounted flue rather than through-the-roof is entirely a product of my experience as a roofer / carpenter.  It has nothing to do with one stove or another, it's just a design feature I would prefer.  It's solely due to the fact that a side-mounted flue will have much less chance of ever developing a leak than a roof mounted one.  I understand that there are a lot of units out there that have never had a chimney leak - that's great!  I just personally will be happier if that is one worry I never have to have. 

I truly appreciate everyone's info. so far.  You've all given me other options to look at and factors to consider.  I'm still weighing cost / options on the aforementioned "short-list" of contenders, but I'm slowly coming to a decision.  I'll let you all know which one I finally end up with!

-Joe           

Hey Joe   
 Were all good no harm done here  i just figured from what you said

 "So, I'm going to be lucky to get enough wood cut every year to feed this thing, let alone spend a bunch of time filling/testing water, scraping out heat exchangers, and cleaning chimneys."       

I didn't know you had a stockpile already   I thought what you were getting at was you were going to get a stove in 30 days and start cutting wood now.  Sorry misunderstood

 All I was getting at its a commitment to stay in front of your stove a couple of years so it has time to season.    Otherwise if you don't you'll end up burning green wood because nothing else is ready.       I try to burn seasoned wood in mine because t it does smoke with wetter wood until it drys it down of course then its good.    I realize some stoves burn green wood better than others.     I have a lot of neighbors by me I try to keep peace so I have no complaints if I lived in country a little more it may different.       

Jack

[MattyNH]

You didn't mention anything about cost.....so I would suggest you look at a Garn which in my opinion is the best wood boiler going.  www.garn.com     It has 2000 gallons of water storage onboard so one fire a day is all that is needed, does not smoke and no creosote.  Beat that!

doesn't smoke and no soot issue?? ya ok. Reading on the web sight  2 of their models are epa phase 2 exempt because of the large burn capacity.. I don't believe it..

[willywood]

Matty,
You don't need to believe it.  Talk to any Garn owner and see what they have to say or better yet go see one operate.  Fact is their emissions are already lower than the proposed EPA 3 limits.  Don't own one myself but if I had the bucks it would be no contest.

[Yooper]

Go to U-Tube and look for the Ernie movie.  He's a guy that lives on the North shore of the big lake.  It's pretty amazing.  He has a Garn unit.  Big bucks for a Garn.  Too bad they don't build a mini-Garn.

GARN WHS 2000 - Ernie - Duluth, Minnesota

[Scott7m]

You didn't mention anything about cost.....so I would suggest you look at a Garn which in my opinion is the best wood boiler going.  www.garn.com     It has 2000 gallons of water storage onboard so one fire a day is all that is needed, does not smoke and no creosote.  Beat that!

doesn't smoke and no soot issue?? ya ok. Reading on the web sight  2 of their models are epa phase 2 exempt because of the large burn capacity.. I don't believe it..

No creosote soot or smoke isn't something that's hard to obtain with a batch burn unit, they stay dry as powder inside... 

[martyinmi]

The Garn's are really nice units.
The biggest issue I would have with one would be the initial cost.
There are folks out there who have upwards of 40k into their set ups if they buy the Garn then build a barn(Garn Barn) to house it in.
Then there's the insurance thing to worry about when you have a wood burning device in a building you maintain on your property.
And...I don't have the time to babysit a fire for 2 1/2 hours a day(as per video above).

I have a little over 13k into my complete setup.
I can go through 3+ of mine to 1 Garn.
It was a very easy decision for me.

If I had that much money to through around, I'd buy a chip  burner. Load the bin once/week and you're good to go!
And no babysitting

[willieG]

i had a friend who had a garn (still does) he had it for quite a few years...then his insurance came out one day and looked over his house (i think they were looking ot up the rates..they spotted his garn and the guy asked al ot of questions about it, my pal was more than happy to shoe it off as it worked really well...then the  before the gy left he said he could not insure his house any longer because the garn did not have a ULC-US tag on it

my buddy was all in a tiff and figured he had to chuck his stove..then he got a bright idea to go to the scrap yard and peel one of a junk furnace and switch insuranc ecompanies. the new company did not even ask about it

i dont know if the newer ones have this tag or not?

[Scott7m]

Willie, perfect example of the problems I started seeing pop up...

Marty you are correct, many people end up with well over 40k by the time they are complete....  There see lots of hidden costs. 

The main thing to me is being tied to my boiler, I can not and will not sit there and load wood in it for over 2 hours everyday

[willieG]

another plus we all know but sometimes forget about our OWB because it is a thing of the past...NO bugs in teh house..NO back draft causing stinky smoke in teh house...NO ashes flying around when trying to clean the stove...NO mud, bark, dirt to clean up after spending an afternoon filling up the basement with wood from teh outdoor wood pile.

yes i will agree they make some nice looking and efficient indoor wood stoves but they don't make one for me!

[XJCraver]

snip

yes i will agree they make some nice looking and efficient indoor wood stoves but they don't make one for me!

They don't make one for me either.....  Undoubtedly they are good stoves.  But if I had $40K to stick in a furnace, I'd put geothermal in, not ever have to cut wood again, and still have 20 grand in my pocket.