Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: walkerdogman85 on March 04, 2012, 04:10:04 AM
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I am going to purchase a hardy in a few days and I have a question how many folks like there hardy and how many cords do you burn and do you have alot of smoke issues. I am going to be heating a ranch home 1608 square feet main floor and then the basement 1600 and possibly my uninsulated attached garage. In the future I plan on building a detached garage also. I am looking at the h4 the dealer says the h2 would heat just my house no detached garage but he says that the h4 will also do it.do you think that the h4 is to big for now or would it just last longer on a fill of wood.
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It's a hardy, so there is no secondary burn of gases in the top as the chimney exits the highest point. This results in a poor efficient and smokey burn. I'm not knocking the stove as they seem to be reliable, however they do tend to use more wood and smoke pretty bad. Several people I know have
Hardys and most of them burn like 8-10 cord here in ky where other stoves may burn 4-6.
There is just no getting around the fact that having your stack exit the highest point in the firebox kills efficiency, other models have a baffle or actually have the chimney drop down really low in the firebox to trap smoke/gases from the wood to kinda burn off some of the smoke.
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hey scott i sent you a pm before i saw this message it was regarding the same questions but thanks for answering my questions, the problem is that the other dealers are so far away from me and getting one would be a problem i would think.
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hey scott i sent you a pm before i saw this message it was regarding the same questions but thanks for answering my questions, the problem is that the other dealers are so far away from me and getting one would be a problem i would think.
There appears to be a couple dealers within an hour of you. If you go to the Heatmaster website and click on contact it will show you your local dealers.
I'm not saying you have to go see em or anything like that but when your shoppIng it's good to look around and learn as much as possible.
Get out and look around and you'll learn more and make a more informed decision, go with the dealer you feel most comfortable with.
As I said, the hardys seem to be reliable but there are several brands that have came a long way since the design of hardy.
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walkerdogman85, I have a Hardy H2 and I love it. I over work it a lot and it does a great job. The reason I love it is due to the small amount of money I have in it. If I were going to buy a new OWB I would get something more efficient. Like Scott said Hardy is not the best idea out there but they are good. They are one of the oldest brands but others have passed them up in efficiency. Just my 2 cents
Bill
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Bull can you post pics of your h2 just so i can see it thanks
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Bull can you post pics of your h2 just so i can see it thanks
His is in his avatar.... He re did his and added insulation, I think he says that it helped it out as the factory insulation on them isnt a lot
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I am going to purchase a hardy in a few days
walkerdogman,
I see from the EPA's site that Hardy now has 2 models that are gasifiers. Are you looking at one of those, or are you more likely to consider a conventional one?
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Interesting you say that Marty, they had one at the show
You can go to the company website and there is no mention of them anywhere. Not sure why?
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Probably the Pellet Boiler.
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I have before and during pictures in the Hardy section.
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This time, I would agree with Scott. The Hardy is a long time player in the owf industry. Their units have many users with warm houses and satisfied owners. However, what most of the owners may or may not realize is that their old design technolgy is very inefficient and those owners are burning much more wood than necessary, leading to many more loadings of those furnaces than other units may require. I think Scott is right on, in that old design is burning twice the wood of todays more innovative models. The lack of good baffling leads to excess smoke and literally flames and heat loss out the chimney. This kind of performance is what is leading to neighborhood complaints and EPA Phase 2 demands. Yes it appears Hardy has 2 units now listed as qualifying models on the EPA website but note that they are both rated at 77,000 btu and less. Your listed demands may need more output capability than that. Again, I advocate looking at other models as well before investing your money. Search multiple brand websites and use their dealer locators. You may be surprised by how many dealers are just a short drive away. Don't just buy off price, physically look at the models features, open the doors, check them out and find what it the best for you long term.
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Boiler man, that's pretty much what I told him in a private message. That talking to owners seems good but most of them fail to realize there burning wayyy to much wood and simply don't know any different.
The video I placed in the hardy section is a good example of the lack off efficiency causing a lot of smoke and obvious complaints. I think the new h4 has a little plate that hangs below the stack but it's a far cry from what's needed.
Hardy is a hard stove to discredit from the "does it work" stand point, because yes they work, there is just a lot of others that work as well on half the fuel, not causing angry neighbors
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thanks for the info i called a central boiler and he said i would need the classic 5036 and the price was quite higher and he said that he couldnt tell me that it was going to smoke less than the hardy i also have been hearing on here that the gassers are pretty picky about wood and they seem to have a hard time getting them to burn i guess i dont know what to do i am limited on the funds that i have but i know that i dont want to keep buying electric.
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The first Garn I saw the guy was felling and feeding the same day, had no reserve built up.
Obviously he used a lot more wood than he would have done with a seasoned supply.
But that is the same for any Boiler.
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If the price is right on the Hardy and you don't mind cutting a little more wood I would go for it. There was a dealer here in southern Indiana that had the H4 for $5100 I hear. What kind of price are you looking at?
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The first Garn I saw the guy was felling and feeding the same day, had no reserve built up.
How are you liking that machine? If a person had the indoor space(I don't), it would be the only way to go! I see Intertek tested them and they fared quite well(upper 25% of all tested). Does the 2000 represent the boilers water capacity?
Edit- sorry walkerdog, didn't mean to hijack.
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The Garn 2000 is like 1850 gallon I think. I have a dealer pack here but I'm not hearing good reviews from other dealers/distributors about the co.
I spoke with walker dog this morning about his hardy quote. I'll let him tell what it was as I'm not sure he'd want me telling his biz
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Probably need to start my own thread, I do have a good supply of seasoned wood, but I have seen a 1500 operate on freshly cut.
I am not recommending it!
Actually my friend with the CB gasser has very limited storage area and very high consumption, I am not sure how seasoned that wood is, I would guess not very well. This time of year a log load every month.
(I do not know where they got the numbers from, it is not capacity in gallons)