Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: teburman on January 26, 2013, 11:28:54 AM
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If you had to replace your heater today what would you get and why?
Mine is dead. See the thread "Quick fix for leaky Aspen 175" in the Empyre section.
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I would buy one off Craigslist one of the propane tank stoves. This economy can't keep paying the high end price for similar stoves.
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I would get another Cb because there is a local dealer, a lot of it to me has to do with local support.
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Buy form a reputable company and most importantly is the design of the system, far more important than the brand of stove
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When mine dies I will get a Portage and Main, I love the design and ash drawer.
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Haven't done a lot of looking around for what dealers are local. I have a Woodmaster dealer only about 15 minutes from me. Helluva nice guy too. Very helpful. Would be hard not to buy another one. :thumbup:
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If you had to replace your heater today what would you get and why?
Mine is dead. See the thread "Quick fix for leaky Aspen 175" in the Empyre section.
I would go with a pressurized system....for shure....that way you have an auto filler and also dont have to worry about air getting into the system and rotting the boiler from inside out, because it is a closed system.....The nonpressurizedave come along way with water treatment and so on.....I would probly go with another indoor model myself....your getting convectional heat off boiler plus the hot water for heat...so your getting full use of heat off boiler......I love my Thermal-Control and it's backed with a nonprorated 20 year warranty..... they do make outdoor boiler as well but not epa approved yet for ny. I also know the owner as well on a personal level top notch guy.....treats everyone like family and helps out with any ?'s you have......you can ask Mackdx his brother talked to tim and order a 300,000 btu inside boiler 2 weeks ago....... ;) let us know what you end up doing and good luck with the leak...my neighbor and I just shut down his P&M last week it's all rotted only 4 1/2 years old.....
kelly
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I would go with another hardy cause there are three dealers close and hardy has been around for years I have auto fill and it's stainless so only should have to worry about sodium chloride but my wife and I wouldn't have it any other way now
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I am new to owb but i love my hoss 400 it is built very well and it has been great so far customer service has been wonderful jerry has been great to work with.
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I think I saw you said you are in NY. I don't think there are a lot of options. Unless there is a way around having to get an approved boiler off their list.
If a gasser is the only option, I would probably look real close at Econoburn since they are made in New York.
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Ok, just found out Econoburn isn't on New York's list even though they are made there so I guess scratch that.
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I think my next one will be a Heatmaster MF5000. Its 409 stainless and I've heard many good things about them. I'm just not sure if there is a dealer in my area or not.
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goodmorning baldwin racing well i cant believe he only got 41/2 years on a p&m boiler . he must not do his water samples and no scraping before filling no creosote cleaning, no cap on chimney when shut down,no maintance what so ever. i have 3 yrs on my ml36 with no issues at all happy burning rick
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When my CB E-classic 1400 dies, I think my next purchase will be a whole house indoor pellet stove that ties into my baseboard emitters. I'd have the pellets delivered in bulk, not in bags. I'd build a huge holding unit for the pellets in the basement of my house. Even though I love working with wood, I know I'm not getting any younger and there will be a point in my life where I will not be able to operate a chainsaw, safely. Roger
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goodmorning baldwin racing well i cant believe he only got 41/2 years on a p&m boiler . he must not do his water samples and no scraping before filling no creosote cleaning, no cap on chimney when shut down,no maintance what so ever. i have 3 yrs on my ml36 with no issues at all happy burning rick
no it was cleaned on reglar basis.... rotted in heat exchanger if you look from front to rear on exit side to stack, about 2 foot in from stack....right on the seam where it is welded to something underneath you can see where the metal is pulled down right there.across the exchanger....same spot all the local dealer had the same problems with all the ones he sold.....he is no longer a dealer.....honestly I have nothing against P&M he did not run a cap but had a 5 gallon bucket on it when not in service....I dont know i am not the expert all i know is they want 1,500 plus ship for new style that epa approved and has the brick bottom to help with the rotting problem so they say....and will run a deverter valve...so it will not chill stove (big plus) all i can say is keep an eye on the heat exchanger and right under the door almost to bottom rotted there also...and I hope you dont have this problem....
kelly
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hey kelly thanks for the info ive got a call in to my dealer as we speak he just sent me a letter today about the esbe valve will keep you poasted on my results. at this time i have no sign of any rust. if its not to much bother how about some pictures. thanks rick
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hey kelly thanks for the info ive got a call in to my dealer as we speak he just sent me a letter today about the esbe valve will keep you poasted on my results. at this time i have no sign of any rust. if its not to much bother how about some pictures. thanks rick
rick pic of the heat exchanger....i dont know if i have the fire box pic i will look threw my pics...3rd pic you can see the seam i was telling you about by the light....
kelly
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kelly goodmorning to ya well i just talked to my dealer and i forwarded yesterdays mail and he was going to send it to p&m i will also send him the pictures, i wouldnt be supprised if p&m contacted you. keep me poasted rick
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kelly dave jacoby is my dealer in trego wis you can contact him at 1-715 214 6683 or email heatsmart@ymail.com it sounds to me that you have a cureable problem. just my 2 cents rick
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kelly dave jacoby is my dealer in trego wis you can contact him at 1-715 214 6683 or email heatsmart@ymail.com it sounds to me that you have a cureable problem. just my 2 cents rick
Rick,
we have ben dealing with the head P&M distrubtor out of canada.....It is my neighbor that has the P&M and we have ben in contact and have sent pics already to him.....he trying his best to get us the best deal.....but honestly it's fuuny he said we have not have had much problems but he told me were to look to see if it's rotted in other places.....they wanted to send us a brand new heat exchanger and have me weld it in.... but with it rotted in firebox to it's not worth it.....because you know as well as i do you weld it here next will be a leak in another spot you would have to weld in a whole new liner in fire box.....
kelly
thanks for the help Rick
i will give my neibor this info.....
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I would go with a Natures Comfort 325G that has the coal option. Look here http://www.naturescomfortllc.com/coal-boiler/ (http://www.naturescomfortllc.com/coal-boiler/) and here http://www.naturescomfortllc.com/assets/Uploads/NCB-325G-Brochure.pdf (http://www.naturescomfortllc.com/assets/Uploads/NCB-325G-Brochure.pdf) Would still burn wood in it in spring and fall because I have to clean up around the farm anyway and the wood is there for the burning. I would burn a high percentage of coal in December, January and February because it is so cheap and easy! Would end up having wood to sell. In my area wood priced fair for both goes fast.
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Thanks for the feed back. This may be another futile effort. I do live in NYS and they have adopted very strict rules for new OWBs. I don’t know if my boiler location is grandfathered or if just the boiler is grandfathered. If a replacement unit has to meet the set back requirements for a new OWB I may not be able to replace it. I have been operating without smoke problems for 4 years. I have not received one complaint. Two of my closest neighbors said they were worried about the smoke when they saw that I had installed the unit. Although they said they were paying close attention to what I was doing neither one of them knew when I started the first fire. They came to me about 30 days after I started the fire to ask me if I was using the unit yet.
I think they overdid the regulation on these units. For all of its problems the Aspen 175 was/is a clean burning unit. You could stand with your face in the smoke plume five feet from the chimney and barely smell the wood smoke. My neighbor across the road has a wood stove in his house which is about 200 feet up wind from me, when he runs his wood stove I can’t open my bedroom window because the wood smoke smell is too intense. I like to keep my window open for fresh air about ½ inch even during the winter but that is too much.
I will be going to the Central Boiler dealer this weekend to see what he has to say. Dealers for the other NYS approved units are too far away. So if I can replace it, it looks like I will be going with the Central Boiler E-Classic 1450. I am not very optimistic.
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What model of Portage and Main is this and how old?
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What model of Portage and Main is this and how old?
ml 36 model it was 4 1/2 years old.....
kelly
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If I had the money, probably a heatmor. I know a guy who's had one for 20 years with little to no trouble. I also note that they are a pretty big make and this forum has few complaints about them. They are also supposed to be pretty efficient so less wood.
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hi kelly i just thought i would see if you had any results from p&m on your boiler problems.keep in touch with the progress thanks rick
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Well, by know means can I offer a large amount of advice as I am new to the owb world myself. But, things wish I would have considered is a separate ash door with removable pan. I wouldn't have been so concerned about having a huge firebox to put the wood in, as all that has proved to do for me is require me to add more wood to it to keep the boiler hot. Out of all the boilers I checked out, if I had it to do over, I would have went with a Hardy. One, there is a good dealer relatively close by and a friend of mine has had one for 10+ years now and not had a single problem and the design is far superior than mine after I really checked it out. It seems they were so worried about having a huge water capacity or load capacity but more about efficiency of the stove.
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Did someone just say Hardy and efficient in the same sentence?
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Sure did, we have Earth, Hardy, Empyre and Heat Master in our area and Central Boiler relatively close and I've not seen any work as well as my friends Hardy.
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Hardy does work well and because they are 304 they don't give a lot of trouble. They are a good furnace in many respects but are way behind the 8 ball in respect to efficiency. I would love to do a comparison of stack temps with central boiler, heatmaster, empyre and hardy.
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I don't even think it's debatable about whether hardy's are efficient. The whole design doesn't tend on the side of efficiency, when you see flames coming out the top all the time, here is your sign.
There are many hardy's in my area, nearly everyone was installed poorly and folks burn 15-20 truck loads per winter on the average home. I've replaced several with the heatmaster 3000, folks said it cut there wood use almost in half, some of that was due to the stove itself, but a lot was due to a proper installation and not using frost king insulation inside schedule 40 lol
The stack temps out of central boiler and empyre would be about the same, same design onthe conventional stoves, heatmaster stack temps would be very similar unless it was an e model. The hardy with a hole at the highest point and very little to slow heat loss tends to have crazy high stack temps
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I think most Hardy owners are happy because their house is warm. They simply have no idea that they burning twice as much wood as is necessary do to the inefficiency of the design. There in nothing efficient about watching a flame torch out the chimney, but the owner is warm and gets a lot of exercise for free too! Less chainsaw gas, bar oil, truck/wood hauling gas....ouch. At least they are not paying the oil or propane man.
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Once things get so inefficient it is almost better to pay propane. Just my 2 cents
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Time is money and I only have so much time to piss around.
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Maybe my friend just got lucky then. Seems no one else cares for the Hardy. His heats his 3500+ house, hot water and work garage and doesn't burn anymore wood than anyone else around here. No flames shooting out the top of his either. Strange...
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Maybe my friend just got lucky then. Seems no one else cares for the Hardy. His heats his 3500+ house, hot water and work garage and doesn't burn anymore wood than anyone else around here. No flames shooting out the top of his either. Strange...
There is so many variables, heat demand of his home, how well he takes care of his wood, type of wood, it's just really hard to use one instance as a cover..
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Maybe my friend just got lucky then. Seems no one else cares for the Hardy. His heats his 3500+ house, hot water and work garage and doesn't burn anymore wood than anyone else around here. No flames shooting out the top of his either. Strange...
There is so many variables, heat demand of his home, how well he takes care of his wood, type of wood, it's just really hard to use one instance as a cover..
Like I said, I am new to all this so by know means am I very knowledgeable on the subject, but he has had great success with his Hardy. As a matter of fact his wood just lays out in the open uncovered beside the stove.
If I had it to do over I would have worried less about the firebox capacity and water capacity and all that and worried more with the burning efficiency. I load mine twice a day, which is not bad, but it sure seems like I go through a lot of wood.
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I got the official word from one of the NYS DEC officials concerning replacing existing OWB units. Replacement units must meet all of the regulations as if it were a new install. My installation does not meet setback requirements and I do not have large enough of a lot to comply. So I will learn to weld and repair the unit this summer. Oh well, I hope to get fifteen years out of it – long enough to pay off the mortgages!
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I got the official word from one of the NYS DEC officials concerning replacing existing OWB units. Replacement units must meet all of the regulations as if it were a new install. My installation does not meet setback requirements and I do not have large enough of a lot to comply. So I will learn to weld and repair the unit this summer. Oh well, I hope to get fifteen years out of it – long enough to pay off the mortgages!
Can you not take your sheet metal ect off of your old one and put on a new one??? They would never look any closer than that, serial numbers would match and everything