Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: slimjim on April 13, 2015, 04:30:12 AM
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Wow as usual I am up at 4:30 AM and expecting a bunch of posts from over the weekend, especially from Sunday evening, was the forum down or something last night? not one new post from yesterday / last night. We had a beautiful weekend here, over 60 degrees yesterday, I trust most of you had the same and wood boilers were the last thing on your mind. We spent most of the weekend outside cleaning up the winters mess, I must say that I really dislike oak trees near my house or lawn, very soon I am going to kill 8 or 10 of them to get rid of the darn acorns, oak trees are good for 3 things, firewood, veneer logs and blisters, none of mine are good enough for veneer and I'm tired of the blisters so guess what, they will become next years firewood!
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Slim ,everyone is outside,, as it's been a long winter.
Everything is melting and I can get into the woods soon.
kk
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It was so nice that my nephew and I took our motorcycles out for a nice ride yesterday afternoon. We didn't want to get off of them. I needed that ride very much. Roger
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Sounds like a great time Roger, we were hearing bikes all day riding past the frontage, my boy was out all day as well. As for the wife and I, we got to ride the rake handle, the Cat and the skid steer, not much fun but the yard looks a lot nicer and we had the feeling of accomplishment last night.
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No oak trees near my lawn, standard oak trees don't like our heavy clay soils, have a few massive burr oaks around the property though. One half of the woods on the original homestead has some red oaks though, most of them are getting near big enough that it's almost logging time again.
Have two big black walnuts in the yard though I'll trade yah for the oaks. Was wet enough last summer that any walnuts we missed in the yard sprouted, dug em up and moved em back to the woods in a clearing, maybe someday I'll be able to sell some quality walnut logs.
Have a ton of black cherry's though in all the woods, used to have a bunch of ash as well but we can thank the cheap imports from china for killing those.
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I will take oak trees in the yard any day over black walnut, willow, and white pine.
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Too busy measuring my concrete stove pad for a new Heatmaster.
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Cleaning up the yard and barn.
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Spent the day cleaning up the boiler and putting it to bed for the summer.
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Congrats Chicken farmer, enjoy!
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Not ordered yet. Just getting ready in case I pull the trigger......
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What are you gonna go with if you pull the trigger chicken farmer? Are you planning on a bigger furnace than what you have now?
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No Ridgewood anymore, Well Dang! Maybe I should follow..
Too busy measuring my concrete stove pad for a new Heatmaster.
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Hi Slim,
If you lived closer I have you over some nice beer and help me solve my water logged pipes! I own a microbrewery... anyone in the West Michigan area that could offer any help I have unlimited supply of brews! Heck I can even trade wood for a keg of your choice of beer. >:D
Wow as usual I am up at 4:30 AM and expecting a bunch of posts from over the weekend, especially from Sunday evening, was the forum down or something last night? not one new post from yesterday / last night. We had a beautiful weekend here, over 60 degrees yesterday, I trust most of you had the same and wood boilers were the last thing on your mind. We spent most of the weekend outside cleaning up the winters mess, I must say that I really dislike oak trees near my house or lawn, very soon I am going to kill 8 or 10 of them to get rid of the darn acorns, oak trees are good for 3 things, firewood, veneer logs and blisters, none of mine are good enough for veneer and I'm tired of the blisters so guess what, they will become next years firewood!
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I really don't want to start anything here intensedrive but I will give a bit of advice, rip out the pipe and replace it with Logstor or a similar brand, it is pricey to start but I can tell you that I would bet that I have used at least 100,000 feet of it and never a single complaint other than it sucks to handle, as one of the
P and M dealers likes to say, it is the cheapest pipe you will ever buy because it is the only pipe you will ever need to buy.
I do feel badly that you are having issues now but Please understand that this is not the time or way to get your issue resolved, try again to contact Ridgewood, see if they can help first, post some pictures of your install and I'm sure we can all help on this side.
Take some of the blame on yourself for not doing the research before the install, it sounds to me that the boiler and install were sold on price alone, sometimes in life, that is not the best route, there is a market out there for higher end units and installs, along with those higher end packages comes better quality products and services. Would you have bought if the package were going to cost you another $4,000, this is what the higher end folks are up against.
As always I think the best bang for your buck when considering a wood boiler is to not cheap out on the install, use the best pipe and interior components you can possibly afford, changing the boiler later on down the road is a drop in the bucket compared to what you are about to go through.
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I second Slims opinion on this.
I have a few feet of Logstor left, I'm gonna cut it into foot chunks and see just what it takes to crush it. I figure to start out with the loader and go progressively heavier until a piece gives up the ghost.
I have a friend that will be doing a install shortly and I think we might try the ZSupply for his as his ground will be extremely light and should never be waterlogged like the clay here at the home farm.
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If you are a true friend you will tell him to use the logtor like they say you can pay the man now or pay him later
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I agree with Slim as well. I read the posts here before I bought my boiler and was pleased with the reviews. I went with the Logstor pipe based on what the experienced installers were saying here. Yes it costs more, but I chose to save on the boiler and not cut corners on my plumbing. Logstor in the ground and all copper in the house with valves and flush outs in place for my exchangers. I burned great this winter with no issues with anything and I am very happy for the help and advise from this forum to make what I view as good choices.
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I used Central boiler Thermopex for my underground lines. It is difficult to work with, but I anticipate many years of service.
As far as changing boilers goes, I'm not sure I can do it this coming year. I've been checking out the Heatmaster website and they sure do look tempting. I don't have the dry wood I should have to run a gasser though. My dad and I run out of the same wood pile, but he has a nice EPA fireplace insert, with secondary burn tubes and all, so he gets the dry stuff and I get the less desirable stuff. Like this year, Dad gets all the left overs from this year and I get the "newer" stuff.
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Hi Slim,
I appreciate your constructive criticism. So let me ask you slim, you hire a master electrician to wire in a 3 phase circuit, you have limited knowledge but pay for the install, you have mishaps and problems with the wiring. With your same logic you should have known more about electrical wiring and your part to blame? See this logic just doesn't stand up in my mind. How many people hire licensed contractors, yet to be screwed over, they cut coroners... Do you expect each home owner that hires licensed professionals to be part of the blame? I guess I'm confused on your comments on this matter. Please explain further. This install was two years ago.
Thanks
I really don't want to start anything here intensedrive but I will give a bit of advice, rip out the pipe and replace it with Logstor or a similar brand, it is pricey to start but I can tell you that I would bet that I have used at least 100,000 feet of it and never a single complaint other than it sucks to handle, as one of the
P and M dealers likes to say, it is the cheapest pipe you will ever buy because it is the only pipe you will ever need to buy.
I do feel badly that you are having issues now but Please understand that this is not the time or way to get your issue resolved, try again to contact Ridgewood, see if they can help first, post some pictures of your install and I'm sure we can all help on this side.
Take some of the blame on yourself for not doing the research before the install, it sounds to me that the boiler and install were sold on price alone, sometimes in life, that is not the best route, there is a market out there for higher end units and installs, along with those higher end packages comes better quality products and services. Would you have bought if the package were going to cost you another $4,000, this is what the higher end folks are up against.
As always I think the best bang for your buck when considering a wood boiler is to not cheap out on the install, use the best pipe and interior components you can possibly afford, changing the boiler later on down the road is a drop in the bucket compared to what you are about to go through.
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Oh please don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you are to blame for the install and it was good that you found the issue but perhaps you should have done a bit more on the research end before buying, as with lots of folks when they started out with a wood boiler including myself, we buy on price and assume that all products are the same, that pipe may have been fine in a nice sandy, dry ditch but without the ends capped and perhaps a cracked casing on the tile, it can be disastrous. Perhaps if the installer had mentioned the possibility of water infiltration, then maybe you would have insisted on the better products in the ground, I'm glad you are here now and we would all like to help you get it straightened out. Have you contacted the installers or the dealer who sold you the pipe?
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I went with z-supply 5 wrap and it's been great. I did have the foresight to seal the pipe once it was hooked up to the back of my stove though. I filled it with silicone caulk. I was worried snow could get inside the back and melt down the pipe. I think I'll do even more wrapping after seeing what happened on intensedrive's install. Thankfully my installer didn't cut the pipe so close to the ground...
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You were worried snow could get in the backside of the BL?
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You were worried snow could get in the backside of the BL?
I worry about everything, prepare for the tiniest problem that could show up, and USUALLY avoid it... ;-)
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Gotcha :thumbup:
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Oh please don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you are to blame for the install and it was good that you found the issue but perhaps you should have done a bit more on the research end before buying, as with lots of folks when they started out with a wood boiler including myself, we buy on price and assume that all products are the same, that pipe may have been fine in a nice sandy, dry ditch but without the ends capped and perhaps a cracked casing on the tile, it can be disastrous. Perhaps if the installer had mentioned the possibility of water infiltration, then maybe you would have insisted on the better products in the ground, I'm glad you are here now and we would all like to help you get it straightened out. Have you contacted the installers or the dealer who sold you the pipe?
And I leaned by experience that all field tile are not waterproof.
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And I leaned by experience that all field tile are not waterproof.
In reality most "field" tile was never meant to be waterproof, we have four different kinds on the farm now awaiting installation.
1: Standard drainage tile usually has slits to let the water in.
2: Sand tile has tiny pin pricks for use in granular soil that may flow right into standard tile with slits, this is especially true when installing into area that is known for quick sand.
3: Muck tile has large holes drilled in it 120 degrees apart, think like the pipe used in septic field systems.
4: Solid tile, like used for insulated underground lines is exactly that, ideally a solid piece of tile with no holes. We use this when going thru a fencerow or a woods to keep tree roots out. Personally we've never had to dig a piece of solid back up because tree roots found there way in. I've never seen a piece of solid that had a defect in it, granted it's bound to happen sooner or later.
When using a wrapped product in a tile it most likely would pay for itself to either run that tile inside a larger solid tile or even PVC, after the extra tile or PVC is bought, then the labor of sliding one into the other, a person might want to look at a foamed product a little closer.