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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Hot water heating in Spring and Summer months?

« on: March 09, 2013, 11:58:04 AM »

I must say I'm pleased with my unit for heating the house this Winter. It has paid for itself in less then 3 months as we have seen our electric bill go from $1700.00+/- a month to about $200.00 a month. Take that savings x 4 Winter months and we actually made money on the install. However, with warmer weather on the rise I'm wondering how often do you all fire your boilers to heat the hot water for the house. I know on days when we have 65 degree weather my boiler will jump to over 200 degrees if I don't keep an eye on it. I'd like to hear what you all do to keep that golden 180 in the Spring and Summer months when we are not heating the house.

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: She's lit!!!

« on: January 13, 2013, 10:22:18 AM »

This is my 1st yr with a owb and I do like it but my house was also made efficient before getting the stove. I have my own woods so the free wood is nice but if I can stand on the halfway mark as far as getting a owb. It is another thing to rush home from work and babysit that's for sure instead of just letting the propane furnace do its own thing. Im not lazy but I think I like mine 50% out of 100 just because my home is so efficient. It really is a toss up you will enjoy it and I find myself out smellimg smoke and watching the fire burn. Must be a guy thing. Good luck

Victor6deep: According to my wife it is a guy thing. Our unit is in the bottom of our Carriage house. I find myself sometimes just sitting in there for hours watching the fire dance in the firebox. I even find myself cleaning the firebox on days I don't have to just to have something to do other then cut wood. You will enjoy your OWB and once you learn how it runs and what you can and can't do as far as burn time you will be glad you switched over to wood.

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: She's lit!!!

« on: January 08, 2013, 05:02:03 AM »

Congratulations! You will enjoy the heat on the coldest days/nights. Our biggest issue now is having to open a window in the house just to help with the balance as we have never been this warm. We love our unit and I'm sure you will as well.

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Split logs or just regular round logs???

« on: January 07, 2013, 08:16:46 PM »

Thanks for the input. I currently use 24" long logs and my box will take a 32" log. I split the trunk and larger parts of the tree but do not split off the limbs and such. I do kind of keep it light as my wife would have to go load the stove on the rare event I have a gout flair up and I don't want her lifting a tree trunk to load in the stove. Alos my door is only about 14"x18" so big round logs want fit anyway. I have been playing with the load and have used more whole logs on the bottom and split on the top of the load for over night. I've also found if I cut my blower off at night before I go to bed my water temp is stable and use the natureal draft on the front door of my stove. The stack temp stays about 400 degrees and I still have wood and 175/180 degree water in the morning. I use the blower during the day as I can add a few sticks of wood if needed. I found the blower does not have a low end cut off so it my water is at 185 when the blower cuts on and there is not enough fuel in the firebox it will just keep blowing air into the box which cools the firebox and then the water. Maybe I'm wrong but since I turned it off at night we have had hot water for showers and the house is a comfortable 73 degrees and it was 22 lastnight here.

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Split logs or just regular round logs???

« on: January 07, 2013, 04:10:07 PM »

Was just wondering if any one here had any thoughts on the difference between splitting logs or just cutting them to lenght for the firebox? Does one seem to burn better in certain stoves or what? Just a question. Thanks.

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Got it figured out...thanks for your help

« on: December 27, 2012, 12:38:32 PM »

Just wanted to let eveyone on here know that your thoughts and ideas were most helpful. We did have a sever draft issue with the stove. My chimney guy came out today and opened up from a 6" flue to an 8" flue cleaned the chimney and all that. Got the cresote factory gone and also found my blower had a homemade draft control on the back...and old coffee can lid with a bold attatched that was closed. I had no idea it was there as it is between the wall of the stove on the back of the blower. Opened it up and it was like a blast furnace. Wish I'd known the blasted thing was there from day one would have saved me a chimney cleaning but the 8" flue tile was needed. I'll keep you all posted as to how the heating is going got to give the flue cement a 24 hour dry time should be back up and running tomrrow afternoon. Thanks for all your ideas and suggestions.

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Hardy / Re: Low temp/water indicator light ?

« on: December 23, 2012, 09:03:45 PM »

Brad I understand your frustration. I too have a new OWF that is different from any on this site. I've been learning what it can and cannot do. The guys here are most helpful with suggestions and ideas. We've got an 1880's 2 story Victorian that we heat on the lower level with the stove. It's a learning process. Good luck with yours.

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Water temp dropping by 40 degrees????

« on: December 23, 2012, 11:53:11 AM »

pex pipe sorry forgot to add that information.

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Water temp dropping by 40 degrees????

« on: December 23, 2012, 11:51:06 AM »

The lines are buried 3 ft deep in a trench with poly-foam inulation and in a corrigated pipe. I just checked and cut off the system at 12:30 in the house and at 1:30 it was back up to 170. As for the draft issue the installer condensed my flue from an 8" with a 90 degree elbow to the 6" flue tile in the wall. The chimney is only about 6 to maybe 7" so it is not big enough for the draft of the stove according to mfg. We may have to run an 8" metal flue thru the floor into the loft and out the roof a striaght stack since the chimney is not working correctly. I can't understand the heat loss myself. It has worked fine the past 3 weeks since installation and now that it's colder here it will not come up to temp even burning the wood in the box. The other day I loaded 3 times and could only reach 140 with the unit on. I figure if I've got 180 on the dial and it runs to the exchanger and back to the stove maybe 10/15 degree change but it's coming back to hot water....Somethings amiss here.

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Water temp dropping by 40 degrees????

« on: December 23, 2012, 10:15:42 AM »

I have determined there is a draft issue my guys is coming Wednesday told me to open the draft all the way and let it burn. So, this morning at 6am my house is at 68 degrees. It's cold in here it was 22 outside. Great go to stove and water temp is at 120 with glowing coals in the box. I loaded a load of red/white oak in the stove and cut off the thermostat in the house. (My heatpump kicked in) I left for church with the boiler system off and a fire in the firebox. Came home from church at about 11am did the early service and my water temp was 185....great we got hot water now!!!! In less then an hour my water temp is back down to 140 with a fire in the box..... Someone please tell me what this issue might be. Thanks jack1243

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Water Temp not moving up?

« on: December 21, 2012, 07:07:21 PM »

We are heating about 1800sqft with one 98,300 btu exchanger this model is designed to heat up to 2500sqft. I have not lost any heat in the house its still 72 but its not as warm. I've shut everything down and the temp in the stove went up 10 degrees in less then an hour. It's been cooler here today with windchills in the 20's and tonight in the teens. I just can't figure out why such an amount of water does not hold its heat more then an hour or so. I've read post where folks get 12 hour burns from one load... If I'm burning 12 hours I'm also going to load about 2 times. I know it's a learning process but today I feel plumb defeated by this stainless steel monster in my Carriage house. It's clean, and no clogs just seems like the water is not getting hot fast enough. It went from 45 to 150 the first day I fired it in about 4 hours it went from 160 at 530 this a.m. to 140 in about 45 minutes and its struggled to get to 160 once I cut the inside heat off to let it catch up....

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Water Temp not moving up?

« on: December 21, 2012, 06:18:52 PM »

Fryedaddy? Where are you talking about putting a timer? If there was a way to keep the blower off during the night and just use the manual draft it might solve the issue of cooler water in the mornings. I do have a manual switch to cut it off with do you think I should get it to 190/180 and cut the blower switch off and let it draft naturally with the door dampers open about 1/4-1/2 way?? Or any one can give some input on this but the timer thing peaked my interest.

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Water Temp not moving up?

« on: December 21, 2012, 06:11:20 PM »

The firebox is about 3 foot deep by 2 1/2 high by about 2 and1/2 wide give or take. I can take up to a 36" log in length according to the manual. It's standard on the stove. I tried HICKS today but it was after 4 they were closed for the weekend and the holiday. I've cut the heat in the house down some to see if it will catch up with the temp. My chimney guy gave me a science lesson on Barometic pressure today. Seems I need to run the dampers wide open on cold cloudy days I did pull the pipe off today and open the doors and windows in the Carriage House the pipe was not clogged but there was a pretty good 1/2" build up of soot and cresote all the way to the chimeny flue. I'm just trying to figure out the most efficent way to run this thing and today has not been my day! I had to cut my hotwater heater back on because the water was not hot enough to wash dishes or do anything. Frustrated is not the word right now.

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General Outdoor Furnace Discussion / Re: Water Temp not moving up?

« on: December 21, 2012, 08:25:20 AM »

This stove is straight from HICKS... there is a dial for the water temp, a sight glass for water level, and a honewell thermostat that controls a blower on the front of the stove with a pipe and elbow blowing into the bottom of the firebox under the door. I thought once it got hot it should stay hot for a few hours even with the pump pumping water to the heatexchanger. This thing last night it never moved off 140 til about 8pm then by 12am it was at 190 blower off and good amount of wood in the box. This morning at 530am chunks of wood left about the size of my fist and hot coals water temp was at 160 raked the coals level added more wood and now at 1030am temp is at 140. How can water get cooler with a fire in the box. Yesterday, I got so peed off I opened the dampers on the door wide open and said, "You'll heat or blow up!" it got to 190. but took 6 hours. I feel like I'm burning/wasting wood with this thing....don't know if its a draft problem, chimney clog, or what.

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Site Suggestions / Re: Hicks Waterstove

« on: December 20, 2012, 09:43:38 PM »

My Hicks is a #1 with the box on the right side and center side door load 500 gallon. It is a "08" model but I stole it from and Esate sale for about $2k including the heat exchanger in my duct work. Had my Uncle dig a 2'x3' deep trench for free and ran the pipes and electric myself plus an extra empty line just in case I needed on. I've got maybe $3k in the entire set up. I've got to get a new brush and a 1/2 moon scraper it came with some kinda homemade contraption to clean the tubes but they looked like they had never been cleaned when I got it. It took me about 3 days of steady hot fire to get the gunk loose enough to scrap it out of the clean out box and the flue tubes. I wonder if that is still some of the issue with the draft on it because I've not brushed the tubes with the 4" brush.... I'm happy so far with the stove. It does seem to eat more wood then others on the forum but I've fired it hot to melt the buildup that it came with. I figure we'll  burn about a cord a month and here that is $160.00 stacked/delivered... much cheaper then $1700.00 per month to Duke Power last winter with electric heatpump.