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[MyLeakyWoodDoctor]

Hey,

I hashed my heating system out with a Kerr Controls heating specialist and decided to plumb my house just as if I was going to install a oil fired hot water heating system!

Only difference was, I put a very very small (5"x10"x4" roughly) copper flat plate heat exchanger right where that oil furnace should have been.  One side of my highly efficient heat exchanger is a closed system at 12 lbs pressure I believe and the other side of my heat exchanger is my open Wood Doctor system!

See attached Picture - 1" copper lines in and out

I have absolutely no problems heating the basement, where my Wood Doctor lines come in, as well as the 1st and 2nd floors of my house!

[willieG]

if you allready have perfectly good boiler system and you want to seitchto an OWB, you did exactly what you ahould have
just change the way you heat the water..not the way you move it

[esofarm]

Thats the way I have mine.. going on my 6th winter.  atmospheric (open) loop outside with the wood furnace and 12 psi closed loop inside.  When I installed my system, i tied it into the existing oil fired boiler as another circuit.  I don't run antifreeze, and I have not had any corrosion issues with my regular steel unit using just water.

[willieG]

stainless steel fireboxes are a dealer ploy..they will and do rust most often only the fire box is stainless and the outer shell is mild steel
put a piece of stainless on a table..throw a cup of water on it...then lay a piece of steell on top of it...in the morning you will have rust on the stainless (just like what the inside of your stove would look like
the stainless is now contaminated ans will continue to react with the rust and erode

dont belive me...go to a welding shop and you will see...most times stainless is not even allowed to be welded in the same room as plain steel..and to wire brush staniless you have to use a stainless wire brush so as not to contaminate the metal

apart from that when the dealers started using stainless they used even thinner material

3 to 5 years for a rust through probably is not "out of the norm" and longer periods is

[MyLeakyWoodDoctor]

Another eye opener is stagnate water pockets!

You have to maintain circulation in your open system all the time to prevent pockets of stagnate water from forming.  Inside these pockets corrosive electrolytic loops can activate right on the metal plating.  These tiny corrosive reactions are virtually isolated from any boiler treatment or anodes you may have installed and if not broken by some level of circulation can eat a neat little hole straight threw the plate.

Do any of these dealers tell you that in the off season (summer) you still have to maintain circulation in your boiler and lines?

Am I right here or what!

[ckbetz]

Stainless also has a tendency to crack from the heat cycles of an OWB, and has a lower heat transfer rate.  Boiler steel has worked for many years and has superior heat transfer. 

[eco-extend]

i do not agree on that we use 409 stainless in our stoves and have not yet seen one in 13 years qw have used it. ya there is very little difference from stainless to mild steel heat transfer.

[willieG]

i will agree that the stove builders who have upgraded to the better stainless have better luck but i still don't see an advantage unless your whole stove is made from this..if your whole stove is not made of stainless (the ones i have seen in my area are only the firebox) then what is the advantage.? stainless must meet mild steel somewhere ? and in fact (i am certainly not sure of all stoves) but i have repaired one that was an outer water jacket of 1/8 mild steel and 3/16 stainless fire box , and it was the fire box that leaked....certainly not worth (again in my opinion) the price of 7 or 8 grand

i am sure there are much better built stoves out there, if you are looking for one, ask a LOT of questions

i dont have an opinion on whos stove is better than whos as i have never (nor will i) take the time to investigate all models and come up with an educated opinion.

i just give my own opinions from my own experiences and in my ten years of playing around with this stuff (building my own mild steel OWB and fixing a couple and helping install a few...so far i see no real advantage of stainless....... perhaps there is and someone with a metelergist background can explain it

[ckbetz]

Central Boiler actually sells stainless stoves as an option because people think it's superior.  Oops, it looks like they quit selling stainless stoves completely.  But I do believe they used 409 Stainless when they did.  Here's their take on it (obviously a biased one but information nonetheless).

http://www.centralboiler.com/stainless.html

[MyLeakyWoodDoctor]

Although my furnace is a Wood Doctor and warrantied exclusively by Wood Doctor, I believe it is actually a Global Hydronics furnace repackaged and resold by Wood Doctor as their product!

So, there you go Global Hydronics!