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[oz]

Anybody hear of the Northern Stoker brand of OWB? Good bad? Only info I can find on it is the normal sales pitch on their web page, so this would lead me to think that they have not been building that long. Manufacture is about 3 hrs away from me and the nearest P&M deal is 6. Thought I would try and dig up some reviews hear.

Thanks

[slimjim]

Where are you at?

[oz]

slimjim, I live in ontario near a small town called southampton, about 3hrs NW of Toronto. Closest city to me would be Owen Sound

[slimjim]

We must have a dealer closer than 6 hours away, have you spoken with corporate?

[oz]

yep, there is a dealer closer as the crow fly's but they are on manitoulin island, two hr ride across on the ferry, price add's up fast when hauling a trailer. if one drives around the bay and comes in from the north to get on the island looking at about a 7 hr drive.

[slimjim]

We can direct ship of course, does he have a unit there for you to see, that's a pretty big ticket item, perhaps a road trip to see one in action would be worthwhile.

[oz]

have not spoken to him in person, just through email but if i decied to go through and buy will ask if he has one in operation and have a look for sure. there is a northern stoker dealer with in half hr drive of me, this is why i asked about them, seem like a fairly heavy duty unit from web page but no real info on them other than their sales pitch. am for sure leaning towards the P&M though seems to be have been around for some time, this says alot as from what i read some of these manufactures are here today gone tomorow.

[fryedaddy]

I bought an off brand compared to the brands people have on this site.

From my prospective I would ask to visit the facility they produce these from. I would follow up with people who have bought this stove.
Nothing speaks more of a company than people who have ran their's for several years. Don't believe all that is posted on the
internet, either way, good or bad. Looks like they are a fairly new company.

Areas to research: 1. Their site states they use 3/8" material is certain places but doesn't tell what is used elsewhere.
                              2. They state the "Heat Output" in sqft, what is the actual output?
                              3. What are the 10" augers in their horizonal flues made of, seams like if would rust and get stuck over time, just my thoughts.
                              4. Can the 10" augers be accessed?

[racnruss]

Good points Fryedaddy.

I looked at their site out of curiosity.  Based on the empty weight they are heavily built.  I like the 10" tube and auger idea.  Its a smoke bypass to reclaim the heat off the exhaust, much like other brands except they are using round instead of square.  The 10" auger makes sense, but you better keep them freed up when burning green wood, hate to get them so stuck that they wouldn't come out.

The big one has a 31"x31" door, I like that.

no prices or sales in the US yet as far as I can tell.

[slimjim]

Glad you asked Fryedaddy, Our factory is 40,000 square feet in Pinney Manitoba, the phone # for Robert Gross is available to anyone who is seriosly interested in our product lines for a factory tour, 3/8 material will be used in high stress areas, the majority of the boiler is 1/4 inch plate, mild steel, the heat output if I remember correctly was 280,000 BTU at Intertech, keeping in mind we set the feed rate for low burn #'s, 4 tests are run on the unit, let me see if I can remember the sequince, 100% set by us 15% of max burn and then I think 25 and 45% burn to pass EPA requirements. Anybody can pass at 100% burn, it's the 15% burn that kills us all. we ran 2 sets of tests, one for dry @ less than 25% moisture content wood, our original test was at 14% and then we were told by EPA that they needed an additional test for green wood above 40% moisture, thats the test results on program partners. these boilers can certainly do far more than the #'s given in the program partners results but it would be very hard to make the same particulate #'s at 15% therefor most manufacturers cut the boilers back for good #'s, I have several of these units in the northeast on well over 10,000 square feet and have one in northern Vt that feeds a 750,000 BTU heat exchanger in a firewood Kiln and the boiler cycles at 205 degrees with a 1 degree differential. Not sure about 10" auger, there is a 4" auger tube with a 3" auger feeding the system, they are all constructed of mild steel and are modular (they can be removed and replaced with original sizing or stepped up in size for  larger heat loads, if you are describing the horizontal firetubes, again they are mild steel 2" and are easily accesible from both ends, Oh and Portage and Main has been in business since 1973, we never have been the biggest but we as a company certainly believe we are___ ____ ' Rancuss your post happened while I was typing my comment, where are you guys seeing 10" tubes, we are talking about the wood chip boiler, the Envir 500 are we not.

[Crow]

Lol! Slim must have had a long day!!
Pretty sure they are talking about a little smaller heat load Richard but that's good info........and a lot of typing.
Sorry.......couldn't resist.

[racnruss]

I'm confused,  I looked at the Northern Stoker's website at their standard wood boiler.  The "augers" are just in the exhaust to make the smoke swirl through the exhaust pipe.

Other "augers" would be used like on a woodchip boiler.  I didn't know what else to call them.

[slimjim]

Turbulators

[racnruss]

yep, turbulators, thanks.