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[Brokenaxe]

Hello looking at the bl28-40 but my concern is what I am reading here about not enough heat load,heating well insulated 1350sqr ft single floor house with Infloor heat also small 900sqr ft garage, looking to burn mostly jackpine with some hard wood mixed in.  New to the site lots of good info here

[jefito]

Brokenaxe,  we'll come aboard, I have a 34/44 in service for 2 months, live in the south west, our forests are a majority of different types of pine, not much hardwood. My first month I burned all pine, even seasoned it produced a
A lot of cresote. Ive found some oak and other hardwoods, burning that for the last week to burn off the cresote. For the heat load (keeping the fire going hot and long. Now that the days are warmer, I just open a window, close the door, thermostat calls for heat. Fire stays hot.
I love this portage and main 34/44. Its a solid unit. good luck

[Coyote556]

jefito, what kind of burn times are you getting out of the 34/44?  How much are you heating with it?  I am considering that model.  Thanks

[Sloppy_Snood]

jefito, what kind of burn times are you getting out of the 34/44?  How much are you heating with it?  I am considering that model.  Thanks

I am also interested in hearing what kind of burn times the BL 3444 is achieving and with what size load and wood species.  Thanks BL 3444 owners. 

[Coyote556]

I am also wondering what kind of smoke amounts you are seeing out of the BL series.

[jefito]

My house is  2 story's vaulted ceilings,crappy windows in a beautiful  but very windy! Mountain valley. Its 4000 sq ft baseboard heat both floors. The 34/44 with about a third full of well seasoned pine gave me about a 8 to 10 hour burn. house kept at 77 f. Bad thing about pine besides the cresote is the lack of a coal bed at the end of the burn cycle. Though the refractory brick stays so hot that the next load fires right up, then in 10 / 15 minutes I'm back to 193. A week ago I located a some dead oak been harvesting, Four to six inch diameter so its small. I'll put 6 to 8 pieces of oak  about 24 to 30 inches long.getting around 8 hours of burn time. Pine also produces lots of ash. The BL is rock solid, I'm a first time owner, but burned wood all my life. Hope this helps.

[jefito]

Coyote, wow this varies on initial start up the first 10 minutes its roaring, looks like a smoke stack, white bluish smoke then as it continues to to burn  hotter smokes gets darker for bout another 5 minutes then it basically gasifies. barely visible smoke if any, just a heat signature. Then as it burns down due to lack of fire wood some light smoke is visible. When  I see that I'll go stir up the pile and then its back to no smoke

[Coyote556]

How hard is it to clean the creosote out of the heat exchanger?  Thanks for the help!

[jefito]

I have followed slimjims advise on small hot fires. Sunday and Wednesday I empty ashes and clean the  heat exchanger, its stays fairly clean so run the tool 3 or 4 passes each side and its just powder. Now that I'm using oak the creosote in  the fire chamber is  burning offf and the heat exchanger  looks cleaner but it was always  dry with pine.

[slimjim]

Wow, thanks for the great testimonial Jefito, I guess I don't have to say a thing.

[Brokenaxe]

Thanks for all the good info, I am leaning a little further to the 28-40 really like the design like that it can be opened up if need be (for repairs) 

[fryedaddy]

I really like this design, glad I'm not buying now but wish I would have known about this setup when I was buying.

[jefito]

No slim all the thanks go to you, you are a true leader/lifesaver. I would be lost on my own. I haven't had to ask for help yet, mainly because most of my questions have already been covered /answered by you. Appreciate all you do!   THANK YOU!!!!!

[Brokenaxe]

One of the main reasons I am looking into getting a outdoor furnace was to get some good use out of all this jackpine ,not sure now a lot of negatives on burning it 

[Sloppy_Snood]

Though the refractory brick stays so hot that the next load fires right up, then in 10 / 15 minutes I'm back to 193. A week ago I located a some dead oak been harvesting, Four to six inch diameter so its small. I'll put 6 to 8 pieces of oak  about 24 to 30 inches long.getting around 8 hours of burn time.

jefito - What temperatures do you have your Johnson aquastat set on?  What is your temperature differential from cycle off to cycle on?  Thanks.