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[browncty]

Hi everyone, I new to this site as a user, I've been here as a visitor in the past. I purchased my American Royal Wood Boiler 7400B last year and this my season using it. The boiler is manufactured by American Royal in Plymouth, Wisconsin. I have posted a photo of my stove for everyone and will post more photos of it sometime in the future. Here are the specs from the manufacturer.

Model 07400B

Fire Box 56X72X94

500,000 BTUs

Holds 400 Gallons of water

Fire Box Door 24" x 32"

Can take a 56" Long

Has a ash pan and shaker for ashes

We have it hooked up to our forced air furnace with a Natural Gas Backup. Gas furnace is turned off. We have infloor heat in basement and the garage. In the future I plan to hook it up to my 30'x40' pole shed to heat it. This was installed as part of house moving project. Its a traditional wood boiler and it heats our 1993 home with 2"x 6" walls very well. All winter long it was 73-75 degrees in the house and the garage stayed around 65-69 degrees.

I looked at lots of manufacturers and the prices they charge for the boiler only was pretty expensive for what they were selling. I got my boiler for $6,200. That's only the boiler not the installation parts. With installation parts and a person I paid to install it I have maybe around $9,000 into it. Which I didn't think was that bad to heat my 3,600 square foot home and the garage and my hot water. After this winter I think I made the right choice. I also have access to free wood which makes the source of heat free except for time and chainsaw use. I don't consider my time in the equation because its great exercise and I get to be outdoors.

American Royal doesn't have dealers so you deal directly with the company which is what I would recommend in order to get the best price. Dealers will just jack up the cost with their markup. I looked at all the major brands and went with American Royal as it is very well built and I liked the stainless steel firebox, ash pan with shaker. It has a very large firebox and you can fill it up and go for over 24 hours burning any type of firewood. If you use scrap lumber or pallets it will not last as long.

My family loves the boiler and feel like they can turn up the thermostat without feeling bad or like a criminal. I learned a lot about boilers as I was involved with the installation and purchasing the installation parts. Learned a ton and want to share it.

[racnruss]

Nice review and glad you are enjoying the boiler.  Free wood is NICE!  Where is your photo?

[browncty]

Photo is in my profile album, but here's it post on the thread.

[slimjim]

  Congratulations on your purchase, I do however take a bit of offense to the comment about (dealers jacking up the price) I don't even sell boilers for the most part but there are a lot of good dealers out there that provide a very valuable service for that jacking up the price fee, it costs money to provide those services and there are a lot of folks on here that I think would agree, There are some very good dealers on this site, I sincerely hope that they don't feel the same way as I do about your comments as you may have to rely on American Royal period.

[browncty]

I never intended to offend someone and I understand their are people out there that need that assistance from a dealer to purchase a OWB, its just like there are people who need help buy a computer. I was stating this from by experience that didn't think I need to work a dealer and that I had skilled people to help me install my stove. I also understand that people may not get into the technical side of the process like did and will not be involved in the process of installation. My experience in looking for a boiler the dealers I spoke with were as helpful as a milk cow that will not give milk. When it comes to purchasing an OWB people need to evaluate how they purchase one and which brand on their own. Its like buying a car you need to do your homework to see what fits your needs. Sorry if I offend some of you I was speaking from my mind and experience. 

[slimjim]

Apology accepted, I'm a bit more thin skinned than some but I do have my reasons, you WILL find that the dealers on this site spend an awful lot of time helping people out when there are questions that the manufacturers can't or won't answer, WELCOME TO THE FORUM!!!!!!

[Sloppy_Snood]

Apology accepted, I'm a bit more thin skinned than some but I do have my reasons, you WILL find that the dealers on this site spend an awful lot of time helping people out when there are questions that the manufacturers can't or won't answer, WELCOME TO THE FORUM!!!!!!

Nevermind slimjim  .... he's an absolutely great guy but I think he might just be "manstruating" this week.    He will return to his normal, wonderful self on his next "off cycle." 

(love ya slimjim! )

[slimjim]

HUGS!!

[Sprinter]

Where a outs you located? And how many cords have you gone thru so far. We have a Brown City down the road here in MIchigan.  What did you use for underground lines and any pics of your manifolds and distribution piping?

[browncty]

I'm located in Amery, Wisconsin an hour North of the Twin Cities. Not sure exactly how much wood I have gone through so far. Not all my wood was was stacked a large portion of it was thrown into a pile. When I first started up the stove I started with using my construction scrap for the first week along with a little wood. I also received some wood from some people so I used that first, one person gave me about just over 1 cord of pine and it lasted me about a 1 and 1/2. If I were to guess we figured that I had maybe 15-16 cord of wood and I have may 3-5 left, but can't tell its buried under 3ft if snow. My underground lines are insulated in corrugated pipe like the train tile pipe without the holes. The lines are not foamed in, but wrapped in insulation, it works very well. My boiler is 54 foot from the house. Inside the lines go another 50+ft to the mechanical room. I will take some new photos of the manifolds and the system to share with everyone on Sunday after church. I have some I took after we installed but we made some modifications that separated the garage and the basement floor.  I have two manifolds one for the basement and one for the garage. I used stainless steel manifolds which I really like and they work great. The larger one I purchased at Mendards and the other one I purchased on Ebay.