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[AlwaysLearning]

I'm looking for some educated guidance on two of the Heatmaster products. The MF5000E vs the G400.
 I see on the Heatmaster web site that the MF5000E will burn 20 -30% less wood than the MF series. The G(Series) is listed to burn up to 50% less wood. Is it safe to say that the G400 would then use 20 - 30% less wood than the MF5000E?
Are there any user's that have the new G400? Can you share your wood consumption this past season?

What is the difference in cost between these two units?

Any guidance or direction will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Jim

[CountryBoyJohn]

Welcome to the forum Mr. Learning.  I think the first question most of us would like answered is what state you live in.  There are a few states where the conventional style stoves (MF and MFe series) under a certain size are illegal and the Gasser units (G400) are required.  I am also assuming that you have learned the differences between the Conventional Stoves and the Gassification stoves, so I won't get into those details. 

There are two Heatmaster guys on here that are familar with the G400.  It recently underwent some drastic design changes that took the stove from undesireable to a potential serious competitor.  However, not many have been installed or have a long track record yet because it just came out.  The E series on the other hand, has been out for several years and there are numerous happy campers on here.  Myself included.  I ran my first winter last year and I can't wait for next winter. 

The conventional wisdom associated with the wood savings is there is a significant decrease in wood in a MF3,000 to an MF3,000E and it become less significant the larger you go.  I weighed the difference in price and the difference in advantage before I bought mine and figured that the minimal additional cost was worth the comfort of having that extra by-pass to extract additional heat. 

Now, HM has had a limited release on a re-designed E series that has a 3rd by-pass on it that looks really promising.  If you would like to know pricing or additional information about the G400 or the new E series, you'll want to look up Scott7m on this site and Yoderheating.  Hopefully this helps!  Feel free to ask more questions if you have them! 

[AlwaysLearning]

Thanks for the reply...
I'm in Ontario, Canada. I'm not aware of any regulations in my area regarding conventional or gasification.

How much wood did you use this past winter?

[slimjim]

I think you are OK as long as it's not a coal burner, We can't sell our B-L series shaker grate there but the standard B-L with firebrick is allowed

[CountryBoyJohn]

Well, I'll start by describing my load before I tell you how much I burned.  That is important so you can compare apples to apples.  I'm heating 3,000 SFT of a two level house with terrible upstairs insulation.  I mean TERRIBLE.  I'm also heating my 900 SFT garage with heat bleeding off my lines and pumps.  I also heat my hot tub outside and my domestic hot water.  I'm running an MF10,000E and last year I burned some very low quality wood.  I burned 13 cords total.  BUT, only 5 cords were hardwood.  The rest was comprised of rotting wood, soft maple, and poplar.  Eventually I'll be adding an exchanger for my pool and an exchanger for the bonus room above my garage. 

I have 12 cords of serious hardwood on my pile now and 3/4 ton of bituminous coal in my shed.  If we have 2 mild winters, I could see that lasting 2 years.  And keep in mind as well, last winter was NUTS.  I expect my normal usage to be around 6 to 8 cords of good hardwood in a normal winter.  I'm in SW Indiana.

[AlwaysLearning]

John, Looking back at the coldest days last winter. How many times a day would you load the unit, when you were burning the low quality wood?

With regards to firewood preparation. If one could allow 1 full year for seasoning. Can you describe the ideal size for the wood to burn in your unit? Is it better to load a bunch of smaller pieces or fewer larger pieces? What about the length of the wood?

Thanks

[CountryBoyJohn]

Even on the coldest days and the crappiest wood, I was still only loading twice a day.  I'm still oversized a bit, so I would just gauge how much I would need for a 12 hour burn and load it.  If you get your stove sized properly, you should only have to load twice a day max. 

As far as wood prep goes, I cut to 18"-20" lengths.  I keep my split sizes as large as possible, but not so large I have to strain to lift.  I always keep some pieces a bit smaller in case my wife has to load occasionally.  I won't split 10" diameter and smaller.  10"-16" split once, 16"-20" split twice, so on and so forth.  Most of these stoves tend to be more efficient and get longer burn times with larger wood. 

I have been cutting so I get just under 1 year of seasoning.  I start cutting in October/November for the next year.  With the conventional stoves, you can burn green wood if you get in a pinch, like I did last year.  I cut two ash trees over Thanksgiving and I ended up burning them in March/April.  I also threw in some green oak as well.  You'll get a little more smoke, but I never did have any creosote problems that a lot of other guys warn about.