Central Boiler vs Wood Master

[mimilkman1]

The reason for a fan is to bring the unit up to a clean burn faster. A CB will smoke for a lot longer when the unit first kicks on than a WM for the simple reason that it takes longer to get the fire going again. Only a big deal if you have close neighbors.

A unit without a fan will use less electricity and has fewer parts to break. The fan motors are not that expensive however

Also with the CB design a lot more heat will blow out the chimney with a blower fan.

Kyle

 

[tmanmi]

I am satisfied with my CB 6048, second year in operation. Heating 2300 sqft 2 story house with forced air. Only fill once a day unless temp gets below 15 then only a couple of pieces in the morning to get through the day. Haven't had to add water yet. Clean ashes about once a month, just drive loader up close to door and shovel over. It does bellow smoke out the door a bit.

I also have a rental house with a Heatmor 200. Seriously thinking about replacing it with a CB. Firebox and door are small. If you burn any type of wood that is not totally seasoned the "smoke chamber" and stack will plug up resulting poor burn and creosote will run onto the blower motor gumming it up. I think I fixed that problem by getting tenant to burn more seasoned wood but it still needs to be cleaned out every couple of months. Ash auger really isn't that great of a feature. You have to bend over take the cover off and put the auger in, not that fun in cold temps. You also still have to do something with the ashes once they are out. The rubber hoses that go to the door have got to be one of the stupidest things I have ever seen, no shut off. Try replacing those with 160 degree water running through them.

Sorry to ramble on about Heatmor.

 

[Scootermsp]

Second full season with CB 5036. I died and went to heaven. I love everything about it! I love busting my chops doing 12-14 cords a year myself. Between that and 4-5 days a week at the gym, I am in the best shape of my life. The savings in oil pays the entire tuitions of my 2 children. With three females in the house it really gives me a great excuse to go outside and enjoy my property. I NEVER looked at any other makes besides CB. I have at least a half dozen friends (all CB owners) with many years under their belts and all had not one complaint. I have none as well. Besides, my Husqvarna dealer loves locals with CAD!

 

[Blazin]

Also with the CB design a lot more heat will blow out the chimney with a blower fan.

Kyle

Aaah yeah...10-4!!! sooner or later they'll learn bout that!

 

[Scootermsp]

I like my natural draft. No need for any "friggin with the riggin".

 

[builder1101]

my current home made has a blower...i'm not too impressed....alot of heat floats out the chimeny, i got it choked down with some plenum tape just enough to 'fluff' the coals, but it's still isn't to my satisfaction. acutally the unit is so small i disconnected the solenoid so it draws constantly, but have the blower kick on when temp drops too far. Burns less eletric.

solenoid - 5 amp
blower - 0.74 amp



my next projecft is going to have a massive draft (3" tall by 3ft wide, the entire door) that i can control in thirds with pins, and have a 12 or 16" chimney for good draw....

 

[NRwooduser]

I have a taylor, but I would love to be able to afford a garn. Check out this video on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIBj6gLqy8k

 

[Mister Twister]

Pretty cool but I see a couple of drwbacks to the garn. 2000 gallons of water.... Starting a fire each day instead of leaving it burn. I only add wood once a day also and it is not a wheelbarrow full. But I am not heating 5000 sq ft. either. That is great on wood actually.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

Having to maintain massive amounts of water storage is the major drawback to any gasifier IMO...

 

[oneoldbanjo]

I would disagree with that statement. I work alot with stainless and this becomes REAL evident when welding on it as it transfers VERY quickly compared to mild steel. Did your salesman tell you that?

I don't know about welding.....but for the transfer of heat stainless steel is not as good as plain steel. Lots of OWB makers make that claim in their sales pitch - but it is a fact. I have dusted off my heat transfer book I had in college, and the (k) value for heat transfer for water is 0.6, for oils it is 0.1 - 0.21, for stainless steel it is 12.1 to 45, for stainless steel it is 12.1 -45 depending on the type of stainless, for aluminum it is 120-180, and for copper it is 401. The higher the (k) number the faster the material will absorb and transfer heat, and I listed the above numbers just as an example of the different rates to show why stainless, aluminum and copper are used for cooking - and it is also true that the higher the (k) value the better it conducts electricity as well.

The good thing about stainless is that it won't rust - but it is not as good as mild steel at transferring heat from the fire to the water.

 

[TFPace]

but I would love to be able to afford a garn.

NRwooduser, you ain't just kidding! I thought I knew all the stoves being produced in the USA. 'Never heard of this piece. Where do they advertise?

Has anyone looked into the cost of these monsters? Without question, this a slick stove!

 

[builder1101]

NRwooduser, you ain't just kidding! I thought I knew all the stoves being produced in the USA. 'Never heard of this piece. Where do they advertise?

Has anyone looked into the cost of these monsters? Without question, this a slick stove!

small 1500 gallon is around $13000
the monster 4400 gallon i've seen priced at $55,000
a while ago i saw a 2000 tagged at $21,000 on craigslist

that's not including the insulated *building* to put up around it...which a bit more then a shed you can scab around our tiny owb's....



they also custom build to your BTU requirments...basically their theory is to make/store BTU's like a battery...

 

[J.Gordon]

I don't know about welding.....but for the transfer of heat stainless steel is not as good as plain steel. Lots of OWB makers make that claim in their sales pitch - but it is a fact. I have dusted off my heat transfer book I had in college, and the (k) value for heat transfer for water is 0.6, for oils it is 0.1 - 0.21, for stainless steel it is 12.1 to 45, for stainless steel it is 12.1 -45 depending on the type of stainless, for aluminum it is 120-180, and for copper it is 401. The higher the (k) number the faster the material will absorb and transfer heat, and I listed the above numbers just as an example of the different rates to show why stainless, aluminum and copper are used for cooking - and it is also true that the higher the (k) value the better it conducts electricity as well.

The good thing about stainless is that it won't rust - but it is not as good as mild steel at transferring heat from the fire to the water.

Good post! rep coming also.
http://physics.info/conduction/

 

[NRwooduser]

I looked into buying a garn. 1,500 gallon was around 15,000.00. And we all know that it's better to have the stoves in a building. The fire burning as hard as it can go is going to produce the least smoke. The way my weather is here in NC compared to the weather up north where these units are located, I probably wouldn't have to fire that stove but every other day. I love the way the fan sucks the air around the door and everything stays good and clean and no smoking while feeding it. I built my building around my taylor and set everything up so down the road I might be able to buy a garn and hook it right up.

 

[goosegunner]

I looked into buying a garn. 1,500 gallon was around 15,000.00. And we all know that it's better to have the stoves in a building. The fire burning as hard as it can go is going to produce the least smoke. The way my weather is here in NC compared to the weather up north where these units are located, I probably wouldn't have to fire that stove but every other day. I love the way the fan sucks the air around the door and everything stays good and clean and no smoking while feeding it. I built my building around my taylor and set everything up so down the road I might be able to buy a garn and hook it right up.

Have any pictures of your Taylor in the building?

gg

 

[NRwooduser]

GG, here's some pics of the building and taylor.

 

[TFPace]

Taylor modifications

NRwooduser,

It appears that you have changed the outside of your stove from original.

As far as additional water capacity that goosegunner addresses..... did you take in pictures of that modification?

Your building is first class. This will keep the neighbors at bay.

 

[goosegunner]

GG, here's some pics of the building and taylor.

Hey that looks nice! I am thinking about putting mine in a small building like that. It is very windy where mine is located. It would make it nice to load and would have to reduce wood consumption some.

I can see that you are burning hotter with that deflector plate, no creosote.

I also thought if you kept lines under frost line and came up into shed you could go away without worrying about freeze. Maybe even put in a little heater in shed set to 40 degrees.

When you added the extra water capacity did you change your supply and return locations?

Does the aquastat read the temp ok with that extra water above it?

gg

 

[MarylandGuy]

I watched the video for the Garn unit. Do you think the round door get's too hot to touch? :biggrinbounce2:

 

[NRwooduser]

TFPace, I didn't take pics while I was modifying the stove, I wished I had now. I built the building to match the house cause its pretty close 80 feet.

GG, The building is nice when the wind is blowing, I didn't close it in until a couple of months ago. The stove was in the open from Jan,09. I used to fire a carolina water stove 15 years before I built this house while I was living in a mobile home and it was in the open. Got some experience on firing in the rain,wind. Didn't think I was going to have to fire a water stove after building a new tight house,, that was until the propane went over 3.00 a gallon in 07 and two chimney fires from burning a open fireplace. It's hard to stop using a water stove after having one that long. That deflector plate is a plate to deflect the smoke from coming out while feeding it. I hated the smoke coming out and smoking up the front of the stove. There's a plate inside of the firebox just below the tubes to make the fire burn alittle hotter and keep some of the ashes from going down the tubes. When I added the extra water I did change the supply outlets and the over flow tube. I put a water site tube in the back too. I didn't change the returns. The aquastat does great, I think it does better with alot of water over it. It's not setting in the top hottest part of the water. I do think the building helps with the wood consumption. For right now I didn't insulate it, I wanted to see how the building does with out insulation.