Hot blast enemy or friend

[Cpeder]

Installed hot blast last year on mostly coal. Wasn't bad but I have way to much fire wood so I got to splitting wood shed building.. The the trouble started. Either to got or not hot enough 4 hour burns house at 78... House temp was a bit hot for my liking but I felt with it. Problem started with way to much creosote in less then a month. Wood is 15% moisture. Installed a BD now I get even fires but stack temps are 250 with 350 face temp on stove. Not sure if this is my friend or sell the enemy and got to a kuuma. House is new 2500sqft very very air tight. No draft blower installed.

 

[brenndatomu]

sell the enemy and got to a kuuma

Ding ding ding ding WINNER!

 

[Cpeder]

Should have found this site sooner I must say....

 

[brenndatomu]

Yeah, a lot of that goin around. Better late than never...FWIW the Kuumas are REALLY well liked among the owners. I'd have one if the money was there for it...

 

[newyorker]

i love my caddy but if i had double the money i would of bought the kuuma

 

[Cpeder]

Agreed!! My propane furnace is pretty efficient so with no wood or coal I'd be looking at about $1ooo max over winter in propane. Makes the return on my money for the kuuma about 5years. I have plenty of wood to fuel the hot blast wood waster just tired of 4-5 hour burns like everyone else. Wood shed after paint. Loaded with wood at the moment

 

[brenndatomu]

I'd be looking at about $1ooo max over winter in propane. Makes the return on my money for the kuuma about 5years.

Not bad on something that will last ya 20-30 years...thumbing your nose at the propain man...priceless!

Nice stack of cookies there, hope you are burning something bigger than those...

 

[chucker]

I have had my hot blast for three winters now, and find burning good dry to well seasoned oak will heat my living/work space for 8 to 12 solid hours @-10 with an equal wind...... no complaints for free!!

 

[blades]

Hot blast- bottom of uss line- yep about a 4hr useable heat cycle, gobbles wood like a 12" chipper, auto over fire damper-as I refer to it- yep baro on it no help except to make more creosote. That all said it did cut my heating cost by 40% for the one season I used it. Never could trust it due to the auto matic overfire issue ( that dang damper will stick wide open fiddled with I don't know how many times to no avail) I really need to pull it out of basement and sell it or convert it to driving a kiln for my wood to feed my NC30 which heats my place by its self 98% of the season. when I was using it always had a nagging thought that the house woudn't be there when I got back. The real issue is that it is a unit designed to burn coal , wood has a completely different burn sequence - for wood it is better than an open fire place but that ain't saying much.

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

I used my vogelzang furnace for 2 years before i decided i could never keep up with the wood supply to keep it going. A cord every 2 weeks, it just eats it. I ended up buying a wood stove and havent used the furnace since. Stove heats better, burns longer and uses less wood by far. Now i just need to get the furnace back out of the basement somehow and sell it as i don't see me ever using it again. Had i of found this site first i wouldnt of made the mistake of buying it.

 

[Cpeder]

No the cookies were a project of the wife's. Waste of good white oak in my opinion. But happy wife happy life, Hence the thought of changing out the stove for another. House is to cold at 65 she says.... I also like the yukon big jack being I live close to the coal region in pa, so the option is nice. Haven't done much reading on them tho.

 

[johnnylabguy]

I have a hot blast 1557m and I'm right there with you on the short burns. It does heat the house ok but there are many better options out there. A few years back when I was loaded with Osage orange it worked great with other woods mixed in. Then I would get 8 hr burns with coals up to 16 hrs. Ahhh those were the days! The kuuma would be great but I cannot get over the startup cost either yet. Drolets are interesting middle ground cost vs quality too.

 

[brenndatomu]

I also like the yukon big jack being I live close to the coal region in pa, so the option is nice. Haven't done much reading on them tho.

I had A BJ, if you are gonna burn coal, then your HB will do it as well as a BJ. Now, that said, the BJs are built like tanks and Yukon is a great company to deal with, but if you are burning wood, then there are more efficient/cleaner burning wood furnaces out there.

 

[laynes69]

We had a 1500 hotblast by usstove. It was 20+ years old when I retired and replaced it. There's no doubt it could heat well, but that came at a cost. If I wanted a solid overnight burn on a cold night, I saved rounds 6" to 10" in diameter to stuff the thing to the baffle. Split wood didn't burn too long. I always would load as late as possible to have coals in the morning. Many times I would oversleep or not set an alarm to load and it would be stone cold in the morning. I would try to burn hot, but every other month at times I could remove 1/2 a 5 gallon bucket or more of creosote. I didn't realize how much wood we were burning until we got our new furnace, 8 to 10 cord a year. Also because the furnace would burn out if I tried to get sleep, the LP furnace would be running in the morning to keep the house at 68. So all that wood plus 200 gallons a year in LP. If the stupid door damper would open in the night, I would wake to a nice hot paint smell and a 80 degree house. Did it heat well .....yes, do I miss it...no.

 

[Cpeder]

Well I'm new to this I must say. I've read a lot about over firing with the HB so I'm a bit nervous to put to much wood in. This is the second season for the chimney I built this house a year an a half ago. I personally built the house from a-z. The chimney is 8" 32 feet masonry from the basement up. The baro really helped even out the fire only put it in two nights ago. So really at what point or how much creosote is getting dangerous? I looked in yesterday and have maybe 1/16 of dry fluffy stuff. Assuming any is not good. Again I am probably way overly concerned just trying to build the confidence in burning all night or trying to. Have roughly 30 cord in logs stacked ready to cut and split so of course I want to use my "free" fuel.

 

[laynes69]

Dry fluffy stuff is okay, hard glaze is not. Just keep an eye on things. If it exceeds 1/4", I would sweep. Burning good hot fires will keep things orderly in the chimney.

 

[Aaron Frasher]

I have had a hotblast for 6 years. If you burn coal in it you had better plain on buying new shaker grates for it. i burnt 2 sets out of mine. I have also had to replace the whole back of mine. you might also want to build a bigger wood shed. LOL I burnt 9 truck loads of wood in mine last year. If I had it to do over I would have never bought it & would not recommend them to anybody just my 2 cents.

 

[Cpeder]

I've seen the drolet tundra mentioned a bit. Anyone have info on them? Complaints, success, quality vs cost? I do not want to make the same mistake twice!!

 

[brenndatomu]

Tundra on its worst day still about 100% better than a HB on its best day! (IMO, I don't have one)

 

[aokpops]

I never like the twin blower .