I love my OWB

[Grandriverrat]

This is my second season using my OWB and I am loving it! (central boiler 5036) I heated 24/7 for several years with a fireplace insert and it did work but was alot of work and for those of you who heat primarily with an insert you know what I am talking about. I go outside when I get home from work around 7 pm. I open the door to (puff the majic dragon) fill with wood,let the flames shoot above 18 inches above the 8 ft stack, let come up to temperature and then shut the door. While this is going on I have a couple of cold ones, split, stack , and play with wood, smiling all the time. I live in Michigan and it does get cold here from time to time but I can tell you that there have been less than 6 days this year where I have had to put wood in this thing more than one a day. I heat a 1500 sq/ft/ home.
I burn ash, red oak, hard maple, and hickory. I am sorry I have had a couple of those cold ones before I started this thread so I am rambling! Chreers to all of my fellow wood burners however you do it. It is all good!

 

[Gavman]

Sounds awesome, where's the pics:msp_rolleyes:


Right now as we speak, I have beans, corn and three potatoes on the PE wood stove, glass of wine in hand, flipping between the WTF pic thread and this one and a few other websites, two dogs at my feet, happy wife and happy kids.... Cheers


Wood heat is the best

 

[OH_Varmntr]

This is my first year burning with an OWB. Central Boiler 6048 here.

Load it once a day and forget about it! That alone is worth the price of having one.

 

[mybowtie]

4th yr with my OWB, and lovin it. Same 1/4 tank of fuel....

 

[mtfallsmikey]

Got the best of both worlds here..I use the woodstove in the house in the evenings/weekends to keep some of the load off my OWB, since I'm heating both the garage/house with it. Prolly saved at least a cord of wood so far this winter. I'm in my 5th winter with mine, this marks the year that the whole OWB/house/garage setup has paid for itself from saving to have to buy fuel oil.

 

[AIM]

Gotta love em!

 

[Tree Feller]

I just bought one myself, should be here middle of next week!! i've got all my piping run waiting on the stove. I've heated with a wood stove for 3 years and can't wait to get my OWB!!!! I'll update next week!

 

[Grandriverrat]

What I really love is that I don't believe I am using any more wood with this unit than I did with my fireplace insert. Also this unit is not as tempermental about what kind wood I put into it. It will burn anything! It really is fun to play with . When you burn the right kind of wood (seasoned) there is hardly any smoke when this unit is crankin. Very efficient.

 

[jh35]

My 1st year with an OWB (Heatmor 200). I am very happy I pulled the trigger.

 

[jrider]

I am in my 2nd full year with my OWB and couldn't be happier. I spent one winter trying to offset my oil bill with the fireplace and decided that would never happen again. After much research, I went the the Portage and Main Optimizer 250 (gasser). Went the gasser route due to proximity to neighbors. Talk about little to no smoke - one nervous neighbor came over and asked when I was going to fire it up 2 weeks after I got it. He was very happy to hear it had already been running for 2 weeks.

 

[Roger2561]

This is my second year with the CB E-Classic 1400 (State regs says I have to buy the EPA level 2 compliant unit) and I couldn't be happier. I fill it to approx. 1/2 to 2/3's full, depending how cold it gets, at 5:00am and again around 5:00/5:30pm in the evening. I'm heating 3000sqft and DHW. The house is an 1840's farmhouse. I spent some dollars upgrading the insulation (made a huge difference). If I continue burning at the rate I am, I will burn approximately 6 1/2 to 7 cord. If had heated my house the past 2 seasons with heating oil, like I use to, it would have cost me over $5,000.00/year for the oil. I have to buy my firewood but I get it log length. It cost me $100.00/cord. $650.00/$700.00 per year for firewood versus $5,000.00/year for heating oil? It's a no brainer. A little sweat equity goes a long way. Roger

 

[Dolmar Fan]

How many cords ya burnin and what kinda wood

 

[Encore]

First year heading with our Hardy H4. Best decision ever made. Like you said, loading it once a day and coming home to a nice warm house at the exact set temp is awesome.

We still have our stove indoors for the occasional fire in the house but it doesn't get used more than once every couple weeks.

It'll pay for itself by the end of next years heating season - we bought it used so I'm not into it for quite as much.

 

[AdamG]

What I really love is that I don't believe I am using any more wood with this unit than I did with my fireplace insert. Also this unit is not as tempermental about what kind wood I put into it. It will burn anything! It really is fun to play with . When you burn the right kind of wood (seasoned) there is hardly any smoke when this unit is crankin. Very efficient.

I'm using a mix of slab and logs that have a yr on them- Mine smokes like a ##### the first damper cycle after a fill- but not much after that. I don't worry about it too much though- nobody in my neck of the woods seems to care.

I have been thinking about starting a thread for this question (and still may) But how does yours burn? My brother has a hard time getting a complete burn in his 5036- he usually ends up with a huge pile of ashes with a bunch of fist size coals buried down under all of the ash. to get it to completely burn he usually has to set a day aside and continually rake and baby it. My 6048 is nothing like that. When it's ready to reload, It's burnt down to nothing but driveway- rock sized coals.
We do burn slightly differently- he uses almost exclusively hardwood slab- I use a mixture of the slab and unsplit logs (anywhere from 2-3" all the way up to 20-21"

 

[AdamG]

It'll pay for itself by the end of next years heating season - we bought it used so I'm not into it for quite as much.

That's awesome. I didn't have quite the dollar demand that most do- I was only spending ~2600/ season in propane. The cost of mine, and the cost of the saws I bought (I include those because I would've never bought them if not heating with wood) I'm looking at a 6-7 yr payout. I'm fine with that though. I love the 6048, and wouldn't have gone with any other. I am looking into moving it in the next few years once I get the land straightened around where I really want it to go- and I'll have to add another 50 ft or so of thermopex.

 

[memory]

We are on our second year with our CB 6048. We upgraded from a smaller CB unit. If you really want to save money, hook your water heaters up to the OWB. We have 2 water heaters hooked up to ours and it saves quite a bit of money. On one of the water heaters, we have to have the water at 170 degrees. But those two heaters make it eat more wood too but is still worth it.

Normally we run 24/7 365 days a year since we are heating water too.

 

[Blazin]

Year 7 with a CB5648 for me, and I ain't looking back!

 

[AIM]

Build a roof over em and three walls around them to break the wind and you'll love em even more.

 

[OH_Varmntr]

Build a roof over em and three walls around them to break the wind and you'll love em even more.

I can attest to that. I installed mine so the door was facing the East right next to my carport to help keep the wind down. Eventually I'll be building a 40x60 barn with a lean-to that will be the final resting place of my OWB.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

Build a roof over em and three walls around them to break the wind and you'll love em even more.

Okay.