Help! Central Boiler 5036 or Woodmaster 4400

[John D]

Thanks for the replies. It seems as though both CB and WM owners are happy with their units and only have positive things to say. My local WM dealer stoppeed over today and gave me a concrete price for unit, parts, and installation. My CB dealer is doing the same tomorrow.

I have two questions that I am looking for help on. The first one is that the CB literature says that their units use 25% to 70% less wood than other brands. Does anybody have any "real" evidence if this is true or not? For instance do you have a CB and a neighbor have a WM or vice versa with similiar sized and insulated houses burning similiar types of wood to really get a feel on wood consumption between CB and WM?

My other question involves the water capacity of the CB and WM. The CB dealer told me that the 5036 is "rated" for 3000 square feet while holding 196 gallons of water and the 6048 is "rated" for 6000 square feet while holding 393 gallons of water. The WM dealer told me that the 4400 is "rated" for 5000 square feet but only holds 117 gallons of water. According to this data the 4400 heats with a much lower ratio of water to square footage. How does the WM do this and is it "good or bad?" What are the pros and cons to more/less water? Thanks

The WM cant heat as much with less water,and yes it is bad to have less water capacity,since it is your storage system,you want the ability to store more heat at a time.This is just my opinion,your crazy if you go with the WM,your getting so much more with the CB,you will enjoy longer burn times,and less need to load it based on the water capacity alone.It holds almost 50% more water.CB also is VERY conservative in there ratings.I have a friend who heats with a 5036 and his house is drafty and older,around 3K sq ft,and it easily heats it.You need to compare the next size up WM to the CB,as the one that holds 117 gallons is much smaller.
I will tell you this, Shaver recommended a 165 for my home,which is 3000 sq ft.even when i put in a colder climate on the computer matching system on there site,it still said a 165. The 165 is rated for 4000sq ft and holds 165 gallons of water.I went with the next larger unit a 250,which is rated for 5500 sq ft,and holds 230 gallons of water.I thought Id be safe with a one size bigger. I talked to 2 different CB dealers,both told me i needed the 6048 which held 393 gallons,both said the 5036 would heat my home,but didnt recommend it as it didnt have enough to give me long burn times,and Id be at the limit. Having now had my Shaver almost 3 months,if i could do it over again,I would have bought the CB6048,it would have been perfect,just like they said.I went with a bigger shaver than they told me i needed,and if i had to buy another shaver,id go 2 sizes bigger,with the 340 just for the water capacity,at 310 gallons.You will never say,boy i wish this OWB was smaller,you cant ever go wrong with a bigger unit that holds more water.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

:agree2::agree2::agree2:

 

[jcappe]

I believe you can get by with less water capacity of the WM because of the fan. Obviously the CB will hold heat longer but it also takes longer once the draft door opens to heat that much water back up to temp. My WM is set to come on at 160 and off at 170. Unless it is really cold it only takes a couple of minutes to heat the 117 gallons of water back up to 170. Like I said before you will like either one of the two brands you are looking at.

 

[aboveaverage]

well, ill say this, everyone pushes the fan down your throat, but its kills your efficiency, my cb 5036 heats my drafty old 3000sqft farm house just fine the only problem i have is when its below zero at night and one room in the house that is especially drafty will drop a degree or two. i have never had a problem with not having the blower on the fire, as far as taking longer for the water to come up to temp, when its real cold i have it set to 195, i know its a bit high but i turn it down a bit when it warms up, the lower you can set the temp, the more efficient it is.

 

[Blazin]

Central boiler 5648 burnin here heating 6000sq ft (3 buildings) for 4 years, never skipped a beat yet! The fan forced draft like others said is a load of BS, and not needed on a CB unless you feel the need to blow half your wood up the chimmney! Green wood.... I burn alot of it and never have a problem as long as there is a decent coal bed under it. I would recommend going to the 6048 for more water storage and wood capacity which would up your burn times some, but I'd say you won't be dissapointed in either model.

 

[LadyToysDream]

Last spring , we decided we were going to get a OWB.
After a bit of looking around, we decided on a CB 5036.
Hubby's Dad liked our unit, and he went with the next size bigger.
We are both happy households

My hubby has put some green wood in ours. No problems here.
We only burn wood in ours, nothing else, like paper or cardboard.
I want to say we have burned between 4 to 5 full cords since September of
last year. About 1250 sq ft and leaving the inside temp at 77 degrees.
It also heats our domestic hot water. I think he wants to run it year round because he sure enjoys having all kinds of hot water. I like it because we now use less electric each month.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

LTD: Guess you got everything straightened out?...you have had your share of problems.

 

[LadyToysDream]

mtfallsmikey yes, everything is good now.

Dad's machine has been good since day one, no problems there.
He is using more wood than us, but is heating 2 buildings, and they use
a lot more domestic hot water than us. They have a household of 5 though because 2 daughters and 1 granddaughter moved back home.

We had problems for about 2 months on and off, because it was a indoor wiring problem but that was NOT a problem with the OWB itself. Our plumber friend made a mistake when he hooked into our inside propane furnace set up. Our blower fan was on more than off there for awhile.

Other problem was that the OWB itself was steaming/venting off at the top opening every once in awhile. We could not fiqure out it's problem because there was no real pattern. Finally after a week of daily calling the dealer, we got him physically here, and he checked things over, and only adjustment was our door handle. When they say, it takes 2 hands to shut it, that's what it means. At least with ours. And I was outside with him when he got here, so I know what he was adjusting. So because of that simple adjustment , we are using less wood also.
We have bought a tri axle of logs, and will have some left over from this year, so we are ready for next winter.
:greenchainsaw: