Opinions please...

[weloveburning]

We are replacing our OLD Volcano wood furnace. It's served its purpose well, and I would like your opinions.

We are looking at the Norsman 2500 and the Hotblast that Tractors supply carries. My question is, do we need the double blowers?

Our house is roughly 1500 sq ft. The furnace will go in the basement and duct back in where the Volcano did, as an addition to our propane furnace.

We aren't rich by any means, so the price, of course is a factor.

Just wondering if the dual blower would push more heat back into the bedrooms, since the Volcano that we had didn't quite get the heat back there.

Or would it be better to go with a single blower, and get a bigger blower for the system itself.

 

[Rickochet]

Our Napoleon 1900 has one blower that moves a lot of air. It really depends upon the CFM that the blower is capable of moving. If you need to move more air and it sounds like you do, I would go for the dual if it fits your budget.

 

[weloveburning]

Thank you. Each Blower is 550 CFM. I cannot remember what the blower was on the old one, I'll check once we get it moved out of the corner of the garage.

The dual blower is only $200 more than the single, so it might just be worth the extra money.

 

[dwinch53]

Check this out, i have been searching for a wood furnace also, i have researched now for apx. three months....i have found the best bang for my money...A fire chief wood furnace...it comes with a three speed large blower,1150, 1500 and 1850 cfm. It also has a draft blower that is operated by the thermostate (included)..has a LIFETIME warranty on the grates and any castings...checkout this site www.firechiefwoodfurnace.com read all about it and you will find a dealer locater on the web site...you can even call the toll free number and talk to the factor directly. good luck, Dan

 

[gink595]

I have a Napoleon wood stove as well with a blower that I ended up adding, It was a big difference, but not as much as the ceiling fan made

 

[LTREES]

Ceiling fans are great.
I put my insert fan on low and fan in the hallway puts the heat in the bedrooms.

 

[weloveburning]

I'll have to post pictures of the Volcano, once we get it moved out of the corner of the garage. LOL It is a dinosaur compared to what we are looking at.

The Napoleon wouldn't work for us, as it would bake us out of that room down there. But I am going to call on the fire chief, Man those things are huge, they weigh about 200lbs more than the ones that we are looking at, so I'd say they are built to last. Thanks for the link.

I'm really excited to get something new down there, I can only imagine that we will benefit in a big way, with this upgrade.

The seals and welds were just shot in the old one, so it would burn through the wood pretty fast.

We bought the Volcano at an auction, cheap, just to see if it would help our propane bills. We went from using 10% a week down to about 2% a week, just burning during the day.

If we can get something that would burn all night long, then that will reduce even more.

I really like watching the propane truck drive right on by in the winter. :hmm3grin2orange:

 

[Rickochet]

I have a Napoleon wood stove as well with a blower that I ended up adding, It was a big difference, but not as much as the ceiling fan made

How do you like your Napoleon? We are looking forward to our first winter with it. We bought it from Star's Stoves & Chimney in Fort Wayne.

 

[gink595]

How do you like your Napoleon? We are looking forward to our first winter with it. We bought it from Star's Stoves & Chimney in Fort Wayne.

This will be my second year with it, At first I hated it until about 2 wks. into it then it acted like a different stove. Then one day I bought a thermometer for the top and I was reading the manual for the optimum stove temps and I came across a very interesting piece of information. It said that it took like 60 hrs of burn time at 450*+ for it to cure the bricks, after that it would perform better. It also said it will be hard to start fires for the first few times, which it was, almost to the point I was going to get the torch or a boyscout! But to answer your question I liked it really well after them first few weeks. It seemed to be very efficent, I used about 4-5 cord all fall, winter and spring with that being the primary source I finally turned the propane off at the tank in late Feb. because it was being used at all. I'm from around the Auburn area about 25mi. from Ft. Wayne, I bought mine at Topeka Seed and stove in amish land.

 

[weloveburning]

We made a decision...

Well based on the old configuration of the dinosaur that we are replacing, we decided on the Englander Add on Wood Furnace.

http://www.englanderstoves.com/28-3500.html

It will go nicely where the old one was. The issue that we ran into with the other ones, was the fact that it would be out in the middle of the room, by the time we hooked up the flue and we couldn't have that. This one is very close to the old dimensions and the flue comes out of the top, not the back of the unit. Its only 10 inches deeper, so that won't be bad.

But it took an act of god to get one of these things ordered. Only one of their dealers in our area was willing to go the extra mile to make sure we got what we wanted. And the price was definitely reasonable.

Here's the pictures of the "thing" that we are replacing. Please excuse the mess, as the son has the garage in a shambles with a motor rebuild:

And in this picture, you can see the breaks in the welds in the firebox.

Anyone have a guess on how old the Volcano is??? I had to replace the fan about two years ago. But never did find any information that dated it.