Received the Englander 28-3500 wood furnace yesterday

[aaronmach1]

Finally got the englander 28-3500 yesterday off the the truck. Looks very nice and damn its heavy. Seems to be very well built. Opened everything up when i got home from work and found some where during shipping the top plate fell down and some brick bounced around, and it now has 3 broken firebrick. That sucks. Also on the top outer jacket where they had strapped it to the pallet for painting at the factory, the strap made a nice 3 inch dent. Not happy about that.
Started a fire in it outside my garage last night to burn off the oils etc to keep the bad smell out of the house. I think im going to like this design versus my old one. Ill know more this weekend if i can get this heavy beast down the basement stairs!
Im going to try and call Englander and see if they will do anything about the broken bricks and dented top.
Anyone know what the handle is for in my 3rd pic? Inside the heat outlet in the top.
See the pics below:

 

[aaronmach1]

 

[aaronmach1]

heres the dent on the left

And this is what it looked like first opened and the broken bricks.

 

[Streblerm]

I hope it works out well for you. I am extremely happy with my Englander stove. It seems simple and well constructed.

 

[alleyyooper]

I think the handle inside the heat duct is some thing England used to move the stove around. I have a hand truck that handles up to 800 pounds and the walk out basement made it easy to move the thing into the furnace room. My old wood burner was heavier though. If I had to take it down stairs I would rent an appliance dolly. that plate is shipped laying in the fire box you have to install it. The down turn part goes to the front.
I am really impressed with ours after those last very very cold days we have had this week with negative 45 wind chills and negative 30 regular temps.

Be prepared to wait for customer service help. I think it took over 20 minutes for me to get a human to talk to.

Al

 

[aaronmach1]

thanks guys.
Alleyyooper, thanks for the info im getting alot of it from you on this burner and i appreciate it from a fellow owner of the same model. I even saw your review on home depots website. Great job! Also helped out knowing to burn it outside first, that was stinky!

 

[brenndatomu]

Al is correct, that handle is a lifting lug. There is probably a second one toward the back too, likely tucked under the sheet metal now though.
Looks like it would be real easy to take the top sheet metal off and knock that dent out.

 

[aaronmach1]

WOW!!!! very good customer service. After a 20 minute phone call (15 mins on hold) im receiving 3 new bricks, a new top panel and a new piece of glass because mine had a scratch on it. Now ill have a spare top and spare glass free of charge. I didnt expect anymore than the 3 bricks but the guy really hooked me up.

 

[reaperman]

Being a wood furnace is insulated, its not a good idea to light a fire without the plenum fan operating. The furnace retains way too much heat without a method of dispersal. The side panels should always be taken off first. I hope you didnt warp the furnace

 

[aaronmach1]

Being a wood furnace is insulated, its not a good idea to light a fire without the plenum fan operating. The furnace retains way too much heat without a method of dispersal. The side panels should always be taken off first. I hope you didnt warp the furnace

i understand this, the fire was so small it didnt make much heat at all, i realize the function of the blower and took it into the consideration of the fire size i built. It was just enough to burn some chemical smell off, i do suspect i will still have some residue smell when i make a real fire in it. I garantee no harm done to it last night.
Was only 1 split of ash 16" long 3 inch wide by 2 inch thick and a small 16 inch stick 1.5 inch diameter and small scrap pine board for kindling, the blower never would have kicked on.

 

[aaronmach1]

Also the peice of silver duct in the photo, i assume it goes on the heat oulet. How do i install it. Maybe i missed it in the manual, but i didnt see nothing. Slide it in and let it rest and bend all the tabs in?

 

[brenndatomu]

Slide it in and let it rest and bend all the tabs in?

Yup

 

[CWME]

Take the broken fire bricks and swap them out for whole bricks that are laying on the floor of the firebox. Put the whole bricks on the side, problem solved. Put the plenum into the whole in the jacket and bend the tabs over to hold it in place.
Hope you have a lot of wood. Mine chews through a bunch rather quickly. When I was running it in the house I would let the bottom fill with ashes and contol the burn with the slide lever and a flue damper. That way I would have some coals in the ashes to get the fire going again in the mornings or when I got home in the afternoons. I would run two loads on a 10-15 degree day and 3 full loads on a colder day. I didn't need the capacity of the stove to heat my ranch running it this way.

When running it in my shop now I need everything it has to heat the place and it takes a load of wood every 4 hours when really cold out. That is with keeping the ashes to a min to get as much air in as I can.

 

[aaronmach1]

what size is your shop? tall ceilings?

 

[A.S.Woodchucker]

you get tired of the ol' JES 7900? or was it giving you more problems. Looks like a nice furnace. What does something like that run? $2K?

 

[alleyyooper]

Doesn't even run 15K at either Lowe's 50.00 cheaper than HD (summer heat name) or at Home Depot even with shipping cost added in. If your a card holding Veteran you will get a 10% veterans discount also (if you ask) except at the Cadillac Michigan HD store it seems unless you are disabled. We rarely use the blower unless it is super cold and we want lots of heat up stairs NOW. Sure didn't appear to have any insulation around the furnace that I could see when inspection it. In fact I would feel it a dumb thing to do with the little puny 850 CFM fan any way, and the tiny 10 inch heat duct. My old add on had a 12 inch duct with a 1050 CFM fan and it was as bare as a new born bottom at birth inside. I just sat the starter in the hole and bent a few tabs as it isn't likely to jump in the air for any reason and hooked up the rest of the duct to my heating ducts.
I load mine with seasoned ash and adjust the slide and the draft at the bottom on the ash door at 8:00 AM it burns all day when we have our normal temps for this time of year nearly fully shut down and keeps the house at about 75-80F range. I fill it a second time at about 6:30 PM and it will burn all night where I set the slide and the draft for normal night time temps in this area. During our resent well below zero temps and even colder wind chills I ran the slide half open and the draft full open at the 6PM fill and got the house really warm clolest to 90F inside then filled the furnace again at 10:30 PM and shut the slide fully and just cracked the draft.

I am Happily impressed with the furnace and feel it was money well spent in these days when buying some thing usually leaves a sour taste in the mouth.
Another good thing about this furnace is how completely the wood burns. I now can use the drop spreader to spread ashes on Icy paths to the barn and honey house along with the driveway. So many bit unburnt coals with my old one you couldn't do that.

 

[aaronmach1]

you get tired of the ol' JES 7900? or was it giving you more problems. Looks like a nice furnace. What does something like that run? $2K?

no i like my little johnson 7900 alot still. I actually wanted to keep it for my barn but insurance isnt working out with my current company, so i might have to sell it, but i hate to its in great shape.

 

[aaronmach1]

Got the englander installed today guys. Other than the smell im lovin it. The chemical fumes about made me pass out so i vacated the house for a while and now its just lingering but it will pass.
Major question on my mind about the exhaust flue connection. see pic. WHY does the 6" black pipe fit "inside" the collar on the stove???? Seems it should have to go around the outside so no exhaust leaked out......My uncles norseman 2500 is the same exact way. guess its how they build em now???

Like i said shes all connected up and burning and throwing some serious heat. Far end of the house is getting alot more heat than it did with my old furnace even though it had a bigger blower. Must have something to do with only one heat supply on the englander and air moves faster i dont know but it works great.

 

[aaronmach1]

Forgot to mention cold air return is not hooked back up yet but will come this week along with a fan box etc.

 

[dustytools]

All of your flue pipes should be installed with the male end down. Keeps creosote from dripping out.