We love our Central Boiler!
We bought a Central Boiler about a year ago and I installed it late last fall. So far it has worked great. We save about $200 a month in fall/winter in electric heating bills. I see $100 bills when I load the firebox with wood. This system will pay for itself in less than 6 years of use here in central west Oregon. We can also set the thermostat to any temp that we want, and stay warm and comfy all winter in any weather.
I looked at several outdoor wood boilers before we decided on the CB 4436. Taylor, Woodmaster and CB were the most commonly recommended by local
plumbers and energy contractors. The CB has a great warantee (25 years) is made of thick steel, and they are available through a local dealer near here. CB has been around for a while, and many others have not or are no longer in biz. They also have smaller systems that better matched our needs. Post-sales support has been good from both the local rep and the factory. Calling the factory is a breeze and you get to talk to someone that knows a lot and actually speaks English!
I installed our system to heat our pre-existing solar pre-heated domestic hot water and hydronic floor heating. The boiler loop goes through two flat plate
heat exchangers; the first on the water heater and the second for the pressurized floor loop. The floor loop has a separate pump and the water heater works by simple convection. We burned about 3 cords last winter, starting in early January in a cold Oregon winter. OK, cold here is 15 degrees, and nothing compared to New England or the upper midwest... but it is still cold for us!
As for wood types, I have burned lots of woods in there, as we have a lot of species here... light woods: Grand fir, cottonwood, willow; medium woods: Boxelder maple, apple, plum, doug fir, alder, hazelnut; heavy woods; white and black oak, black walnut, madrone, bigleaf maple. Hardwoods put out a lot less creosote than do firs and pines, but that is not a big issue. I just scrape down the sides of the boiler and the creosote burns off. I have also burned old urnature, scrap wood, sawdust, wet rotted wood, green wood, bruch, and
cardboard. Just about anything other than garbage and treated wood (or plywood/strandboard). It also burns LARGE logs... which means less cutting and all but no splitting for me.
As for some potential faults or features mentioned here about CB; the smoke does pour out from the door is if the damper has been closed. This is because the firebox is designed to trap heat (and smoke) at the top of the burn area. Open the door and you release the heat and smoke with it. I found that if I crack the door open for a minute while I fetch a log to throw in there the smoke will vent out the stack and not hit me in the face when I open the door wider. Some people fault the mild steel option and recommend stainless steel. I think stainless steel is not needed. The rep talked us out of the stainless option, and he was right. After a year there is no rust in the firebox, and the corrosion inhibitor on the water side should keep any rust from occuring. Stainless is $1,000 more, and it does not transfer heat as well as mild steel does. I have also found that the natural draft is more than enough to create an inferno in the firebox without a forced air fan, so I do not see why anyone would need the forced draft option. When the damper is closed on our CB, I hardly notice any smoke and sometimes I have to peek inside to see if the fire is still going... and when the damper is open, it puts out less smoke than our fireplace does. Smoke seems to be the big political beef with these systems... and there tends to be a lot of disinformation about them floating around out there. Especially from some political yahoos in the Northeast.
Well, that's my take on the CB anyway. As someone else said here, most people become feircely brand loyal after taking ownership of an outdoor wood boiler. With good reason. The better ones work very well for the most part. :hmm3grin2orange
