OWB v. Wood Stove

[Spotted Owl]

Ok I have been around here for awhile now and I don't get it. If someone can find it on search I will read it there, but I haven't found it yet.

What are the pro's and con's on OWBs v Wood Stoves or vise versa. The mess of a stove in the house doesn't hold water. If you are comfortable with the mess it will be there stove or not. We have two stoves and there is no mess.

For me personally at this time I will stay with a stove. I have neighbors that hate yes hate their OWB for various reason. They are returning to stoves.

No ruffling of feathers, no bickering. I'm just curious.

If you can shed some light on this fantastic and Thanks. If not stay back.



Owl

 

[flotek]

well you can heat more area and have way more options with water than a wood stove offers but the downfalls are three times the wood use and peeving off the neighbors with smoke

 

[Burntime]

I have an insert so plusses are heat in that room. Have a cooler bedroom to retreat to. Minuses are too much heat in 1 room. Wood in the house. Ash dust in the house. Dry house. Possible allergies...flip em around for the owb... For me I would have wasted a lot of capacity for an owb and ended up burning more wood... plus I like to see the fire...

 

[stint]

OK Here's starters

OWB: vs Traditional Indoor

Advantages:
Less work: fewer loadings with bigger wood, easier ash cleaning
Can burn less/un seasoned wood
Heats all rooms of house evenly using existing baseboards (and zones)

Disadvantages
Much higher initial cost
Smokes up neighborhood like boy scout camp-out (newer gasifications less)
Some localities have very restrictive even exclusionary ordinances

I'm sure others will expand.
Personally, I'm sticking with 2 indoor Jotuls that have served well for past decade

 

[Alan Smith]

owb

i like my cb5036 i dont think it smoke as bad you .all say as of now it uses less wood than my insert did i all so heat 2 water heaters with it.

 

[atlarge54]

I've had several different woodburners in the past 30 years and when I bring in wood and take out ashes there's always some kind of mess to deal with.
I currently have an el-cheapo, quasi-homemade OWB and the mess is outdoors. An OWB will almost always consume more wood and they're definately not for everybody. One big advantage is you can burn wood that others wouldn't mess with. Not getting up in the middle of the night to feed is a pretty big plus also.

 

[ohioburner]

This is my first year heating with a heatmor OWB and last week when I fired it up was when it smoked otherwise there is very little smoke. I am burning seasoned wood so I would say smoke isn't an issue with me. The up front cost is a big downfall but It should pay for itself after a few years.

 

[miller1]

well you can heat more area and have way more options with water than a wood stove offers but the downfalls are three times the wood use and peeving off the neighbors with smoke

I dont know why everybody thinks OWBs use a truckload a day and think they smoke so much, i heat a 1500 sq ft house and my water with about 10 pickup truckloads a year. Yes when it kicks on you get a puff of smoke for a few minutes but after that there is no more smoke than my neighbor has coming out of his chimny. I personally dont think i could heat my house with any less wood with a indoor unit. I burn seasoned hardwood and dont use any LP at all anymore to heat with. How many truckloads do most guys go thru a winter with there OWBs?

 

[czar800]

.


My 6048 smokes very little and I to have burned less wood then my add on did.

1.You would save a ton of time cutting and splitting wood, if it will fit in the door it will burn.

2. you will have more even and easier to control heat, no more open the windows to cool off the house. ( set the temp and that's it!!)

3. NO MORE FIRE INSIDE YOUR HOUSE!!

4. No more chimney cleaning

5. No more Dirt, Ash's and time loss carrying wood into you home.

6. heat your hot water.

that is only six and there's a lot more.




.

 

[Windwalker7]

I'll list some advantages of an OWB. I'll include what others have and expand a few.

1...Ashes and ash dust are outside

2...wood chips, sawdust, bark are outside

3...No need to split into small pieces

4...insects outside (you can burn the infested stuff others are afraid to bring in their home)

5...you can burn green or wood that isn't quite seasoned yet.

6...no fire hazard inside your home

7...no smoke inside your home

8...abiltity to heat your domestic hot water and shut off the electric or gas to it. this saves me $$$

9...the ability to heat more than one building (house and garage, two homes, home and work shop, etc...)

10...usually fill twice a day.

11...no chimney fire to worry about. just let the creosote burn out of the chimney and watch the fireworks

12...the temp in the house can be controled with the thermostat to adjust to your liking.

13...air is not as dry in house

14...everything is pretty much automatic. no need to constantly play with draft or damper.

15...did i mention you never run out of hot water?

16... Many ways to heat home, I have half my home with radiant floor heat and the other half forced air

17... People give you wood that they won't burn indoors. especially pine. I get lots of free pine. i had a buch of wood given to me that was infested with termites. People give me rotted stuff too. It all burns in the OWB

 

[wampum]

The OWB have some great features,like using bigger logs,less splitting,and dirtier and greener wood. They also hold a fire for long periods,and all of the mess(if any) is outside. They are also safer,because of no risk of setting your house chimney on fire. The draw backs are,the low chimney which puts out smoke lower to the ground,which like some have said, up sets your neighbors,if they are close. Most feel they burn more wood,which makes sense,because of the larger fire box. Three more cons are the initial cost,life span,and if you loose electric(unless you have a back up) you are out of business. Indoor stoves,cons are chimney fires(use dry wood)loading,and cleaning inside,which does make some mess,heating zones,like the room it is in is hotter then a room 15 feet away.OWB do keep a fire for a long period,mainly because you can put more wood in it,but some of the better indoor stoves,easily keep a fire in all night. The pros are,if you lose electricity,that, does not keep it from heating your home. I have cooked an 18 pound turkey on mine,it was very good. Also we keep a kettle of water on top,this dampens a room,giving warmer heat,and gives you a cup of tea when you want it. Looking at that fire on a cold winter night is great,all my friends that come over,get their cold rears pretty close to the stove,to get instant heat. Under normal conditions,an OWB is hard to beat. Under extreme conditions,like a bad ice storm,with out electric for hours or days,the indoor stove,is even harder to beat.

 

[Scootermsp]

Indoor Air Quality

I heat 4500 sq/ft and DHW with about 14 cords a year (CB 5036). I (and the missus) prefer the ash, dust, wood, and smoke remain outdoors. One of my relatives has a serious smoke allergy and could not come into the house if I had an indoor stove. I do not mind at all going outside to feed the "dog". The major benefit here is heating of domestic Hot Water, payback time is drastically reduced by taking advantage of this. To each his own though, I have friends with stoves and inserts that really like them. I like the fact that there is no chance of CO poisoning with ALL burning done remotely outside. I ran mine from September 2008 to Mid-July 2009 then fired back up on Labor Day.

I have a real fireplace in the living room that burns on Sundays during NFL season once it gets cold enough.

 

[flotek]

OWB: vs Traditional Indoor

Advantages:
Less work: fewer loadings with bigger wood, easier ash cleaning

less work?????? fewer loads per day maybe but it will eat cords of wood like candy ,three+ times the cutting bucking stacking handling so id have to put that as a disadvantage, personaly i dont have the time or willpower for over a dozen cords geez i couldnt imagine messing around with that much wood just for some heat

 

[Windwalker7]

less work?????? fewer loads per day maybe but it will eat cords of wood like candy ,three+ times the cutting bucking stacking handling so id have to put that as a disadvantage, personaly i dont have the time or willpower for over a dozen cords geez i couldnt imagine messing around with that much wood just for some heat

Yes, less work!

I heated with an indoor stove for a few years before I got the OWB.

Look how many times your hands touch one piece of wood before it is finally burned.

Indoor wood burner wood handling.....

once when cuting
once when splitting
once when loading on truck to get to destination
once to stack outside
once to carry into house in the fall
once to throw in wood burner



Outdoor wood burner wood handling......

Once when cutting
once when loading on truck
once to stack outside
once to throw in wood burner


It was even easier when I bought a triaxle load of wood. The guy stacked it all right beside the wood burner.

All I do is cut it up, stack it, then throw in when needed.


Ive had both and the OWB is less work in my opinion. Even though it burns more wood it is less work. No splitting and no carrying wood inside.

When splitting wood, you now have to stack each individual piece and carry each individual piece into the house. If you split one log into 4 pieces, you now have 4 pieces to handle and not one.

 

[John D]

I keep hearing the OWBs burn 3x the wood.Im not buying it at all.A properly insulated OWB with good lines will not "eat" wood 3x faster. They burn more,maybe 20% more,if that than an indoor setup that is providing 100% of the heating needs of the house.Not to mention every OWB owner heats there hot water as well.This does burn more wood.Most ppl I know with inserts,use them to provide most of there heat,they usually have some supplimental heat and no DHW is heated.
I like having the mess outside,also easy to drag wood right up to the OWB and I leave my cheap McCullouch saw under my wood sheds roof,and cut as needed.When i get a buildup of "mess" i shovel it in the owb.Try that with an insert,you handle the wood many times.It also needs to be a lot smaller,I throw 12"x36" ,and 8"-48" long logs right into my OWB,and it will slowly burn them,the 12" rounds will burn for a full day easily.

 

[Marc]

There's very little data obtained in a controlled environment to say what the potential or realized efficiency of OWB's is. However, there are at least 2 people over on ********** that switched from OWB to indoor gasifying boilers that saw reductions in wood usage of 40% or more. That's certainly a significant amount.

You can never get away from the fact that a water jacketed fire box will never realize high efficiencies by design. The complex molecules liberated by the pyrolization of wood will never be able to combust completely at 212F.

I'd urge everyone touting the capability of an OWB to burn green or unseasoned wood to stop listing that as an advantage as well. That causes more smoke, more complaints and more blowback against wood burners of all types.

Comparing inserts/stoves to OWB's is tough to do because they deliver heat in such different ways. So much of the choice should really come down to your own specific situation with your house and other circumstances.

A comparison between indoor "gasifiers" and OWB's is a better one. But that's been beat to death as well.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

There's very little data obtained in a controlled environment to say what the potential or realized efficiency of OWB's is. However, there are at least 2 people over on ********** that switched from OWB to indoor gasifying boilers that saw reductions in wood usage of 40% or more. That's certainly a significant amount.

You can never get away from the fact that a water jacketed fire box will never realize high efficiencies by design. The complex molecules liberated by the pyrolization of wood will never be able to combust completely at 212F.

I'd urge everyone touting the capability of an OWB to burn green or unseasoned wood to stop listing that as an advantage as well. That causes more smoke, more complaints and more blowback against wood burners of all types.

Comparing inserts/stoves to OWB's is tough to do because they deliver heat in such different ways. So much of the choice should really come down to your own specific situation with your house and other circumstances.

A comparison between indoor "gasifiers" and OWB's is a better one. But that's been beat to death as well.

Shoot, let's face the real fact...no matter what design is used, wood burning efficiencies can never approach what is currently acheived by using fossil fuels....even with a gasifier.

 

[Laird]

I'll list some advantages of an OWB. I'll include what others have and expand a few.

1...Ashes and ash dust are outside

2...wood chips, sawdust, bark are outside

3...No need to split into small pieces

4...insects outside (you can burn the infested stuff others are afraid to bring in their home)

5...you can burn green or wood that isn't quite seasoned yet.

6...no fire hazard inside your home

7...no smoke inside your home

8...abiltity to heat your domestic hot water and shut off the electric or gas to it. this saves me $$$

9...the ability to heat more than one building (house and garage, two homes, home and work shop, etc...)

10...usually fill twice a day.

11...no chimney fire to worry about. just let the creosote burn out of the chimney and watch the fireworks

12...the temp in the house can be controled with the thermostat to adjust to your liking.

13...air is not as dry in house

14...everything is pretty much automatic. no need to constantly play with draft or damper.

15...did i mention you never run out of hot water?

16... Many ways to heat home, I have half my home with radiant floor heat and the other half forced air

17... People give you wood that they won't burn indoors. especially pine. I get lots of free pine. i had a buch of wood given to me that was infested with termites. People give me rotted stuff too. It all burns in the OWB

I like this description best. I have used a woodstove in the past and currently have an OWB. I prefer the OWB for the above reasons, but if I had to buy my wood I might go back to a woodstove.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

I like this description best. I have used a woodstove in the past and currently have an OWB. I prefer the OWB for the above reasons, but if I had to buy my wood I might go back to a woodstove.

I'll drink to that.....one day will probably downsize, get closer to town. Nuthin like a good woodstove in an open unfinished basement.

 

[CrappieKeith]

Stoves are not meant to heat a whole home.
They are not ducted and therefore like one said it get's too hot in that main room of the stove.Dust seems to be a concern.
Bugs and smoke too.

Maybe "stove" should be a furnace.Hooked to ducting to evenly heat the entire home.
With ducting you can have air filtration,humidifier,air conditioning,HEPA filter killing airborne pathogens.
Heck you can have hospital like air quality.

A proper drafting furnace will not put smoke into the home.
Bringing wood from outside into the furnace will not put bugs in your home.

Plus you can put in a hot water coil or probe to make your domestic hot water.
As a matter of fact you can get a furnace that burns wood/oil or gas.The liquid fuel can light the wood all in the same furnace.
So your backup for insurance is already in play in liew of installing a seperate unit to the OWB.

My neighbor at work and at home have owb's.
They go through mountains of wood.
1 had his pipe freeze and burst.It cost thousands for the backhoe guy to rip up his yard and drive way to repair the water lines.
The other neighbor had a water jacket rot out in 6 years.
That cost him a pretty penny to repair.
When the smoke blow towards my home I can not do anything in the yard.The stench of burning creosote is terrible gut wrenching.
I guess he burns green wood too.

If you heated 2 buildings you could get 2 furnaces for less than an owb. You'll burn 60 % less wood too. Year after year 60 % is alot of wood/work!

Forget a stove....think furnace.