add-on wood furnace

[phyrephyter2379]

New to this site... i've enjoyed reading through some of the previous posts and have some questions I'm hoping someone can answer.
I have a Buck stove insert that I bought used and been heating with for approx 20 years. It's been a great stove but is starting to show some wear and will need replaced soon. I'm considering an add on wood furnace, made by United States Stove Co, model# 1557M. Does anyone have experience either with add-ons in general or with this particular manufacturer/model? Trying to get a jump on winter, as it will be here before we know it... your replies would be greatly appreciated!

 

[CrappieKeith]

Being they are a competitor if you will my view may be skewed so I would say this.....when looking for an add on there should be a few things to look for if you want any efficiency or duration from that model.

10 gauge or thicker steels.
Afterburn or catalitics to burn the smoke to make the extra 30% of the heat.
A 20 year or longer warranty on the firebox.
Heat exchange surface area.

My advice is to not cut corners .... whatever you decide on should last you a few decades and if it's got what it need to be efficient you'll go through way less wood and load way less.

Remember...if you can not get long enough burn times you'll be having to pay that liquid fuel bill .
For the almost the same dollars there are furnaces that will heat your entire home and never go out all winter long on just 2 arm loads a day.

Charmaster,Firechief,Woodchuck and our Yukons should be compared too what your looking at.

 

[blades]

Take what crappiekieth says to heart, I have a 1557, yea its cheap, hard to control, sucks up a lot of wood, max time I have gotten so far( puttin out heat that is) about 4 hours (hard wood). Not real happy with it. The similar model by Daka, same price range isn't any better, friend has that one up at cottage always got to get up middle of night and add fuel. I got the 1557 only because that's all I could afford at the time. did it cut fuel bill , yes. You have to keep a real close eye on it, their auto damper is not worth much and also likes to jam wide open ( thats the one on loading door). It is not a unit I would fire up, leave and go to work. Just not comfortable with it. I am not new to wood burning been at 10 years now. forgot mention most of it is made in China. Blower motors are the cheapest thing out there.

 

[laynes69]

Something is wrong then. We have a 1500 hotblast that was in operation for 25 years, and did just fine. I could easily get an overnight burn, and burn it pretty cleanly, despite it not having heated secondary air. We heated with about 6.5 cords of wood for our 2400 square foot home last year. If your on a budget, then I would recommend one, but if you can spend more, then upgrade to a furnace with a secondary heat exchanger. You will save alot of time and money with an efficient unit.

 

[bohawg1]

I have a 1557 and im sure its not the best stove but i like it. I got mine at TSC. YOu have to play around with it but i can get over night burns with coals in the morning that all you have to do is add wood and it will start back up. I dont have a fire flaming in the morning but i have coals good enough to start another fire. I have a 2600 sq ft house and gas bill 30 dollars a month. THat is for my gas water tank. I burn between 5 to 6 cords of wood. Well im sure ther is better out there but if your looking for a cheaper but good stuff i think you will like it. I couldnt afford at the time something that was 2 or 3 thousand dollars . got mine under 1000. GOod luck

 

[blades]

well 2 of you like yours. Question how hot dose your exhaust pipe get? I get worried when mine hits the 600+ mark. maybe I shouldn't? Real short pipe before entering chimney, barely enough room to install barometric damper.

 

[treevet]

well 2 of you like yours. Question how hot dose your exhaust pipe get? I get worried when mine hits the 600+ mark. maybe I shouldn't? Real short pipe before entering chimney, barely enough room to install barometric damper.

I have a US Stove 1600M Clayton and I love but one day my daughter was hot and turned off the blower and it damn near cooked the paint off the walls with the exhaust pipe. Lucky I got home and turned it on.

 

[whitemountain]

Spend the most time you can doing research, then spend the most money you can afford, then spend the next 20 years enjoying your decision!

 

[treevet]

Spend the most time you can doing research, then spend the most money you can afford, then spend the next 20 years enjoying your decision!

I just don't think you need to go for the most expensive one. Someone please tell me how a comparable but much more expensive unit can be any better than the one I bought at TSC for a little over a grand. Making sure the installation is the best is my feelings. I have had 14 hour burn times. It heats my 4 bedroom house easily, easy pullout tray, 3 speed blower, plenty of firebrick to protect metal aspect. etc.

I think a humidifier is essential too. The wife buys into the deal if you get one too. But the main thing in her case is it puts the mess in the basement.

 

[blades]

I must have gotten one made after to much fermented rice.

 

[CrappieKeith]

I just don't think you need to go for the most expensive one. Someone please tell me how a comparable but much more expensive unit can be any better than the one I bought at TSC for a little over a grand. Making sure the installation is the best is my feelings. I have had 14 hour burn times. It heats my 4 bedroom house easily, easy pullout tray, 3 speed blower, plenty of firebrick to protect metal aspect. etc.

I think a humidifier is essential too. The wife buys into the deal if you get one too. But the main thing in her case is it puts the mess in the basement.

Like I said before.To get a furnace that has these 5 things in it will give you the ability to make all of the btu's that wood is capable of making.


Afterburn
barometric draft regulator
thermostat
massive heat exchanger surface area
dense firebrick

You may have a few of these items working for you however....if there is no afterburn,30% of your heat is not being made.
If your draft speed is faster than .03" of water column your burning wood too fast and the stack temps are proof...anything hotter than 400 degrees is a waiste.Smoke won't condense until it hits 250 degrees. The draft regulator will control the speed if set with a manometer.
The heat is in the center of the pipe not on the wall of the pipe.The pipe wall may only be 100 degrees.
Stats will cycle the unit so that it has time to exchange the heats made.
Firebrick do 3 things. They maintain a hot enviroment to aide in the "afterburn" and they protect steel firewalls.Lastly they help extract heats from the firebox.

The more heat exchange surface area you have the easier it is for the furnace to exchange the heats as they are made.

From what I've been able to find in the furnaces made today....there are no afterburn or catalytics in anything under 90,000 btus.....however the BJ90 does have this process in place.

We are dealing with physics here.Number are numbers and they do not lie.
Although your furnace may give you what you need to have... great....but if it does not have a way to burn off the smoke there are 30%-40% of the btus not being made.

Here's how you make all of the btus...
You have to burn wood on grates.80% of the combustion air needs to enter through the grates. This will make 60 % of your btus,then you heat to about 1000 degrees the secondary air that will go over the top of the fire into the smoke.This process will generate another 30-40% of the heat or btus as I have explained.
All Yukon's use this process.
From what I've been able to see on the market with wood furnaces there is no process like this.
Some stoves will have something similar and some outdoor water furnaces will have a process like this.
There are however in some of the brands which are better a process of burning smoke through a hot screen.

 

[Kansas]

I have a 1400 Hot Blast stove and though its no where near as nice as a Yukon it has worked well for me to heat my business and it was only $850 on sale at Orchlens it payed for itself in a few months the first winter .

I agree with op about the draft control in the door is plum worthless thats the stupidest cheapest design I ever saw I set it at medium and leave it! (and it probably isnt even working)

I use the fire box air control open about 2 turns instead. I keep my stack temp below 400 and dont have secondary heat exchange and I can get a good 4-6 hours out of a load.

I am not worried about leaving my stove running when I go home at night its never done anything to make me worry about it.

edit: I replace my stack every year though to keep it safe, its single wall with 2 elbows so it gets full of crud and rust I cant convince myself to get stainless (yet) fwtw.

The only thing I DONT like about these type stoves is getting on my knees to clean the firebox out, my stove is getting lifted up about 18" before winter season starts so I can just stand and clean it out.

Kansas

 

[treevet]

I have had secondary burn on a number of woodstoves over the 30 plus years I have been burning. If you get them gunked up with creosote then you have a big replacement cost or just throw it out and get another one. 12 inch dia 30 inch long well seasoned round oak logs will get overnight and well into the next morning. Cannot ask for more than that unless you go with an outside unit.

I have unlimited wood and burn mainly seasoned oak as I sell it. You have to wonder if the snoot appeal of the high dollar units as opposed to the very nice quality bigger TSC unit I have is worth it. My opinion.....not.

 

[CrappieKeith]

I have had secondary burn on a number of woodstoves over the 30 plus years I have been burning. If you get them gunked up with creosote then you have a big replacement cost or just throw it out and get another one. 12 inch dia 30 inch long well seasoned round oak logs will get overnight and well into the next morning. Cannot ask for more than that unless you go with an outside unit.

I have unlimited wood and burn mainly seasoned oak as I sell it. You have to wonder if the snoot appeal of the high dollar units as opposed to the very nice quality bigger TSC unit I have is worth it. My opinion.....not.

The secondary burn is built into the Jack furnaces so that there is "NO" cleaning outside of just the normal 2 week dumping of ashes.I average 14 hour burn times with my BJ90 with ash.

 

[treevet]

What's that unit cost Keith?

 

[Kansas]

The secondary burn is built into the Jack furnaces so that there is "NO" cleaning outside of just the normal 2 week dumping of ashes.I average 14 hour burn times with my BJ90 with ash.

Thats amazing you have to clean ashes only every 2 weeks? How big is the ash box? That in itself would make me tempted to own one...

Kansas

 

[laynes69]

The PSG Caddy furnace has an afterburn system. Its setup like an advanced secondary combustion wood stove. There are 4 stainless tubes that bring in preheated air from under the firebox, across the back then under the baffle. The smoke has to cross through these burn tubes. The baffle is a 4 layer insulated stainless steel baffle, which holds the heat in. There aren't many people around that have one of these furnaces, but the ones I have talked to love them. They are the number 1 woodfurnace in Canada. My old 1500 could easily achieve secondary combustion, due to the plug in back was removed and allowed secondary air to enter the firebox. Yeah the welds aren't perfect, but like said ours heated for 25 years with a baffle replacement, and a couple sets of firebricks. Your 1500, 1537, etc. are a basic firebox basically an open firebox without a secondary heat exchanger. We had a baro on ours, which helped more heat enter the house and flue. In the dead of winter we ran with no smoke 75% of the time, only after reloading if not alot of coals. If a furnace has a secondary heat exchanger, then I recommend one with a trap door to clean the exchanger. I can clean mine from the front. This way its easy access. The 1600 is a nice unit, if wanting a better furnace but the 1537 will do the job if on a budget. I didn't get into the stuff it full and let it burn for some odd hours. When we were home, we would add a few splits every 4 to 5 hours. I felt it allowed the unit to burn hotter, with less creosote in the chimney. Plus I didn't mind going downstairs and checking the fire.

 

[Mud23609]

I have a clayton 1600g. Dose a decent job of keeping my house warm and I can get eight hour plus burns out of it with a packed full firebox of poplar. I looked at some of the other lower priced units that were available but the quality just seemed much better on the 1600g.

 

[CrappieKeith]

Thats amazing you have to clean ashes only every 2 weeks? How big is the ash box? That in itself would make me tempted to own one...

Kansas

The pan on the Jacks are 14" wide x 28" long and 4" deep.
Sometimes I can go 3 weeks...depends on how cold it is (heat load).
I know I only dump my ashes maybe 7 or 8 times over an entire northern Mn. winter and I'm burning ash. Just think if I had a really good hardwood to burn.I figure I can almost get a full cord to burns worth of ash in the pan. I'll admit I should dump it sooner cause she really gets full.
They(BJ90)are on sale for 1588$ for the next 30 days.

 

[Kansas]

The pan on the Jacks are 14" wide x 28" long and 4" deep.
Sometimes I can go 3 weeks...depends on how cold it is (heat load).
I know I only dump my ashes maybe 7 or 8 times over an entire northern Mn. winter and I'm burning ash. Just think if I had a really good hardwood to burn.
They(BJ90)are on sale for 1588$ for the next 30 days.

Thanks for the insight Keith it makes me think my next heater may be a Yukon Jack I will let you know when I do that! (decent price btw does that include the blower and baro-damper etc?)

Actually that pan is only slightly bigger (deeper by 2" and wider by 4 1/2") than my HotBlast so the Yukon jack must be very much more efficient than mine is as far as burning the wood completely. I have a pan full every day and I run it only 10 hours average 5 days a week!

I probably go through 7-9 cords here at the shop from Oct to March average sounds like I could save myself some work having an efficient heater?

Kansas