I bought an OWB from a guy that owns his own steel business. He created his own design and produces them himself. I talked to several of his customers and they were satisfied. The stove was very well priced compared to the others I was looking at...
I am heading into my third heating season with it. I have had several problems with it but my main concern is I just cannot heat my house with it when the temps drop below zero. Now I have a large house with an open design (16' sidewalls and 32' peak) My heating system is all in floor radiant. 3 zones, one for each floor. The in-floor system is not designed properly but it keeps my house at 70 in 0-10 weather with my LP boiler.
When I run both the main floor zone and the basement zone I have a hard time keeping the incoming water temp at 140 degrees...heading into the exchanger (I have a plate exchanger from the OWB to my Polaris Boiler) The water going into the floor has been 110 deg. I would like it at 140 deg heading into the floors and 170 coming into the house. Cannot reach this with the OWB with both zones running together.
Here is what is interesting to me...I often have water boiling out of the fill stack on the OWB. I had a problem with my aquastat last year...it would run all the time and not heat the water up to the set temp. I found I could just use the air from the warped door (not good I know) as a natural draft and the stove seemed to operate better. I had to add water almost every day to the stove...which doesn't seem right to me. It was a lot of water...most of it lost to steam. The tank is a cylinder design around a round firebox. Both supply lines are at the top of the cylinder and the returns are at the bottom.
Basically...this not much better than me putting together my own system if I knew how to weld. Anything else you experienced readers need to know. Any helpful ideas would be appreciated!
Thanks
I am heading into my third heating season with it. I have had several problems with it but my main concern is I just cannot heat my house with it when the temps drop below zero. Now I have a large house with an open design (16' sidewalls and 32' peak) My heating system is all in floor radiant. 3 zones, one for each floor. The in-floor system is not designed properly but it keeps my house at 70 in 0-10 weather with my LP boiler.
When I run both the main floor zone and the basement zone I have a hard time keeping the incoming water temp at 140 degrees...heading into the exchanger (I have a plate exchanger from the OWB to my Polaris Boiler) The water going into the floor has been 110 deg. I would like it at 140 deg heading into the floors and 170 coming into the house. Cannot reach this with the OWB with both zones running together.
Here is what is interesting to me...I often have water boiling out of the fill stack on the OWB. I had a problem with my aquastat last year...it would run all the time and not heat the water up to the set temp. I found I could just use the air from the warped door (not good I know) as a natural draft and the stove seemed to operate better. I had to add water almost every day to the stove...which doesn't seem right to me. It was a lot of water...most of it lost to steam. The tank is a cylinder design around a round firebox. Both supply lines are at the top of the cylinder and the returns are at the bottom.
Basically...this not much better than me putting together my own system if I knew how to weld. Anything else you experienced readers need to know. Any helpful ideas would be appreciated!
Thanks