Home owners insurance is going replacing my OWB

[waldershrek]

You may remember from another thread I started, I bought a house back in May that already had an older Taylor OWB installed. It's an older unit that wasn't maintained properly and this week sprung two leaks on opposite sides right on the weld where the side plates meet the bottom plate. At the suggestion of a co-worker, I checked with my insurance company and they will cover it. I have a $1000 deductible but everything else will be paid by them. So now I unexpectedly find myself looking for a new OWB. I am going to buy the boiler from a local dealer and have my uncle who is a plumbing/heating/ac/electrician guy install it.

The current set up has the Taylor stove heating the house and garage. It is set up to do the hot water as well but I chose to stick with using the electric for hot water. The house is about 1800 sq ft and the garage is about 600 sq ft. I will be buying the new OWB from a local stocking dealer. I have an Empyre (right in town 5 miles away), Heatmor and Central Boiler (both about 40 miles away) in my area. I'm sure the question has been asked a thousand times but which one should I get? I'm not all about the fanciest, in fact the simpler the better (less to break in my mind).

I also am wondering if I can use my current piping and stuff. Obviously with an OWB already in place everything is already there. I'm currently running hot water via circulators to the plenum in my forced air furnace (one in the house and one in the garage).

 

[mybowtie]

Should be able to hook it up to your existing lines. Go to each dealer and look at the different brands.
try a get a feel for which dealer will be there for you if the OWB need work at some point.

 

[zogger]

O nce you have the old one out, and new one in, maybe you can restore it? Better than just scrapping it maybe.

 

[waldershrek]

O nce you have the old one out, and new one in, maybe you can restore it? Better than just scrapping it maybe.

Maybe. At a minimum it will need angle iron or something welded on the bottom seams. At worse, possibly all new sides. Hadn't really thought that far ahead.

 

[waldershrek]

I'm running into some confusion with Empyre.

Is it this one: EmpyreOutsideWoodStove

or this one: Wood Burning Stoves | Wood Furnace | Outdoor Furnace | Outdoor Wood Stoves - Home

 

[waldershrek]

Apparently my wonderful state also restricts OWB's and only certain models are approved for use. Of the three brands I have it narrowed down to these are the only ones that make the cut:

Empyre Pro series 200
Central Boiler E-classic 1400 and 1450
Heatmor 200 SSR II

I also don't think that the current underground piping is pex. Best I can tell looking at each end, it looks like regular black corrugated pipe filled with some sort of foam. Would it be worth while to upgrade the underground piping since I'm upgrading to a much more efficient boiler?

 

[russhd1997]

Apparently my wonderful state also restricts OWB's and only certain models are approved for use. Of the three brands I have it narrowed down to these are the only ones that make the cut:

Empyre Pro series 200
Central Boiler E-classic 1400 and 1450
Heatmor 200 SSR II

I also don't think that the current underground piping is pex. Best I can tell looking at each end, it looks like regular black corrugated pipe filled with some sort of foam. Would it be worth while to upgrade the underground piping since I'm upgrading to a much more efficient boiler?

Can you post some pics of the pipe? If it isn't insulated Pex I would replace it.

Don't know much about the Empyre and Heatmor boilers. Most of the people that have OWB's around here have Centrals and like them including me.

 

[mybowtie]

Apparently my wonderful state also restricts OWB's and only certain models are approved for use. Of the three brands I have it narrowed down to these are the only ones that make the cut:

Empyre Pro series 200
Central Boiler E-classic 1400 and 1450
Heatmor 200 SSR II

I also don't think that the current underground piping is pex. Best I can tell looking at each end, it looks like regular black corrugated pipe filled with some sort of foam. Would it be worth while to upgrade the underground piping since I'm upgrading to a much more efficient boiler?

Where in NY are ya...I'm near the NY, MA border.

Some of the OWB PEX lines are in a corrugated pipe. Mine is like that. Snap a pic of where the line hooks to your HX.

 

[Encore]

Cold time of year to spring a leak. That sucks. Pretty cool though that insurance is going to cover it!

 

[Kemper]

You could even sell the old one to somebody that would fix it up.

Also you should reconsider hooking up the domestic hot water, it doesn't take much to plumb it up and it's a really nice feature with the OWB, I believe that mine is saving me around 30 a month on electricity...

 

[jh35]

......
Also you should reconsider hooking up the domestic hot water, it doesn't take much to plumb it up and it's a really nice feature with the OWB, I believe that mine is saving me around 30 a month on electricity...

My folks are saving $35/month --In laws are saving around $30/month--electricity

Me--no propane bill!!! Yee-haa!!

 

[walkerdogman85]

i just called my insurance and they told me my hardy owb would be covered if something happened like a tree falling on it or hail damage etc. thats good to hear cause i didnt know this

 

[Jere39]

You may remember from another thread I started, I bought a house back in May that already had an older Taylor OWB installed. It's an older unit that wasn't maintained properly and this week sprung two leaks on opposite sides right on the weld where the side plates meet the bottom plate. At the suggestion of a co-worker, I checked with my insurance company and they will cover it. I have a $1000 deductible but everything else will be paid by them. So now I unexpectedly find myself looking for a new OWB. I am going to buy the boiler from a local dealer and have my uncle who is a plumbing/heating/ac/electrician guy install it.

The current set up has the Taylor stove heating the house and garage. It is set up to do the hot water as well but I chose to stick with using the electric for hot water. The house is about 1800 sq ft and the garage is about 600 sq ft. I will be buying the new OWB from a local stocking dealer. I have an Empyre (right in town 5 miles away), Heatmor and Central Boiler (both about 40 miles away) in my area. I'm sure the question has been asked a thousand times but which one should I get? I'm not all about the fanciest, in fact the simpler the better (less to break in my mind).

I also am wondering if I can use my current piping and stuff. Obviously with an OWB already in place everything is already there. I'm currently running hot water via circulators to the plenum in my forced air furnace (one in the house and one in the garage).

Please forgive my ignorance, but what kind of homeowner insurance pays on a failure of an "appliance"? Was this a home warranty or OWB warranty, or a regular homeowner insurance policy. I'm in PA, and never heard of a policy here that would cover such a thing, unless a wind blown tree had fallen on it or something like that. A heat source failure, whether due to age, neglect, maintenance or wear would never be covered.

 

[confused8122]

I don't know the op story, but as far as insurance, mine won't pay for maintenance items. Ie if it wore out, no pay. But.... I had an indoor boiler in my basement. Circulation pump quit, stove over heated and made itself useless. After taking someone's advice, called insurance company, they wouldn't pay for a new pump, but were more than willing to pay for the damage the failed pump caused. Indoor boiler prices that meet code are crazy, completely paid for my new owb. So i learned insurance won't pay to fix something you should of maintained, or could be expected to fail. But will pay for damage caused by lack of maintaince. As far as stove rusting and leaking, as I understand it, my insurance would not cover that.

 

[walkerdogman85]

my agent said they would not cover it if it leaked lack of maintanence but would pay if it froze and busted

 

[walkerdogman85]

they said it would be like having a water pipe inside bust so i figure there are loop holes but i guess i never knew that they would cover that i just thought that i would be out if something would happen

 

[waldershrek]

Where in NY are ya...I'm near the NY, MA border. /QUOTE]

35 miles south of syracuse

Also you should reconsider hooking up the domestic hot water, it doesn't take much to plumb it up and it's a really nice feature with the OWB, I believe that mine is saving me around 30 a month on electricity...

Yeah the one I have now is already plumbed for it I just never used it because it burns wood so quick that if we ever left for the day I would prolly only have warm water by the time I got home so I chose to just let the water heater do it's job. Now that I'm replacing the stove though and the new ones are so much more efficient and don't burn as quick I think I will be using it for hot water.

Please forgive my ignorance, but what kind of homeowner insurance pays on a failure of an "appliance"? Was this a home warranty or OWB warranty, or a regular homeowner insurance policy. I'm in PA, and never heard of a policy here that would cover such a thing, unless a wind blown tree had fallen on it or something like that. A heat source failure, whether due to age, neglect, maintenance or wear would never be covered.

This is just a regular home owners policy through state farm. There is a little more to the story though.....the other day (around 10am) I was out tending to the stove and it was low on water. I opened the fill valve a little while I was removing ash and throwing in wood when I heard my dogs (they were outside doing their thing) barking at something. I shut the fire box door and ran out of the shed to find the dogs were running towards the road where a neighbor was waling her dog by the house. So I called them back, put them back inside, then went and shut the shed door and went inside. Later that afternoon I came out (around 230pm) and there was water pouring out of the steam pipe in the roof of the shed and water pouring out of the sight glass on the front of the stove. It took me a minute to realize that I had stupidly left the fill valve on and it had been on for a few hours. The water temp was down to 50 degrees in the boiler from 190 degrees a few hours ago. I drained water out to get it back to the level where it should be and loaded the firebox with wood to get the water back up to where it should be. By the time my girlfriend got home a couple hours later, the stove was leaking from cracks on two different sides. the reason home owners covered it was we are using the premise that me cooling the boiler too rapidly caused the cracks, basically I damaged it. No different on paper than if I had backed into it with my truck or a tree fell on it. They said that if it had been in normal operation and sprung the leaks it would not have been covered.


Upon further review of my underground pipe it is indeed pex from the house to the boiler so that I will just be leaving however from the boiler to the garage they apparently just ran copper pipe under ground and I'm losing a lot of heat so I'm going to be getting a section of pex to replace that although it won't be installed until spring probably as all my wood is in the shed and over the pipe.


On friday I spoke to Heatmor dealer in Balwinsville, Central Boiler dealer in Madison and Empyre dealer right here in town. The heatmor guy really knows his stuff. Has been doing this for quite awhile and is an energy guy by trade before he retired and started the stove business. The Central Boiler dealer also really knows his stuff and has been in business for quite awhile. They didn't have a 1400 in stock but he has a 1450 and they are basically the same stove. I feel really confident in both these guys not only for the sale but service after the sale. The Empyre guy on the other hand.....I was really disappointed in him. Truthfully I was leaning towards Empyre because he's right in town however when I called to ask about going to look at one, he said he didn't have any in stock. Initially he said he planned to place an order for a couple on Monday but by the end of the conversation he said he was gonna hold off on ordering one until he figured out if I was buy it or not. Then I learned that this is a part time business for this guy that he started recently. So now I'm worried about how much he really knows about these stove since he didn't seem to sure about various features during our talk. He also apparently pays some guy that doesn't even work for him to install the stoves. This guy just does it on the side to help the owner out because "he doesn't really know too much about installing them". So I think the Empyre dealer voted themselves right out of the picture. So basically it's down to either Heatmor 200 or Central Boiler 1450.

 

[waldershrek]

Just wanted to update this.....Oddly enough I have decided to go with the Empyre Pro 200 lol


As I explained before I wasn't real happy with the Empyre dealer so I called Pro Fab and asked for the next closest dealer because I really wanted to look at an actual stove and explained why I wasn't happy with my closest dealer. The Pro Fab guy was very helpful and answered all my questions about the stove itself and said that my closest dealer had just ordered a Pro 200 and it should be to him the following day. He also had the dealer call me. We talked at some length about why I wasn't happy and ultimately I believe we resolved it. I went down the following day and looked at the stove I really like it the best out of any of them. Very well built, very simple, no electronics (other than to set water temp), fire brick on basically every interior surface, simple ash removal system. Just an overall simple and well built unit.

The Heatmor was a close second. It just had more electronics which I felt would be prone to failure in the future and I didn't like the ash auger system. Seemed like one more thing to break and it was too low to the ground to get anything like a bucket under it. The dealers answer was to auger ashes out on to the ground and then shovel it up which I didn't think was a practical solution.

As soon as I get the new unit I'll post up some pics.