In anycase, few years latter and looking for a wood furnace. What in the heck happened? $1600 furnace is now $2800 and that is if you can find one. Anyone have any insight on availability or a different manufacture? Looking for something 2k or under, or would I be better off waiting till next year? Hopefully the EPA fallout will settle by then.
Looking for a Wood furnace...Again
- Thread starter grapepbj
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I think all stoves will eventually crack . My grandads potbelly stove had cracks 60 years ago . I have the same Drolet furnace you do with cracks . I crack the glass last year the c cast needed replaced . I did the repairs new glass c cast and fixed the cracks in the steel . Not sure how the steel repair will work ? I drilled the cracks and filled with high temp jb weld . My stove door still shuts good doing the paper test . Now if I had the money I would buy the Kumma . The one thing about metal it can be repaired . I don't see any safety issue with small cracks . If the door is not wrap .
The new EPA regs for 2020 have eliminated most options. There is the firechief/shelter unit at the box stores - don't even think about it as it is junk and will soon loose it's EPA certification. There is the Kuuma vaporfire 100 but last I checked it's around $5k - it is a great furnace though. The Drolet Heat Commander maybe available soon at $2800- it's basically a Tundra III and the cracking issue should be resolved. I'm still using a Tundra with the add on flue temp controls and it's still doing great at 5 years. The cracking issue really doesn't affect performance. Your only other option is used.
the cracks happened within 30 days. Furnaces are long gone. The 1st one was setting of the CO detector.
Familiar with the Kuuma, but out of budget. I no longer have a wood furnace, but still have 4 cord of wood so would like to get something. Looks like I will be putting it off again. I looked at the new firechief, but track record is not good and this is the 1st year for that model so no feedback.
Pretty slim pickings right now. The new epa regs for wood furnace is pretty tough to meet. As far as the Firechief if it's this model:
https://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/fi...nace/0000000333296?bc=11434|11695|11721|11725Don't bother, it's junk. I can provide links to very unsatisfied owners if you like but I'll have to PM you them as this forum does not allow links to a competing forum. Word has it that it will be loosing it's epa certification soon as well.
You must have been pushing that furnace pretty hard. If the cracks were in the front of the unit around the door it should have only allowed more combustion air into the firebox not exhaust out unless you had draft problems or experienced back puffing. I have two tundra's installed and the first one is only now showing hairline cracks by the door corners(need a bright light to see them). I did install a flue temp monitoring system that shuts the air inlet if flue temps exceed 600F. This has probably saved it from cracking worse then it has. I also installed the retrofit firebrick kit that protects the front of the furnace better as well.
Drolet has since fixed the cracking problem on the Tundra II and I assume the same redesign would apply to the new Heat Commander.
ChoppyChoppy
Tree Freak
What are the new regs? Thus is the first I hear of this.
Once again the EPA sticking their fingers in things... can only make exhausts so clean.
Look at the impractical DEF systems on diesels now. It's seriously reduced diesel reliability and longevity and increased costs.
Once again the EPA sticking their fingers in things... can only make exhausts so clean.
Look at the impractical DEF systems on diesels now. It's seriously reduced diesel reliability and longevity and increased costs.
yep...user error. Cant possibly be anything else....especially with no information given to draw that conclusion. Now that we settled that, I reeducated the original post since the information I gave was outside the scope of the question.
That is the one I looked at. I did see those post as well since I have been keeping an eye on this for 9-12 months. I wonder how there are unsatisfied people with the 2020 model. unless it actually came out in 2019 and they installed it at the end of the season. in anycase, I dont know if I would want 1st year anything. I had #9 in production of the tundra, and that did not go very well. I think I started looking at the wrong time, but wanted to check in with others here.
Don't know if Firechief has made changes/improvements for the 2020 model. Hopefully. If so both the 2020 firechief unit and the Drolet Heat Commander could be considered brand new and will have no user feedback yet. I would trust the Drolet model way before the Firechief. Drolet supported cracked tundras pretty well, and Firechief did not support problems well at least from info I've picked up on forums. Kuuma is the only proven unit available at this point.
Has the furnace version of the Englander NC30 stove made the recent cut? Guessing it should have as the freestanding NC30 did and is advertised as available from what I understand. May be worth a look? Dunno. I believe it was a rather reasonable priced unit.
Somebody here has the furnace version from last year. I believe. @Mustang71 maybe?
Somebody here has the furnace version from last year. I believe. @Mustang71 maybe?
well that answers that. Drolet has always been good with support. Apparently, firechief went the other way with that. I guess I will hold out for Drolet. The other option is a wood stove for now, but dont want to keep lugging wood furnaces into the basement. Also, dont have any inside access to the basement.
I believe that is a woodstove, not wood furnace? I am looking for a furnace, but if I was looking for a stove-- drolet ht2000 would be on the top of my list. Had that stove before and it is solid.
And just to complicate things further, the Drolet Heat Commander is not on the EPA certified list yet. I assume it is in the process of certification. So even though it's on Drolet's factory store site, I don't think it can be purchased yet for the US market. As far as the Englanders furnace, it is basically a 30NC stove with a air jacket and blower that is hooked to ductwork, everything else about it is like running a manual woodstove. It's model 28-4000 and not on the epa list either.
My englander 28-4000 is epa certified. And yes its a nc 30 with a jacket and bigger blower. Idk what the recent regulations are for epa furnace. I didnt know they had new ones. I paid like 1100 or something for the englander and you get what you pay for I guess. It heats my house fine and leaves the chimney clean. There's nothing special about it.
Looks like those new regulations are really strict on wood furnaces. No wonder they are real expensive now.
D
Deleted member 117362
Guest
Just go with a OWB and keep fire risk and mess outside. It only hurts your wallet once and makes heating much safer and easier.
Yep, new regs went into effect May or June 2020. Only Kuuma VF100 and Firechief/shelter have a furnace on the current list and the firechief/shelter got a special exemption some how. I understand it really does not meet the spec. Apparently all the EPA rollbacks in the last 4 years do not apply to us wood burners.
The EPA list can be found here: https://cfpub.epa.gov/oarweb/woodstove/index.cfm?fuseaction=app.searchwh
Well I guess this new regs make sense to me know, I have a few "neighbors" that have sacked their old wood furnaces and went the OWB route. It's a bit of a pain to do if you didnt have one before, but not impossible. (As far as the township permits go) wife and I were talking about replacing our old hot blast furnace in the next few years...
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