Shaver Improvement Forum

[derwood91]

Ended up getting a Natures Comfort and Love it...Same few qualities that sold me on my first shaver and is built way better. Comes with the blower mod Ranco and is completely powder coated. Only thing is the bottom is not insulated so I plan on exstending the skirt to the slab and insulating it that way.

I have the Natures Comfort and really like it!! I ended up using 2" blueboard up against the bottom of the water jacket as well as a skirt. Made a huge difference. I want to get the metal for the outside of the skirt just for looks.

I went away from Shaver when they kept jerking my dealer around on delivery dates. My dealer worked out a deal with Nature's Comfort.

 

[Fishhead]

Operation is pretty much the same. The shaver went back under warranty issues. It has everything people are tring to do to the shaver to make them refined. Are they good stoves? Probably but not for the money they get for them. I had several buddies look at it and say "how much you pay for that?" tell them over 5 grand and there jaw drops. I could get a nice load of wood in the shaver 250 but you earned it. Im only 30 years old cant imagine being in my 50's and tring to shove green wood in the thing. The NC 175 has a nice big door very well built heavy duty hinges, very nice locking system on the latch.
The blower motor is way bigger has the flap already installed. 1" ports, couldnt understand why the 250 came out 3/4" doesnt make sense for the btu output they say they have. A one piece roof!!! without a 1" silicone mess around the chimney. Also real rope gaskets around the door and a removable ash pan. List goes on and on. If i'm gonna spend that kind of money I want to be proud of my purchase not wish id never had lite it so I could return the thing to my dealer. I didnt know about the Natures Comfort brand until Id already had mine in operation. Same beefy qualitys with a very refined product.

 

[November Wolf]

My uncle has 2 CB 6048's.one at his farm,one at home.The ashes arent even an issue according to him.He says he emptys then 2-3x all winter.I dont have any reason to not believe him.

Your uncle is telling the truth.

 

[boyland]

I am curious how far the pipe extends down into the burn chamber. I am in the process of building a new boiler the first one I created a secondardy burn chamber this one I plan to extend a square tube pipe into the burn chamber about 8 inches and about 4 inches from the back.

What you all think?

 

[fify59thatsit]

ash auger

I've got the 290 an can put almost 4' logs in. I normally load 2 rows of 20" plus wood on the real cold nights, but burn time still isn't great because of the limited insulation. This summer I'm goind to add 2" hi density rigid foam boards all around the boiler, including beneath it. I think that should extend my burn times greatly. The woodmasters are nice until you need to clean out the ashes. I'm not sure how well the ash auger works, but the ones without can be a pain to clean.

ash augers just drill a HOLE in the ashes ,a small nail or pretty much anything will jamb them according to a friend

 

[fify59thatsit]

boiler

New Plate steel is 35 cents a pound at Gent Steel across the river from where I live in Indiana. Scrape steel is about 60 bucks a ton, so material for your own project is pretty cheap right now.
A person could search scape yards for a vessel for the fire box and other related items.Plans on ebay are cheap.
Use your own skills , use your friends skills ,or local talent along with everything that has been taught and learned on this site and make your own boiler.I sure wish I had. John

 

[yodayoda]

Well I haven't posted for awhile on the shaver thread, call me crazy but I went ahead and traded my 165 for the 290. Took me a full day to pull the siding off, insulated the bottom with fiberglass, then 2 pieces of 1" foil faced Styrofoam insulation, decided to only add the foil faced bubble wrap insulation to the sides, I was going to put styro, but it would have compressed the existing fiberglass so I didn't know if I would gain anything.
Also filled allot of gaps with fiberglass, slid stainless double wall chimney over the existing chimney, am in process of adding the ronco stat, (it did not come with the ronco, same cheapo stat as my 165) will also add more fiberglass to the roof.
Sorry I didn't take any pics, it's been so hot I didn't feel like going in the house, get the camera and monkeying with it.
Oh also I added Pipe to my top suction ports so it draws water from the front of the stove, returns it to the bottom back. I thought this would be easier than trying to run my return lines up front, good idea? Hope you say yes as I don't feel like changing it it was kind of a pain working through that hot water coil cover.
My wife says only I would completely take apart something brand new and try and improve it, I told her some of you guys did, and are doing this too
Thanks for all the ideas and I hope it all helps this winter as much as I think it will.

 

[ngzcaz]

Well... didn't think this thread was alive and well after all this time. I've spent the non raining days here in NE Pa. ( which are far and few between ) cutting some scrap junk pine that have been dead for years and still standing. Unfortunately when you cut and split them you can get an eye full of juice. So
much for drying while upright. Burnable yes, but probably losing a good deal of potential heat.
Has anyone noticed a crystalline substance weeping from any of their connections ? It has to be the stuff I put it according to the manufacturers specs. Seems like it could actually cut down the flow of water when the system is energized and the worst thing would be how to remove it from all the elbows etc etc throughout the system.

:monkey:

 

[hypothesis]

yodayoda, I also took my 290 apart and added extra insulation. I added 2" blue board to the sides, top, bottom and front. I didn't take off the back pannel. I had a days work in already. I paid attention to making sure that cuts were straight and joints were tight. Blue board went on first and then the factory insulation on top. With adding the blue board to the front, I had to buy new screws for attaching the siding since the original ones were now to short. The original screws for the sides were fine, just the front ones needed to be longer. Also for the front, I kept the blue board on top of the water jacket areas and used extra fiberglass around the doors where the metal is exposed to the firebox. Just an extra ounce of caution.

 

[yodayoda]

hypothesis, have you used your stove since adding the insulation? did it make a difference? I did't remove the back siding either, but I'm hoping insulating the bottom makes a big difference.
It still baffles me the bottom completely bare.

 

[hypothesis]

yodayoda, I have not used it since I added the extra insulation. I am curious as to how it'll perform. I can't imagine that it wouldn't make difference. I raised my 290 up 12 inches so the insulation on the bottom is all that much more important. I need to order extra siding to extend the sides to the ground, sealing off the bottom to keep the critters out and the wind.

 

[John D]

yodayoda, I have not used it since I added the extra insulation. I am curious as to how it'll perform. I can't imagine that it wouldn't make difference. I raised my 290 up 12 inches so the insulation on the bottom is all that much more important. I need to order extra siding to extend the sides to the ground, sealing off the bottom to keep the critters out and the wind.

When i set mine on a pad this summer,I am just going to run a full course of 8" block and a cap block under it,that should give me a foot raise,then ill just put r10 2" blue board 1ft high all around the inside,and keep the r 19 i have now under it,that should help a lot.

 

[yodayoda]

What type of pex fittings did you guys use? I used sharkbite fittings and Watts brand equivalent, 3 of the 4 watts brand leaked when I filled my new stove, none of the sharkbite ones leaked. Also none of any of my fittings leaked last winter so I was kind of surprised when I had leaks . I bit the bullet and bought a crimp tool and redid all the watts fittings with internal fittings and the stainless crimp rings, worked great. Now I'm wondering if I should redo all the sharkbite fittings also:censored:
I have to rebuild my BIL trany on his caravan this week so I don't know when I'll get back at my stuff. aint family great:taped:

 

[fify59thatsit]

drillspot solenoid

Did anyone else lose a drillspot solenoid last season.
Mine quite after about 4 weeks of use? John

 

[yodayoda]

Did anyone else lose a drillspot solenoid last season.
Mine quite after about 4 weeks of use? John

A what?

 

[John D]

Did anyone else lose a drillspot solenoid last season.
Mine quite after about 4 weeks of use? John

I dont think my OWB has one of those.I lose my tools,and mind all the time though if that counts for anything....

 

[fify59thatsit]

drillspot solenoid

Sorry ,I should have explained better.
I was referring to the 110 volt solenoid I bought from drillspot .com to open the flap on my blower motor when the ranco stat calls for heat.
Mine lasted about4 weeks last season, and was curious if anyone had one give up also? John

 

[yodayoda]

I did the ronco mod on my new stove, but no flapper mod, thought I would try it this way first, I did go ahead and change out all my sharkbite fittings for the internal ones with the crimp rings,(see post 514 above) now I was reading on woodboiler solutions website, they do not recommend any aluminum components in your system. I have a homemade heat exchanger in my shop made out on aluminum car radiator:censored: Now I'm thinkin I should change that out, I'm gettin real tired of this project

 

[fletcher0780]

I haven't done a single thing with my shaver other than draining it. I'm waiting for a friend to come over with his excavator so I can level off the area around it for a shed and lift it up on some blocks. I still need to pull it apart and insulate it and I'm trying to figure out the best way to do the bottom. I plan to use that high density foam with the silver coating the same way most of you have used the blueboard, but I may just spray foam it?

My drillspot solenoid worked well all winter.

 

[Fishhead]

I sat my 250 on a 2" piece of foam. Legs are pipe so it cut threw the insulation and sat on the concrete. Worked well.