why DID I buy an OWB?????

[bassman]

today i am filling my boiler and waiting for my wood guy to drop off what he could dig out of his snow/woodpile and i started wondering this????
why did i buy this boiler ??
I am shopping for a new one and i see more efficient units all the time ....
there are multi fuel boilers that would allow me to burn waste oil and coal not to mention WOOD but at a higher effiency and really what that big word boils down to is me using less wood .
now i would miss the cleaning that my boiler lets me do like brush, leaves and deadfall but so what.
this year i have used over 12 cords of wood and as i watch the temp gauge slowly climb i also watch the smoke blow into the air .
somtimes i turn off my yard light and watch a pointy flame blow into the sky and think about the word effiency.
now it has been just over 1 year and 2 winters with this boiler and i used to love it with all the hooking up of exchangers and fittings ect but now that i am done i want to sit back and enjoy the heat and i can i just have to stuff it with wood every 6 hours.
oh well ....live and learn.

shayne

 

[stonykill]

today i am filling my boiler and waiting for my wood guy to drop off what he could dig out of his snow/woodpile and i started wondering this????
why did i buy this boiler ??
I am shopping for a new one and i see more efficient units all the time ....
there are multi fuel boilers that would allow me to burn waste oil and coal not to mention WOOD but at a higher effiency and really what that big word boils down to is me using less wood .
now i would miss the cleaning that my boiler lets me do like brush, leaves and deadfall but so what.
this year i have used over 12 cords of wood and as i watch the temp gauge slowly climb i also watch the smoke blow into the air .
somtimes i turn off my yard light and watch a pointy flame blow into the sky and think about the word effiency.
now it has been just over 1 year and 2 winters with this boiler and i used to love it with all the hooking up of exchangers and fittings ect but now that i am done i want to sit back and enjoy the heat and i can i just have to stuff it with wood every 6 hours.
oh well ....live and learn.

shayne

sounds like you didn't do enough homework before buying your owb. Only 6 hours of burn time, thats pathetic.

 

[CaseyForrest]

sounds like you didn't do enough homework before buying your owb. Only 6 hours of burn time, thats pathetic.

Agreed. I work with a guy who says on the coldest day here in MI he only needs to feed it once a day. He has radiant in his house and garage. Keeps it around 75.

 

[Fish4Brains]

Sounds to me like the heat isnt being transfered to the heated space well enough. I live in Mi and fill mine twice a day with dead pine. Its the best thing I ever did. My neigbor fills his house with wood and screws with his stove constantly. Not to mention when i put up a cord of wood it takes me 1/4 of the time it does him cuz it just doesnt need to be that small of pieces.
To each his own but I am not going back.

 

[beaverb01]

What brand is this OWB? I am going to be purchasing one later this year and would appreciate any suggestions you might have.

Beaver

 

[RIX]

I agree to a point with everyone else, except to say that every installation and application is different as well as each boiler is slightly different. We installed a heatmaster 5000 at my brothers house, heating the house, shop and hot water in Northern MN, we had weeks of below 0 f weather, and he has used about 8 cords since Sept. He fills it in the AM before work and in the PM before bed. If the temps are above 25f he can get away with 16 plus hour burn times. Again every application is different, lets not knock the concept, but if possible try to make inprovements to the systems the aren't operating as expected.

 

[MS-310]

oh sweet another bashing of an good thing.... I have one thing to say:

Bullpoop........your doing some thing wroung with only 6 hour burn time.:newbie: :newbie: :newbie:

 

[germy01]

I loaded mine yesterday morning still going today over 24 hours one load. My house has never been so warm, its an old 1930 farm house with 2x4 walls in northern Wisconsin. I use about 6 full cords a year. Why DID I buy an outdoor stove? The question is why did I wait to buy one. I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[RIX]

I loaded mine yesterday morning still going today over 24 hours one load. My house has never been so warm, its an old 1930 farm house with 2x4 walls in northern Wisconsin. I use about 6 full cords a year. Why DID I buy an outdoor stove? The question is why did I wait to buy one. I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree, my bro has nothing but good to say about and wished he had one years ago. His house and shop have never been so warm, and has unlimited hot water. Gotta love it.

 

[stipton]

Sounds like a pex insulation issue if the ol' burner is eating the wood. IMO

 

[ktm rider]

oh sweet another bashing of an good thing.... I have one thing to say:

Bullpoop........your doing some thing wroung with only 6 hour burn time.:newbie: :newbie: :newbie:

I disagree totally. I had one for 3 years and the very best i could manage was 10 hours burn time when it was about 25 degrees out. I have since sold it and bought an indoor boiler ( in my garage ) and my burn times have pretty much doubled. I use the same lines, same heat echanger, same everything, except the boiler. Not to mention the indoor unit was WAY less expensive.

 

[bassman]

first off my homework was done as i looked at 6 different kinds and my boiler is very well made and works like it should.
the pex insulation issue is crap because i can go 5 days just running the 2 loops of a total of 600ft on a fill of wood.
the problem is that i have a big house 2800 sq ft and a small 20 x 40 greenhouse that uses alot of heat but i only heat it in the spring .
in winter at minus 30c just heating my home with the help of a small fireplace burning for about 4 hours a day my boiler would run for 12 to 16 hours on a fill of good dry wood.
nothing wrong with that in my opinion.
but what was wrong was that i ate up my 8 cords of good wood in less than 2 months then i ate up my 4 cords of deadfall and now i have no wood for my greenhouse heating season .
I have been buying wood and on top of that it has been windy and my 100000 btu exchanger in the greenhouse is running all night and in 6 hours the load of wood is gone.
now it has warmed up to where it dosent freeze the puddles in the yard and my boiler is running 12 to 16 on a fill .
but i will have gone through at least 16 cords of wood and thats alot in my books.
my 2 biggest problems are wood usage and the fact that a day away from the boiler is hard to have happen as not just anyonee can fill it.

 

[A. Stanton]

today i am filling my boiler and waiting for my wood guy to drop off what he could dig out of his snow/woodpile and i started wondering this????
why did i buy this boiler ??
I am shopping for a new one and i see more efficient units all the time ....
there are multi fuel boilers that would allow me to burn waste oil and coal not to mention WOOD but at a higher effiency and really what that big word boils down to is me using less wood .
now i would miss the cleaning that my boiler lets me do like brush, leaves and deadfall but so what.
this year i have used over 12 cords of wood and as i watch the temp gauge slowly climb i also watch the smoke blow into the air .
somtimes i turn off my yard light and watch a pointy flame blow into the sky and think about the word effiency.
now it has been just over 1 year and 2 winters with this boiler and i used to love it with all the hooking up of exchangers and fittings ect but now that i am done i want to sit back and enjoy the heat and i can i just have to stuff it with wood every 6 hours.
oh well ....live and learn.

shayne

When some idiot lights a nuke off in the Middle East, and home heating oil goes to $5 or $10 a gallon--that is if you can get it--you will love that wood boiler.

 

[ktm rider]

When some idiot lights a nuke off in the Middle East, and home heating oil goes to $5 or $10 a gallon--that is if you can get it--you will love that wood boiler.

Bassman,

I am heating a 3,500sq. ft. log home and a 30X40 detached garage with my indoor unit and i get about 16 hour burns with my indoor unit.

 

[hornett22]

i do not understand,

my partner has a CB classic and he heats with forced air in the house,basement,and a four car garage.maybe 10 cords of wood and fills it up once a day,and that isn't necessary.it would easily go two or three days.

 

[bassman]

when you reply please post what temp you see in winter .
my boiler is great when it is only minus 8c but at 28c with a wind it is a whole different story.
I am sure in summer i could get 5 days of hot water and that if you think about it is dam good.
dont think i hate my boiler i justdont like the amount of wood it eats when it is really cold.

 

[stonykill]

I disagree totally. I had one for 3 years and the very best i could manage was 10 hours burn time when it was about 25 degrees out. I have since sold it and bought an indoor boiler ( in my garage ) and my burn times have pretty much doubled. I use the same lines, same heat echanger, same everything, except the boiler. Not to mention the indoor unit was WAY less expensive.

sounds like the only thing you didn't reuse was the buried pex tubing outdoors. That is most likely why you were using so much wood with the owb. Poor insulation underground.

 

[stonykill]

when you reply please post what temp you see in winter .
my boiler is great when it is only minus 8c but at 28c with a wind it is a whole different story.
I am sure in summer i could get 5 days of hot water and that if you think about it is dam good.
dont think i hate my boiler i justdont like the amount of wood it eats when it is really cold.

My boiler uses a lot more wood when its around 0 Fahrenheit and windy, but its not the boilers fault, my house and workshop are drafty. I have noticed in a few of your posts you mention the wood supply guy. I don't know about where you live, but so called seasoned wood is not seasoned around here. Its still pretty wet. One of the nice things about an owb is it will burn anything, but like any other Wood burner, dry seasoned wood is best. The furnace burns shorter times to heat the water, then it goes dormant. I burn a lot of pine logs and slabs from milling, but when the dead of winter hits, I stick with the dry seasoned stuff. It has been around zero Fahrenheit here during the day, windy, as it always seems to be here, I'm heating my shop, house and hot water, and still only fill it twice a day when its that cold. Above 25 Fahrenheit with less wind, once a day is fine most often. I still check it twice a day, but throw just a few pieces on.

 

[grandpatractor]

when you reply please post what temp you see in winter .
my boiler is great when it is only minus 8c but at 28c with a wind it is a whole different story.
I am sure in summer i could get 5 days of hot water and that if you think about it is dam good.
dont think i hate my boiler i justdont like the amount of wood it eats when it is really cold.

If you were heating with propane or any thing else you wouldn't like the amount of that fuel that you would be using either. Its just not as noticeable when you don't have to throw it in.

 

[tditodd]

I think at one time or another we all say (Man have to but more wood in.) but you did your home work and you know what you have and where you live. Us southerners have differant temps. then you have. So yes you will have shorter burn times. sometimes we don't always feel like loading it,cutting wood,stacking,hualing, But we don't miss that oil, gas truck in the driveway.