Woodmaster stoves

[buckeyebuck]

I am going to put in a outdoor wood furnace before next winter I think I have narrowed it down to a Woodmaster. I would appreciate any reviews anybody might have on them or what kind they have and how they like them. Stay thirsty my friends

 

[Bcat22]

I've got a 4400 and love it. i heat a 3300 sqft house with radient heat in the basement and a 50 hot water tank. i only load my stove once a day about 2/3 full with a good thick layer of ash in the bottom.there are a few things you can do to make sure you love yours as much as i love mine...

make sure you use a big enough pump. i hear people on here complaining about their stove not keeping the house warm all the time. nine times out of ten is the pump, either too small of bad.

make sure you add a bypass valve to heating coils in your furnace, if your going forced air. I didn't think about it when i had mine installed, and now i have to rip it all apart this spring so i can burn all summer for hot water. (my uncle does this, loades the stove about every 6 days for hot water in the summer)

place it somewhere that you can build a wood shed near by, you may say who needs it now.... but that first winter will probably change your mind.

if you have specific questions, i'd be happy to answer them

 

[mybowtie]

Like mine alot. I load mine twice a day. Could get away with once a day, but i get a nore consistant burn loading it twice. I have neighbors fairly close so i never burned durring the summer. Not that I can since NY danned summer burning.

 

[jcappe]

This is my third winter heating with my 4400. I heat a 4,000 sq ft house and my hot water. I load it 1/2 full twice a day unless it is really cold a little over half leaves me with plenty of burning wood to get the new load going. I piped mine into my forced air system and it works great. My main suggestion is if you have hard water pipe your HX in so it can be removed for cleaning. This really played hell with my heating capability last winter. Also use good underground piping. Good Luck.

 

[Sawmill]

I have a Woodmaster 4400 and am going on the 5 th year using it. I have not had any problems with it. I fill it half full in the morning and again at night. This year is the first year burning hard wood and it work great. I have been burning a mix of maple and popular and that works to.

 

[war-wagon]

make sure you use a big enough pump. i hear people on here complaining about their stove not keeping the house warm all the time. nine times out of ten is the pump, either too small of bad.

suggestions on pump? can't cite the brand off the top of my head but it has 3 variable speeds on it, currently set on the lowest. i've been tinkering with my mixing valve too. just doesn't seem to cut the mustard the way i'd like it to. basement is great but the first floor (own zone) seems a touch under par for my liking. maybe the high ceilings are playing a factor too?

 

[oneoldbanjo]

I am on my 4th year with my 4400. It works just fine and I heat a 2,100 square foot house, domestic water and a 1,800 square foot garage.

The only thing that I don't like about the design is the lack of an ash pan/grate system to help control the coals/ashes. A few people on this site have tried the Woodmaster ash auger and it did not work well for them. Without any grate it takes some time to rake and control the coal bed so that it burns and doesn't just smother the coals beneath the ash. I have made a curved shovel with hardware cloth bottom that helps get the coals back up on top of the ashes - and just last weekend I made a grate and installed it.....and so far it is working very well and I can just throw the new wood on top of the grate without having to worry about doing any raking of coals.

 

[oneoldbanjo]

Here is a picture of the grate I built last weekend. It has been in operation about 5 days and so far it looks promising. Our weather is up in the 40's so there is a lot of black on the OWB right now as it is not making much heat. There is no longer a need to do any raking of coals - you just throw on more wood and the coals burn up and turn to ashes and fall through the stretched metal on the bottom of the grate. This morning I took the first two shovels of ash out and they were nice and powdery and burned up. I am going to add some stretched metal to the angled sides this weekend. The middle grate is made out of steel angle from some extra window lintels that I had left over, the sides are made out of left over #4 rebar. The grate is 18" wide and 29" long an sits up on 4 feet that are resting on fire bricks to keep the feet from digging into the steel of the firebox. The sides are 12 inches long and rest against the side of the OWB on a rebar that I ground smooth on the edges so nothing digs into the firebox. The sides are removable and rest in holes in the grate so everything can be removed easily.

The grate takes up some room and cuts down on how much wood you can load into the OWB. My plan is to only use the grate when I am burning smaller wood and it is not horribly cold. When it is really cold out I will probably remove the grate and start using the larger pieces of wood again - this grate is an attempt to allow me to use smaller pieces of wood while cutting down on the amount of raking that I need to do to control the ash bed.View attachment 173511

The photo is a bit misleading as it looks like the fire went out! I took this picture this morning at 5:30 and it was dark outside. The OWB had last been loaded at 9:00 the night before and the blower was just about to kick in when I opened the door to load in wood for the day. When I opened the door the wood had glowing coals and the camera flash made the photo look like the fire was out - it looks far more impressive when the fire is actually burning!

 

[Butch(OH)]

Like Banjo I am in my fourth heating season with a 4400. I am heating my 1 1/2 story cape cod and my work shop plus domestic. Had my first breakdown last fall when the water level LED quit and had to replace it. So far, no complaints what so ever with Woodmaster or the stove. Would buy another without hesitation,, I think? I haven't priced them lately, LOL.

 

[Bcat22]

well, first off, Banjo, i'm glad i'm not the only one with that nasty tar like creosote in my stove, once in a while i will burn it out, but it always comes back.... oh well.

high ceilings will make for more work, but i'd put money on the water flow not being enough to move the heat where you need it. as far as i am concerned, the more flow you can have the better off you will be. try setting the pump on the highest setting and see what happens.

BTW... mixing valve? do you have a seperate loop/pump running your first floor heat? shared water or heat exchanger?...just being nosey:msp_huh:

 

[bowtechmadman]

I have the 5500 and this was the first year w/ any issues...5th year burning. Developed a leak in the outer water jacket towards the top...noticed when filling. Guessing i'm down maybe 30gals of water to stay below the leak. That shouldn't be a bad repair this spring...didn't want to tear it apart this winter to weld it up.
Heat exchanger to get a good soak as well have hard water and struggled a bit for the first time w/ getting the temps I wanted.
Even with these two issues I've maintained 73 heating 3800sq feet and domestic hot water.

 

[motoman3b]

I have a unit similar to the woodmaster built by a local fabricator.... The only problem I had with mine on the 3rd year my taco 011 pump went out replaced it with a bell and gossett pump that was a little more money but better quality so hopefully this pump will last longer only time will tell

 

[war-wagon]

bcat,

let me attempt to draw you a picture of my prized possession; the copper loop that is connected to anything and everything. the loop goes like this.........

feed in from stove, first stop mixing valve, next is a bypass to heat exchanger (turned off, don't heat with the tankless water heater) then on to zones one, two and three followed by a return bypass from heat exchanger, pit stop on the tail end of the mixing valve and the return line dies into the wall.

make sense? i should probably post a pic and solicit comments, maybe i'm losing heat to something else. i'll try cranking up the pump on the stove for now. figures, only getting warmer out these days.

on a totally different note; couldn't agree with you more about the woodshed. fought tarps for 2 1/2 seasons. it is going up this spring!

 

[Bcat22]

i wouldn't mind seeing some kind of pic or diagram. the placement of the mixing valve COULD be the issue. i know the one i use on my hot water tank kills the flow on my domestic water, might be slowing the flow of your OWB pump.... i'll wait for the info