# Who makes the MOST Efficient OWB?



## Deadman (Jan 7, 2008)

I'm getting ready to build a house and I am looking to purchase an OWB in roughely 6 months. I am wondering who makes the most efficient OWB? 
I'll be heating a newly constructed house (well insulated) in Northern Wisconsin. The house will be roughely 2,000 square feet, and I also plan on heating my 3 stall garage (in-floor), and possibly in the future will add on another garage and MIGHT heat that. 

I'll gladly spend more Money on a good quality boiler NOW, so I don't have to replace it in the near future, and also so it doesn't just burn a mountain of wood. 

So what manufacturers do you recommend, or any special features to look for? 

Thanks in advance!


----------



## grandpatractor (Jan 7, 2008)

Deadman said:


> I'm getting ready to build a house and I am looking to purchase an OWB in roughely 6 months. I am wondering who makes the most efficient OWB?
> I'll be heating a newly constructed house (well insulated) in Northern Wisconsin. The house will be roughely 2,000 square feet, and I also plan on heating my 3 stall garage (in-floor), and possibly in the future will add on another garage and MIGHT heat that.
> 
> I'll gladly spend more Money on a good quality boiler NOW, so I don't have to replace it in the near future, and also so it doesn't just burn a mountain of wood.
> ...



Garn and Tarm make pretty effiecient boilers , I know that garn have to be put inside a building, which might work out with your shop or something


----------



## Deadman (Jan 7, 2008)

I'd gladly build a small block building to put it in if that was needed to get into a better boiler.........do you have any links, or the companys full name? Then I could do some searching for more info. Thanks


----------



## grandpatractor (Jan 7, 2008)

Deadman said:


> I'd gladly build a small block building to put it in if that was needed to get into a better boiler.........do you have any links, or the companys full name? Then I could do some searching for more info. Thanks



Check your pm's


----------



## rx7145 (Jan 7, 2008)

Your limited to Garn or Central Boiler. CB has no info on there web site I talked to a dealer and he said that they are all custom built and must be ordered from CB. They are about 10K. The garn is about 10K also. Look into both. Here is the garn link: http://www.dectra.net/garn/ 

P.S. Hardy also clams to have a gas unit. I have never seen one; somthing to look into.


----------



## Deadman (Jan 8, 2008)

So with the Garn, you fire up and burn a couple loads of wood in a few hours, and then let the fire go out again.......and heat with the stored energy in the water you heated up????????????? Seems like a pain to have to start a fire every day or every other day. I think I'd rather have a maintained fire, but I'm a newbie at this boiler stuff.


----------



## rx7145 (Jan 8, 2008)

Deadman said:


> So with the Garn, you fire up and burn a couple loads of wood in a few hours, and then let the fire go out again.......and heat with the stored energy in the water you heated up????????????? Seems like a pain to have to start a fire every day or every other day. I think I'd rather have a maintained fire, but I'm a newbie at this boiler stuff.



I think that is how it works. They have a video that I saw the fire started very easy it might be because they "suck" the smoke out rather than blow it into the fire box. 

They also said to stoke every other day. CB also said 48 hour burn time :monkey: 

I still like the garn though.


----------



## ktm rider (Jan 8, 2008)

rx7145 said:


> . CB also said 48 hour burn time :monkey:
> 
> .



HORSE HOCKEY !!!

I will tell you why I think that. How can they actually tell you that you will have a 48 hour burn time? they don't know how big your house is, how well insulated, the wind and temps outside, the kind of wood being used. etc......this is just a sales ploy. If any manufacturer guarantees you a burn time that high, i would run away as fast as i could. they are feeding you a sales pitch and not being honest.:monkey:


----------



## bassman (Jan 8, 2008)

I have a central boiler knockoff and love and hate it.
all of what I or anyone says will not make sence unless you are on your second year of burning wood to heat water to heat your home .
Tarm and garn and CB all work but you have to consider what will work for you ...
what wood can you get or have alot of.
garn and tarm need very dry good small wood where my boiler will burn almost anything and it may use up to 30% of what it burns and turn it into heat .
I can light up the sky with the fire that blows from my stack where as a tarm unit will warm your hands at the stack...
you have time . look and read .

If i was to do it all over I would install a tarm with a coal and oil burner add on so I could burn waste oil and coal and wood and pellets and grain and corn .


whatever you buy take the time to see it in action and stay the night or week so you know what you are getting into.

shayne


----------



## windthrown (Jan 8, 2008)

Well, I dunno about there being no info on the Central Boiler(CB) site... unless you are referring to the new EPA certified boiler that they are working on. They have tons of stuff on their models, designs, in-home heating and retrofitting, etc. on their web site: www.centralboiler.com. 

I have a CB here and I designed and installed the heating system, retrofitting the CB boiler into an existing solar hot water heater and hydronic floor heater. It works very very well. If I had it to do all over again, I would use this system again. We have gobs of wood here though, more than we can possibly burn from our own 85 acres of tree stand, or surrounding slash available after clear cutting. If I was here to build this house, I would have opted for building a Russian style fireplace in the center of the house. These are about as efficient as you can get. 

The advantages of a CB type boiler is that you toss in wood and forget about it. You can cut large size logs that you do not have to split. You can burn just about any type of wood: hardwood, softwood, dry wood, wet wood, green wood, construction scrap wood, rotted wood, buggy wood, dry rot wood, sawdust, old furniture, and paper. Just about anything but treated wood. They also come complete so you can put them on a slab or gravel bed and hook them up. With some of the gassifier type boilers (ie, Greenwood) they are not fitted with an outside compartment or siding, and you have to put them in the house someplace, or build a shed for them. They also require smaller dry wood, and they have to be loaded a lot. They are a lot more efficient though. I know some people that got Greenwood systems and have regretted it. Most people I know with CBs like them, and the only real issue is that they are not that efficient. In the northeast they get a lot of complaints about smoke, but if anything, the boiler we have in full operation does not smoke that much, far less then our fireplace does, and only for short periods of time when the vent is open. Most of the time it hardly smokes at all. 

Anyway, good luck with your decision...


----------



## Deadman (Jan 8, 2008)

As for Wood, thats not going to be a problem for me. I have a couple of 40's with excellent wood on them. Mostly red oak, white oak, hard maple, beech, ash, Hickory and Ironwood! 
I'll definately be burning seasoned wood, but it'd be nice to just cut big wood and be able to feed that right into a larger burner. 

I really dislike starting a new fire every other day, so I'd rather go for a longer burning boiler (I think anyway). I'm really just looking for feedback on all the different types and styles, so this thread is priceless! 
Thanks for all your comments and feedback.


----------



## Farmerjon (Jan 8, 2008)

I am located in North West Indiana, have had a CB for seven winters. The only regret I have is I didn't purchase it earlier!!! My propane guy tried to wear out my driveway the first winter, oh I put 200 gallons in this spring because they were going to take the tank, we use if for our cookstove and dryer. Otherwise, forced air in the old part of the house, added on with the money saved from propane after the second year and put hot water in the slab. Also use it on our hot water heater so keep a fire going 24/7 365 days a year. Use pine slab in the summer for hot water. Hard woods in the winter. Can't tell you comparison for new stoves or other OWB as this is my first and only. Had one pump go bad, they paid for it and shipping. Blew a fuse on the vent door, otherwise, fill and forget. Consumption, a wheel barrow a day if zero or below. Yep, other post was correct, green wood, split wood, rounds, spalted, whatever, it will consume it.


----------



## hanko (Jan 8, 2008)

Deadman said:


> I'm getting ready to build a house and I am looking to purchase an OWB in roughely 6 months. I am wondering who makes the most efficient OWB?
> I'll be heating a newly constructed house (well insulated) in Northern Wisconsin. The house will be roughely 2,000 square feet, and I also plan on heating my 3 stall garage (in-floor), and possibly in the future will add on another garage and MIGHT heat that.
> 
> I'll gladly spend more Money on a good quality boiler NOW, so I don't have to replace it in the near future, and also so it doesn't just burn a mountain of wood.
> ...


. I will try to answer your question, none of them are very efficient.


----------



## Deadman (Jan 8, 2008)

How many cords of wood are you guys burning to heat a house? Just tell me what state you are in and how big of house and how good its insulated, and it'll be an estimate anyway.


----------



## beerman6 (Jan 8, 2008)

6-10.mid Mich,1440 sqft plus basement,poorly insulated


----------



## Farmerjon (Jan 8, 2008)

2400 sq ft. half old house new windows no insulation, new part well insulated, new efficient windows. 

12 pickup loads. I have never bought or sold wood by a specific value other than pickup load. Never sold wood actually. My pickup loads are what fit in/on the bed (stuffed) but the loads being sold are even across the top of the bedside some not stacked in the bed. Sorry don't have the specific measurement.


----------



## Boundaryh20 (Jan 8, 2008)

*Take a serious look at the gasification units...*

Bought a house with an older OWB about 4yrs ago. The unit lasted about 1.5yrs and sprang a leak. Since I was now sold on a OWB, I started shopping around and found this site and others discovering the gasification units.

Having ended up buying a gasification unit (EkoLine), I would not go back to a regular OWB. The main reason is wood usage. I, also, have all the wood in the world, but now I use about a third of the wood I did with the OWB. I also heat all my domestic hot water with it. And I usually keep my garage at 70F.

Disadvantage is that the wood must be dry and you should have a hot water storage tank like the Garn.

If you are building...don't mess around...put in hot water heat (in floor) and a pressurized OWB or gasification unit. 

Also, I have my propane boiler 'in-line' with the system that will 'take-over' if I want it to when the boiler runs out of fuel. Currently I don't even have the pilot lit.

Good-luck,
Bryan


----------



## windthrown (Jan 8, 2008)

Deadman said:


> I really dislike starting a new fire every other day, so I'd rather go for a longer burning boiler (I think anyway). I'm really just looking for feedback on all the different types and styles, so this thread is priceless!
> Thanks for all your comments and feedback.



As far as I know, there is no all-wood OWB that will burn more than about 24 hours. You can get a larger system that holds more wood, and has more water in the boiler so that the wood last longer and the water stores more heat energy. But, there have been many debates here on AS and other sites over burn times, and if they will even go 24 hours w/o refilling. 24 hours is stretching it where you live. I can get a 24 hour burn at most down to about 40 degrees F. But in a cold snap (15 degrees here last year) I can get about 16 hours at most. That is filling the boiler with oak or madrone (hard dense dry wood) and having a good set of coals at the end to toss in more logs and its self-ignites for the next round of burning. If I use fir or pine, there are no coals and usually have to add wood and restart the fire with paper. 

There are mutually exclusive aspects of OWB burners vs. wood gassifiers; OWBs will take a lot of wood and run in cycles and burn for a while until the preset temp is reached and then they shut down until the temp drops to about 10 degrees below the set temp. They are basically starved-air systems. The disadvantage of OWBs is that they are less efficient; the advantage is that they have long burning times and they can burn large rounds of wood. I get more efficnent burning out of our OWB by feeding it less wood more times a day, typically once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once last at night (usually after reading and writing on AS just before going to bed). This reduces the process of charcoal making and wood gas escaping durnig the off-modes. Wood gassifiers (like Russian style fireplaces), in contrast, take a small amount of wood and burn at a very hot temperature for a short period of time. They are far more efficient, but they have to be fed small wood and lighted several times a day. They are also more EPA friendly and have less smoke than a typical OWB. 

Basically what it comes down to is that OWBs store potential energy in the form of wood burning over a longer period of time. Gassifiers and Russian fireboxes store released energy in water or brick and not in the wood. So it is a trade-off in design and use model of these types of heating systems. Note also that there are combination systems out there, like oil and LP and NG combined with wood burners. There are also corn and coal combined with wood burners. Here we have wood and more wood, so we have a wood-only OWB.


----------



## woodchuck76 (Jan 8, 2008)

I Have a CB 4030.I'm heating my house of 1400 sq ft. 700 sq ft of garage space and hot water.Insulation R-19 in the ceiling ,2X6 wall construction.Use around 10-12 cords of seasoned wood. From October to May.


----------



## windthrown (Jan 8, 2008)

Deadman said:


> How many cords of wood are you guys burning to heat a house? Just tell me what state you are in and how big of house and how good its insulated, and it'll be an estimate anyway.



We use about 8 cords of dense seasoned hardwood here (oak, madrone, alder, and doug fir mostly). The amount varies from year to year though, as temps here vary a lot between years. House is about 2,000 sq ft., modern with heaps of insulation, but has gobs of non-covered 2-pane windows and skylights, and a lofted ceiling (heat sinks). We also have a second clothes washer for cleaning sheep fleeces. Already had a floor loop, and an electric boiler. I used two comparisons to estimate OWB size needed: one was cubic feet of house air space and the other was to match the size of the electric floor loop boiler and water heater in watts. Both came out to about the same number, which I then doubled (std. engineering practice). That turned out to be the same energy as the smallest Central Boiler unit rating that they had at the time (a CL 4436, at 250k BTUs). We could have used one of their newer smaller systems, had they been available at that time. But we can expand it to heat a greenhouse or an enclosed shop in future, and it is nice to have a larger system in the coldest part of winter. Taken care of, these systems will not rust or leak. You can do a search on OWBs here on AS and find debates about stainless steel, fan driven or convction, flat plate vs. side arm Hx, company types, PEX lines and insulation, and different models available and what people think of them. There is also a lot of discussion and flame wars on these over on the Mother Earth News forum.


----------



## porta mill (Jan 8, 2008)

*owb*

check out empyre out door stoves, they are manufactured in canada the North American destribrutor is located in WI i love mine would never go back to oil as a primary source of heat


----------



## treefrog359 (Jan 8, 2008)

*gasification*

try looking at "http://www.ka-lesdistributing.com/" it is a gasification stove


----------



## rx7145 (Jan 8, 2008)

Deadman said:


> How many cords of wood are you guys burning to heat a house? Just tell me what state you are in and how big of house and how good its insulated, and it'll be an estimate anyway.




10-12 cord. 1300sf house and hot water. 30x32 shop heated when needed.


----------



## rx7145 (Jan 8, 2008)

treefrog359 said:


> try looking at "http://www.ka-lesdistributing.com/" it is a gasification stove



I saw that stove at the Ohio Power Show. Looked good. So many people around I could not talk to the guy. It bolted togeather so you could replace parts of it if needed. Had a big door also.


----------



## rx7145 (Jan 8, 2008)

windthrown said:


> Well, I dunno about there being no info on the Central Boiler(CB) site... unless you are referring to the new EPA certified boiler that they are working on. They have tons of stuff on their models, designs, in-home heating and retrofitting, etc. on their web site: www.centralboiler.com



Sorry they have no info on the gas/EPA stove on there site. After seeing all the new OWB that have come out, I still like my CB 4436.


----------



## blackdoggy (Jan 8, 2008)

What ever you get make sure you use spray foam insulation in your entire new home. To reduce the cost of your basement foundation and increase your R value use the rigid foam insulation foundation forms. It will cost you a little more to start with but it will save you allot of labor and significantly increase your R rating. I am not sure if the government is still providing energy star credits but thats a good goal to work towards it will cost you more in the beginning but it will pay for it's self in the end.


----------



## Deadman (Jan 8, 2008)

Definately doing the insulated forms, and over-insulating. Not sure if it'll be spray foam, because some of them are rediculous as far as pricing.


----------



## Marklambert61 (Jan 8, 2008)

*boiler*

Love my heatmor but i wouldnt call any OWB high efficient. There are some next gen of products coming out now but they have there own new problems. Heatmor has a blader to stop water loss and firebrick to support better temp. I'm not a heatmor dealer I just did a lot of study before making my choice. 

Mark


----------



## Deadman (Jan 8, 2008)

OK, now that I'm learning more about these boilers, I have decided on a gasification type unit. I'm all about the efficiency.
Any tips on these models?

Thanks again, this info is great. I hate dealers, they all lie!


----------



## Boundaryh20 (Jan 9, 2008)

*Gasification Units*

I made a list when I was in the market for one. However, the list is gone!

I do remember that Tarm was on the top of my list, but they were not cheap. I really like mine (EkoLine 60), but the instructions are/were not the best and I made several calls for more info.

Last year, Tarm did have a sale at the end of the heating year. Don't remember the exact cost savings, but probably on the $1k - $1.5k range.

I think as time goes on, you will see more people move to the gasification units, especially if the EPA or other government agencies start to get involved.

Currently, my unit is in the garage which is good and bad. The unit is rather clean until you have to clean out the ashes. The ashes are very fine and there is no good way to get them out cleanly. I do plan on putting the unit out in my pole shed after I put in a concrete floor (heated).

Where are you in Northern WI? I grew up in Eagle River and am now in MN.

Bryan


----------



## Deadman (Jan 9, 2008)

45 miles NW of green bay


----------



## leon (Jan 9, 2008)

*owb*



Deadman said:


> OK, now that I'm learning more about these boilers, I have decided on a gasification type unit. I'm all about the efficiency.
> Any tips on these models?
> 
> Thanks again, this info is great. I hate dealers, they all lie!



the folks at sequoyah outdoor boiler will not lie to you and are very helpfull,
please look at the lil albert, big albert, and boss man boilers, they are fully lined with firebrick to aid in combustion and the fire brick protects the boiler and stores the heat to keep the firebox hot all the time while burning and it has a fan forced draft-they are very helpfull and take the time to talk to you and answer all your questions..

the lil albert, big albert, and boss man are non pressurised boilers and need a heat exchanger in the home or shop etc.

the manualsfor the boilers are on their web site too with good pictures.



their web site is www.wdheat.com and they answer their phones.


----------



## Deadman (Jan 9, 2008)

I'll look thru their info tonight. 
Thanks for the suggestions.


----------



## windthrown (Jan 9, 2008)

Deadman said:


> OK, now that I'm learning more about these boilers, I have decided on a gasification type unit. I'm all about the efficiency.
> Any tips on these models?
> 
> Thanks again, this info is great. I hate dealers, they all lie!



Supposed to be one of the best wood gassifiers out there: 

http://www.greenwoodfurnace.com/

But I know people that wish they had bought an OWB like we have instead.


----------



## Deadman (Jan 9, 2008)

Why would they rather have a OWB? just looking for ideas, not looking for a flame war. Thanks


----------



## windthrown (Jan 9, 2008)

Well, we have had some interesting flame wars on AS (and over on MEN and hearth) regarding brands of OWBs, indoor stoves vs. OWBs, and SS vs carbon steel, grates, fans vs. convection, OWB vs wood gassifiers, etc., etc. 

The guy I know had problems with the bricks in the Greenwood(GW) unit. They cracked on him, and that led to other problems, and issues with GW. Supposedly they have something like a ton of refractory brick in them, and typically crack. If you call them, they send you some type of crack seal or something that is pretty useless. He was not a happy camper. 

Here is a guy on another site complaing anout his GW boiler. Lots of discussoon on their flaws, etc. I would look around and dig deep before buying any OWB or indoor type boiler. The guys responding to his post all say to put the GW units OUTSIDE! (cough). Smokes up the inside of his shop. 

http://www.**********/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/10679/P0/


----------



## windthrown (Jan 9, 2008)

*Central Boiler new EPA OWB news release*

Here is a news release about the CB new E-Classic boiler that is EPA tested. I do not know about efficiency testing... this is for smoke. 

http://www.outdoorfurnacefacts.com/wood-corn-heating-news/2007/nr_2007-01-29.html


----------



## JackD_ME (Jan 10, 2008)

check out http://www.cozyheat.net/blueforge.htm

They use a gassification process but they are expensive!


----------



## IndyIan (Jan 11, 2008)

*New constuction*

Its probably a bit late for you to design your house around a masonary heater, but one of my friends did a couple years ago. They have a straw bale house with concrete slab foundation and floor and a passive solar design. They burn about 2 cords a year. 
Usually they do a burn once every 2 days depending on the temperature outside and how sunny it is. With full sunny days they don't have to have a fire at all even at 30-40F.


----------



## HUSKYMAN (Jan 11, 2008)

How much are these gasification units? If a standard OWB runs 8-10k installed how much are one of the high efficiency ones, 15k?


----------



## windthrown (Jan 12, 2008)

IndyIan said:


> Its probably a bit late for you to design your house around a masonary heater, but one of my friends did a couple years ago. They have a straw bale house with concrete slab foundation and floor and a passive solar design. They burn about 2 cords a year.
> Usually they do a burn once every 2 days depending on the temperature outside and how sunny it is. With full sunny days they don't have to have a fire at all even at 30-40F.



That sounds like the basic idea of a Russian fireplace. I have friends with one down by Crater Lake. They cut their wood consumption by 2/3 with that thing. Burn a small hot fire, and let the heat radiate out into the house all day. They said that they built one in their house in Montana and cut their wood use from 20 cords a year to about 7.


----------



## milkie62 (Jan 13, 2008)

CENTRAL BOILER all the way.Had mine for years with NO PROBLEMS.Other people I know with other brands have had minor problems.CB has 1 moving part---the damper.Seems to be the simplest on the market.I have the middle size one----they claim up to 72 hrs of burn time but realistically 24 hrs.I fill it once aday when I get home from work and then check it about 8hrs later.


----------



## abohac (Jan 16, 2008)

*Deadman*

I Built a new house and have had a Woodmaster since the day I moved in 6 years ago. I love it! But if you are looking for efficiency go buy a state of the art propane furnace. None of these things are efficient. Half of your wood goes up the stack. Personally I couldn't care less. I'll cut some more wood and put soem fuel guy out of business. I heat my garage floor, basement floor, wood and tile areas of my house. The house is 3300 sq ft. Forget about all the crap you read and the salemen tell you. They are not efficient but they are great to have.


----------



## milkie62 (Jan 16, 2008)

If I did not have my own wood ,I probably would not have one except for maybe a woodstove in the house for emergency use when the power goes out.But for the amount of work I do I feel it is worth it.It is easier to work up a little sweat than to write a $1000.00 check to the oil man.....


----------



## Deadman (Jan 16, 2008)

I enjoy making firewood, so its no big deal to me. 

Its just a great reason to keep all my toys.....I need the Truck to get to the land and haul the tractor, need the tractor to load the wood, need the trailer to haul the tractor, need the saws to cut, need extra garage to store everything..................Its a vicious cycle!


----------



## ktm rider (Jan 17, 2008)

I have an AHS multifuel boiler ( i wanted to burn coal ) but i looked really hard at their gasification boiler. IMO, it is the best one out there. I will allow for bigger pieces of wood than the Tarm and is cheaper and, again in my opinion, it is better built.
My co worker bought the gasification boiler and he just loves it. check it out.

http://www.alternateheatingsystems.com/woodboilers.htm


----------



## hydro2 (Jan 17, 2008)

I have a Hardy and heat two homes with with it. Going on my 4th year and love it.


----------



## MS-310 (Jan 20, 2008)

ktm rider said:


> I have an AHS multifuel boiler ( i wanted to burn coal ) but i looked really hard at their gasification boiler. IMO, it is the best one out there. I will allow for bigger pieces of wood than the Tarm and is cheaper and, again in my opinion, it is better built.
> My co worker bought the gasification boiler and he just loves it. check it out.
> 
> http://www.alternateheatingsystems.com/woodboilers.htm




Do you burn coal in your AHS


----------



## HardyOWB (Jan 21, 2008)

*Hardy Wood Boiler*

I am in the my second year with my Hardy OWB.# I don't sell these and have no allegiance to Hardy, so I will just give everyone the facts so you can use my experience to make an informed decision.#I live in Western New York and own a 1 year old 2700 square foot 2 story, well insulated home, with 2x6 walls, and many (30) Anderson dual pane windows.# The house has cathedral ceilings in the living room and and foyer, and 9 ft ceilings in the downstairs, 8 ft ceilings upstairs.# I bought the Hardy when I built the house.# I have never heated a winter season with propane, so I don't know how much it would cost to heat if I had to buy propane (currently $2 gallon).# I do know last year I burned 25 face cord.# I own 10 acres of woods, so I pulled out about 10 face cord, and purchased 15 (at $65 per face cord, seasoned and delivered)# Bringing my outlay for heat for that season at $975 + a lot of my time.# I heat the house and domestic hot water.# My propane bill is almost eliminated during the winter.# I estimate for a winter season on propane alone I would be spending around $2,200.# I keep the house between 70 and 72 degrees.#The Hardy is located 150 ft from my house, in a 12x24 un-insulated steel shed.# The PEX lines are buried 4' beneath the surface, in 4" PVC conduit.# I did not buy the insulated lines because of the expense (roughly $10/ft).# I have not measured the heat loss from the stove to the furnace yet, but expect it to be minimal.# The water is hot enough to burn your hand at the stove, and hot enough to burn your hand at the furnace.# I will submit another post with the temperature drop in the future.# Last year I loaded it 75% full 2X per day, at 6AM and 9PM.# #This year if the temps are above 32F I have been loading it once (packed completely full) per day at night usually 7PM.# The fire is usually almost out, but going enough to fire itself once filled.# On the weekends I load it 2 to three times, but only a few logs at a time.# The more often you can load it the less wood you will burn.# By load it I mean just a few pieces to keep the fire going, not a full load.#After 1 year, I am happy with the unit.# I looked at the Hardy and the CB, I went with the Hardy, because of the Stainless Steel and lower price.# I also know the rep personally and felt more comfortable buying from him.# Is there a better burner out there?# Probably, but so far I like the Hardy.# I just had the domestic water pump fail on this unit, replacement cost is $250.# I am not at all happy about that.# My rep told me there was a 1 year warranty, but I think we will be talking about that more in the next few days.# Has anyone else had a problem with Taco Cartridge pumps failing?#Smoke is not a problem where I live, as the stove is at least 400ft from our downwind neighbor.# These things do smoke a lot, but only when they are being fired.# Loading it is probably a health hazard for me, as the shed quickly fills with smoke.# I usually run in and out holding my breath and catching some fresh air outside.# Anyone with ideas on how to cheaply vent this would be greatly appreciated.# I have a few ideas I am going to try this weekend.


----------



## rx7145 (Jan 21, 2008)

HardyOWB said:


> The PEX lines are buried 4' beneath the surface, in 4" PVC conduit.# I did not buy the insulated lines because of the expense (roughly $10/ft).# I have not measured the heat loss from the stove to the furnace yet, but expect it to be minimal.
> 
> Has anyone else had a problem with Taco Cartridge pumps failing?



I'm glad you are not having any heat loss problems, You must have a low water table there. 

Yes the taco pumps are not the best IMO, I also had one go bad on me boiling the stove. No damage was done but I replaced it with a B&G PL36. It was just over a year old. 

Have any pictures of your set up?


----------



## ktm rider (Jan 22, 2008)

HUSKYMAN said:


> How much are these gasification units? If a standard OWB runs 8-10k installed how much are one of the high efficiency ones, 15k?




Not sure about now but my buddy bought the AHS " Woodgun" gasification boiler and he loves it. I think he paid somewhere around $8,500 but he installed it his self.


----------



## Zodiac45 (May 20, 2008)

You definately want a wood gassification type boiler if you looking for the most efficiency. I'd look at Garn or Tarm units. Both are good in their way. The Garn is in it's own building, the Tarm is an indoor actual boiler. I'm sure you could set it up outdoors too. Check out the sites for both and any other wood gassification units.


----------



## Marc (May 20, 2008)

Other good gasifier brands to look at are - Econoburn, Eko, Woodgun (for downdraft type) and Greenfire, Seton, Greenwood (already mentioned here... some have complained about their customer service though...) for refractory mass type gasifiers. The refractory type generally take bigger wood than downdraft type, but also may not be quite as efficient. The downdraft type definitely lends itself to having hotwater storage, but it isn't a necessity and many people wait one or a few years after buying their boiler to put in heat storage.

Much more information on http://www.**********/econtent/index.php/forums/viewforum/21/


----------



## abohac (May 20, 2008)

Deadman said:


> I'm getting ready to build a house and I am looking to purchase an OWB in roughely 6 months. I am wondering who makes the most efficient OWB?
> I'll be heating a newly constructed house (well insulated) in Northern Wisconsin. The house will be roughely 2,000 square feet, and I also plan on heating my 3 stall garage (in-floor), and possibly in the future will add on another garage and MIGHT heat that.
> 
> I'll gladly spend more Money on a good quality boiler NOW, so I don't have to replace it in the near future, and also so it doesn't just burn a mountain of wood.
> ...



I built a new house (3300 sq ft) and planned all along to heat with an outdoor boiler. I bought the 2nd from the largest Woodmaster and have been very happy. I heat my garage (3 car) in-floor, I heat my basement and wood floor and tiled area (in-floor also), have heat exchangers in two forced air furnaces and heat my potable water. The thing works very well. As for efficiency, well that's another deal. Mine isn't all that efficient. I'm pretty sure that you won't find one that is. Get ready to cut wood. If you are not prepared to cut 20-25 face cords (6 or 7 cords) stick with propane or fuel oil. Let me know if I can answer any questions.


----------

