Advice on using an EPA stove?

[Ryan'smilling]

Shame in you!!

You kid probably loved that book.

[emoji23]


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She did. It was really awful though. Actually I tried recycling it yesterday but she found it. This morning she asked me to read it. I agreed, but suggested we go toss it in the furnace together afterward. She agreed.

 

[U&A]

She did. It was really awful though. Actually I tried recycling it yesterday but she found it. This morning she asked me to read it. I agreed, but suggested we go toss it in the furnace together afterward. She agreed.

[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

Good times

How old?

Hopefully she doesn’t learn to toss things that are”awful” in the furnace[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

Not funny [emoji52][emoji52]





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[Ryan'smilling]

[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

Good times

How old?

Hopefully she doesn’t learn to toss things that are”awful” in the furnace[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

Not funny [emoji52][emoji52]





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Turned 3 in December. She's a blast. She doesn't like going in the basement alone, so hopefully I've got some time before she starts disposing of things on her own.

 

[Marine5068]

I know nothing about wood burning furnaces but i burn pallet wood in my stove all the time. Unless it’s heavy stained with who knows what. And obviously nothing treated.


It burns very hot. Measure 5% or even 0% frequently. I leave it outside with my cordwood and it actually gains a bit of moisture to around 10% and burns not so violently hot.


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That's because most pallets are made from Oak or Maple which are kiln dried.
I love pallet wood, just don't like the nails.

 

[Mustang71]

I did the math one of those kuuma furnaces would take me about 8 years of no propane to break even. I'd probably have to cut and store a lot more wood too.

I didnt go with the ashley af700 because I dont believe that you get 85% efficiently out of it every time you burn wood. The drolet, seems like they have fixed the problems with those furnaces but again I dont believe the efficiency claims and its computer controlled. I like having a little bit of simplicity in the wood furnace and I need the heat in the basement you can see your breath when I'm not burning wood. I'm not trying to heat full time with wood. I wanted to get more out of the wood I'm burning. I dont know of the daka is even 50% efficent. It burns like a masonary fire place no smoke or heat because you are getting 100% combustion in the firebox and the heat is going right out the chimney.

 

[Mustang71]

That's because most pallets are made from Oak or Maple which are kiln dried.
I love pallet wood, just don't like the nails.

That's one thing I was wondering about is the nails. I have a grate in the bottom of my furnace and the nails fall into the ash pan. No big deal but on a fire brick lined stove idk if the nails are a good idea. I have a pile of ash bigger than a yard of dirt and half of it is nails. I can't wait to move it this summer with my new tractor. I'll be plugging holes in tires for weeks.

 

[Retired Marine]

That's one thing I was wondering about is the nails. I have a grate in the bottom of my furnace and the nails fall into the ash pan. No big deal but on a fire brick lined stove idk if the nails are a good idea. I have a pile of ash bigger than a yard of dirt and half of it is nails. I can't wait to move it this summer with my new tractor. I'll be plugging holes in tires for weeks.

I burned pallets for my first winter, I bought this 24" magnetic sweeper from lowes, worked out great. I've used it on roofing jobs as well. The nails will get stuck, by the head and you will see them sticking down towards the ash pan. You will have to remove bricks in the off season to get them out, I have an Englander 28-3500.

 

[U&A]

I’ve never had issues with nails. Every once in a while or i use a magnet as mentioned. swept over the coals and brush them off of the magnet into my ash bucket.

Throw them in the trash outside


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[Retired Marine]

I have had an Englander 28-3500 since Feb 2012, bought it with tax returns.

Here's my 2 cents, haha!

 

[NSMaple1]

I did the math one of those kuuma furnaces would take me about 8 years of no propane to break even. I'd probably have to cut and store a lot more wood too.

I didnt go with the ashley af700 because I dont believe that you get 85% efficiently out of it every time you burn wood. The drolet, seems like they have fixed the problems with those furnaces but again I dont believe the efficiency claims and its computer controlled. I like having a little bit of simplicity in the wood furnace and I need the heat in the basement you can see your breath when I'm not burning wood. I'm not trying to heat full time with wood. I wanted to get more out of the wood I'm burning. I dont know of the daka is even 50% efficent. It burns like a masonary fire place no smoke or heat because you are getting 100% combustion in the firebox and the heat is going right out the chimney.

I didnt think Drolet was computerized, thought Kuuma was the only one.

 

[Mustang71]

I didnt think Drolet was computerized, thought Kuuma was the only one.

It's got some electronic damper and a blower motor that speeds up or down depending on heat load. So it probably has a thermostat and I dont want that. It's not computer controlled but it is electronically controlled more than I'd like.

 

[moresnow]

My Englander 30-NC stove which I think is the same firebox requires no real special treatment. It does take dry wood to get the secondaries to light. But it will burn anything that isn’t soaking wet. Sort of dry wood takes a little longer to come up to temp but once the moisture is boiled off the secondaries will light. If the secondaries won’t stay lit the wood is too wet. 2yr split/stacked wood can be dampered down almost all the way within 15-20 minutes of lighting and makes little or no smoke. If it smokes a lot or the glass gets sooty black then the wood is too wet.

The longest burning fires happen when you can get the damper closed down before the temp comes all the way up. If the wood is dry and the secondaries light you’ll get no smoke and the stove temp will hover around 500 degrees. If the wood is wet then it’s really no different from a smoke dragon as far as I’m concerned and you’ll struggle to get up to 500 and when you finally do the wood will be mostly burned up. If the wood is sort of wet then you lose some burn time getting hot enough to burn off the moisture. If you try to close the damper down too early it will drop down to 350 degrees or so and smoke like crazy.

I’ve never put anything in that wouldn’t burn. I’ve put some pieces in that I wish I hadn’t and I’ve rearranged and added but it burns whatever I put in.

Wood seems to burn best stacked N/S although that’s more of a guideline than a rule.

I rake all the coals to the front near the air intake. They like to hide near the back and sides. It works best to let the fire burn most of the way down before reloading. Trying to keep a roaring fire going usually results in a stove full of coals. I’ve relaxed on trying to keep the house roasting and I think we’re more comfortable and burn less wood by burning complete batches rather than constantly loading.

I find my stove will make solid heat for 6hrs on a decent load, pretty good heat for another 2 and hold enough coals for an easy re- light for 12.

I don’t see any reason to stop burning pallet scraps. I burn pine and construction cut offs in mine all the time.

I don’t have the outside air intake hooked up with mine and unless your house is really tight I don’t think it’s necessary. Even if you do it gets preheated in the firebox before it hits the secondary tubes.

Keep this guy in your back pocket He will get you going down the correct path in many ways! Well said sir.

 

[Ryan'smilling]

I put 5 pieces of wood and 1 incredibly annoying children's book in my furnace at 7 am. Set the dial on low because it was in the 20s and sunny today. Loaded it halfway at 4:00 with slabwood and bumped the dial up a little. That'll keep me until 10 when I load it before bed and I can start the cycle again tomorrow. 2-4 times per day I mess with it so far. No making kindling since it doesn't go out. And it provides 100% of our heat. The weather station a few miles from here showed -39F one morning this winter.

Just wanted to mention that my load from 10pm last night kept the house comfy until I added wood at noon today, 14 hours later.

 

[Mustang71]

That must be nice to not have to worry about it much.

 

[MJM268]

I think you will want to use kiln dried wood to get the stove warm quickly. You will likely use much more wood to get a hot fire going but once established good coal bed you should be able to get 8 hours out of a single load. I have a free standing NC 30. Its been great but takes a little bit to warm up from cold. Mine likes to run at 650 degrees stove top temp, heats like crazy at that temp. Remember these EPA units have insulated fireboxes, different design than an old radiant smoke dragon unit.

Curious how you like the furnace, please report back. Thanks

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[Mustang71]

We unloaded the furnace today or looks good. I used the moisture meter that came with it and all my wood in the garage that I brought in Sunday was 12 percent. I think I'll work on it Saturday. After doing HVAC installs all day every day I dont feel like doing it after work.

 

[NSMaple1]

12 seems lower than could be expected.

 

[Mustang71]

I thought so too. So I tried it again a bit later and pushed it in as far as I could in the middle of the splits got about 15. Highest was 18. Hopefully that's ok because the wife isn't going to let me buy a kiln.

I inspected the furnace further and it looks to be pretty good quality. All the welds look good and penetrated. It was built 2/19 which is good. Its like night and day between my furnace and this one.

 

[Ryan'smilling]

That's on a freshly split face at room temperature?

 

[Mustang71]

No it was ash cut 2 years ago and split and stacked in the wood shed in June. I refilled my rack in my garage sunday from the woodshed, it's about 50 in the garage. The shed is a hoop barn with pallet sides. It has provided a lot drier wood than the tarp over the top of the wood stacks.