Can I get away without a combustion blower in my wood furnace?

[Rio_Grande]

I am going to buy the small 1200-1900 sq ft us stove furnace they have at tractor supply for my 30x40 workshop. I do some refrigeration work in the shop and will need to get it up to about 75 deg to make the work reasonable. Can I get away without a combustion blower or no? I have a Ashley 24 in my house with a combustion blower and love it. But I know if I am there to tend it the blower only runs when the fuel starts to run down.

In the shop I would like to be able to start it in the morning get a few hours sleep and go out to a warm shop.

 

[blades]

That would be the hotblast 1400, it is a wood hog, extremely hard to control( likes to over fire) it is primarily a coal unit not wood, useable heat time 4 hours,for the 900-1100 typical pricing You would be better off with a conventional stove Like the Englander NC30, or step up in to the BK line. The Daka and the Norseman are basically the same unit in the same price range ya just can not load and walk away from these, got to baby sit them.

I heat my 2000' ranch with the NC30, got the hotblast in basement never use it as I can not trust it, unless I am going to be down stairs for an extended period of time. It will be replaced by a pellet unit ass soon as I have time ( have the pellet unit already) Why pellet- less fuss, not dragging cord wood down the stairs. Regulated burn, for much longer burn cycles at a low heat.
Ps: any EPA 3cubic ft stove will do a better job for your description ( drolet is another reasonably priced unit)
A good controlled furnace style wood unit is going to be expensive( $3gs) I am going to get blasted here but that is my feelings and the pictures I have seen of various in-expensive wood furnaces all seem to show the same short comings. ( overfiring as displayed by charred exterior cabinets. ) Education is expensive, lol

 

[Streblerm]

No, you do not absolutely need a combustion blower. The combustion blower is more for when you want to try and make your wood furnace act like a gas furnace in that it will make more heat when you turn up the thermostat.

My dad is running an old USSC Clayton, the bigger brother to the hotblast, to heat his 2500 sf old farm house. It is on its last legs and the combustion blower just quit. He is finding that he can get significantly longer burn times and more than adequate heat without running it. It just takes a little fiddling with the intake air dampers. He keeps them about half open during the day and closes them most if the way down at night. It gets plenty hot enough that way to keep the low limit switch satisfied and the blower running.

He says the best part of no combustion blower is waking up to a full bed of coals rather than a cold furnace. With the combustion blower, as the fire dies down through the night and the thermostat calling for heat, the combustion blower rapidly burns up the coal bed.

 

[reaperman]

That would be the hotblast 1400, it is a wood hog, extremely hard to control( likes to over fire) it is primarily a coal unit not wood, useable heat time 4 hours,for the 900-1100 typical pricing You would be better off with a conventional stove Like the Englander NC30, or step up in to the BK line. The Daka and the Norseman are basically the same unit in the same price range ya just can not load and walk away from these, got to baby sit them.

I heat my 2000' ranch with the NC30, got the hotblast in basement never use it as I can not trust it, unless I am going to be down stairs for an extended period of time. It will be replaced by a pellet unit ass soon as I have time ( have the pellet unit already) Why pellet- less fuss, not dragging cord wood down the stairs. Regulated burn, for much longer burn cycles at a low heat.
Ps: any EPA 3cubic ft stove will do a better job for your description ( drolet is another reasonably priced unit)
A good controlled furnace style wood unit is going to be expensive( $3gs) I am going to get blasted here but that is my feelings and the pictures I have seen of various in-expensive wood furnaces all seem to show the same short comings. ( overfiring as displayed by charred exterior cabinets. ) Education is expensive, lol

I agree with the NC-30 over a wood furnace since your not heating too large of an area. Unless you have a tall ceiling the NC-30 is much more efficient. I heat a out building at my place (20x40) with a NC-13, the 30's little brother. And reaching 75 degrees isnt a problem, a blower fan can also be added if you feel you need a bit more heat. The NC-30 is normally put on sale at Lowes or Home Depot in mid Feb. Sometimes with free shipping if you dont have a store in your area. I've seen the NC-30 for as little as $600 shipped, which is a great deal. The stove is very well built and made in the USA.

 

[brenndatomu]

+1 ^^^ (post #3) You don't need the blower. I had better luck running my old Yukon Big Jack without it!

 

[Fyrebug]

A large wood stove such as a Drolet HT2000 or Drolet Myriad both available from Northern Tools will throw a lot of heat.

However, all stoves are 'Zone Heaters' therefore will be limited in distributing heat efficiently if you do not have fans strategically positioned to circulate the heat. If you have high ceilings and low insulation most of that radiant heat will be absorbed and heat-sinked out the walls and roof.

For your purpose, radiant heat is not what you are after. You want convection heat (ie warm air) to circulate efficiently in your shop. A furnace does that job.

If I may suggest the Mini-Caddy. There is also an option to put a quick connect distribution kit on it so you dont have to do the sheet metal. However, it's more expensive and retails at about $3,000. But it is EPA rated (ie not a wood hog). You can also put an electric element on it for backup.

Whatever you decide, let us know how it works out.

 

[brenndatomu]

That would be the hotblast 1400, it is a wood hog, extremely hard to control( likes to over fire) it is primarily a coal unit not wood, useable heat time 4 hours,for the 900-1100 typical pricing You would be better off with a conventional stove Like the Englander NC30, or step up in to the BK line. The Daka and the Norseman are basically the same unit in the same price range ya just can not load and walk away from these, got to baby sit them.

I heat my 2000' ranch with the NC30, got the hotblast in basement never use it as I can not trust it, unless I am going to be down stairs for an extended period of time. It will be replaced by a pellet unit ass soon as I have time ( have the pellet unit already) Why pellet- less fuss, not dragging cord wood down the stairs. Regulated burn, for much longer burn cycles at a low heat.
Ps: any EPA 3cubic ft stove will do a better job for your description ( drolet is another reasonably priced unit)
A good controlled furnace style wood unit is going to be expensive( $3gs) I am going to get blasted here but that is my feelings and the pictures I have seen of various in-expensive wood furnaces all seem to show the same short comings. ( overfiring as displayed by charred exterior cabinets. ) Education is expensive, lol

Don't wanna get off the OP, but just an FYI, it is very difficult (not impossible) to overfire a wood furnace if it has a barometric draft regulator (BDR) on the flue pipe.

 

[KyleOh]

Don't wanna get off the OP, but just an FYI, it is very difficult (not impossible) to overfire a wood furnace if it has a barometric draft regulator (BDR) on the flue pipe.

I love my 1557m hotblast. I also dont think its a wood hog. I can burn 8hr at least with it and it doesnt require meto watch it at all. I bought mine in the spring and saved 400 from tsc. Good luck.

 

[blades]

1557 is next step up from the $900-1100 models stocked at the stores for the most part.

I do have a baro on the 1400, fought with every aspect of that unit can't recommend it as a load and go unit. Automatic damper on load door constantly jams mostly wide open, If you do a search on the 1557 same system is used. As I said the low priced wood furnaces are mostly designed for use with coal, hence the combustion blowers.

 

[KyleOh]

Yea I just have a manual knob draft. I paid 1100.00 but like I said it was 15 I just got it on sale, and now they are 2000. Things just keep going up and up.

 

[laynes69]

We had the wood/coal 1500 hotblast which is a larger version of the 1400 with shaker grates. It was in operation for about 25 years. The last few years I purchased the blower (forced draft kit) and it was a waste of money. I would wake to a cold furnace and the humming of the draft fan in the basement. We used more wood and the design was poor at best. We upgraded and things are much better. If you can pull off a stove (EPA) that's the way to go, EPA furnace next. The combustion blowers for the 1400-1500 series stoves do nothing for coal. All combustion air is directed above and not below the fire. Just a poor design.

 

[LAH]

Yes you can. I have a combustion blower but didn't install. I fill my stove full as possible before bed time. I get up to a nice bed of coals & there's no need to build a fire, just add wood. Mine is a Clayton & is really a coal stove so it's not an air tight unit.

 

[Rio_Grande]

I am sure there are better options out there, but I cant afford one and i cant wait. these are on sale for 749.00 and I have work to do in the shop.

I bought a smaller stove made by a popular company, but I cant remember the name. it is rated for the space but I cant get a decent fire running in it. I have to cut my wood at 12 inch for it and it wont get the shop to 60 deg let alone the 70-75 I need to be able to pull freon better.

It dosent have a grate, you just build a fire on the fire bricks. Just a poor design in my opinion.

I will likely go with the hotblast. If it will do the job i will be happy. it will have a tough tim as my shop is 12 foot ceilings with insulated roof. but the side walls are just steel. I will add insulation as I go, but I just dont have the money to throw it all that way at once.

 

[ci5tbuptin1]

up cho bác

 

[cantoo]

Rio, it will work. I have a Hotblast 1400 and have lots of heat from it. I have no idea what this "combustion fan" is cause mine doesn't have one and no issues that I know of. Mine works great to heat my big house, we usually have a window or 2 open and shut off vents where we don't want heat. Mine is mounted in the basement and I rigged up some ductwork for it. It might use more wood but that's not a problem for me. We get overnight burns on ours using dry hardwood and turn everything right down or you will cook.
The fans that come with them (mine anyway, 5 years old) are prone to bearings failure and mine started to get noisy after about 3 years. Replacements ones are crazy for price (quoted $600 for them) and don't really move enough air anyway. I took mine out and ducted in a used furnace fan that I picked up at a yeard sale. Moves a ton of air and cheap to boot $35 I think. I have pictures on "My Firewood Tools" thread. Buy the furnace, swap out the fan and get ready to work in your shirt sleeves.

 

[dave_dj1]

A few years back I did some experimenting with a hot water add wood/coal unit I had. It did not have an induction fan for the fire but it did have an automatic draft that would open at a set temp. and close at a set temp. I could not (no matter how hard I tried) keep a fire in it all night long. One day I unhooked the power to the automatic draft damper, it had a hole for a 1/4" bolt to go in it, I used the bolt to hold the damper open a certain amount and as the outside temps dropped I had to screw the bolt in a little more to keep a constant temp. Once I did the above I was amazed at how long of burn times I could get, all night fires all the time and most days from early morning until I got home from work.
I think with some tinkering you could get it to operate to your satisfaction. One thing I will warn you (but you probably already know) is that none of these units are a "set it and forget it" device. I think we as a people have become used to the idea of simplicity and I don't believe that works on wood heat whether you have a stove or a furnace.
Good luck and keep us posted.
dave

 

[Rio_Grande]

Thanks fellas I am gonna give the small buck stove one more chance tomorrow but I am expecting that I will be owning one soon.

 

[Rio_Grande]

This stove is a 1357 looks like same specs as 1300, but cheaper