Inside furnaces-Wood

[fastmopar1k]

Sorry if this has been asked before. Would ya'll list what furnace you use and how you like it. mfgr. and web site would be cool too.
I am gonna upgrade in the spring and wondering what I should get. I looked into a OWB. They are gonna be against the city ordnance to have due to people heating swiming pools in the summer and smoking out the neighborhoods all year long.

 

[wdchuck]

We've had a Daka wood-furnace for 3+ years now, it was $500 on clearance, heating a 3,000 sqft, 1850's, twostory farmhouse, well ventilated, uninsulated, and wood being free so far, has been good for us.

We use about 5-7 cords for the season, mixed medium hardwoods for daytime, and oak for the bedtime fill-up.

If our house were insulated, sided, and windowed to current trends, we'd be walking around in skivvies all winter, as it is though, we are quite comfortable on even the most blustery winter night.

There are more efficient units out there, but the list of available wood furnaces is short relative to stoves.

 

[hanko]

I have a charmaster which is made in your neck of the woods, I believe in Grands Rapids, Mn. UsStove, yukon eagle, are a few. they all have websites. you pays your money and takes your chances. Wood furnaces are not as efficient as he high teck free standinfg jobs, but they do work good. make sure that your have a return air hooked up with return vollum equal to supply, I mean sq inches of duct work. In a power failure they can tend to go into melt down mode with no air blowing over the heat exchanger. So there are pros and cons to the forced air type wood furnace. I had fire chief made in Mo, and it was your average run of the mill furnace, like the daka, or clayton (USSTOVE), I took charmasters sales pitch and after a lot of research went with ther chalet model. I think it works a tad better, maybe a little less wood versus heat produced, but its not worth the money I spent. I should have kept the fire chief or gone with a free standing job. The old lady doesnt like the mess in the house, so that would have been a battle, so the free standing was out. Any way good luck, seek the help of a pro if in doubt and do research, there is a lot out there. You will get all kinds of opinion's on this site with everone telling you theres is the best. Like I said there is alot out there, good luck

 

[MNfarmer]

I have a Royall indoor boiler. If you are looking for a forced air furnace the Charmaster is made in Grand Rapids and I believe you can get them as a combo. Also check out the Yukon Eagles. They are built in the town I live by and everyone who owns one swears by them. I guess they cost a little more, but sounds like they are well worth it. They have wood/oil wood/gas wood/elec or just wood. I think you can burn coal in them too. Here's the websites
http://www.charmaster.com/
http://www.yukon-eagle.com/
I don't know much about the charmasters.. but if you want some info on the yukons I could probably get you some. PM if you want to. Good luck

 

[JeffHK454]

USStove 1600M, have about $1800 in the whole thing and does a great job heating my 2000+sqft ranch.

 

[laynes69]

Look into the USStoves 1950 EPA Wood furnace. Very nice model, and 71 perecnt efficient. 40% less wood than the standard wood furnace, and will heat up to 3000 square feet. They are well built, it will be my next purchase. Right now I have a 1500 Hotblast furnace. It has done the job and then some for 20+ years, but its time to upgrade the technology and use less wood. Hopefully this summer I will get one. The technology on them is far better than any of the wood furnace I have seen. Very complex firebox and baffles.

 

[aandabooks]

I have a Daka. Not the highest technology but I heat a 2000 sq. ft. 2 story well insulated house on 3-4 cords per year. The temp rarely dips under 70 and at under $700 it is a steal of a deal. When I was looking around it was the cheapest option to heat the most square feet. I am very happy with mine.

Matt

 

[Mike Van]

We've had a Harman wood/coal boiler add on for 10 years. It's plumbed into the oil boiler, when the water temp gets to 140 in the wood unit, it turns on a circulator pump that runs the water between the 2 units. We heat a 3500 sf 2 story saltbox w/ good size timberframe familyroom added on. 3 zones. I'll burn 6 or 7 cord in the winter, but that includes FREE hot water. As long as the wood fire's going the furnace won't run. All the mess is in the basement too - Besides cleaning the piep & chimney & dumping the ash pan [6 or 7 days with wood] This unit hasn't had one thing done to it - About 2000.00 ten years ago. I originally wanted a single unit one, to replace the 1962 oil boiler, but at the time the only wood/oil boilers were HUGE or small, 16" wood. So, went with the add-on. No regrets whatsoever.

 

[ktm rider]

I have a Royall indoor boiler.

How do you like your Royall? what are the pros and cons of the Royall?

I looked REALLY hard at those but in the end I decided to go with an AHS multifuel boiler for a few reasons. first, they are made about 1.5 hours from my house so I didn't have to pay shipping. second, they offered the oil backup and Royall did not. Atleast they didn't then, that may have changed by now.

 

[Grace Tree]

I bought an HS Tarm oil/wood boiler in 1978. I doulbt that it's very efficient but it's almost 30 years old and the only trouble was some typical oil burner repairs and a visit from the local fire dept.a few weeks ago. 3 pieces of apparatus, 2 cop cars, an ambulance and every neighbor within 1/2 mile in my front yard. Keep those chimneys clean.
Phil
Chimney fire

 

[derbygreg]

Indoor Furnaces

I have looked into these in the past. Here are all the brands I found

http://www.gototalenergy.com/EkoLineBoilers.htm



http://www.charmaster.com/wood.html



http://www.yukon-eagle.com/



http://wwwgreenwoodfurnace.com/x1_specifications.php



http://www.usstove.com/products.php?cat=4



http://www.brunks.com/Bruncofurnaces1.html



http://www.energyking.com/

 

[MNfarmer]

Ktm..
I like my Royall for a few reasons..
#1 I got it used for $150 and was used about 3 years, i think it's a late 80's model

#2 It heats all my hot water, turned the hot water heater off about a month ago :biggrinbounce2:

#3 It burns about a third as much wood as my shop built OWB and will hold a fire pretty well, there is always coals left in the morning.

The way I have it set up if I need to use the oil furnace I let the fire go out completely then unhook the stove pipe from the boiler and hook the furnace up to the chimney.. legal?? I don't know, but they aren't hooked up at the same time. Since I hooked up the Royall I've only fired up the fuel oil furnace once just to make sure it still worked, but now at $3.15 a gallon fuel oil I'd have to be almost dead not to burn wood. If I wouldn't have found this one cheap I don't know that I would have went with a boiler simply because this one new is about $4000. If you were set on getting a boiler, there sure is nothing wrong with the Royall. BTW.. I have the 35 gallon model.

 

[ktm rider]

Mn Farmer,

You pretty much stole that for $150 !! I paid $4,400 for my AHS 3 years ago but that included alot of options like the shaker linkage for soft coal, combustion blower and the oil backup. Do you burn any coal?

 

[MNfarmer]

I have a couple of times burned coal, it was some old stuff my grandpa had. I don't know of any place around here where you can buy coal. The little bit I burned I wasn't all that impressed.. however. I didn't keep the fire going on coal for any length of time, just threw a few scoops in then more wood. I have about 150 acres of wood here so even if coal were available I'd probably still burn wood just because.
Yeah I did get a pretty good deal on it. Reason was I bought it from an older guy who couldn't help cut wood anymore for the OWB so he wanted the Royall out of his basement so he could put in a gas boiler. I think he said he put the Royal in in 88 or 89 and quit in 91 or 92 when the got the OWB. First time I looked at it was it half full of ash and old dog food!! But it worked out.

 

[hanko]

I have a Royall indoor boiler. If you are looking for a forced air furnace the Charmaster is made in Grand Rapids and I believe you can get them as a combo. Also check out the Yukon Eagles. They are built in the town I live by and everyone who owns one swears by them. I guess they cost a little more, but sounds like they are well worth it. They have wood/oil wood/gas wood/elec or just wood. I think you can burn coal in them too. Here's the websites
http://www.charmaster.com/
http://www.yukon-eagle.com/
I don't know much about the charmasters.. but if you want some info on the yukons I could probably get you some. PM if you want to. Good luck

Did'nt I just say the same thing?

 

[MNfarmer]

You did.. I just added to what you said and gave him the websites.