Thinking of upgrading my wood furnace, asking opinions.

[brenndatomu]

Good luck getting through the Tundra cronicles...I mean thread.
About the only real issue with them other than the first model year ash pan/fumes problem is that they can make a pile of hot coals in the firebox if pushed real hard in bitter cold weather. Probably worse in houses with higher heat load. Also more prevalent in houses with marginal chimney (short, exterior) and when constantly loading 100% big BTU hardwoods, and, when burning wood that is not quite dry enough. There are a few different discussions here and on Hearth about how to deal with a "EPA" firebox full of coals meanwhile house temp dropping.
Other than that there seems to be a lot of happy Tundra owners out there. My sister just ordered one Wed. night to replace her Yukon Big Jack, which is a very similar firebox design to your EK. She has had very similar results to you too...

 

[flotek]

I woke up this morning to a firebox of coals , it's 4 outside and windy but the house is right at 70 inside. . I just rake the coal bed forward best I can and crack the door open for an hour .. Super charges them with air and cooks em right down . Works like a champ for me

 

[Jules083]

I'm about halfway through the Tundra thread, I'm going to order one in a few hours to take advantage of the sale price.

I'm glad I came here and asked. I was looking at the real expensive furnaces before, and had assumed the Drolet was just another cheap Chinese furnace like the Hotblast.

This will work out great. I could have swung a $4000 stove but I wasn't too excited to spend that much. At least here I'm not draining what I have saved.

 

[Jules083]

I'll certainly be following this, wanting a furnace for my house unfornately the only one that I've found that will replace my old sears is a summers heat, kinda limited unless I add a shop on the front of my house

A guy I work with built an addition for his wood furnace, it works well. He has an old single story house, not much bigger than a shack to be honest. No basement either. One of those houses that every time someone needs more space they add a room on. Anyways he built a small room, maybe 10' x 10', next to the kitchen. It's kind of nice because there's no mess in the house at all and some indoor wood storage. Looks pretty bad but he doesn't care.

 

[Jules083]

I woke up this morning to a firebox of coals , it's 4 outside and windy but the house is right at 70 inside. . I just rake the coal bed forward best I can and crack the door open for an hour .. Super charges them with air and cooks em right down . Works like a champ for me

That's not what I just woke up to.

20 degrees and windy outside. 60 inside, although there was enough coals to start a fire. Probably 56 or 58 in my bedroom.


I like that the thermostat on the Tundra keeps the unit from overfiring, but I'm skeptical of a thermostat on a wood furnace. I have a thermostat on mine with just a natural draft door, not the fan that everyone hates. It was my experience in my old house that when the house cooled enough to let the draft open, the furnace would then burn all of the wood and I'd wake up to a colder house. I've since moved, own this house and don't plan on leaving, and never tried hooking a thermostat.

 

[laynes69]

We have the Caddy which shares the same firebox. I wouldn't worry too much about the thermostat calling for heat, unless the home has a very large heating demand. I loaded our furnace last night at 9:30 pm and woke this morning at 7:30 am with the blower running and a nice coalbed in the rear of the firebox. After scooping out the ash up front, I leveled the coals to about a 4" to 5" base and loaded. The thermostat was set for 72 overnight, it was 71 when I got up. It dropped to 3° last night with chills below zero. With our heating demand, the damper remains open quite a bit in this weather, yet we always wake to a warm home and plenty of coals. The thermostat plays an important role with these furnaces. It allows the furnace to cycle the damper to bring heat from the coalbed.

 

[Jules083]

Well it's ordered. Thank you all for the advice. From here I'm just going to come up with a plan for a ductwork change, and possibly modify my wood storage. I know this type of furnace needs drier wood, so I think I'll plan on bringing wood inside a few days earlier to let that last bit of exterior moisture out.

I think I may need to split smaller also. I've been making big splits to get longer burns.

 

[ajr]

I thought the 365 was an epa stove ?

 

[Jules083]

I thought the 365 was an epa stove ?

It is. I have the 360.

Sometime after I bought mine the 365 was invented. I don't know the dates. I appears my 360 has been discontinued also. It's still a good furnace, and should serve me well for many more years heating my garage.

 

[ajr]

How does the design differ from other epa stoves then. Just trying to figure out ho going to another epa stove is going to help?

 

[Jules083]

How does the design differ from other epa stoves then. Just trying to figure out ho going to another epa stove is going to help?

My stove is a 360, which is a non epa stove. It's been replaced by the 365, which is an epa stove.

I do not have the epa version with the secondary burns and all of that. I just have a box that burns wood.

 

[ajr]

Sorry I missed the 5.. I was just curious because I was thinking about looking into the 365ek. Have you looked at that one at all looks like a nice stove . I think the air intake is from the underside of the fire wich would help the coaling problem.

 

[brenndatomu]

I was just curious because I was thinking about looking into the 365ek

FYI t the only model with secondary air is the 385EK. It is still not a "EPA" style firebox though, more like lets throw some secondary air above the fire and see what happens. Kinda like what Yukon does on their stuff, better than nothing but still not the same as what the newer furnaces like the Tundra has going on.

 

[brenndatomu]

I like that the thermostat on the Tundra keeps the unit from overfiring, but I'm skeptical of a thermostat on a wood furnace. I have a thermostat on mine with just a natural draft door, not the fan that everyone hates. It was my experience in my old house that when the house cooled enough to let the draft open, the furnace would then burn all of the wood and I'd wake up to a colder house. I've since moved, own this house and don't plan on leaving, and never tried hooking a thermostat.

Make sure you get a thermostat that controls the temp to within 1*. (I use a Honeywell FocusPro 5000, they can be had on fleabay for $20 or so) It could be that most of the newer ones are that way. I had a older Hunter programmable 'stat, it had a 2* swing from "heat on" to "heat off" that's too much time with the damper open on a wood furnace.
I just read here somewhere of someone that used one of those new "Nest" 'stats, also has a web cam focused on the Tundra, he can get on his smart phone at work to look at the fire and see house temp on the phone via the Nest, the 'stat can be controlled from phone accordingly. Pretty cool if you are a techy....

 

[Wisneaky]

Make sure you get a thermostat that controls the temp to within 1*. (I use a Honeywell FocusPro 5000, they can be had on fleabay for $20 or so) It could be that most of the newer ones are that way. I had a older Hunter programmable 'stat, it had a 2* swing from "heat on" to "heat off" that's too much time with the damper open on a wood furnace.
I just read here somewhere of someone that used one of those new "Nest" 'stats, also has a web cam focused on the Tundra, he can get on his smart phone at work to look at the fire and see house temp on the phone via the Nest, the 'stat can be controlled from phone accordingly. Pretty cool if you are a techy....

When I first got my Tundra I was using one with a swing because I emailed the SBI techs and that's what they recommended. Seemed like it was eating up the wood so I switched to a Honeywell focus pro also.

 

[NSMaple1]

Well it's ordered. Thank you all for the advice. From here I'm just going to come up with a plan for a ductwork change, and possibly modify my wood storage. I know this type of furnace needs drier wood, so I think I'll plan on bringing wood inside a few days earlier to let that last bit of exterior moisture out.

I think I may need to split smaller also. I've been making big splits to get longer burns.

Think you done good - good luck.

BTW on the smaller splits - an electric splitter is the cats hiney for that. I have a 4T that stays in my basement, built a stand for it with wheels out of an old pallet. It's not the speediest thing in the world, but works great for that. I don't use it that much any more, as I've taken to trying to get the splits smaller to start with. But if you've got a bunch of big stuff, re-split as much of it as you can and loose-stack as much of it as you can in the same room as your furnace. Add a box fan sitting on the floor, set on low speed, pointing into the pile, running during waking hours, and you'll have some primo firewood in a couple 3 weeks.

 

[flotek]

I use a focus pro 5000 . It is like they are made for the tundra . Large digits easy to see and at dark it has a green backlit display and an audible click when the demand needs met . Very accurate and reliable for the money

 

[Jules083]

Think you done good - good luck.

BTW on the smaller splits - an electric splitter is the cats hiney for that. I have a 4T that stays in my basement, built a stand for it with wheels out of an old pallet. It's not the speediest thing in the world, but works great for that. I don't use it that much any more, as I've taken to trying to get the splits smaller to start with. But if you've got a bunch of big stuff, re-split as much of it as you can and loose-stack as much of it as you can in the same room as your furnace. Add a box fan sitting on the floor, set on low speed, pointing into the pile, running during waking hours, and you'll have some primo firewood in a couple 3 weeks.

I've looked at the small electric splitters before. They do seem easy, and they're not expensive.

I need to move some stuff around but I'll be able to put a cord in front of the furnace easily, so no worries there.

I'm bidding on a thermostat now, thanks.

 

[Wisneaky]

I'm bidding on a thermostat now, thanks

Amazon has the Honeywell Focus Pro 5000 for $40.89

 

[Jules083]

Amazon has the Honeywell Focus Pro 5000 for $40.89

Thanks. The one I'm looking at is $10 used and the auction ends in 2 days. If I don't get it for under $15 or $20 I'll get the Amazon one.