When to stop odwb?

[Hunt4lumber]

When does others say enough?
Forecast next couple weeks showing highs of 60+lows in 40s...
I'm thinking I'm done burning( only burn to heat house, not household water)

 

[H-Ranch]

That sounds about time to me - we have a few more nights in the 30's and daytime highs in the 50's but probably in the next week or so I'll let mine burn out for the season. Wife's requirement is the house not get below 60°.

 

[cantoo]

This might be the 1st year that I let mine go out for more than a few hours. Been 3 years now and only let go out twice, once to clean out good and once to fix the smoke bypass. Each was only a few hours. After years of reading up about OWBs and the various reasons for failure I'm convinced that the temp changes are what do the most damage. Expansion and contraction are not friends to welds, especially rapid ones. This has been my main reason for running all summer as the domestic hot water savings are pretty slim. It does get rid of junk wood and cardboard too though. If I do shut it down I will be lighting it early in the fall with small hot fires and put them out quick to warm up the water up to temperature slowly. I think it's the best way to let it go out to is to slowly drop the temps until it goes out on it's own but do it over several days. I'm light sand blasting mine to do a good cleaning if I do shut it down.

 

[crowbuster]

I normally get a wk or 2 into may before shutting down. But awful warm already.

 

[WoodTick007]

This might be the 1st year that I let mine go out for more than a few hours. Been 3 years now and only let go out twice, once to clean out good and once to fix the smoke bypass. Each was only a few hours. After years of reading up about OWBs and the various reasons for failure I'm convinced that the temp changes are what do the most damage. Expansion and contraction are not friends to welds, especially rapid ones. This has been my main reason for running all summer as the domestic hot water savings are pretty slim. It does get rid of junk wood and cardboard too though. If I do shut it down I will be lighting it early in the fall with small hot fires and put them out quick to warm up the water up to temperature slowly. I think it's the best way to let it go out to is to slowly drop the temps until it goes out on it's own but do it over several days. I'm light sand blasting mine to do a good cleaning if I do shut it down.

Are the welds the location that most outdoor wood boilers burners crack? I never really gave it much thought before I read your post. I assume that the metal Heat fatigued over repeated years of burning or people loading them with skid steers or front end loaders and dropping huge logs in them. I wonder if most of those are welded both sides of the same my guess is not if there's a cracking issue.

 

[lindnova]

I do heat my hot water and like to keep the garage warmer for the tomato plants(should build a greenhouse). I usually stop when the shed is out of wood and I don't need the furnace. Right now I have a week or so of wood left in the shed and when I run out I will shut it down.

 

[cantoo]

WoodTick007, my owb is a stainless one and I have no idea where the welds are but I would assume that not all of the welds can be done from both sides. Most of the failures I read about were mild steel but some were stainless. I also assume that some cracks are due to people throwing large blocks in too.
My own was built in 03 I think but not really sure anymore and it sat unused for a lot of years. If and when it does go I intend to build my own using mild steel. I've been gathering things to build it. I have several tanks of various sizes already.

 

[Circle B MN]

I may be done for the year. Been a warmer spring so there have been a couple few times that I let it really burn down to nothing for a day or so and run off the warmth stored in the tank before re-firing it.