outside wood heater

[Squirt_TN]

Has anyone used, or have experiance with 1 of these?

[Andythompson]

uhhhhhhhhhh?

shouldn't there be a link to addiional info?

[Squirt_TN]

OOOOPS!!! or any other brand.
http://www.woodmaster.com/

[ChainsawGrandpa]

Yes! They smoke. The boxes rust through in short order
(10 - 15 years?) and they aren't the most effecient.

I might be getting the "Doh!!" (think Homer Simpson) award
but I'm putting one on my place. Mine is masonry instead
of water. Won't smoke as bad, and the pipe runs are short.
Still not the most effecient, but it should do well for my limited
indoor space.

Consider masonry instead of water. More effecient, cheaper,
and less smoke. Not as nice as accessable indoor fire (thanks
Mr. E & Steve!) but the insurance should be less money.

You may need to venture out into the cold to stoke it. Not fun
in January at 5:00 AM.

-Rick

[farmercolby]

I don't know about the woodmaster, but I have a heatmor and I love it. It dont smoke at all if you manage your fire right and dont let the temp of the water get too low. I feed it after I get off work and that way I dont ever have to get up in the night to feed it. I get a minimum of a 24 hour burn out of it in the dead of winter, and in the spring and fall I have gone as long as a week. Also you can't rust out the heatmor because it has firebrick lining the bottom with sand in the very bottom of the furnace up to the grate which will pull the moisture out of the fire box, plus its made out of stainless. I am definately going to put one on my log house when I get it built.

[ponyboy]

I haven't used this, but I like the thought of being able to use 9 different things to heat it with ( natural gas, propane, heating oil, waste oil, firewood, coal, burnable waste, electricity, solar energy)

http://www.beselfreliant.com/heating/index.cfm

Hummmm... I wonder if Jiffy Lube wants to get rid of their waste oil...
:D


Jeff

[kyle]

Anyone know anything about Aqua Therm outdoor furnaces? http://www.aqua-therm.com/pages/index.php?pID=73

I was at a home tonight where they heated with this furnace. The owner swears by it. He knows other individuals with other models, Heatmor, Mahoning, and says he gets a longer burn time then them. The only thing I don't like is there is no back up fuel system.

[huffjohndeb]

They seem like a neat idea. Until the fire goes out and you have curse your way through a 4 foot snowdrift thats blocking the door to get it fired up again. But never mind me I'm a born skeptical firm believer in Murphy's Law, if it can go wrong it will. You should check with the man to make sure it's approved for use.

[rreidnauer]

I've been meaning to post this for a while now, and this seems a good a time as any, so . . . . . .

A couple years ago, I was planning on a wood boiler myself. (I was considering an indoor duel fuel model) The initial turn off was the price. Then recently, I stumbled across Woodheat.org, a site just like LHBA, but tells the facts about wood heating instead of log homes. From what I've read of wood-fired boilers, I'm going to stay far, far away from buying one now. Anyhow, here's the direct link to what they say about them: http://www.woodheat.org/technology/outboiler.htm

[jayrae01]

I've read the same thing from woodheat.org regarding outdoor boilers. What I've been wondering is if anyone has any experience with an indoor furnace (Not a boiler). I'll probably install one of those high efficiency wood stoves or inserts as well, but I plan on building on a true basement foundation, thus providing room for a furnace. I like the idea of a dual fuel furnace (wood/natural gas) for backup when out of town, etc. Here are two such products. One combines the gas furnace with the wood firebox and will automatically ignite the wood. The other simply includes a gas furnace alongside the wood furnace.
http://www.yukon-eagle.com/
http://www.charmaster.com/furnaces.html

[Timberwolf]

Despite what I've read about these having a really small market share (something like 1%) I know more people who heat this way than any other (welcome to Canada.) I also know that many furance manufacturers have at least 1 wood/oil combination product. I can't make claims on the specific brand you mention, as I only have experience with Newmac, however I can say with certainty the following.

They will definately heat a house (generally with a resonable amount of wood), and have the advantage to move the warm air into remote areas of the house.

Backup fuel is nice (if expensive) when you go away, also nice when you need a fast blast of heat in the spring/fall when you don't really need a full fire.

Choose your furnace carefully. A cheap one is just that. Cheap. There are some on the market selling for $1400 dollars and they amount to nothing more than a big can. While they might heat, you will spend a lot of time loading wood. The newer models should burn very cleanly (little to no smoke) and efficently and sustain a burn for 8 hours or more (all night without having to get up at 5am). Look for lots of firebrick, heavy duty steel, secondary burn chambers, good draft, etc, etc. www.woodheat.org (Canadian Site eh!) talks alot about wood burning efficency, and though it is mainly geared to woodstoves, the concepts are exactly the same, worth reading.

The required ductwork makes it easy to add A/C (hmm is that a good thing?).

Some downsides

You need a way to bring the wood into your house, along with the dust, bark and bugs that go with it. Good excuse to buy a shop vac though.
Make sure the system you get has a good filter, this will cut down greatly on the dust in the house.

The heat can be dry at times. You will want a humidifier.

I have yet to find a model with a water heating coil (if you do let me know) as I'm still looking for a way to heat, at a minimum my DHW without using electric/propane in the winter or at least as little as possible.

There's more I know, but I can't think of anything off the top right now. Maybe some specific questions?

Jason.

[jayrae01]

Thanks for the pointers. I know they do not seem that popular, but I like the idea of indoor convenience. I envision having a walkout basement, with a separate exterior door to the furnace room, wide enough for a wheel barrow or loaded wagon, etc. That way, the dust, etc. is contained to the furnace room itself. I've even seen houses that have a separate underground garage/storage area adjacent to the basement, directly below the garage above (pre-stressed concrete slabs used for the garage floor above). That would make a great furnace room too. I do believe the Charmaster includes some kind of hot water coil, and the other one I linked to offers it as an accessory???

[timver2]

Two years of great service- warm house and reduced electricity and gas bills are evidence enough. One of the best decisions we made was to add the yukon eagle (LP/wood) to our home. There are a few tricks to using the unit efficiently in your home. BUT after understanding how to minimize the LP usage and not burn through cord after cord of wood, the warmth of the furnace is wonderful. A couple of suggestions:
-It is a big heavy unit that require support
-Over sizing the unit for your SQFt home is not a good idea (this is counter intuitive)
-Talk about the fact with your spouse that you're not going to enjoy the beautiful flames
-Place the unit and its exhaust stack as close as possible to the middle of your home
-Realize you are going to use LP... you will even when you're home
-Get your wife to agree she will help feed wood when necessary :)
-Be honest ... if you think you will get tired of heating with wood, get an efficient LP furnace only


If/when you get a unit I will share some secrets of getting through the night, not burning too much wood and avoiding temp swings.

[Timberwolf]

Three people in my wife's family all have dual fuel (wood/oil) furnaces in their houses. On all three, they have separate thermostats, one for wood, one for oil. By turning the oil off (dead of winter, unless they go away overnight) they are able to heat exclusively with wood all season. As long as they load the furnace before bed, they are all able to go through the night and stay warm, even tho they are in relatively poorly built (read: not so energy efficent) stick framed houses and this includes one of them who has a 20year+ old model that has little in the way of advanced wood burning features to heat maximize heat potential.

Just a thought...

Jason.