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  • Jaybird1980

    Grandmaster
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    5   0   0
    Jan 22, 2016
    11,929
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    North Central
    Yep, he is the middle son, the youngest brother butchers in their shop. The 2x4's came from a high end home builder in Knox. Have a couple piles of them still remaining in my woodyard. Tolbrothers were the builders.

    Best thing I ever did was buy my first one. We are on a 2nd one.

    Heard bad things with an auger if you burnt wood with nails. Nails plug the auger. Our first one was a Central Boiler from Topeka Feed and Stove in Topeka, Indiana. Excellent guys, can't say enough good about them. That was back in '94 or '95. Cannot imagine the money saved in LP due to this purchase. About 10 or 11 or so years ago they were going to outlaw the preemission stoves so we sold our old one and bought a new one from same place but next generation. Great stove, don't darken their door, terrible to deal with and I was paying cash! The gassifiers will burn less wood, but I am lazy and burn mostly what falls on our farm. Sometimes I cut wood and throw it into the stove that afternoon evening. Gassifiers need specific percentage of moisture or they gum up. I don't want that. Crappy wood, buggy wood, some questionable wood, all provides heat.
    I just realized who you are. I bought mine from Topeka because of you.
     
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    ghuns

    Grandmaster
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    2   0   0
    Nov 22, 2011
    9,308
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    Yep, he is the middle son, the youngest brother butchers in their shop. The 2x4's came from a high end home builder in Knox. Have a couple piles of them still remaining in my woodyard. Tolbrothers were the builders...
    Glad to see my memory still works sometimes.

    I burned many truckloads of free 2X scrap from Burkholder's truss shop in Nappanee. You had to load it yourself and it was PITA to load the boiler with, but free is free. Then they started charging for it. I told them to keep it.
     

    Leadeye

    Grandmaster
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    4   0   0
    Jan 19, 2009
    36,690
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    .
    I looked at these but ended up with a powered insert. I have to split the wood small, but it heats the entire house and it's less complex.
     

    Cavman

    Master
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    5   0   0
    Mar 2, 2009
    1,771
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    All of you that use these, will you burn spruce?
    If its there I would mines older with just a damper that can get stuck from creosote. I usually check it and just requires a flip or some lite knocking to knock of the soot
     

    Leadeye

    Grandmaster
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    4   0   0
    Jan 19, 2009
    36,690
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    .
    I would burn some coniferous stuff, but it's not common where I live.

    Sawtooth aspen burns quick and doesn't have a lot of heating value, but the trees are always falling down and it's close to the house.
     

    Jaybird1980

    Grandmaster
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    5   0   0
    Jan 22, 2016
    11,929
    113
    North Central
    I burned some in mine. Only one whole firebox loaded with it though. The sticky mess ran out the damper door and gummed it all up. After that I would just mix it in with some good stuff in the early season or late season. Like Leadeye said, it burns up to fast to use during the really cold weather.
     

    ghitch75

    livin' in the sticks
    Site Supporter
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    117   0   0
    Dec 21, 2009
    13,501
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    Greene County
    I have an installer coming to the house tomorrow to discuss it. He is a Heatmor, Crown royal and heatmaster dealer. I am leaning toward Crown Royal gassification system


    i was a crown royal dealer 20 years ago and back then they made up the warranty as they went....if you heat exchanger pops they had no way to fix them in place so you have to ship it back on your dime or would blame is on your ash line was to high or you did keep the chemicals at the right mix..

    nothing was there fault

    at the time over 2500 to ship one so i'm sure it would be more now ....be very warry of all the brands warranty's....

    i'm no dealer of any brand but have put in hundreds of them all brands you'll burn 15 to 30 ricks a year depending how it is installed and how will your insulated ...

    best way to install is to start and stop your pump on demand and parrell you heating devices...

    been doing HVAC/Pipefitting for 41 years
     

    AllenM

    Diamond Collision Inc. Avon.
    Industry Partner
    Rating - 100%
    132   0   0
    Apr 20, 2008
    10,387
    113
    Avon
    i was a crown royal dealer 20 years ago and back then they made up the warranty as they went....if you heat exchanger pops they had no way to fix them in place so you have to ship it back on your dime or would blame is on your ash line was to high or you did keep the chemicals at the right mix..

    nothing was there fault

    at the time over 2500 to ship one so i'm sure it would be more now ....be very warry of all the brands warranty's....

    i'm no dealer of any brand but have put in hundreds of them all brands you'll burn 15 to 30 ricks a year depending how it is installed and how will your insulated ...

    best way to install is to start and stop your pump on demand and parrell you heating devices...

    been doing HVAC/Pipefitting for 41 years
    That's good to know. Heatmaster is another brand he handles and uses personally. Garn listed above looks real interesting and I requested info.
    I have been sifting through forums for info and there is so much positive and negative for everything that it hard to decide which way to go.

    The dealer isnt fond of the gasification setups because they are picky about what you burn but I like the idea of using less wood which translates into less time cutting and splitting.
    But like so many things online opinions are all over the place.

    One thing that is consistent is the importance of the pipe installation.
     

    ghuns

    Grandmaster
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    2   0   0
    Nov 22, 2011
    9,308
    113
    Why would you choose to run raw after in your system. With the risk of a freeze up that’s a serious game. Just makes no sense.
    Straight water transfers heat better, about 20% better than a 50 percent solution of water/ethylene glycol.

    My system is holds about 250 gallons. That'd be a lot of $$$ for antifreeze.

    Mine has frozen once since 2008 due to a power outage in the middle of the night during a January cold spell. The boiler itself wasn't damaged. The pump in mine has a round plate with a slight bow to it. When the water freezes and expands the plate bows the other way. All I had to do when it thawed was flip the plate over.

    I now have an alarm that goes off during a power outage so I can get the generator running ASAP.
     

    Jaybird1980

    Grandmaster
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    5   0   0
    Jan 22, 2016
    11,929
    113
    North Central
    Why would you choose to run raw after in your system. With the risk of a freeze up that’s a serious game. Just makes no sense.
    The cost alone is significant. Then dealing with overheating and loss and trying to keep the ratio can be a pain.

    I had a generator setup and spare pump/parts so I knew I could keep the water moving. Also like ghuns says the antifreeze doesn't like to transfer the heat.
     
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    Farmerjon

    Expert
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    0   0   0
    Jul 14, 2010
    1,294
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    NorthWest Indiana
    Like Ghuns and Jaybird stated, loss of heat transfer. Also, the pumps run continuously so moving water doesn't freeze. During one extreme weather event and a power outage, without a generator I kept a fire in my stove (think small campfire) and stuck a stick in my dampener so it was a little bit open to allow air for the fire to burn. I bought the best insulation and tubing combination they offered when we installed the first boiler. They had a claim that you could lay it on top of the frozen ground if you were installing in winter and bury the next summer. They also said it only needed to be 20 some inches below grade. We hired a backhoe and put it in 4' deep. Was going into a basement for the house and then another split went into the barn and heated our farrowing house (a place for birthing baby pigs), need heat for those piglets. With the new stove we disconnected the farrowing house.
     

    churchmouse

    I still care....Really
    Emeritus
    Rating - 100%
    187   0   0
    Dec 7, 2011
    191,809
    152
    Speedway area
    The cost alone is significant. Then dealing with overheating and loss and trying to keep the ratio can be a pain.

    I had a generator setup and spare pump/parts so I knew I could keep the water moving. Also like ghuns says the antifreeze doesn't like to transfer the heat.
    I worked on huge chilled/hot water systems in buildings and manufacturing facility's and yes there is a loss in exchange but the positives are a controlled corrosion of the system as glycol inhibits this. Also you can rest easy knowing it will not freeze up.
    The temp transfer loss would be minimal in those boilers. To the point the peace of mind in having it would far outweigh any failures due to freezing.
    In a closed loop like those there is not that much water. Easy to treat. A good friend has the 1st one I ever saw up close. I treated his loop for him. He is a Fire fighter and gone a lot. Peace of mind.....:):
     

    Jaybird1980

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    5   0   0
    Jan 22, 2016
    11,929
    113
    North Central
    I worked on huge chilled/hot water systems in buildings and manufacturing facility's and yes there is a loss in exchange but the positives are a controlled corrosion of the system as glycol inhibits this. Also you can rest easy knowing it will not freeze up.
    The temp transfer loss would be minimal in those boilers. To the point the peace of mind in having it would far outweigh any failures due to freezing.
    In a closed loop like those there is not that much water. Easy to treat. A good friend has the 1st one I ever saw up close. I treated his loop for him. He is a Fire fighter and gone a lot. Peace of mind.....:):
    I don't know anything about the building and facilities systems, I do know that mine was 275 gallon capacity plus the lines to the house, and the antifreeze sold where I bought my stuff needed a 50/50 mix just to reach 0°. The cost for the antifreeze was over 4k dollars for enough to do mine, and it needed changed every 5 years. That brought up another problem, how to dispose of 300 gallons of treated water? I did run corrosion inhibitor in my system, but no way I could afford to run the antifreeze. The piece of mind with a treated system would have been nice though.
     

    churchmouse

    I still care....Really
    Emeritus
    Rating - 100%
    187   0   0
    Dec 7, 2011
    191,809
    152
    Speedway area
    I don't know anything about the building and facilities systems, I do know that mine was 275 gallon capacity plus the lines to the house, and the antifreeze sold where I bought my stuff needed a 50/50 mix just to reach 0°. The cost for the antifreeze was over 4k dollars for enough to do mine, and it needed changed every 5 years. That brought up another problem, how to dispose of 300 gallons of treated water? I did run corrosion inhibitor in my system, but no way I could afford to run the antifreeze. The piece of mind with a treated system would have been nice though.
    Man that’s robbery. No ****ing way that money is on point.
    Glycol is all you need.
    I worked with thousands of gallons so the scale is way heavy in my mind.
     
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    Jaybird1980

    Grandmaster
    Rating - 100%
    5   0   0
    Jan 22, 2016
    11,929
    113
    North Central
    Man that’s robbery. No ****ing way that money is on point.
    Glycol is all you need.
    Yeah I thought it was crazy. I do remember finding it for cheaper, but after you figure shipping on 150 gallons of antifreeze it was back up to the crazy price. Now this was quite a while ago and I would hope there are more options available nowadays. If I remember right it was a glycol product.

    Edit: I just did a quick search and it looks like a 55 gallon barrel is $1500, so 3 barrels $4500 + shipping. This was just a quick search and I'm sure there is cheaper but even at half price it's still a lot of $. Then you still have the issue of disposal.

     
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    AllenM

    Diamond Collision Inc. Avon.
    Industry Partner
    Rating - 100%
    132   0   0
    Apr 20, 2008
    10,387
    113
    Avon
    Talked to the installer last night. He wasn't a big fan of Crown Royal either.

    He also sells Heatmaster and Heatmor.
    But has been curious about Garn and is looking into that as well.

    Waiting now on pricing qoute:(
     
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