anyone have any experience with outdoor wood furnaces?

[Warren]

Hello all! I haven't been on here in forever but I seem to trust the advice I get from this site. Scary, right? Lol

Anyway, I'm looking into building a outdoor wood furnace. I will use it for heating water then pump the hot water into my garage to heat my garage via a heat exchanger.

 I was just wondering if anyone has any experience with a outdoor wood furnace?

Thanks in advance.

[Warren]

What the hell? Nobody has any help for me?  Is it because I have been gone for so long?

[Krandall]

What kinda info you lookin for? I don't own one myself but I helped my cousin repair his when he got a hole in the water jacket of his.

[Warren]

Anything really. Ease of use? Are they smokey? Use a lot of wood?

[Krandall]

My cousins isn't too bad for smoke.. I mean. You're burning wood so obviuosly going to have some smoke. Once it's up to temp and burning though it's pretty minimal. Only times he really has heavy smoke is if for some reason the fire goes out and he's starting it back up. (Which.. DONT let that happen) Once you have a huge bed of coals it's easy to maintain. Once it goes out though.. Game over. It's a BITCH. stoke with wood. Dump old car oil on and you're good.

The stove is as good as the insulation in whatever you're heating and how efficient it is at burning shtuff. That's the main thing. My cousins using it to heat both the house and the shop. their shop is insulated but there's cracks all over and a breeze that comes through here and there. I'd say, meh at best. I believe they are currently burning around 30-40 cord a year.

They used to cut all their wood. We live in a n area where there's a lot available all around but they opted to quit cutting and have semi loads of wood hauled in now.

[Warren]

Good to hear. My main concern is the smoke, I have one neighbor that's a pain in the ass. they are across the alley so hopefully if I am smoking it won't make it over there to bad.

Thanks.

[Peelz]

What the hell? Nobody has any help for me?  Is it because I have been gone for so long?

hey... mr. "i dont post for years, then decide to come back and post when peels is on vacation" 




I helped a friend and his uncle put one in. Lives out in the country and loves it. He enjoys the fun of flipping the gas man the bird as he drives past

heats his house AND his water 90% of the time with wood. he DID end up making his chimney about 10 ft taller/bigger because of the smoke.

Using wood, his has vent to allow more air for more heat if you want to warm up quick. just burns more wood. Never heard him complain about it....then again. he has 100+ acres of thick woods on his property so resources arent really a problem lol

[Mad Dog]

Good to hear from you.

Dad bought one from Tractor Supply, put it inside the garage and ran the ductwork into the house furnace.  Chimney goes up and out the roof of the garage, no smoke in the house when the fire goes out but can happen if you don't maintain the coals and take out the ash on a regular basis.  Dad keeps the house at super high temps and its a 20 year old mfr'd home so it's not got great insulation, he goes through about 20 cord of wood a winter.  Bonus of putting it in the garage is that the garage is heated as well without the need for an air to water heat exchanger.  Downside is that fumes in the garage can get blown into the house if the blowers are on at the time but that can be resolved by putting the stove in/near an exterior wall and drawing the intake from the outside.

Boss just built a new big garage with heating elements in the concrete floor.  His is outdoor with a heat exchanger, burning pellets and corn.  Supposedly heats the building nicely but just got the coils and hot water system up and running last month.

Mother has a little wood stove in her house, just radiant heat.  Chimney, no smoke unless you make a hash of lighting a new fire and leave the door to the stove open too long.