Englader Add on furnace imrovement?

I've been heating with an 28-3500 since 2001 and have always been happy with it. We pretty much run ours 24/7 so we don't actually have to light it very often. I do sometimes get an overly deep coal bed and I'll open the lower draft one turn for awhile to burn them down. If you happen to be burning with that lower draft open at all that may be why it's not holding coals. As far as the small coals dropping into the ash pan I get that to but I figure the heat is still rising into the firebox so I don't worry about it. I'm heating 1500 sq. ft. house and full basement comfortably. This year I added a loop for heating my dhw in the winter and it works so good I wish I would have done it years ago.

tkramer76 said:

I've been heating with an 28-3500 since 2001 and have always been happy with it. We pretty much run ours 24/7 so we don't actually have to light it very often. I do sometimes get an overly deep coal bed and I'll open the lower draft one turn for awhile to burn them down. If you happen to be burning with that lower draft open at all that may be why it's not holding coals. As far as the small coals dropping into the ash pan I get that to but I figure the heat is still rising into the firebox so I don't worry about it. I'm heating 1500 sq. ft. house and full basement comfortably. This year I added a loop for heating my dhw in the winter and it works so good I wish I would have done it years ago.

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Where did you get the hot water loop and in what location did you install it (front, back, side)? I wasn't aware that they made one for it? Do share Sorry to hijack the thread. . . The metal plate may be a good idea, but I wonder how long it would last? There also needs to be some air movement underneath to keep the coals lit depending on chimney height.

I actually custom made my dhw loop, but it's a copy of a commercially available one. It's installed in the top of the firebox as seen in photo. Price to install was around $350 with the grunfos pump and aquastat seen on the side of the woodburner. Initially I was using one 75 gallon storage tank but it was running around 170-180 so I picked up a second on cl for $100 and the temp now runs 120-150. Still plenty hot with less concern about scolding. I have about 25 feet of 6" stainless chimeny liner because the stove is in the basement and the draft is still strong with the coil in the firebox. I have been sweeping my chimeny every two months or so because I was expecting more debris but so far it's about the same.

After looking at the photos I remember adding the thermometers on the tanks for $15 apiece so I'm close to $400 now. On the other hand my electric bill is down about $60 a month so pretty fast payback.

What's the coil made of stainless? Where did you find one that was commercially available? I was thinking about going through the front side to avoid the warm air jacket.

Yes the coil is 1/2" schedule 40 stainless pipe which has a .109 wall thickness. It worked perfect because the outside diameter is .840 which is what you need for a 1/2" x 14 pipe thread die on the ends and then you can run a 7/8" x14 fine thread die past the pipe threads to allow nuts on each side of the firebox wall. It's not fun to bend or thread at home but it is doable. I think it pretty closely resembles the Hilkoil which you can buy. I think going through the front would work just as well but the warm air jacket isn't much of an obstacle and putting mine on the side kept it out of the way. I had to use a carbide tipped hole saw to drill the firebox wall and the same drill made quick work of the air jacket.