My trip to Smokelessheat

At the advice of many respondants to my first post on hearth.com I contacted Dean Zook, the proprietor of smokelessheat.com. This past Saturday my friend Duddy! and I made an early morning road trip to Lebanon to meet up with Dean at his warehouse.

I'd like to first say that Dean could teach a clinic to any small business owner on exceptional customer service. He took 2 1/2 hours out of his Saturday because he believes in his product that much.

He showed us what he had in the warehouse and answered dozens of questions from me. Then we drove to his brother's house nearby and lit up his boiler to see it in operation. Then we drove to Dean's house and lit up a different model boiler to see it in operation.

I'm sold. Dean recommended an installer in my area and I left a message with them yesterday. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do the whole shebang this season. At the very least, I just want the installer to look at my situation and put together a spec and cost estimate. I may go ahead with replacing my 50+ year old oil-burning boiler with a new HE oil boiler this year. I'm thinking my setup will ultimately entail the oil boiler as backup and the wood boiler with storage as the main heating source.

Thanks again to all of you who helped me out and recommended smokelessheat.

Yes, the boiler Dean has at his house is a Lambda. It's an impressive feat of engineering. Watching it in operation isn't actually all that thrilling because it's just a big black box. The Vedolux 37 at his brother's house is cooler to watch because you can see the lower burn chamber as the gases are burned.

Both Dean and his brother used heavily insulated old propane tanks for storage. I don't know what route I'll take for storage. The old propane tank route certainly seems more affordable. I'm not sure what advantage the retail storage tanks offer that's worth the price difference.

And while I acknowledge I don't have the skill to properly install the boiler itself, I think I can manage to put together a couple of big tanks in some racks in my basement.

I believe the Vedolux 37 would do the trick for my house. I've got a 2,600 sq ft 200 year old stone farmhouse with cast iron radiators. Hopefully I can swing the expense for this system by next winter. This winter we're still going to have to be a bit cold.