New osburn 2400 owner not impressed

I agree that the Osburn is not what it claims to be. I purchased one 3 years ago to help heat my 4,000 ft2 shop. I keep the hydronic floor on to 48 degrees and raise the heat with wood when working. Bought the Osburn 2400 with fan to replace a Vogelzang ( spelling) box stove that was using too much wood. The Osburn is rated by themselves at 78% efficiency and 100,000 btu, it's rated by the US EPA at around 63% efficiency and around 44,000 btu. My guess is somewhere between the two.
The good news is, it seemed to burn better( hotter) after a month or so, maybe the moisture in the refractory being evaporated. While it does not put out heat like the Vogelzang, it is much safer to run and burns about 1/2 the wood, I still run it 3/4 to all the way open, with 3 year seasoned oak, and an additional fan behind the unit. It brings my shop temp from 48 to 60 in 2 to 3 hours and up to 65 by the end of a 8 hour day.
I am slowly starting to like the unit but would not buy another.
Good luck to you

jkahn said:

I agree that the Osburn is not what it claims to be. I purchased one 3 years ago to help heat my 4,000 ft2 shop. I keep the hydronic floor on to 48 degrees and raise the heat with wood when working. Bought the Osburn 2400 with fan to replace a Vogelzang ( spelling) box stove that was using too much wood. The Osburn is rated by themselves at 78% efficiency and 100,000 btu, it's rated by the US EPA at around 63% efficiency and around 44,000 btu. My guess is somewhere between the two.
The good news is, it seemed to burn better( hotter) after a month or so, maybe the moisture in the refractory being evaporated. While it does not put out heat like the Vogelzang, it is much safer to run and burns about 1/2 the wood, I still run it 3/4 to all the way open, with 3 year seasoned oak, and an additional fan behind the unit. It brings my shop temp from 48 to 60 in 2 to 3 hours and up to 65 by the end of a 8 hour day.
I am slowly starting to like the unit but would not buy another.
Good luck to you

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The 63% efficiency rating by the EPA is a default value for non-catalytic stoves. When you look through the list you will see that most secondary burn stoves are labeled as 63% efficient. The EPA cares only about the emissions of a stove, not about its heating efficiency (unfortunately, IMHO). Some manufacturers pay extra to have also efficiency testing done by the accredited lab. Those will then appear as to be more efficient stoves although they may not be. It is also important to note that the EPA-testing is done with crib-wood which is douglas-fir stapled together in a uniform way. Real world experiences will differ quite a bit. See also here: http://blog.woodstove.com/2014/03/btu-output-how-is-it-determined.html and http://blog.woodstove.com/2014/03/btu-output-how-is-it-determined.html

The Vogelzang was probably a more radiant stove than the Osburn. Thus, it felt like it was putting out more heat early on, especially when standing close by. Leaving the air of the 2400 up by 3/4 sends most of the heat out the chimney and probably pulls in a lot of cold air from the outside to make up for it. The air control needs to be reduced to get the stove into its efficient secondary burn. Once the stove top settles in between 600 and 700 F at the lowest possible air setting you get the maximum heat out of your wood. However, heating a 4000 sqft shop from 48 F to 65 F in 8 hours is pretty good. You will need a lot of BTU to do that, no matter which heating appliance you use.

To reiterate what everyone else is saying, you are heating the outdoors, and the outdoors is pretty massive.

Is there insulation under your concrete floor? If not, then for an inexpensive (relatively) fix for the immediate time, if you don't use your basement and have the floor space relatively free, you could purchase foam board for future wall insulation and simply lay it on the floor, possibly tape the seams. And/or you could put a wool carpet down. Wool is a pretty good insulator.

Also, I would not discount putting a fan at the top of the stairs pointing down. It will get a convective loop going, which will bring warm air upstairs. The air in the top few feet of the basement is not doing you any good down there, is probably 90 degrees or so, and is gradually working its way out the walls. The greater the difference in temp between the inside and outside, the faster the warm air will migrate out. So, by moving the warmer air upstairs you will likely actually slow heat loss a bit. If you want to check upper basement air temp, you could hang a thermometer about a foot from the ceiling and see what it reads....or just stand on a ladder for a few minutes. It's pretty amazing the difference in temp floor to ceiling in a heated room that does not have air moving. The basement upper strata warm air will help to heat the upstairs if you can get it up. You are actually heating quite a bit of air in the basement. It is just working its way out the walls. Don't give it time to do that...it won't matter if in the process of moving heat upstairs you are reducing the temp downstairs, possibly even to your starting point. You are trying to heat the area you use, the upstairs. Move some of that heat up. A consistent 72 to 90 degree heat coming up the stairs will make a difference in your insulated living space.

Carpeted floors, insulated walls, open staircase, ceiling fans. All of these things are the difference between being warm and being cold.

BrotherBart said:

That is whey I didn't call it insulating the basement walls.

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You said in reference to insulating his basement as suggested by sweetish chef. "futile effort". You then go on to explain what you did with insulation You are the one who made a futile,lazy attempt at something and you tell everyone insulating a basement Is futile..
I know what you didn't say ,you didn't say that you actually insulated your basement because you didn't .
Why bother telling a guy insulating his basement is a futile endeavor? Especially with out a personal knowledge that is actually does work.
So remarking on weather insulating a basement really helps make the home warmer and the wood stove more efficient which I say it does and so I'm sure many others have found it so.
Why would you post such a negative comment on insulating a basement based on you hanging some 5' longs batts of insulation around?

BrotherBart said:

Because I was relating what I had done.

Conversation over.

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What you had done was not what Swedish chef was suggesting , remember the insulate your basement suggestion. I just didn't want you to discourage a guy that some insulation could solve his issue. Futile effort is a big negative but the link you posted right on where it says even a small amount of insulation in a basement will make a noticeable difference .lets help people solve problems here not steer the away from solutions . Later on

Xc1974 said:

I don't have the blower it was back ordered when I ordered the stove. I have a fan blowing from behind the stove and today I put another blowing up the staircase. Maybe I should turn them off and see what happens.

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Is it possible to move the stove upstairs.

Sounds like operator error. Cut the air back and the stove will get hotter. It should not be run wide open unless you just want to heat the chimney pipe. You are running it mostly on primary air.

I did a little experiment today with the Osburn 2400. Same shop, same operator, same wood. I cut back the air, ran it by measuring stove top temp, ( a good idea) ran it for 8 hours. Normally I run the stove by the stack temp so running by the stove top temp seemed like a really good idea. Sure enough I lowered the air intake till stove top was between 500 and 650 all day, burned about 1/4 less fuel, secondaries were burning with a dream like quality, the temp in my shop never reached above 57. Normally going by stack temp and burning more fuel I would have been at 63 or 64, it was a 25 degree day. Toward the end of the day, I opened up the air and raised the flue temp and stove top temp, the temperature started to climb quickly. I still suggest the Osburn 2400 is not capable of putting out 100,000 btus at 70% efficiency. It may be able to achive a reasonable efficiency, or a reasonable high output, but, it will not achieve both.
All temp measurements were taken with multiple readings and multiple instruments and averaged out.
jeffkahnsculpture.com

Or use 2 stoves. Might work better and isn't the osburn only rated for like 2400 sq ft ? It's like trying to heat 2 homes from one stove

I know EPA ratings on BTU output are questioned by most folks, but I would be highly suspect of a BTU rate advertised by a company that exceeded 100% more than the EPA testing.

All EPA testing is done the same way, so I have always felt one could get an idea of the output of one stove in relation to another by comparing the EPA results. Whether or not they are accurate or reflect real world burning practices, the results should usually be relative to each other.

I would be surprised if a stove rated at 44,000 by the EPA provided enough heat in very cold weather for most homes that are 2400 square feet. Maybe the newer and very well insulated homes, especially if they were designed for good air flow.

begreen said:

Sounds like the shop is being partially heated with the flue pipe. You are correct, maximum efficiency is not at maximum output. Same as with a car or truck. Pedal to the metal is not good for maximum fuel efficiency. This is not a stove problem. It's undersized for the shop's size, heat loss and temperature rise expected. There is too much mass and air in 4000 sq ft to expect a major increase in temp in a few hours or even 8. A more radiant stove would help. Take the sides off the Osburn to make it more radiant. But be sure there are no combustibles within 3 ft of the sides if this is done.

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Are you talking about removing the jacket? My 2400i has an outer jacket around it. Is that removable?

I have on real cold ( neg * ) had mine at 750+ a little and it did very well . Won't do it on a regular basis tho.

Colorado Boy said:

Are you talking about removing the jacket? My 2400i has an outer jacket around it. Is that removable?

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The suggestion was made to turn the 2400 stove more in a radiant heater whose effect will be felt sooner. The radiant heat given off by the sidewalls of the insert will hit the fireplace walls without the convective jacket. I doubt you will feel any warmer plus messing up the airflow coming from the insert.

You say you get the stove up to about 600 F. How long does it stay there? What's the temp after 4 and/or 6 hours?