I have not logged into this site for a long long time. I have look at the boiler forum from time to time over the last few years, but I was happy to see some of the old faces are still on. I thought I'd log in and say hi to all those folks that helped me with my build some 8-9 years ago.
I still recommend this site to anyone who is looking for a wood boiler. I don't think you can get better advice anywhere else. My garnlike boiler is still going strong. I have done absolutely nothing to it except add water once or twice a year to it. I absolutely love it. I have switched to burning oak wood and I find that good dry oak burns the best. With maple I found that I had coals build up. With Oak, I clean out ashes 2 times per month or so and there is just very fine ash dust. My brother-in-laws similar boiler is still going strong. I think if you have a heating system that allows for low temperature heating system i.e. in floor hydronic tube, the Garn design is hard to beat. Just a truly reliable system. If you need high water temperatures, I think other designs may be better suited. For me, I like the couple of days between firing that the 3000 gallon system that I have gives me. I'd build another one in a heart beat. I have bought 400 gallons of propane in the last 8 years and I only use it when I go away in the winter for a couple of weeks. Of the 400 gallons of propane that I bought, I still have about 200 of them still in the tank. I use to go through 1300 gallons of propane a year. The last couple of winters have been very very cold here in the EUP, but I never had a problem heating the house. I used about 10 pulp cords of wood. This year has been fairly mild so my wood consumption is way down. I can't stress enough the importance of having good dry wood. The difference between semi dry wood and really dry wood I figure to be about 1/3 less wood consumption.
Hi to all and keep warm.
I still recommend this site to anyone who is looking for a wood boiler. I don't think you can get better advice anywhere else. My garnlike boiler is still going strong. I have done absolutely nothing to it except add water once or twice a year to it. I absolutely love it. I have switched to burning oak wood and I find that good dry oak burns the best. With maple I found that I had coals build up. With Oak, I clean out ashes 2 times per month or so and there is just very fine ash dust. My brother-in-laws similar boiler is still going strong. I think if you have a heating system that allows for low temperature heating system i.e. in floor hydronic tube, the Garn design is hard to beat. Just a truly reliable system. If you need high water temperatures, I think other designs may be better suited. For me, I like the couple of days between firing that the 3000 gallon system that I have gives me. I'd build another one in a heart beat. I have bought 400 gallons of propane in the last 8 years and I only use it when I go away in the winter for a couple of weeks. Of the 400 gallons of propane that I bought, I still have about 200 of them still in the tank. I use to go through 1300 gallons of propane a year. The last couple of winters have been very very cold here in the EUP, but I never had a problem heating the house. I used about 10 pulp cords of wood. This year has been fairly mild so my wood consumption is way down. I can't stress enough the importance of having good dry wood. The difference between semi dry wood and really dry wood I figure to be about 1/3 less wood consumption.
Hi to all and keep warm.
