HS Tarm MB40-45 Good or Bad

According to my book it has an output off 100,000 btu's, takes a 15.5" stick of wood, hold 36 gallons of water. It isnt worth anything if it doesnt hold pressure. if its the older model its not a gasser but a downdraft boiler.

Sounds like a lot of money compared to situations I've heard of where people have acquired old-series Tarms for figures in the hundreds, not thousands. I do know of one person who took an old-type tarm and hooked it up with a tank for storage, so as to allow fast, more efficient fires- and is apparently getting pretty decent results.

Years back, I used one of the pre-gasification Tarms in a place that I rented, and, though it seemed really well made, I was not impressed with the burn- tended towards making a lot of creosote, even with dry wood (that outcome is sort of inherent if you burn a gradual, non-gasification fire in the middle of a box full of water that can never too far above 212 degrees on any of the surfaces contacted by the combustion.