Does anyone here have a Firechief furnace?

Ozark,

One of my college roommates was from Southern Ohio and their Firechief is one of the coolest things i remember from their house. They bought the furnace when they built the house 20 years before. I'm not sure what size or model they had, but i know it heated the one story and finished basement ranch style house very well. His dad always bragged about how much money it has saved their family.

When I have the money, I too will be buying a Firechief. If you can, post up some pictures on the install of whatever you decide on buying.

Good Luck.

The firecheifs look like they are well built, but they won't be the cleanest burning furnace. They will also consume more wood. In order to have a true secondary combustion, you need preheated secondary air to the fire. Before you look just at price, consider the tax credits. There are alot of woodfurnaces out there that are cleaner burning and will use less wood for the same amount of heat. Plus i'm not a fan of forced draft. When we had it on our old furnace, it would eat wood quickly when it was being used. Some of the better built models are the PSG Caddy, Blaze King Apex, the Energy King 385EK. We heat with a Caddy and its a nice unit. We cut wood consumption by at least 2 cords. It burns cleanly and we get a nice view of the fire. How big is your house and the insulation?

I have burned as much as 8+ cords in the past. Last year we installed a Caddy and we burned around 6.5 cords. Our house is a 2400 sq ft victorian with 10'ceilings on both floors decent insulation. Plus the radiant heat heated our basement which is 1200 sq ft. We had the 1500 hotblast before the caddy.

If you have a good furnace now, you can tie into the central furnace in series with a woodfurnace. That would eliminate the blower, saving you money. Otherwise you can get a model with the blower and tie it in parallel with the central furnace. Either way if done right it will work well.

With our Caddy depending on the call for heat with a full load we can go 8-12 hours. Wood species also has much to do with it. When it gets colder those burns drop when the call for heat is greater and the damper is open more. With a standard furnace you probably could get 8-10 hours, but it would have to be closed down pretty good to get the long burn. With that, you really lower the heat output of the furnace and you create creosote. Thats where having the secondary burn really shines. Depending on the layout of the ducting and the furnace you can operate a woodfurnace on low with smaller fires when there is a power outage. Don't expect to operate the unit at full capacity. You need that blower to get the heat away from the furnace. A woodfurnace produces too much heat to use it as a stove, you need electricity. Otherwise you take the chance of burning off paint, and overheating things in a hurry. There are heat dumps that can be placed in the ductwork in case they hit high temps to relieve the unit.

What sets the Caddy apart from other furnaces is its advanced secondary combustion. There are 4 tubes in the firebox below the baffle that introduce preheated secondary air. This burns up the smoke and gasses. The firebox and baffle are fully insulated to hold the heat for a good complete combustion. On a firecheif you have a simple baffle with a sliding plate. Its more of a extra path to collect heat, but by no means a secondary combustion chamber. With a EPA unit like the Caddy, because of the design of the furnace, they can burn up to 1/3 less wood than a standard furnace and get the same amount of heat. Theres a huge difference in the designs. But one thing is for sure, burning less than seasoned wood will kill your heat output and your wood consumtion will go up.

Not at all. I was worried about the same thing when I bought the furnace last year. The old furnace had a 6 cu. ft firebox. The new one is a 3.5. In mild weather I can put in a 3 meduim splits and wake up in the morning to a coal bed. I don't have to fill it until it gets cold out. Something I never would have got with the old furnace. The way they burn is 100% different than a standard furnace.

There are 2 basic furnace types. An add-on which uses your blower from your LP furnace, or a stand alone with a blower. You can add on a unit with a blower using a Parallel installation. You need to utilize your return ducting and supply ducting. By placing dampers in the ductwork both should be able to operate independently. The Caddy without a blower is made to be installed in series. Your air that would normally go through your LP furnace into the ductwork would go into the base of the Caddy. From there the heated air goes through the ductwork. The Caddy uses a limit switch that will trigger the fan only on the LP furnace. That will push the heated air through the ductwork. I installed our unit which contains a blower and filter housing built it. It has a damper above the woodfurnace to open and close depending on its operation. Here is a link to my installation.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/38440/P15/

There are 2 things that are very important not only for a modern furnace but also a modern stove. They need wood that is seasoned properly. Cut and split and stacked for a year or better to operate to full potential. Also having the proper sized chimney is important. The flue gasses run cooler than the old furnaces of the day so its critical to have the chimney the proper size.

Thats a bummer. Sounds high to me. I was lucky and bought the second to last one from a local store. After the tax credits, I paid around 1200 for mine.

I bought a Firechief 500 a year ago. I love it1 I bought it from obediahs. I had it shipped curb side. I paid $1200 with shipping. I had a really old wood furnace that was not up to par anymore so i searched and searched and found the firechief at the best price. I have a 1200 sq foot two story 100 yr old farmhouse with little too no insulation. Last year we had quite a few days in to the 0's and below and it kept the main living quarters between 75 and 80 and the upstairs which has no vents at about 65. I burned from October to April about 4 cords of wood and a half ton of soft coal. I turned mine into primary with oil back up. I had to have a return box built for it. I drew up the plans and had a tin shop fabricate it for $100. I burn mostly oak and cherry and some locust for good measure. I can load seven to eight splits tamp it down at 10 pm and have a nice coal bed up to about 8 am. I can find plenty of wood and coal pretty cheaply so epa crap does nothing for me, plus i enjoy cutting and splitting. I would not mind to have the caddy, but they were out of our price range! I sure do love the firchief. Also Obediah's is fantastic they were really nice and i had no issues with them, answered every question i had. Hope this helps!

That "Epa Crap" has given me more heat pound for pound of wood, less emissions, a reduction in wood consumption and a cleaner chimney. None of that would happen with the old furnace. I can get wood for "free", or buy it cheap also. I enjoy cutting wood, but its a hell of alot easier getting ahead when you burn less wood, plus my time is worth something. Theres some people on here that have cut their wood consumption in half because of the "Epa Crap". I could have easily kept our old furnace in use, but I decided with better options and technology on the market I was going to take advantage of it. I will never go back to a old unit again.

I'm not talking about cutting wood consumption in half with a wood furnace. I'm saying there are some on here in the hearth room that changed the way they process their wood (Let it season longer) and upgraded to a EPA unit which in return with good habits cut their consumption in half. It is true that a standard stove compared to a EPA model will burn more wood for the same amount of heat. Buying something to heat is a big decision, which there are lots out there. I didn't buy what I wanted till I saved my pennies and purchased it. Have you ever thought about a good wood stove instead of a furnace? Just to give you some different options check over in the hearth room and see what they say. You could possibly get an efficient stove for much less and burn less wood in the process. There also are other furnaces out there that are lower in price that would heat just fine. You can burn pretty clean in a regular furnace, but you need to burn good dry wood and have a hot fire. Have you seen the Englander furnaces?

Far as wood furance goes I have a us stove 1557m I think. It can go through 12 cords running 24/7 from oct-may and that was all softwood. This year will be all seasoned oak hickory beech and ash. Should bring me into the 8 cord range. Fill that is pretty darn good with the natural gas budget 29.00 a month cheep wood furnace and smokes very little. This is a lot of work so keep that in mind when chosing a furnace, It takes good eqiment and supply to make it all happen!