I have a fawcett wf200 wood furnace from 1979. The automatic damper is long been broken and we adjust it manually now. We usually get about 4-5 hour burns out of it and go through about 5-6 cords a winter with some oil use. I wanted to get something that might save me from burning as much wood and give me longer burn times. I bought an Englander 28-3500 from Home Depot. I don't have many details about the old stove, it looks kind of like the one here but with no autodamper http://www.enterprise-fawcett.com/wf_series.php . Could someone tell me if the new Englander 28-3500 furnace I bought will be an improvement or just be the same as the old? Thank you for any opinions shared.
Can someone give me a piece of mind...?
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I have a friend with one and it works pretty well for him. From what I can see of the design it isn't all that much different than all the others in that price range. Most of the units with auto dampers rely on a bimetal spring type assembly, in my opinion just barley adequate to list it as a feature ( I have a us stove with one, dang thing gets hung up all the time more trouble than its worth). I do not think you will see much change in wood consumption, a little less perhaps as it might be more efficient than its predecessor. There are some very good wood furnaces out there, most are in the $3-5k range. So it can take a few seasons to recoup the expense.
laynes69
Minister of Fire
Im not sure if you will save either. The claims of the WF200 to save wood over others is more marketing. There's no provisions for secondary combustion or anything else to increase efficiency. The furnace you had contained a rating of about 140,000 btu output (36" wood length, wow!) so I think the new furnace is smaller. It's hard saying, I would think the englander is a little more efficient, If you can gain a couple extra hours on the burn things may even out. On the other hand if your getting swings in the house temps between 70 and 80 and the new furnace can even out temps on a lower scale things may be just fine. Our furnace which is EPA certified replaced our old 1500 hotblast which are sold at tractor supply. The btus produced at a given time are much lower, bit there's no swings in temp and the burns are much longer. In the end it worked out to our advantage and saved wood and kept us comfortable. Hopefully the old woodfurnace was oversized and the new one is more of a match for your home. Btw, welcome to hearth.com
Thanks for the replies to my question. I'd be happy if the burn time increased and I used the same amount of wood. If i used less that would be a bonus. The new furnace is definitely a lot smaller than my old one. My wife who is home most of the time, got tired of filling the old furnace up every 3 or 4 hours. I'm really hoping that the new furnace will allow me to fill it up in the morning and then later when I get home, giving her a break. We did also get some swings in the house temperature with the old one. I guess I'll just hope for the best with the new furnace, it is 33 years newer than what I had anyway. Thanks again for your opinions.
laynes69
Minister of Fire
Could you give some details on the house, size, insulation, etc. and also chimney height and diameter. Do you use a damper in the chimney? And finally where you are located to get an idea on climate.
Sure..house is about 1500sqft, it was built in 1930 but has had insulation blown in. We do have single pane windows that we usually put the plastic film on in the winter. The chimney we use is masonry, it's got to be about 25 or 30 ft high. It's rectangle shaped and I believe it's about 8" x 8" , the flue pipe leading into the chimney is 8 inch round, and has a barometric damper in it. I am located in central ny. Hope that helps.
laynes69
Minister of Fire
If the house is somewhat tight, yeah I could only imagine the temperature swings. The old furnace seemed terribly oversized for the home, unless there's issues with air infiltration. If you havent, I would work on airsealing the home. That alone will save wood and increase comfort. 5-6 cords seems pretty high for that square footage. From the way it sounds you'll be better off with the new furnace. There's quite a few users of those furnaces on here that are happy with them.
Seems counter productive to wait until AFTER you make your purchase to ask for advice on that purchase.
But more importantly . . . what is your wife doing that makes her so tired from having to put wood on the fire a few times a day while she is home? Now that you have a new WBA, maybe you need something else new . . .
Purchase was not complete yet, I still had time to cancel or return item. Got a good deal offered and had to make a decision. From what it sounds like and the reviews I read sounds like it should work out.
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