Portage&Maine review

[KarlK]

This is my 4th season with a Portage & Main optimizer 250 I have burned continuously except 1 month this summer.So far I have changed the door gasket and 2 nozzles, both are easy to do and inexpensive.
The boiler has worked great. I clean it every 2 weeks and get very little ash. Cleaning is easy and takes about 15 minutes.
It always starts to gasify within minutes of start up.
P&M calls me yearly to see how things are going.I know this site frowns on OWB but I disagree.
Im not connected to P&M in any way just a happy owner with a very warm house!

 

[flyingcow]

Sounds good. What did you use for heat before the PnM? And how much wood did you burn to replace that?

 

[KarlK]

Before this I had a eko 60 with storage and did not like the boiler in the house, or the quality. With the P&M I use about 1/2 cord more wood but its much easier to use and clean.

 

[webbie]

"The site" does not frown on OWB, what we frown on is lack of customer education and shoddy R&D done by some of the firms and then sold to the customer. We also are not big on any wood stove user, whatever their appliance, smoking up the valley or their neighbors.

It's possible to build and use clean burning OWB's. These were never a problem. But the dozens of firms who simply welded a few pieces of metal together and then sold them to burn trash and stumps (sales people pushed this kind of stuff)...that IS a problem.

I always liked the P&M stuff - saw it at shows and it was built heavily and not promoted as a stump or carpet (trash) burner.

 

[flyingcow]

It's been a while since I watched a video of the P and M but I always thought it was a good looking unit. Looked like a true gasser.

 

[maple1]

I'll admit - I was starting to check these out a couple years ago when I was early in my researching. That ended when my other half rather firmly stated her dislike for the idea of tending an outside fire - and just the idea of having a unit & the wood mess in the middle of the lawn. I still think though that most of that aversion was due to the same impressions webbie talked about that she got from driving by the bad ones & seeing those side effects. I haven't seen one in operation live, but did see one at a show display & the vids. They do look like good units.

 

[KarlK]

It would be nice if this site had a forum for outdoor gassers so they wouldnt get lumped together with regular OWBs

 

[flyingcow]

Before this I had a eko 60 with storage and did not like the boiler in the house, or the quality. With the P&M I use about 1/2 cord more wood but its much easier to use and clean.

Do you still have your storage with the P and M?

 

[flyingcow]

It would be nice if this site had a forum for outdoor gassers so they wouldnt get lumped together with regular OWBs

The P n M's and the econoburn units are gasser's. It's the E-Classic that cliams to be a type of gassification technology, but it seems to fall short on performance.

What was the ball park price of you portage? And if you don't want to answer that i understand. Before i bought my gasser I priced out an E-Classic....$12k+. Now this was about 6 yrs ago. The price of oil had jumped and anyone selling a wood burning appliance had a good ark up going. Plus it was the fall time of year.

 

[KarlK]

I dont have storage with my p&m . I paid under 10,000 but that was a while ago. I looked at the E-classic but I bought the P&M

 

[Den69RS96]

How many sq ft are you heating with the p&m? How much wood do you go through a year?

 

[KarlK]

Im heating just under 3000 sqft and I go thru between 8-9 cord. I keep the house 70-75 degrees and some of that is a 10 ft high garage

 

[Den69RS96]

The p&m seems like a real nice unit. I wish they made one a little bit smaller that was EPA approved. I'm heating 2000 sq ft and maybe a 24x24 garage once I insulate it. I finally got the ok from he wife to get an owb after we redo our deck. So hopefully a year from now I won't to hear my oil furnace kick on. I've narrowed my choices down to the empyre pro 200 and the CB eclassic 1450. I like the design of the pro series, but I have a cb dealer near by that is well respected.

I have no room for storage in my basement and I'm not going through the bs to build a small shed to house a indoor unit and storage. Any building over 100 sq ft requires a permit which requires a plot survey(can't use the one from my mortgage). Once that's done I have to submit a detailed drawing of where it's going. Then the conservation committee needs to approve the layout making sure I'm not putting it on wetlands. Once that's done the town will come out and inspect my yard to make sure I'm not on the property line. After that I can get the permit.

 

[KarlK]

I think the optimizer 250 would be a good fit for you. I cast my own nozzle with a smaller opening so it runs longer.

 

[henfruit]

That's why I moved out of Mass.