Question about switching from wood insert to wood forced air furnace...

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Getting a Caddy wood furnace for our new home in the spring. I've used an insert for the last 10 years. My question is, will the amount of dust and allergens decrease a great deal with putting the wood and furnace in the basement? My wife and I both have mild allergies that get a bit worse in the burning months. Not anywhere near enough to quit burning. Just an minor irritation. So, anyone know how much this will improve air quality?

 

[Badfish740]

Getting a Caddy wood furnace for our new home in the spring. I've used an insert for the last 10 years. My question is, will the amount of dust and allergens decrease a great deal with putting the wood and furnace in the basement? My wife and I both have mild allergies that get a bit worse in the burning months. Not anywhere near enough to quit burning. Just an minor irritation. So, anyone know how much this will improve air quality?

My wife actually has pretty severe allergies which is one of the reasons I went with my Englander add-on. I can't compare to having a stove on the first floor because we never had one, but I do know that my wife has no problems with the one we have-but only because I also added a filter kit. It would have been impossible to connect the return to my Englander, and I'm not sure that I'd go to the trouble anyway. I don't know if the Caddy has a provision for a filter kit, but the U.S. Stove Company add-on kit is pretty adaptable-I got it for $80.00 at Tractor Supply. It takes a standard 16x20x1 filter-I use the 3M Filtrete filters. One thing that does still tend to bother my wife that isn't necessarily a "wood only" problem is the dryness. When her sinuses dry out she tends to sneeze a lot, which we've been fixing with pots of water on the stove as a stopgap, but we're going to get a whole house humidifier before next winter.

 

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Thanks for the input Badfish. The model Caddy I'm after is a true add on with no blower of it's own. It is connected in series with my gas furnace using it's blower. Being installed that way it will also benefit from the gas furnace's add on hepa air filtration and whole house humidifier system. Getting rid of our allergies will be a big plus!

 

[JustWood]

My wife and I both suffer from dust and mold allergies as well.
I have had a Woodchuck add-on for about 10 years with the filter box and have not had any major allergy problems. It does irritate mine on occasion but a Claritin a couple times a week cures it. The wife says the dry air actually helps her.
Keep the filter changed . I change mine about once every 3 weeks.
Also keep the area around the furnace clean if you don't have a cold air return.

 

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Thanks Lee. Will keep the area clean and yes, will utilize the gas furnace's air filtration.