There are many furnaces to choose from and my application should be pretty simple. House we are building is 2500 sq. living space with a 1400 sq. basement. Insulation will be R30 walls and R60 ceiling , Colonial two story house. Considering the Englander 28-3500 ., Drolet tundra , or the Caddy. All have a certain appeal to me . The Englander is simple and straight forward ,true that it not EPA approved, but with dry wood still sounds very efficient. The drolet and the Caddy seems more likely to be to be finicky . Not saying that to insult anyone choice in wood furnaces, just observing the threads that relate to people having problems with the EPA furnaces. Price is not the factor , and I do want a fire view. I live in Maine so we do have cold winters. I know there are some members that have had the Englander and replaced them with Caddy's and Tundra"s . Were there real benefits ? I ask this only because I like the idea of the EPA stoves , but also believe wood burning should be simple.
Considering a wood furnace for our new home
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FaithfulWoodsman
Minister of Fire
Can't help much on the Tundra or Caddy, although I have seen the threads on the Tundra issues. I have the Englander 28-3500 and can attest to its outstanding performance. One thing to consider..... it does not like anything but dry wood. 20-25% and you'll fight it, but get some heat. Upwards of 25% and you can forget it. South of 20% and it's a dream. It takes about a year to really learn how to dial it in, but I regularly get secondary burn with good wood without the EPA pipes. I'm sure the other stoves are the same on this issue. We have great draft and proper ducting is a must. Hope that helps some.
Thanks for the reply Faithful. I have had a NC30 for the past few years in my previous home and I found it very simple to run and get good heat from.The 28-3500 seem like a simple unit as well ,and I could the direct the heat more easily with a furnace due to the ducting. Don't know if I'm missing something great with the new epa furnaces but there seems to be a lot of problems getting them running right.
Most problems with finiky operations are due to unseasoned wood, or poor draft. Also if the unit is not sized correctly, it can affect operation. The new caddy has upgraded electronics, with a touchscreen controlled operation panel with a multispeed blower and temperature probe. They are meant to run in cycles, load the furnace, get it hot, then it will take over. When it's down to coals and the house is cooling, rinse and repeat.
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
When will you be ready for the new furnace? Englander is replacing the 28-3500 with what is basically a NC 30 firebox in a 28-3500 cabinet...best of both worlds. All old school wood furnaces will be off the market by next spring due to the new EPA regs kicking in...lots of cool new clean burn furnaces coming!
BTW Drolet has pretty much ironed out the issues with the early Tundras (mine was one of them) as long as they are installed and operated as per their recommendations (oh, and the Tundra II will be released any day now...may be available somewhere already)
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
If that 1400 ft basement is on top of the 2500 ft, then forget the smaller stuff...you are in Drolet Heatpro/PSG Max Caddy territory there
l also looked at the Englander before ending up purchasing a Tundra. Tundra in my book has not proven itself yet. They (SBI) have still made changes to the unit even up to last year. Tundra having EPA stats and the price being so darn low (Right now under $1200 at Menards) its almost to good to pass up. I did have my issues with it, mostly cracking. SBI says i over fired. I may have who really knows. I am not bashing the Tundra i was surprised what i heated with it. 2800 sq ft ranch with very tall ceiling ( 10'/12'/14') . Tundra did fine until temps got down around 18* then i needed to kick it in the butt some more. SBI has been great to deal with they refunded my purchase price due to the cracking. They do stand behind there product. Last year i ended up heating the whole winter with just pine/spruce no problems, very little hardwood. One nice thing in your case is with a colonial you kinda get to use the heat twice having the second floor and all. If i was you right now with the sale going on at Menards i would purchase a Tundra and demand it is the newest unit with the most recent changes. It will pay for itself the first year. You could go the Caddy or play it safe and get the Max Caddy but you will spend over twice as much. Being from Maine head into Canada to purchase the caddy or max caddy for the best price with the exchange rate. If you are going to heat the basement also i would say Max Caddy no questions seeing how you'll be well over 3000 sqft.
Hope i answered some of your questions with some real world info. Have any more just ask away.
Hope i answered some of your questions with some real world info. Have any more just ask away.
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I realize in my application I would be pushing the smaller stoves quite hard with a total of 3900sq. ft. My thought process was I could push the stove a little harder on the cold days and use it quite effectively in the shoulder seasons. Also with R30 walls and R60 ceiling I would expect it to heat quite easily for its size, I;m just speculating, have not done a heat loss calculation.
Like i said for the price i think $1179. Give the Tundra a go. Just make sure its a new one. You have plenty of pine in Maine to burn. lol
DoubleB
Minister of Fire
I have a 2-story old leaky farmhouse, 2100 sq ft, with R4 walls and R19 ceiling. Add 1000 sq ft basement without ducts but it stays decently warm. I've used 150 gal of LP total over the previous two winters, probably half when it's really cold, and the other half when I don't want to fire the Tundra. And I haven't over-fired the Tundra to keep the place warm. So, it could probably work for you, especially at $1200.
@3fordasho has a large but well-insulated house in a cold state and has reported good luck with his Tundra, IIRC. I'll let him speak for himself.
@3fordasho has a large but well-insulated house in a cold state and has reported good luck with his Tundra, IIRC. I'll let him speak for himself.
I got scared away from the tundra. For a few reasons.
1. my house is Little bigger then it said it could heat.
2. All the perfect duct work, perfect draft, perfect this, perfect that. I'm not perfect. My installation probably won't be.
3. To step up to the heat pro or even the tundra 2 was out of my price range.
I picked a DS stoves ecmoiser. It's not official EPA but it has secondary air, burn tubes, and a secondary burn chamber. It is about as heavy duty as it gets. And it's made in PA where I live. The other kicker for me, it comes with full shaker grates and ash pan for burning hard coal. The hard coal is peace of mind for me. It's something I can buy in the middle of winter for 1/2 the price of propane and there are no seasoning issues, like with all bought wood. Final reason I picked it, I don't own a generator and buying one is adding cost to the furnace. The DS can burn with no power.
There are a lot of options out there but they take some time to find. Before the DS stove furnaces I was really liking a shelter furnace.
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1. my house is Little bigger then it said it could heat.
2. All the perfect duct work, perfect draft, perfect this, perfect that. I'm not perfect. My installation probably won't be.
3. To step up to the heat pro or even the tundra 2 was out of my price range.
I picked a DS stoves ecmoiser. It's not official EPA but it has secondary air, burn tubes, and a secondary burn chamber. It is about as heavy duty as it gets. And it's made in PA where I live. The other kicker for me, it comes with full shaker grates and ash pan for burning hard coal. The hard coal is peace of mind for me. It's something I can buy in the middle of winter for 1/2 the price of propane and there are no seasoning issues, like with all bought wood. Final reason I picked it, I don't own a generator and buying one is adding cost to the furnace. The DS can burn with no power.
There are a lot of options out there but they take some time to find. Before the DS stove furnaces I was really liking a shelter furnace.
Sent from my LG-D850 using Tapatalk
I'm heating 3400 sqft of 1982 vintage stick built with 6" thick walls. Everything is spray foamed and then there is 1" foam board under the siding. While the insulation is excellent the windows are original casements and a lot of them. Air infiltration is a issue with the windows.
The Tundra will maintain 65F+ in the worst conditions that south central Minnesota can throw at it. I have a good wind break on the west/north boarders of the property but in the rare event of a cold south wind the place feels cold and drafty and the Tundra will struggle in that situation.
In those rare events I have to fire up my progress hybrid that I installed into fireplace chimney. I also have propane FA furnace that the Tundra is tied into, and a separate propane furnace for the attached garage. That said I only used $40 worth of propane last winter.
If I was heating 3900 sqft I would go bigger - heat pro or max caddy. Someday I will go bigger if I find a deal on one. Edit - forgot about the Kuuma's, the Vapor Fire 100 would be high on the list.
The Tundra will maintain 65F+ in the worst conditions that south central Minnesota can throw at it. I have a good wind break on the west/north boarders of the property but in the rare event of a cold south wind the place feels cold and drafty and the Tundra will struggle in that situation.
In those rare events I have to fire up my progress hybrid that I installed into fireplace chimney. I also have propane FA furnace that the Tundra is tied into, and a separate propane furnace for the attached garage. That said I only used $40 worth of propane last winter.
If I was heating 3900 sqft I would go bigger - heat pro or max caddy. Someday I will go bigger if I find a deal on one. Edit - forgot about the Kuuma's, the Vapor Fire 100 would be high on the list.
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If your building new go with both a stove and furnace. Stove for shoulder season, furnace for winter, both for polar vortex.
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
KindredSpiritzz
Minister of Fire
yeah i second that as well. I use the stove for most of the winter but on those really cold bitter days i'll fire up my wood furnace too. Just wish the tundra had been available when i bought my furnace. I ended up with a Vogelzang Norseman and now wish i had the Tundra instead.
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