Englander 28-3500

[Bootstrap]

I just installed a 28-3500 in my basement. It works pretty good. Prior to that, we used to burn a Vermont castings stove hooked up to a pre-fabricated fireplace in my living room. The exhaust hooked right up to the fireplace exhaust. Besides it being real half a.., it worked rather well. Problem was that in our ranch style house, the heat wasn't nearly warm enough in the bedroom to make the wife happy. And on some real cold mornings I didn't like it either. I also didn't like running a stove like that, as its definitely not up to code and if anything ever happened insurance would not likely pay. So I'm done with that and we got the furnace hooked up to the basement flue(that I installed years ago). The furnace ducted into the forced hot air furnace ducting pretty easily and within an hour after that, the house was warm from end to end.
I'm satisfied with the furnace so far. It appears to be well built, at least twice as built as the cheapo hot blast furnaces from TSC.
My only problem is blower noise. Its not really loud but it can be easily heard upstairs in the kitchen. I don't have a basement door. We also have a rec room down there and the blower can easily be heard there. Im not looking to make it completely silent, as I know that's impossible. But is there a way to quite the blower down? Could I build a little box around it with cement board or something? Thanks for the ideas.

 

[3fordasho]

I have a Drolet Tundra that was just sucking return air from the basement (furnace room). I recently connected the return air on the propane FA furnace to the tundra and that went a long ways towards reducing blower noise.

 

[TheBigIron]

I agree with @3fordasho connect the return air ductwork from the wood furnace to the gas furnace in your home. That should make a difference in the noise from your wood furnace.

 

[brenndatomu]

Just curious, what are we looking at in the second picture? Specifically, the larger pipe...

 

[Bootstrap]

Just curious, what are we looking at in the second picture? Specifically, the larger pipe...

In the second picture you have the big pipe coming down. That's from the wood furnace. The way m y basement is setup I needed to run the exhaust from the wood furnace up and between the floor joist then back down to the furnace ducting so your not ducking down every time you walk by.

 

[Bootstrap]

As an update:
We've gotten accustomed to the noise of the blower. Its really not that loud upstairs anyways. You can only notice it if nothing else in on. If we are in the rec room downstairs you can hear it, but no big deal. So far, we couldn't be happier.
About 8 years ago I installed that chimney in the basement because my old friend was convinced that heating the whole house from the basement with a radiant wood stove was the way to go. I was not impressed. Though our houses are similar, he had better luck heating his whole house with a basement stove. My house was always cold. Come to find out, his house was warmer because his stove was always on the verge of over firing. In addition, his kids had tons and tons of electronics going which produced more heat than you would think(big screen plasma TV's, multiple computers, and more lights than a 50 foot Christmas tree.)
So I ditched the idea of heating from the basement, and the chimney sat dormant for a few years.
since then we've heated from a living room stove, and that left much to be desired.
Then I got the idea of this furnace. So far I am very impressed. Not only does it keep the basement warm, but if I were to fire the furnace up right now it would begin dumping heat upstairs within 15 minutes. Very impressed and the wife is thrilled that the bedrooms aren't freezing anymore. Now I don't have constant mess in my living room.
The wood consumption is no doubt higher, but I would guess that I will need 5-6 cords per year and I can easily come up with that.

 

[brenndatomu]

In the second picture you have the big pipe coming down. That's from the wood furnace. The way m y basement is setup I needed to run the exhaust from the wood furnace up and between the floor joist then back down to the furnace ducting so your not ducking down every time you walk by.

You mentioned earlier about things that were not up to code...^^^ is not either...think about what happens if the power goes off when the furnace has a big ole belly full of fresh wood to digest...you have just built a very effective heat trap. Heat runs on a wood furnace must be constructed the opposite of a drain...instead of downhill the whole way...gotta be up hill the whole way, or have an emergency heat dump in place. Oh, and clearance to combustibles...per the manual

 

[Bootstrap]

You mentioned earlier about things that were not up to code...^^^ is not either...think about what happens if the power goes off when the furnace has a big ole belly full of fresh wood to digest...you have just built a very effective heat trap. Heat runs on a wood furnace must be constructed the opposite of a drain...instead of downhill the whole way...gotta be up hill the whole way, or have an emergency heat dump in place. Oh, and clearance to combustibles...per the manual

I didn't really think about that. The pipe isn't that hot when the blower runs but I can definitely see an issue if the power goes. Ill have to re-engineer that.
I guess I didn't think it was an issue because all the ducting from the forced hot air furnace is touching wood. But that furnace never produces heat without the blower running.
Yea, Ill probably move the wood furnace over and run a 45 degree pipe into the house ducting. Ill have to run a 45 degree exhaust pipe to hook up to the chimney too.

 

[TheBigIron]

He is talking about when your home losses power and yer furnace has a belly full of wood and just blazing. You will have nothing to dissipate that heat. Those clearance to combustibles are vital in a loss of power event and you are not home. Bad things can and will happen... I am in the process of reconfiguring my whole ductwork setup. I'd rather be safe than sorry...

 

[Bootstrap]

He is talking about when your home losses power and yer furnace has a belly full of wood and just blazing. You will have nothing to dissipate that heat. Those clearance to combustibles are vital in a loss of power event and you are not home. Bad things can and will happen... I am in the process of reconfiguring my whole ductwork setup. I'd rather be safe than sorry...

Yes I understand.
The stove itself is 5-6 feet away from any combustible. Its the vent pipe(not chimney pipe) that's near wood.
I will be reconfiguring that in the near future to eliminate that hazard. I'm not sure where my brain was that day...

 

[maple1]

Vent pipe is sometimes used to refer to as chimney pipe. Vents the fumes.

Usually the heat distribution pipe is referred to as duct pipe or ducting.

 

[TheBigIron]

Yes I understand.
The stove itself is 5-6 feet away from any combustible. Its the vent pipe(not chimney pipe) that's near wood.
I will be reconfiguring that in the near future to eliminate that hazard. I'm not sure where my brain was that day...

Mine is nowhere to be found some days as well

 

[lost in the woods]

i have the same exact wood furnace and made the install last summer and I had the same problem with smashing your head off the ductwork. . . the solution I came up with after talking/emailing the tech. support at Englander was to run 24ga hard pipe off the wood furnace plenum up and out for about 6 ft. then, I ran flexduct off of that into the oil furnace plenum. the oil furnace plenum has a short piece of hard duct to connect to the flex AND made a spot for the backflow preventer. Hope this info helps

 

[Bootstrap]

Ok so I got the furnace moved. If your looking at the picture of the furnace, I moved it to the left. The chimney pipe comes off the stove at a right 45 degree up to the chimney. The ducting comes off the stove at almost a 90 degree, left then it connects to the ducting above the gas furnace. It has an upward angle all the way. And its nowhere near combustible things.

 

[Bootstrap]

 

[Junebug90]

As an update:
We've gotten accustomed to the noise of the blower. Its really not that loud upstairs anyways. You can only notice it if nothing else in on. If we are in the rec room downstairs you can hear it, but no big deal. So far, we couldn't be happier.
About 8 years ago I installed that chimney in the basement because my old friend was convinced that heating the whole house from the basement with a radiant wood stove was the way to go. I was not impressed. Though our houses are similar, he had better luck heating his whole house with a basement stove. My house was always cold. Come to find out, his house was warmer because his stove was always on the verge of over firing. In addition, his kids had tons and tons of electronics going which produced more heat than you would think(big screen plasma TV's, multiple computers, and more lights than a 50 foot Christmas tree.)
So I ditched the idea of heating from the basement, and the chimney sat dormant for a few years.
since then we've heated from a living room stove, and that left much to be desired.
Then I got the idea of this furnace. So far I am very impressed. Not only does it keep the basement warm, but if I were to fire the furnace up right now it would begin dumping heat upstairs within 15 minutes. Very impressed and the wife is thrilled that the bedrooms aren't freezing anymore. Now I don't have constant mess in my living room.
The wood consumption is no doubt higher, but I would guess that I will need 5-6 cords per year and I can easily come up with that.

We have the same stove. Had it for two winters now and used 6 cords last year and 4 this year. We also super insulated the house last summer so that helped

 

[lexybird]

I had one of these years ago Are these type of non EPA furnaces still being sold ? Seems I thought the EPA banned the new sales of non compliant furnaces this last year ?

 

[brenndatomu]

I had one of these years ago Are these type of non EPA furnaces still being sold ? Seems I thought the EPA banned the new sales of non compliant furnaces this last year ?

Manufacturers of "large firebox" wood furnaces (most of 'em are considered large) asked for and received more time to do R n D to meet the new regs...they can continue to make/sell the old units until May 15 2017