Heatmaster G200 vs Garn

[hondaracer2oo4]

You could say that there is more wear and tear on the fan motor and damper plate actuator because it starts and stops but how many times does a pump start and stop on a zoned baseboard system in a house? Many times a day. How many times does a fan motor start and stop on a power vent system on a propane boiler? Many times a day. Those run forever. The other wear and tear item is the ceramic nozzle so that would see the same hours of use as the Garn.

It’s all about coal bed and mc with a gasser. The lower the mc the larger the splits you can get away with. The higher the mc the smaller the splits have to be. The g200 seems to like a mix of 4-8 inch splits at 25 mc. You can get away with splits on the bigger side if you run a deeper coal bed all the time. Anything over 4 inches should be split in half atleast once.

 

[TCaldwell]

I tend to run larger splits and medium sized rounds in the Garn, 4-12 inches mix loads.
First off less wood processing, however wood needs to season longer than smaller splits, less burning surface area allows a larger batch of wood for starters.

 

[Fred61]

I've only operated two different gassers in my wood burning legacy. Eighteen years gassing. Can't comment on the intricacies of most boilers but I take a different approach on what a gasser needs to be fed. I believe most gassers are pretty much the same when burning a load of wood.

My criteria consists of split size, dryness, and species of the wood has the most to do with maintaining a good torch. In other words, if your wood is able to maintain a good "nest" of charcoal by producing enough coals to maintain that nest, the brand of boiler shouldn't mean much.

 

[S.Whiplash]

Yes but stored energy is also stored in the wood. So the more wood the firebox can hold, the less often you would need to re-fire. Or perhaps, maybe there is a bit of cross talk between re-fire, and re-load - bigger firebox means less re-loading. I kind of think of them as meaning the same thing, but they likely don't to others.

The 5-6 hours a day isn't just a Garn thing, it applies to any efficient wood boiler that is tied to or incorporates storage. I usually average maybe 6 hours a day over the winter - think I am at less than that this winter, usually 5.

Sure, you can add a large volume of thermal storage to any gasser and get the same results but you have to account for the cost of acquiring a 1000-2000 gal. storage tank, the extra components and complexity needed to make it work and the time it takes to set it all up. If you're doing it yourself it might work out cheaper if your time is free and you have the expertise to do it right, but if you're paying a professional to source materials and provide the design plus labor I would suggest the Garn is possibly the cheaper option.

 

[maple1]

Sure, you can add a large volume of thermal storage to any gasser and get the same results but you have to account for the cost of acquiring a 1000-2000 gal. storage tank, the extra components and complexity needed to make it work and the time it takes to set it all up. If you're doing it yourself it might work out cheaper if your time is free and you have the expertise to do it right, but if you're paying a professional to source materials and provide the design plus labor I would suggest the Garn is actually the cheaper option.

Price didn't have anything to do with anything I mentioned. Could be cheaper one way for some or the other way with others. A Garn was out for me before I even started because it wouldn't fit my space.