Hot Blast Furnaces

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corey148

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Oct 4, 2012
29
Western MD
Does anybody have any experience using hot blast furnaces?? I have read a good bit of information about them and have notices people have had problems with the blowers on them. How well do they heat and what is the average burn time for them?? How difficult are they to mantain??
 
Ask in the boiler room. I don't think they are EPA certified. Burn times will probably suck.
 
They burn for a while, because the firebox is pretty big. It will take a 2'+ long split. It's not bad to burn, but it does go through wood. I'd go maybe 6-8 hours in cold (single digits to -20) weather. Smaller loads when the temp was more moderate to burn sorta clean. I was only heating about 1600 sq ft, but it was pretty drafty at the time. It certainly is capable of making some heat. It was ok for the money, but if you can spring for an EPA furnace, do it.

I did have trouble with one blower motor going through bearings. Even though it was out if warranty, US Stove sent me two new blowers with bushings at no charge. They even covered return shipping on the old ones.
 
We had one for 25 years here. Replaced 2 sets of grates, a set of bricks, limit control and baffle during that time. Finally the grates were breaking down and the furnace developed a couple smal cracks so we retired it. We heated a large drafty but well insulated Victorian, 2400 sqft with tall ceilings. It kept the house warm, but used some wood also. After upgrading I underestimated our wood usage, between 7-10 cord depending on the winter. I would cut wood and burn that as well as what was stacked. The last year we used it in march we had burned a cord that month which I bought and stacked. We would try to burn it hot, but would pull up to a 5 gallon bucket of creosote while sweeping which was about every other month. They will heat a home just fine, but they are terribly inefficient. If your on a budget then look into that or an englander. If not then a EPA certified furnace like the Caddy from PSG or a Kuuma vaporfire will give you better performance, produce less smoke, reduce or eliminate creosote and burn less wood as well as longer burns. Do you have a budget, how big is your home and how tight is it?
 
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