This furnace has been out since 2009. It is different from their previous ones in that this one has a secondary burn (although one that does not look adequate to me) I am a bit surprised that there is so little information on this furnace in terms of its validity. There are no factory testimonials, (emailed the factory about this and received no answer) very little or next to nothing on the forums, no reviews. Either I'm looking in the wrong place (one would think if one googles "Energy King 385 reviews" one would get more than what shows up) or this furnace is not what it is cracked up to be. I get concerned when I see one on Craig's list for sale that is only one year old. You do not see many Blaze Kings for sale if at all. I know one guy here was not too pleased with his 385 but as everyone's situation is different, I would have like to have seen more on this furnace.
Lack of info on EK 385
- Thread starter arro222
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Looks to be a rather run-of-the-mill furnace. Lack of information online is usually a big red flag for me personally. This is why I'm so addicted to Amazon.com these days. I really, really prefer seeing substantial feedback on a product before I buy. An early adopter I am not...
The kicker of it all is that when I am requesting testimonials from the manufacturer by email and get absolutely no answer, that is not the way to build consumer confidence. The boiler route as opposed to the furnace route is just so prohibitively expensive as to make it unreachable for me even though I feel that is the most efficient way to use wood. Pay back could take 6-8 years and I do not know if I'm going to burn wood for much longer than that. Plus the monstrosity of water storage also is a deal breaker as I simply do not have the room. I may take a look at the Wood Gun as I understand that is a self contained unit. I believe at least one forum member is using one w/o storage and seems satisfied. Need to do a bit more research.
If you're going to burn wood for 6 to 8 years or less get a parlor stove. A Wood Gun installation won't pay for itself in that amount of time and residual value after that time will be very low. You seem to have been taken in by that Wood Gun sales pitch. There are several boilers that are running without storage. Some work better than others depending on heat load and burn schedule.
There are plenty of EKO, Tarm and other gasser users here that have no storage and absolutely love their rigs. A gasser without storage will still outperform an OWB or wood furnace all day, every day.
That being said - if I was looking for a sub 10 year heating solution I wouldn't be considering wood, not even remotely. I'd go pellets. And I'd get a used unit.
That being said - if I was looking for a sub 10 year heating solution I wouldn't be considering wood, not even remotely. I'd go pellets. And I'd get a used unit.
I didn't know they had a "sales pitch" . Just saw a picture of a cutaway of the unit with its water jacket and said …hmmm.
I have wood in my forest for another 8-10 years. That will make for 45 years of wood from 20 acres of forest. plus I just bought a new tractor to skid it in with. However much longer I'm in it, I believe in wood.
Cannot put a wood stove in the parlor. Needs to go in unfinished basement. You are right…it would be much easier to sell a wood stove than a wood boiler. Just need to find a stove large enough to heat 1800 sq ft of living space from the cellar with some convection ducting. I'm liking this simple idea more and more.
arro222
look at ds machine wood stoves model 1600 its a beast at 160000 btu call frank at body shop 18336 ph# 570-491-5190
look at ds machine wood stoves model 1600 its a beast at 160000 btu call frank at body shop 18336 ph# 570-491-5190
Stee, If I understand this correctly, a gassification boiler with storage is usually batch burned correct? If with no storage, am I correct to assume that you are loading the burn box at about the same frequency as any other type of efficient wood burner such as a catalytic or air tube?
These things look big enough for sure. I like the way the big unit has its convection tubes pointing straight up. Could fit well in my scenario.
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That should be roughly correct, Arro. One thing you'll notice about higher efficiency boilers is that their fireboxes will likely tend to be smaller than the outdoor units designed almost exclusively to idle. Depending on sizing I suspect you might have to reload a gasser more frequently than a traditional boiler. Certainly more frequently than an OWB (once a day on those rigs?).
I've seen threads around here with folks getting 10 hours from a load in an EKO without storage. But that's going to be pretty rare and shouldn't be the ultimate goal. 10 hours on a single load is a LOT of idling for a downdraft gasser. When we batch burn with storage we're only getting 3-5 hours from a full load at full burn. Your mileage may vary.
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