New ESW 28-3500 Wood Furnace

[adam6979]

Just figured I would jump over here and say Hi to everyone. I have been in the pellet stove forums for a few months now and just bought and put in a ESW 28-3500 wood furnace. I will be using it to heat the garage occasionally and will have it so I can dump heat in the house if something goes wrong with the pellet stoves. Just a basic install right now but will be hooking up junctions and tees to allow me to heat the shop or the house or both and also to draw the blower air from the house or garage depending on where I am trying to heat. I did a test burn the other day and was pleased with the results. Going to add a box around the blower fan and a filter to not push the fly ash or other debris into the house. Will put up some pics as things progress.

One word of advise to anyone looking at one - I tried that split seam pipe stuff from Lowes... after over an hour trying to get straight round pipes I brought it all back and ordered the Duravent from Home Depot - that Duravent sure is nice pipe.... at least compared to the split seam junk.

 

[mustash29]

I did a few simple mods to mine when I first got it. https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/englander-28-3500-furnace-install-mods.102100/

A few pieces of angle iron and a few extra bricks. They have not fallen or even moved after 2.5 seasons of use, they just sit in there and will stay in place as long as you don't throw wood in it carelessly.

I also made a plate with 8 slots to cover the floor bricks. I helps to hold the coals in the fire box better. Ash will sift into the pan every time you stoke & poke it. Mine is 1/4 mild steel with about 3/16" slots. It has warped upward about an inch over time from the heat so 3/8" or maybe stainless would stay flat longer. I would also go 1/4" or 5/16" on the slots if I made another one. So far this plate has about 2.5 seasons or about 10 cords on it and had been beaten flat twice.

 

[adam6979]

Sounds good and pretty easy upgrades. I will probably cut a piece of diamond deck plate for the floor as I thought the existing grate holes were pretty large too. I hope I will be happy with this purchase.