questions about a Clayton 1800G

[micah78]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the site. I've been reading the forums here off and on for about a year now and finally have some questions of my own!
First of all I've been wanting to add a wood burning furnace to my house. After pricing some different units that are available to me locally I decided to start looking for something used. It seemed the more affordable furnaces like the Hotblast from TSC had some mixed reviews online. I have a local dealer that sells Woodchuck, but of course the model 526 that he has he wants $2300 for which is a little less than what I wanted to spend on the furnace and the triple wall flue. Today I found a used Clayton 1800G for sale locally. It's a 2003 model and the guy is asking $1200 for it. Assuming its in good shape, I would think thats a pretty good price. The thing I'm a little worried about is if the 1800G is too big for my house. My house is only 1700 sq. ft. and well insulated. I've heard of people buying a furnace thats too big for the house and then having problems with it running too cool. What do you guys think? Is this furnace too big? Does the price sound right? Thanx in advance for your advice :coolsmile:

 

[sgschwend]

In a quick search I see the 1800G model is still in production. The one for sale appears to be about 1/2 price. You would need to be able to implement an 8" flue. I assume you would then married the wood furnace to your existing air handler with some custom ducting ($$)?

Did you look at the Hotblast models ($1150 for the 1300 model), they use 8" round outlets that I think you could connect those to your air handler without the custom sheet metal.

 

[freeburn]

You could also check out the Englander 28-3500. It's a nice little furnace, well built, has some pretty decent surface area and has the glass door. I have a 2400 ranch walk out basement and it does just fine. You can always open windows and let the fresh air in if it's too warm?!? Lowe's or HD or Farm Fleet around here.

 

[micah78]

Thanx for the replys!
As far as my flue goes, My house has an old brick chimney that needs to come down. It's already leaning and falling apart. No matter which furnace I get, I'm going to have to buy a flue. I'm going to get a triple wall metal flue because I don't have the time or money to do a nice masonry chimney. As far as the custom metal work to hook the Clayton 1800 up goes, I've got a good friend who does HVAC for a living to help me with that. As for the models you guys have mentioned, I've looked into the hotblast and Englander and turned away from them because of the lack of a forced air draft. I like the idea of the thermostat controlling when the fire needs to be hot. Do you guys really think the forced draft is a good feature or is it just a gimmick?

 

[lexybird]

i would take the englander over the clayton anyday , seems the best choice would be a PSG caddy if you can afford it though

 

[micah78]

i would take the englander over the clayton anyday , seems the best choice would be a PSG caddy if you can afford it though

Could you offer any reasons why you would choose the Englander over the Clayton? At least on paper the Clayton 1800 is in a whole different catagory than the Englander. The Clayton has a much larger blower for circulating the air through my ductwork. It has a forced air draft which the Englander doesn't. It has a secondary heat exchanger which the Englander doesn't. Seems to me the Englander is an oversized wood stove with a glass door and a much smaller blower. I'm not saying the Englander is a bad product, my father has an Englander pellet stove that works great. I just don't think it's compareable to the Clayton 1800.

 

[freeburn]

I've had a forced draft furnace on a woodchuck 526 before. Here's what I did with it. I tried it using the thermostat as it was supposed to be used, it turned on and off as needed. In the process, it also used up a ton of wood thus sending the majority of the heat out the stack. That extra electricity that the forced draft blower uses, in my opinion is not worth it either. It's another 60 watts every time it's on, unnecessarily.

Once I noticed that the draft blower was eating up wood, I only used it to get the fire going and then shut it off. I discovered I didn't need it. Once your chimney is hot, which should be in the first 5-30 min depending on mason or SS, the natural draft will take over and the forced draft will just serve to heat up the fire more. Does it help for burning green wood? Sure, but so does leaving the door open a crack - no electricity used. Your not supposed to burn green wood anyway! Plus, it's just one more gadget to go wrong and replace. AND it doesn't work if the power goes out. They aren't cheap when they go either. If you ask me, the Caddy has it right, a motorized "manual" draft with the secondary re-burn technology. If I had the coin, and the metal worker, I'd spring for it. This is my opinion, others will not agree with me at all, but that's my experience with a forced draft. I will never go back. So for now, I'm content to be able to see the fire and make adjustments with the door closed on a $1K furnace that definitely does the job and by the history of users on here, will for years to come.

 

[lexybird]

forced draft uses way more wood and is no benefit unless you have a outdoor boiler ,blower comes on ..wood gets consumed and itsends the heat right out the chimney !now granted the englander is nothing spectacular but its still better than a clayton IMHO .they are not quality from america they are made by slave labor in China(youd think us stove company would only sell us stoves lol) and the features you mention(they do sound good on paper) dont really make the burn times anything better or the wood use more efficient .do a search on here and youll see guys complaining about this and that and alot of them are only getting 6 hour burns on them even though they have a giant firebox plus they cost more and another heat exchanger is not really secondary burning,in that case it could be just another place for creosote to stick to.i do wish the blower was just a tad larger on my englander but in the real world it works fine for my 2,000 sq ft house ducting and for the price and other features i can overlook that ,just my 2 cents

 

[micah78]

Thanx for the honest replys guys. Thats what I'm looking for. Until now all I've had to go on is manufacturer specs. Of course the local dealer for Woodchuck and Harmon are going to say anything to sell me what they have in stock. I can see how the Clayton looks good on paper but the features don't really do a whole lot. I especially like the story about the Woodchuck with the forced draft. I almost bought a Woodchuck 526 brand new from a local dealer until I found out how much the flue was going to cost. Basically the price of the Woodchuck combined with the price of the flue was putting me way over budget. The local Woodchuck dealer showed me his new 526 that he had in stock and then took me in his house to show me his older 526 that was heating his house. I asked him why his didn't have the forced draft and he just kinda shrugged and said he didn't need it. I guess now I know why he didn't care to upgrade! Now I'll start looking into the cheaper units without the fancy heat exchangers and forced draft. After all, my house is not very big and I just finished gutting and remodeling the whole house. The remodel of course included new insulation in all the walls and attic. What do you guys think of the Hotblast 557? I've got a Tractor Supply close by and know the manager pretty well. I think I could get it for just under a grand.

 

[lexybird]

(broken link removed to http://farmandfleet.com/catalog/product.aspx?i=618367)

 

[john26]

I agree with the draft blower burning wood up fast what little I have used my woodchuck 2900 if the blower is on it really goes through wood and over heats the house. If I turn the thermostat down the blower goes off and the fire smolders so I ended up cracking the door. The draft blower uses very little electricity I checked mine with a clamp on amp meter it draws half of a amp. Which calculates to .06 kva per hour that that would cost less than 2 cents a day to run all day long where I am at, so I wouldn't worry about the extra electricity but about wood consumption.