questions on central boiler owb

[GJ-PA]

HI,
We are considering getting a Central boiler OWB. We have been looking at a CL5036 and a CL 6048. We live about 40 miles eat of Pittsburgh PA. We have forced air in our house currently heated with home heating fuel oil. Our house is an all brick split level built in the late 50's. We use approximately 400 gallons on heating oil a year to keep our house at 68 degrees. We just had a new furnace put in approx. 5 years ago. The CB rep told us that the CL5036 is more than big enough to heat our home and the only advantage to the 6048 would be longer burn times. Does anyone have either of these models and how is your burn time on them? Approximately how much wood do you think we will use if we use a mixture of soft and hard wood sources? IF you do have a Central Boiler furnace have you had any problems with them and what were they? Did CB stand behind their warranty etc. OUr concern is that they do not have a grate. Has anyone had a problem with that and how often do you have to clean your ashes out? Thank you for any information you can give us pros or cons. I may not be able to get back to you right away we do not have high speed internet at home so we have to go to the local coffee shop to get on the net.

Thanks for any help

GJ

 

[Eric Johnson]

Hi GJ. Welcome to the Boiler Room.

We have a few Central Boiler owners here, I think, who may be able to answer your questions.

As a general rule, you're ahead to slightly undersize a wood-fired boiler without hot water storage, as they tend to burn more efficiently when under a load. If you oversize your boiler and it spends a lot of time idling, you'll burn a lot more wood and create more smoke.

I'm sure CB has a good warranty and I think their boilers are well built. But I'd double- or triple-check anything the salesman tells you. There's a lot of misinformation flying around these days regarding OWB performance, and you should get some independent verification before making a commitment. This is one good place for that. Somebody just posted a link to a site devoted to OWBs, and that would be another good place to get the real skinny on the boiler you're thinking about buying.

We also have a short article about OWBs here on Hearth.com.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/owb

 

[webbie]

Sounds like a relatively well insulated house.....400 gallons of oil is not heavy use.

Even the smaller unit which you mentioned has a firebox of about 30 cubic feet. To give a point of reference, that is about 10x as large as a indoor freestanding wood stove that would heat your house. Larger firebox=more wood burned. If you filled up a firebox like that 2/3 of the way (20 cubic feet) every day (24 hours), you would use more than a cord of wood in a week.

In some ways, even the smallest OWB, in my opinion, is oversize for your needs. As it states in that article Eric referenced, that will result in lower than normal efficiency (MPG). This may not be a big concern if you have loads of seasoned wood available for free or a very low price. But, just as with automobiles, the MPG will start to matter more when you buy the fuel.

 

[itsme again]

Personal experience with Central Boilers is that they stand behind their warranty very well. My buddies is 7 years old. Only issue was a door seal bad and they fixed it without question. He heats his 2400 sq ft house, and hot water with less than 7 cors of wood. Yes, that's 7 cords or 21 face cord. Mixed soft and hard, heat set at 75 degrees. His burn times are always over 12 hours, closer to 15 or 16. You would have a very serious stove defect if you burned a cord a week. something like leaving the door wide open all day long.
As far as the ashes go, the lack of a ash pan is the one thing I don't like about his stove. I have another brand. He cleans them out about once a week.Not a big problem. Before a refuel, move any big pieces to one side and scope out the ashes. Repeat on the other side.

Good luck.

 

[mosbey12]

I too looking at a Central, Aquatherm while not a fanatic I was wondering about the new ECO line and any thoughts on them. Also what is the "real" expectation of smole output have seen some causing white outs and others not, I understand hot and dry concept I guess the question is do the newer models really decrease smoke. Not that I really care but on 3 acres on river so wind is limited at times and while the only person near is also a wood stove burner I just want to keep peace.
Also any thoughts on actual distance from house with regards to heat loss and distance. Planning on 4' with 2" blue sandwich concept
Thanks

 

[heaterman]

Longer "burn" times is a very misleading term. The fact of the matter is that with the huge firebox and limited storage capacity of all of these, regardless of brand, is that the unit spends most of a burn cycle idling. This wastes wood, causes large amounts of particulate emission, CO, smoke, creosote buildup and all that happy stuff. A nice 1/2" coating of creosote/gunk has the same insulating value as about 3" of cast iron.

A better and more accurate statement would be to say that with a larger unit, you have to load it less often. You will burn more wood with an oversize unit. Probably substantially more.