Why don't we have products like this in the U.S.??

[PAcountryboy]

I would be interested in purchasing something like this. It's a cast iron wood stove that is also a boiler. Cannot get this in the U.S., as far as I can tell. I understand that burning wood and coal will make it non-EPA compliant, but the boiler idea is attractive.


(broken link removed)

 

[webbie]

Waterford sold stoves here for years, including the cookstove.

But as far as stoves with "water backs", the market has been extremely tiny for many years....really small. Too small for a manufacturer to have interest or to spend the money for testing, etc.

Americans (and people) tend to be fickle when it comes to energy.....oil goes down and everyone forgets about the alternatives.

 

[PAcountryboy]

Understood. I just brought a house this spring that has an oil burner, that I want to get away from for obvious reasons. I've been waiting on a stove for months, and am now starting to search for other alternatives. I've considered OWBs, indoor boilers, regular wood and coal stoves, etc. I really want a cast iron stove, but at the same time would like to have something that ties into my existing cast iron radiators. A cast iron stove with a boiler to run my radiators would be perfect for me.

Might be something people would become interested in again in the States??

 

[Brian VT]

My friends have add-on wood boilers. You just need to make sure they're set up right (plumbing-wise). It's not all that easy, either.
If the stove is boiling the water and the circulator isn't moving the water then you've got big pressure problems.
There needs to either be a relief valve which blows the water/steam off (all over your floor ?) or a system to divert it to somewhere you don't mind the extra heat.

 

[granpajohn]

...Americans (and people)...

I know we Americans have gone way downhill, but I thought we were still considered people.

 

[InTheRockies]

Keep in mind many of the homes there are "ancient" by our standards and may not have all the amenities we are used to, like central heating. In those much older homes, clearly their layout never factored in installation of electric and water, which are recent 20th century amenities and they've had to be retrofitted to include these. It's been my experience, when being fortunate enough to visit older homes in Europe, that you're more likely to see small hot water heaters servicing areas retrofitted for plumbing and you may have several tanks when there are multiple levels. A demand for an attractive, utilitarian heating appliance that can heat water, too, is much more in demand there than here, where most homes have large, central hot water tanks that service the whole house.

 

[SteveT]

I would be interested in purchasing something like this. It's a cast iron wood stove that is also a boiler. Cannot get this in the U.S., as far as I can tell. I understand that burning wood and coal will make it non-EPA compliant, but the boiler idea is attractive.


(broken link removed to http://www.waterfordstanley.com/Products/1103.htm)

Very interesting site.

One thing left me confused. Their specification shows 45,000 BTU at the boiler but only 20,000 BTU of "Room Heat". I can understand some losses in distributing the water, but nothing like this.

Any idea what they're talking about?