longwood dual fuel furnace

Steve Ebels_3

My brother owned a house with one of those in it (oil) for a few years. Seemed to be horribly inefficient as the heating load for the place was only 81,000 at design temps and the Longwood chomped through nearly 35 face cord of seasoned oak. IIRC, he ran the oil for a month at one point and freaked out from the rate of consumption. I was never able to get the flue temp below 800* with oil and let's just say creosote was never a problem when burning wood. Personally I wouldn't mess with it. Get yourself a good gasification type wood boiler if you want to do the wood thing.

Garbear

longwood dual fuel furnace

I am a boiler man here in the twin cities, but am buying a house with a longwood furnace (series VI). Typically I would rip it out and install a crappy furnace or go all out and do it right with a boiler, but I grew up in the country with a wood furnace and am looking forward to a low gas bill. Any and all information would be helpful. Centerpoint walked away from furnace: This is how I found out about the house, the bank called me to fix it!!! So, what is the good and bad of these things. Thank you in advance.

mtfallsmikey

Go to...

www.hearth.com ...might be able to find some answers there, plus a lot more.

ryan_7

longwood

What would you like to know? There were quite a few installed around these parts. Most people love to fill them up with wood then use the burner to start the wood. Does yours have a gas or oil burner?
They were designed to put 4 foot logs in, hence the name. Some of the older ones only had a manual damper for the wood fire. The newer ones have a electric damper.
Its a neat furnace to teach a newby about oil burners, you can show them how the flame burns at the end of the gun.

Garbear

what i'd like to know

It is set up to run gas right now, awesome sight seeing that flame shoot into the chamber, hate to see the gas bill though. As we were the ones called to service it, I got the firing part down, I think, after all it does work :-) Basically would like to get ahold of a manual or instructions on how to switch it to wood when needed. Our old furnace on the farm had a fan switch, a damper and I don't remember what else needed to be done to make it burn wood. But this is the only model I have seen in ten years, and it would be in the house I am interested in. So thank you Ryan. And again thank you in advance.

[Deleted User]

Longwood furnace

My parents have one and burn mostly wood. They love it and have had it since '79. (My brother has something similar. Not sure if it's the same brand name.) They have it serviced from Spoons Hardware in McCutchenville, OH, phone 419-981-2834. Maybe they can help you out.

Darin(in Michigan)_3

Longwood

I'm with Mar. i grew up with a Longwood. Mom and Dad have had one in the basement for 30 years. Changed it twice and have a spare in the shed when that one goes. The longevity isn't great but niether was the install(house originally set up for electric heat). Dad packs it with wood and it burns all through the night. He uses two thermostats to control the damper and for second stage, asecond brings on the gun. If youo need the wiring layout I ccan get it for you on my next visit.

Derheatmeister

Charmmaster

Couple weeks ago i worked on a "Charmmaster" Dual fuel Oil/ wood Furnace. It was from mid 1970 's and pretty cool.Parts are still available company is still around , Maybe, Not sure even new Furnaces. The parts were shipped fast, The service tech on the phone was nice. And the parts were not that expensive. Nice American Company! Richard from Heatmeister.

mrwood

Wildly inefficient

We had a fair amount of dual fuel around here in the 80s, just remember oil or gas is being burnt in a heat exchanger made for solid fuel so long runs on these fuels is pretty inefficient. We still service a few in the area on oil and see pretty bad numbers, but these were meant to burn wood 95% of the time! you could just back up if you did not get home or went on vacation. It's all in what you plan to burn. Cutting your own wood, enjoy doing it, home often enough to fire it, then your set. Other wise put in an outdoor gasifier or a 96% furnace.