Best brand of efficient wood boilers

BigMacWisconsin

Hey everyone,

I currently run a traditional wood master 4400 outdoor wood boiler. Unfortunately the fire box sprung a leak from the top this week. In case it can't be patched, I'm preparing for buying a new one before next heating season. I'm pretty set on getting a new efficient style. Question for everyone, any experience with these style? Warnings of brands to avoid? Strong recommendation?

I'm currently heating our 2200 square foot house, an 800 square foot garage and our water heater. I've looked at Cental Boiler, Wood Master, Crown Royal, and Heat Master.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

hot_rod

Do you want an outdoor type, or can you mount one inside, or build a small shed?

The wood gasification type will be the most efficient. They are finicky about the wood quality, moisture content.

Also, in some cases they need some additional thermal storage. It really depends on how mush you want to tend them, feed them.

The Euro brands are the most engineered designs, or any copy of them made in the US. The Austrian and German brands seem to always be the industry leaders.

One issue with some Euro brands is they don't hit the sales numbers and pull out of the US after a few years.

Proper installation is critical also, piping, temperature protection, proper venting, etc.

I had one of the early Royal non gasification models, it was built like a tank. Econoburn has been doing their homework and looks to be a good unit.

@GroundUp is probably most up to speed on brands and reliability.

GroundUp

As I'm sure you are aware, Central purchased WoodMaster a few years back and the "WoodMaster" gasification units are a Central with a different sticker on them. Literally identical. With that said, Central has a long history of putting out garbage products with fancy features in order to make them appear to be of a higher quality. Their QC is about as non-existent as their warranty, and personally I'd pay $10/gal for LP before owning one of those things. I run an OWB forum as well as install/service OWB systems, and can not even begin to tell you the horror stories that come in on a daily basis regarding Central Boiler.

Now on to the Heatmaster vs Crown Royal debate, I would personally call it a tie. Both of them have some amazing features that the other doesn't, and vice versa, but efficiency is nearly identical from one to the other. Factory support I have found to be slightly better with Heatmaster, but they're also a Canadian company where CR is based in northern MN so if buying American means something to you, Crown Royal is it. I personally run a Heatmaster multipass ( somewhat of a hybrid between a conventional like your 4400 and a gasification unit) and although I know the owner of CR on a personal level, I think if I had to buy a new gasification unit tomorrow it'd still be a Heatmaster. One thing to keep in mind is that the gasification boilers NEED dry, split wood. Not something that was cut down yesterday and knocked in half, like cut and split to 3-5" blocks and then dried for 2 years. They will not tolerate the fuel that your 4400 will. The multipass (Heatmaster C series or Crown Royal MP series) are a lot less picky with fuel, but still manage to burn 20-25% less wood than your 4400 when properly sized and operated.

BigMacWisconsin

Thanks for the feedback! I am looking for an outdoor unit and this all helps a lot. I actually didn't know that Central bought Woodmaster, so that explains how the specs of the 760 are identical to what I looked at of a woodmaster. The price point of the Crown and Heat master are also competitive.

I found on another forum some concerns about nozzles cracking. Not sure it that is common or possibly addressed.

Regarding wood, I'll check mine with moisture meter but I've been staying about a year ahead on wood. Everything that I would start burning this fall has been split since last August. I've got a new pile of logs and I'll make sure to split smaller as well.

Thank you!

GroundUp

Nozzles and refractory are kind of a wear item with any outdoor gasification boiler, unfortunately. Every manufacturer has had a couple bad runs that were prone to cracking, but Crown and Heatmaster have always been good about admitting their mistake and replacing free of charge through your dealer. A year can be alright, depending on the species, but generally you'd want the wood to be around 15% MC on a freshly split face for ideal operation in a gasser. They'll tolerate higher if you mix it in, but that'd be ideal. Maybe grab one of your bigger blocks and split it in half, then test MC on that freshly split face near the center of the block.

hot_rod

splitting down to @ 4” size assures the wood is completely dry. The large rounds never dry to the center. You can stack the small splits into the firebox easily and tightly.

Learn how to clean the passageways and flue. A flue brush is a good tool to own and use.

leonz

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/200764/best-brand-of-efficient-wood-boilers

I would suggest that you also look at the Wood Gun wood burners from Alternate Heating Systems.

You could place it in a farm tek hoop shed and at the same time have a dry place to stockpile split firewood to keep it out of the weather and dry at all times AND always have a dry place to work filling the boiler and removing the ashes. The 155 is just one of thier wood gasifier models.

Wood-Gun-E155-SS-Manual_171010.pdf

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