We are looking to put an add-on wood furnace in, and have been looking at various ones...anyone else out there have one in their home? If so, what kind is it, and how do you like it? Thanks a bunch!

-- Joe (Threearrs@AOL.com), January 15, 2001

Answers

An add on wood furnace? Like one to pipe out the old fireplace? One to go in a seperate building just behind your house? We're wanting to buy a used wood furnace to put in the old fireplace on the North side of the house to help keep it warm. I would be really interested in what everyone says too. Hope you get a lot of responses!

-- Marty (Mrs.Puck@Excite.com), January 15, 2001.

I am looking for the kind that you sit beside your regular furnace, and duct right into your existing ductwork...I hope somebody out there has one and that they can give me some feedback on...like, price, ease of operation, etc.

-- Joe (Threearrs@AOL.com), January 16, 2001.

Joe, we just got one a couple weeks ago. We set it outside, not in the basement. I was going to post a thread as soon as I could see how it has been working, almost a week now, with up and down temperatures. I'll just start one now, that way anyone with one in the basement can add to yours here.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), January 17, 2001.

Joe, I have had two different models of add on, and helped install a couple more. The only problem I ran into was witha new gas furnace. The fan limit switch on the hot air plenum was not able to handle the higher temp air from the wood burner. A new limit switch was the cure. You must make sure that you have a class "A" chimney for the wood burner. If you have an oil furnace, they have a class a chimney, but a gass furnace does not need one. I installed a triple wall class a chimney in the first place we had, ran it inside the garage and never had a problem with it. In the second place we had, I had the old coal frunace chimney re-done and used that for several years with no problems. I currently have a Charmaster furnace, it has both wood and oil in the same burner/fire box, and works great. With the add on, we got about 75% of our heat from the wood, when it got really cold, they were not big enough to keep the whole house warm. the other thing to watch with a add on is the chimney cleaning. If the chimney cets cold, under 200f, creasote will build up, and you need to clean it more often. Not a big deal to do, I use a brush, climb up on the roof on Saturday morning before we start the fire for the day and brush down the chimney, takes about 20min. It will be a big deal if you don't do it however. You do not want a chimney fire. I have only had one of them, and had it out before any we had any trouble. It was enough that a passing car stopped and told us there was flame and sparks shooting out of the cheimney though, it can be very dangerous. Let me know if you have andy other questions. Steve

-- Steve Collins (collins@cpinternet.com), January 19, 2001.

Joe,

We've been using a Royal add-on for about 10 years. Ours uses alot of wood or coal but works well. It is also piped to heat our hot water but if you have a family it's more of a supplement. If you have to build a chimney I'd be inclined to look at buying an outdoor furnace. They suck up about as much wood and with no threat of a house fire. We paid $250 for ours used. It was a great buy at the time. If you have a large house you'll find you may have to modify the blower system to get enough heat from the add-on to all registers. If you have any more questions let me know.

-- Peter (pdfitz@mkl.com), January 21, 2001.

I too am looking for an add-on solid fuel furnace that ties into existing ductwork. I've only been able to find 3 brands - Fire Chief, Woodchuck, and Brunco. Does anyone have any opinion of the quality of any of these brands? Suggestions of different brands? I live in SE Michigan.

-- Tom (tmallin@yahoo.com), July 27, 2001.

http://www.geocities.com/vysocany/cz_heizkessel/

Solid fuel boiler for coal, coke, wood etc. with 24kW 28kW 45kW max performance

-- autogas-systems (autogas-systems@post.cz), December 01, 2001.

i have just purchased a englander wood furnace for 845.00 heats 3000 sqft.home and i was wanting to know if i could use my chimney that has a gas furnace right now but it used to have an old furnace before cince there is a patch job from an old entry and has what looks to be smoke build up around the brick above the patch if you could help me out i would really like that thank you

-- mike (mjpiper@essex1.com), January 17, 2002.