In loving memory of Kenis D. Keathley 6/4/81 - 3/27/22 Loving father, husband, brother, friend and firewood hoarder Rest in peace, Dexterday

Acme Outdoor Furnace Company?

Discussion in 'OWB's and Gasification Boilers' started by burnswod, Apr 23, 2014.

  1. burnswod

    burnswod

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    Anyone here done business with Acme Outdoor Furnace Company located in Macon MO ? They travel to various fairs and outlets to showcase their product. I now am tossing around the idea of an outdoor heat source.
     
  2. Stinny

    Stinny

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    Only thing I know about them is they used to be very popular in Maine… and, now they're pretty scarce. Used to be a bunch of them up in Phillips for sale. They sat there for years. They are gone now. Company selling them went out of biz. Had a couple plumbers here last Friday and we were talking about combo wood/oil fired furnaces and they said they don't get many calls even for them any more. They mentioned the OWBs and added they don't see many anymore either. Folks realized, according to them, that dealing with keeping the units full of fuel during bad weather was a turn off. The brand of OWB in Phillips might have been Acme… I don't know.

    I know I'm too lazy and whimpy to load wood into an OWB in 33 degree rain… :whistle: Good luck with your heat huntin'.
     
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  3. My IS heats my home

    My IS heats my home

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    My brother has an OWB down in PA. It came with the house he owns now, not sure if he still runs it or not. The boiler was about 25 yards from the back door. Can't be easy going out everyday to fill that monster.
     
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  4. coal reaper

    coal reaper

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    Its gotta get old real fast, but some people dont seem to mind. My boiler is in the barn and i put 5.5 cords in there for te heating season. Rough winter this last was. Burned it all by march. I was griping about having to bring wood in from outside when the weather was cold/precipitating. Would much rather bring wood in at the end of summer on cool evening rather than the dead of winter. Boiler in barn, wood supply in barn, no other way for this guy.
     
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  5. burnswod

    burnswod

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    I plan to install in the tool shed and store the wood there as well. My heating requiremnts are minimal but i really want to get off the LP dependency. I use about 400 gallons of LP per year for heat and hot water. I know i can't outright bbuy a OWB without being upside down in costs, but i was planning on finding a good design and fabricating myself. I weld, fabricate, and Black Smith and I believe I can handle the build myself but need an effecient design to go from. It seems like a lot of the OWB are wood eating hogs, I was thinking more of a batch rocket stove design fired twice a day. I have some experence with Rocket stoves and find the whole combustion process from solid wood to smokeless and low temp exhaust fasinating.
     
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  6. coal reaper

    coal reaper

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    thats not horribly much propane, ROI will be a while but house will likely be warmer. do you run a woodstove already? might be better off putting your efforts into better insulation if the house is lacking in that area.
    the issue with most OWBs is the water jacket is directly on the outside of the firebox. that keeps the firebox wall too cool for all the wood gases to combust. try to incorporate a refractory into your design. just dont forget overheat protection as the secondary itself can excede 2000*F if you do it right. here is a chitty video of the flame i get on mine:
    also something for return water protection so you dont have cold weater going tinto the hot boiler.
    your first decision may be for a pressurized vessel or unpressurized. then storage. if sepereate storage is desired then something like a varm might be a good model to base off of. incorporated storage look at garn. if no storage then look to woodgun.
     
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  7. campinspecter

    campinspecter

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    I,ve operated a Jetstream with storage for 30+ years from what I understand its somewhat similar to the "rocket stove".

    IMGP3756.JPG
    Smokeless / This picture was taken with the boiler at full output!
     

    Attached Files:

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  8. coal reaper

    coal reaper

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    Yeah! Build a jetstream!
     
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  9. campinspecter

    campinspecter

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    I do need to build one. :DUsing #528 and it just won't die. I have unit #175 brand new waiting in the wings for its first fire! The third one on was its way to being rebuilt:thumbs: and I was told by my daughters :eek:that the third one had to go! o_O
    But to Build One :thumbs:- that would make for a interesting project.:drool::popcorn::rofl: :lol: I think that it would be better and easier to make the base out of high temperature brick instead of refractory!:zip:

    The sheet metal parts for# 3:(
    IMGP3968.JPG IMGP3370.JPG
    Even had a brand new refractory liner!:rolleyes:
     
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  10. coal reaper

    coal reaper

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    Why did they stop manufacturing these? Is there currently anything similar on the market?
     
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  11. campinspecter

    campinspecter

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    # 1 Too expensive. Ours was $4,500 delivered to the West Coast and that's in 1982 dollars!
    #2 Lacked longevity. The units needed around 750 to 1,000 gallons of storage to avoid idling and the consequential damage to the large refractory component. No storage would lead to early refractory failure.
    #3 Inconvenience of loading intervals. The small firebox. The stick-wood boiler concept, if burning softwood, will require loading every hour for six hours to bring 1,000 gallon storage up to temperature.
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2014
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