Why do you prefer your smoke dragon?

I’ll start off by saying my Fisher Momma Bear was my Grandpas and he gave it to me for free. I like the simple design, and I feel it’s much easier to teach a “ newbie” how to operate. However she still doesn’t like to let it eat. Simply shut the drafts and back out 1/2 turn, and that’ll leave you coals for when you wake up or get home from work. Open drafts 1&1/2 turns and feed maple ( the small woodbox) when your home and awake. I also enjoy that the wood don’t have to be as dry as a popcorn fart to throw good heat or to work properly like a modern catylist type stove.

 

But you need twice as much of it.
And twice as much wood is twice as much work.

They're beautiful. Simple. Stout,
(And since they're outlawed, they're hard to find.)

 

Being a smoker myself I need to get on the 3 year plan before I think about something else.. Lack of time and money dont help. Not complaining,, just the way it is for me right now.

 

The couple that I have are well over 20 years old and still work the same as they did when they were made.

No replacement cats or sagged burn tubes, warped this or that. Expensive parts that may not be readily available…

As said the oils stove is less finicky about the fuel. I could probly burn dog turds in them if the situation got bad enough.

Outlawed

 

I've used a non-catalyst since day one. One of the main reasons is cost. I simply can not afford to go out and buy the latest/greatest. If my stove was in my living space, things would be different. Wish I could have jumped on the OWB wagon but it never happened.

If you hop on CL or FB MP, you'll find a good many in my area for sale. Definitely not rare.

 

new installs of owb banned around my parts-

 

My "smoke dragon" is no such thing when burning dry wood. It is however very large & custom made from simple parts. It makes a large amount of heat for a long time because that's what I need in the event of a long term power outage, think ice storm or similar. The stove is simple to operate etc. It was also 1/3 to 1/4 the cost of a large modern stove with a massive cook top. Boiler is also pre epa model for similar reasons. Damper solenoid & pump are the only parts to fail, keep spares of each on hand & no waiting for parts to get the system back up & running. I may burn a bit more wood than some, but that's a small price to pay compared to some of the supply & parts issues I see people having right now.

 

OWB bandwagon...
No you don’t...I haven’t seen an efficient OWB yet. My neighbor heats a single mobile home with his...burns about 6 cords a year. Constantly feeding that smoke dragon...a real smoke dragon. The entire valley is filled with smoke...because he doesn’t know how to dry his wood and doesn’t care to learn. He has no clue he is wasting BTU’s to boil water out of his wood. Not to mention he doesn’t have a clue about what dry wood is. The cords he does burn each year would would go much further and provide much more heat if the wood was properly top covered and seasoned for at least a year not to mention 3 years. He cuts it out of the woods and burns it green. He does get some that is more seasoned, but still...

...Put the old smoke dragon stove back inside the trailer, out another stove in the barn and forget that wood eating POS called an OWB. Junk!

 

The downdraft gasifiers made recently (last 5-6 years) are pretty decent...especially if installed, set up, and run correctly...

 

I figured such and thanks for that information. They are not something I have researched at all.

The neighbors unit is likely 15-20 years old by now. Maybe even 25. It eats trees, but is likely made very well.

 

It’s a shame the neighbor doesn’t learn to dry and cover his wood. Well, sometimes he covers it with a tarp. He didn’t even do that until he seen me covering mine and the entire road started covering theirs. Even some folks in their mid-70’s that should know better started covering their wood...which is great.

 

I'm about to get a front row seat for the comparison...my dad and brother heat 2 houses and 2 shops from one large 20 YO Central Boiler...a hungry smoke dragon for sure...it is being replaced with a new HeatMaster G10000 gasifier right now...it will be interesting to see the difference...I told my brother that if he had all the wood that the CB has "wasted" over the years (smoke cloud blowing across the road...literally...I've seen brake lights from it...so embarrassing) that he would never need to cut another stick.

 

Certainly no intention of derailing this thread with my next comment...

I am thoroughly convinced that if “I” were to install any type of CB it would be one that burns the black rocks. Simple and heavily built for decades of service. Certainly more ash to contend with, but from an even heat and pure cost standpoint for “me”...black rocks all the way. I’m talking to heat my water, my house, garage, workshop, and anything else I wanted. Of course, having access to extensive acreage and forest might...might change that, but not for my current situation.

Will be interesting to read about the comparison you are anticipating.

 

And then some are annoyed that they want to outlaw wood burning in some locations. I get it. That would irritate the snot out of me. I have a neighbor with one but he is very responsible with burning dry wood. As am I, so we don’t cloud the rest of the burg.
I don’t prefer the smoke dragon. it’s just what I can afford right now.

 

An OWB may not be as efficient as an indoor stove or EPA furnace, but they have many advantages. Setting a thermostat & forgetting it along with unlimited "free" hot water being two. Multiple zones being another. Mine is an older non gasser, that's "not efficient". My shop requires a lot of heat so I use a fair amount of wood, but none of that equates to a lot of smoke. Same is true of my woodstove, dry wood is the real answer here, & that's something that only the end user can "fix".

 

Those old stove got a bad name.Smoke dragons, burn crap and don't know how to run a stove and that's what you get a bad name. I have two a fisher and a timberline and are far from smoke dragons. The simplicity and quality are hard to beat. Blame it on the people not the stoves.

 

I hear you and agree 100%. Dry,dry,dry,dry wood goes a long way in producing heat with no visible smoke.

Once you let the cat out of the bag calling them a smoke dragon, it’s sort of hard to contain the cat.

They are really that simple with good dry wood and many were built far superior as well in my opinion.