Looking for anyone’s who has experience with both OWBs & opinions on which would be a better choice for larger heating needs. I know we already have covered some of this on another thread but maybe someone who wasn’t on that might have some useful information to help us make the best choice. I have dealers for both not to far away so that’s not an issue. Basically going to use it to heat two separate houses with the boiler in between them. Thanks in advance for any helpful advice.
Do you have fakebook account? I stumbled onto the CR group tonight, to me it didn't seem to have that same general "happy camper" tone to it like the HM group does...IMO. I dunno, maybe I'm just biased...
I don't think you are going to find anyone who has direct experience with both of those models. I would pick the one you understand most or you think has the best/simplest design. Both are good...there's not a bad decision to be made here.
It it were me, I'd get the Heatmaster because of the active exhaust monitoring / air intake actuation. It's basically monitoring your AFR and tuning for lean/rich conditions to get the most out of your wood. It sounds complicated but all they really did was add a secondary intake that is actuated by the same device they've been using for years. There are many times where my boiler will start to run a little dirty for short periods of time with certain loads and I wish I could turn down the primary air and turn up the secondary air. They have solved for this problem.
That's huge in my opinion...the first company to do that on an indoor forced air furnace stands a good chance of earning my business...especially if its a downdraft gasifier...to me this is state of the art wood burning! European manufacturers have been doing this on indoor wood boilers for years now already. (lambda, or O2 senor, control)
I have designed and built 4 owb's and IMO the best one to buy is the longest lasting one which would be a Heatmor.
Yes, they are marketed as "coal burners" but it's the exact same wood burner its always been. It's just a bureaucratic loop hole that all owb manufactures had to jump thru. Government passed a law, and companies were forced to change the sticker. I wonder if anyone has ever met the owb police that come around and make sure you're burning coal in your coal burner? I never have.
I believe OP is looking for something more efficient...and a "coal burner" would not fit that bill...
Yes. Central Boiler model 6048. Installed in 2006 & still working fine just looking for something that will reduce my wood consumption.
It’s been& still is a good stove. I’m just getting older & looking for a little less work. As far as I know I believe they are still being built.
Yes they are...but there are more limited models now since many companies couldn't (or too lazy to put in the effort) pass the EPA test that was required by May of 2020...so they just skirted the spirit of the law by rebranding their smoke dragon models as "coal burners" (which have some sort of exemption) like Heatmor has apparently done...if they want to do this to continue offering "campfire inside of a tank of water" models, fine, but do your homework and offer people an efficient clean burning option too! My folks just replaced a 20 YO CB 6048 with a HeatMaster G10000 OWB (downdraft gasifier) at the beginning of this heating season and are thrilled with the savings in wood, and the lack of a huge blue cloud blowing across the road all the time now...