My old heating source, Woodchuck 526, was just not cutting it. It eats A LOT of wood and the burn times are minimal. Now keep in mind, that furnace was in my house when I bought it. Today I bought a new unit. I went with the Summers Heat (England) 3000sqft hot air furnace. So far it’s been running an hour with only 4 sticks of wood, they’re barely burnt. The Woodchuck would have eaten 6-7 sticks down to ash by now. I hope this is a good sign. Plus the blower on this thing pushes way more air through my house than the old furnace. Yes I know, pictures or it didn’t happen!!!
Now this is also my first experience with a gasification wood burner. I’ve only ever used old school hot air furnaces.
Regular price was $1434, it was on sale for $1049. Plus I got 5% off my purchase because I used my Lowe’s card.
Cool! You'll have to keep us updated...there have been a couple people put them in on other sites, but no real feedback yet that I have seen. I think you'll like it...that is basically the much beloved Englander NC 30 stove made into a furnace...the 30 is a tough ole heat beast too...and clean burning! You'll find that if you had to clean the chimney multiple times per year with the old furnace, you will be able to clean (more like just inspect probably) once per year now...assuming you have good dry wood...these things need real dry wood to perform well, don't like moisture at all...a lot less than your old unit. A operational tip would be that they like smaller diameter wood too...or at least a mix. When I went to using my Drolet Tundra (similar unit) I found that the stuff that my old Yukon Husky thought was too small, was almost too big for the Tundra. Loading a couple larger pieces on the bottom will help it hold hot coals longer, but load at least the top layer with smaller diameter stuff for the best burn once the fire settles in on "cruise". Speaking of, I'm not sure how familiar you are with the newer firebox designs, but they run most efficiently with the air almost closed, or completely closed as the fire will allow. Start out with it open, then as the fire gets well established, start to close it down incrementally every few minutes, eventually the fire will kinda shift from being more so at the bottom, to 90 % at the top of the firebox. If you already know all this then just ignore me...
Thanks for all the advice. It’s been burning great so far and I’m about 3 hours in now. My mother and stepfather have basically the same unit in the stove version. He gave me several pointers as he was helping me set it up today.
Ive had a 526 for 16 years and love it,,,,, now. First few years I had to decipher a problem that ended up being a reverse draft. What a nightmare that was (creosote bad even with 3-4 year seasoned wood). After that I moded it with some insulated heat shields. Wood usage was tolerable. Last 10 years I've been mixing 1-2 ton of coal per season with my wood. Wood usage is way down. This has been the best this furnace has run. Long clean burn times. Little to no creosote. Does that England unit have an ash cleanout? Cant tell from the pics.
Mine has always been a wood eater. Maybe I just had a dud. Yes, the England has an ash cleanout there’s a big pan under the door. But there’s a plug inside you have to pull out to clean it. I’m just going to make an ash shovel and clean it that way.
