All good points brother! Echos similiar to things I was bringing up indeed so its cool to see the other side coming from a gasification side! I dont have personal experience with the gassers only the old school so its cool to hear the other side from a personal stand point!
I have a traditional round barrel outdoor boiler and it’s been a very good boiler to me. Every winter it’ll eat oh about 13 full cords easy. On a warm day just heating hot water I’ll get two days and when it’s -10 outside it’s twice heavy loads once before work and before bed. I wouldn’t mind a newer epa model like you have but why replace something that isn’t broken yet. Keep up the great videos 👍and remember keep your saw in the wood.
I have a G4000 -- Pallets are no worries (if you have to burn them) Getting the nails out can be a pain in the ass, but they wont hurt the boiler at all. Plus, the wood is super dry, so if you have to run some less than ideal stuff, those pallets can really help.
I had aHardy for 11years. It was a wood hog and smoked the neighbor up. Bought a Heat master g4000. It saves a lot of wood and burns a whole lot cleaner than my old unit. The traditional Heat Master are nice to.
Great breakdown here, thanks for doing this. This is definitely the unit I'll be going with. Just curious what you do when you go on longer trips though. Run the house on electric? Any potential issues with the driveway heat system freezing if left unattended for a week? Any input is appreciated!
I don’t have to worry about the driveway freezing as those lines are separate and are filled with glycol. I have a series of videos on my snow melt system. My boiler can go about 3 days if packed full in the winter with good wood. If we left for a longer trip I believe it would take about two days for the water to actually get to about freezing temps. Also the hot water tank would turn on like normal and that would also heat the water as well. Plus my external tanks I could also turn on and heat the water. House could always go back to natural gas if needed.
I just want to make a respectful observation. Your whole setup could be way more efficient! Your setup is awesome by the way! I used to heat with wood for years with an indoor add-on burner. We bought a new house and it doesn't have a boiler (yet). Heating with wood is work. The trade off is (free) heat. Since it is work I don't want to work do anything more than what I aldread have to do. I used to watch my dad more wood 3-4 times in the process of cutting, splitting, stacking, and using. I see you have a spot to unload your wood (1). Your processor has an output pile in the opposite direction from your wood stack (2). Your wood stack you pass your boiler on the way to stack your wood (3). Then to get your wood to the boiler you load on a cart( 4). The you go back the opposite direction back to load your boiler (5). If it was me and without moving the boiler or anything the way I see it to make it more efficient you could (1) turn your processor around the opposite direction but aim towards your boiler. (2) Your output pile would be on the wall next to your boiler. Stack along that wall so you eliminate the cart and you would be basically a pivot move away from your wood to then load the boiler. Just an observation! Less moves=less work
Don’t disagree with moving the wood. But as I own a firewood and tree service. I move wood all day. You can see that in my present videos things have changed. When I did have that other splitter from time to time I would split into the wood shed. Just didn’t like all the debris also going in there as well. Now I just touch the wood one time then we I pull the tote I grab the wood and it goes into the boiler. When I sell the wood I don’t touch it at all just dump the tote into the trailer and off we go.
I’m with you I believe the gasser is the way to go burning less wood = less work. What I just can’t understand is why people will keep their wood outside not covered up and will throw snowy wood right in there boiler. As of right now I just have wood stove in the house but have run both types of outdoor boilers in the past my parents had a regular one and at my previous house I had a gasser and loved it. Planning on getting a gasser for my new home this year. I buy my wood from a local fire wood supplier that sells kiln dried wood but I tell you get every btu out of it and you get very little smoke out the chimney.
Gassers are definitely the future. Drying the wood in the elements is one thing but when it’s time to throw in you want it dry and not full of snow. Putting all that water inside the box is not good. I don’t care what anyone says.