Q & A:

1. Is Stainless Steel better?

2. Is Dual Fuel important?

3. How Far Away Can it be?

4. How Much Wood will I use?

5. When I go away for a couple days?

6. What if the electricity goes out?

7. How long will a wood furnace last?

8. What Makes Wood Master better?

9. Can you put antifreeze in the unit?

10. Where do you get wood?

11. Can you burn coal?

12. Call Me if you have a question!

Is Stainless Steel better! 

We offer both options Stainless or Mild Steel. Well you hear a lot of good points from both sides. I personally purchased the mild steel unit. The warranties are usually about the same and I simply look at it this way. If my mild steel unit lasts 20  to 25 years the unit paid for it self over 10 times. Stainless Steel is also made from different metals which shrink and expand differently causing hairline fractures. For the additional cost of about $1400 I personally don't see the value. Also ask a welder "what welds Better mild steel or stainless steel?" Mild steel welds better!

Is Dual Fuel Important?

Your outdoor wood furnace is designed to be incorporated with an existing indoor heating system such as a hot water boiler, radiant heat, domestic hot water and forced air furnace. If your wood furnace is hooked up correctly, your existing indoor furnace will act as your back up to your wood furnace. Don't worry, your indoor furnace will also prevent the wood furnace from freezing while you are on vacation. We recommend a indoor furnace for a couple simple reasons  1. for resell reasons and most home owners insurances require it. 2. wood furnaces are designed to burn a solid (Wood) fuel they are very very inefficient burning a liquid (Oil) fuel.

Need More Info: Now with that in mind read the next paragraph.

The Cost of purchasing a outdoor wood furnace with the optional of dual fuel hook-up is an additional cost. Keep in mind, Your wood furnace is a permanent structure which is now taxable and needs permits. I thought the purpose of a wood furnace was not having to pay bills.

Finally to conclude this topic it simply doesn't make any sense. 

How far away can it be?

The Outdoor wood furnace has the ability of being 3 to 300 feet away from your home. Couple things to keep in mind. You will need to visit your wood furnace once a day. You will need to have easy access to this location truck or tractor to replenish the wood when needed. 

How much wood will I use?

Well that depends on your home, insulation and the quality of wood you're burning. This might help! 2,500 sq home well insulated with good wood will go through 5 to 7 cords a cold session (6 months) That is heating the home and a domestic hot water 60 gallon tank. 

The cost of a cord these days is $120. You can see the savings if you buy. That is $600 to $840 a year to heat your home naturally. What did you spend last year? Imagine if you get your own!!!

When I go away for a couple days?

This is one of the most common questions that I get. You have several options depending on your situations. 

If your wood furnace is hooked up correctly your existing indoor furnace will back heat the wood furnace preventing it from freezing! The cost of your indoor furnace back heating your outdoor is very minimum cost everything is very well insulated.

Couple more options for you!

      First you can let the fire die down and drain the furnace. This is what I do it only takes about 10 minutes to drain the unit. When I return I refill the unit and relight the fire. 

     Second you can set up your unit with a bypass to not heat the home and circulate within itself the burn time will be much much longer  4 to 5 days.

     Thirdly if the weather isn't really cold the circulation pump is moving the water quite quickly. Moving water is hard to freeze.

     Fourth Maybe a friend or family member could help and feed the unit while your away.

     Fifth You could look into anti freeze. Keep in mind most anti freeze is terrible to our environment. please dispose of properly! 

     Sixth "If there is a will there is away!"

What if the electricity goes out?

This is another commonly asked question. The outdoor wood furnace uses very little electricity which can be supported by a small generator. What I actually did is I ran a regular inexpensive extension cord to my unit and that is how my unit is wired. So all I need to do is unplug from the wall and plug into a small generator. Problem solved. Some people ask well if you don't have generator you have no heat. That is correct! Most homes loose electricity they have no heat either. Either way you will need something to back up your existing home as well as the wood furnace. I know several people including myself are looking into solar and wind options. These wood furnaces use very little electricity. As soon as I get off the grid I will let you know.

How long will a wood furnace last?

Well this is like asking how long will my car will last. The simple truth is that we have a 10 year warranty. which has excellent coverage. These units should last 20 to 25 years or more if they are used and maintained properly. The oldest outdoor wood furnace I have seen is 14 years old with no visual wear on it and running strong. Wood Master wood furnaces should last longer than most units simple because they have superior construction and more importantly a superior design. Design is the most important issue here. If you ask a plumber they will tell you that what kills boilers (Outdoor wood furnace is basically a boiler) is sediment build-up which rots the boiler inside out. With our design we use a round drum where sediment can not build up and we have a drain at the bottom to flush the unit out yearly. Some units have a square water chamber, "water baffels", zig zag tops to help heat tranfer which will catch all the sediment. These units have no way to flush the system as well. They try to solve the problem with chemicals and in line filters which you can add to your bill. I know this because I have owned a one since 2002. I still own it and I had to move it over to the warehouse in which I store my wood master parts and supplies. I can no longer run it in my home because of a neighbor who lives 700 feet away complaining about the smoke.

Sorry No More Pictures! Click Here!

AS per request of the competition, I can't show any pictures of the competition. They asked me to remove my pictures or they would take legal action! Truth hurts!

What Makes Wood Master better?

This is like a young person that joins a company that raises all these ideas how to do everything better way than the way you have been doing it for years. Simple; there is a good reason why it has been done this way for years. What I'm getting to is that this is what has been done with a couple other wood furnace companies. I will describe them below for you and you make your decision which make more sense.

1. The zig zag feature which helps heat more water; good idea except that is where all the sediment will build up and start to rot the furnace out from the inside and not to forget the additional welding (as discussed in How long will a wood furnace last) There is no way to clean the inside of these units.

2. If you look at the door location and the Heat Collection area This air is 1500 degrees; another good idea until you have to open the door. The heat baffle is lower than top of the door. That is where you are standing and when you have to put a big log in and you are displacing several cubic feet of 1500 degree air; where is that going? You got it in your face. I have lost many eye brows and facial hair, and had to listen to my wife laughing at me. I know first hand I owned one for several years and still show mine to customers. (side by side comparison) 

3. Natural draft is a bad idea: These units are known to smoke a lot due to their natural draft. To give you an idea it is like throwing a match onto a leaf pile, how much will it smoke? Your right a lot! Now if you do the same thing and then blow on it, what happens then? The fire starts and gets hot faster and a considerably less smoke. As you can see this is not rocket science, these ideas were good ideas but not practical, similar to that young kid on the job tell the experience guy better ways of doing something.

4. With a Wood Master we use a round drum which will not collect sediment and can be easily flushed to prevent rotting from the inside out.

5. We use a fan on the front of our unit to burn hotter to reduce smoke and higher efficiency.

6. With using a round drum you have 50% less welds.

7. We have smoke release area so you are not eating smoke or hot 1500 degree air while filling unit with wood. This is a eye brow saver!!!

8. Did I mention we cost about $1,800 less then the equal size competitive unit. Heads up the will say their smaller is equal to ours to try to prices closer. The truth is very easy to figure out. How many cubic feet in fire barrel will tell you which goes with which. Don't listen to BTU ratings! This is very dumb statement, what kind of wood are you burning? Green, seasoned, wet, rotten, Oak. Pine, way to many variables to mention. Fossil fuels can do this because there is a constant fuel source. Example Oil burns at about 2000 degrees and propane around 1400 degrees we can give a btu rating with this NOT WOOD!

9. Our wood furnaces are on legs and don't use a full skirt for a couple reasons. First if it is warm and dry rodents will find a new home in all that great polyurethane insulation which is excellent to dig in and hard to fix! Again this is experience talking. (Field mice had babies, they are so cute! But not in my furnace) Secondly with the full skirt they suggest a concrete slab. This now makes your furnace a permanent structure in most towns and you will need permits and it is now taxable!!! I love taxes!!!

10. Did I mention that our furnace is $1800 less!

Final Note! Very Important! Ask to read their 25 year Warranty!! You might feel like a deer in headlights! Basically I will sum it up for you quickly. There is a 10 year prorated warranty on the fire barrel and only 1 year on the electronics. (My Control panel blew at a cost of $166.00 after 2 years). ARE YOU READY FOR THIS? The 25 year warranty is on Manufactures defects! If some knows what this covers please let me know. (Blemish in the paint or what?) Just another game. I learned this the hard way and all I want to do is recommend all the other brands before this one. Please don't make a Classic Mistake like me!!!!

9. Can you put antifreeze in your unit?

Yes you can however it might get pricey. There are a couple alternatives that might help you with this topic.

1. If you're going away just empty your unit and lines; this is very simple. Refill and restart your fire it takes about 4 to 6 hours to get back up to temperature.

2. If you have a boiler in your house and using a plate exchanger to heat your boiler this will also back-heat. What that means if your unit temperature drops your, existing boiler will kick on to provide heat to your home, it will also will heat the water in the boiler and prevent freeze up. Yes you will be using more fuel to heat your home and the outside wood furnace.

3. You can also set up a by-pass. What I mean here is you setup a by bass from the outdoor furnace from heat the house and send the water right back to the unit. So the unit is only heating itself which will last for days maybe week or weeks depending on temperature and weather conditions.

10. Where do you get wood?

Try phrasing it like this: were can't you get wood! Wood can be found easily. For example tree companies have to pay to dump wood in landfills and other locations. They most likely drop off the better hard woods; but we don't care we can burn all wood. Most tree guys can't sell certain types of wood (soft wood like pine, hemlock) so the have pay to get rid of it or drop it off to you free of charge. Once you build a relationship with a couple tree guys you will be home free.

Also look around it is all over the place. Free Pallets all over the place. I never heard a neighbor say no to allowing you to going in cleaning up downed trees and branches on their property. 

You can also call tree companies a ask them to cut the wood at 26 inch lengths and don't have to split it-what will the cost be? Also mention to them to bring the wood they can't sell to other customers such as V's of the tree, Big Knots, and all those weird shaped pieces. They should deliver it to you with a smile at half the cost. In CT it should cost about $150 to $175 a cord delivered, You should get it for $75 a cord delivered.  

11. Can you burn coal?

No we don't suggest it. The whole reason for buying an outdoor wood furnace is not to buy a fossil fuel and or burn fossil fuel. Your home already has the capability of burning fossil fuel.