rate your E-Classic experiance foe me.

[DeerMeadowFarm]

After the learning curve, I like my e-classic. I think what made it easier for me to understand how it works is to think of it as a big air pump. 90% of the issues come from not getting the air it needs either from clogged air holes, bad solenoid, etc.

[Jack72]

Ah seems like I'm in the boat right behind you guys.  My 5 year old just stands in the hot shower playing with his matchbox cars.  I come in after 10 mins and he still hasn't touched the soap.  After I tell him to start cleaning he's finally done and ask if he can play for a few more mins.  Of course I cave, but all I think about is $$$ going down the drain.

However, my wife is coming around to the idea  since I won't stop talking about it.  I'd told her the money we spend on oil could be used for vacations, jewerly, a big block or new 5spd for my 69 camaro etc  :D

Also, my neighbor has a Woodmaster 4400.  He turned me onto the idea of a OWB.  My wife was talking to them one day and they told her they spent $700-800 on wood for the year and $600 for one tank of oil to heat the water in the summer and to keep the house warm when they travel.  My wife was like they spend just as much as us.   I chuckled and told her $1400 would keep us warm for Nov, Dec, and a week in Jan.

I currently have a oil furnance 87% efficient to heat the hot water with hydro forced hot air.  Basically I have the heat exchangers similar to cars heater core within my air ducts.  They told me it's more efficient that regular forced air since the furnance doesn't kick on every single time one zone calls for heat.  Its not as dry either.  Our house is 2000 sq ft colonial with a half finished basement and the basement is only heated only when the first floor calls for heat.  Currently we average around 850 gallons a year if its a mild winter, but that is expected to rise.  We run the dishwasher daily, have an endless amount of laundry, and soon my daughter will be taking showers.

From your profile picture looks like your ready for cutting.      Would you have to buy your firewood because that's a big expense    I don't know if I would have bought the stove if I had to buy my own firewood.


Good luck on the wife   I can't help you there

Jack

[Jack72]

J

[Den69RS96]

From your profile picture looks like your ready for cutting.      Would you have to buy your firewood because that's a big expense    I don't know if I would have bought the stove if I had to buy my own firewood.


Good luck on the wife   I can't help you there

Jack
[/quote]

Thanks Jack.

I'm definitely allset for cutting.  In the fall I picked up a 48 inch Stihl cant hook and Santa brought me a X27 Fiskars for Christmas.  Last year my wife bought a cart for my tractor so I could hall firewood.  This spring we are redoing our deck (going to Trex)and I'm going to reuse the old decking/joist to build a wood shed.  So far I have about 2 cords of Oak and I just started.  Most of it is already cut/split and stacked.  I most likely will buy a couple of cords each year, but mainly I will use whats on my land.  My neighbor gets their firewood for 150 a cord delivered.  Its all hardwood, but its not seasoned.  I have the room to store a couple years worth of wood, so even if I have to buy some its not that big of an expense in my eyes.

[Jack72]

From your profile picture looks like your ready for cutting.      Would you have to buy your firewood because that's a big expense    I don't know if I would have bought the stove if I had to buy my own firewood.


Good luck on the wife   I can't help you there

Jack

Thanks Jack.

I'm definitely allset for cutting.  In the fall I picked up a 48 inch Stihl cant hook and Santa brought me a X27 Fiskars for Christmas.  Last year my wife bought a cart for my tractor so I could hall firewood.  This spring we are redoing our deck (going to Trex)and I'm going to reuse the old decking/joist to build a wood shed.  So far I have about 2 cords of Oak and I just started.  Most of it is already cut/split and stacked.  I most likely will buy a couple of cords each year, but mainly I will use whats on my land.  My neighbor gets their firewood for 150 a cord delivered.  Its all hardwood, but its not seasoned.  I have the room to store a couple years worth of wood, so even if I have to buy some its not that big of an expense in my eyes.
[/quote]

No I agree no biggie  if you have to buy some just thought it would keep the wife happier    By me I've never needed to do this but their is always people on Craigslist giving free firewood away especially after a storm
Jack

[go green]

I've owned my 2300 for 5 years now and it is saving me a ton of money.  I just had to  find out how much.  I had scheduled a hunting trip in December and didn't expect my wife to load the furnace for that amount of time so I decided to heat for one full month with my propane boiler in the system.  I heat 5000 sq ft house, 1100 sq garage and 1700 sq ft shop.  It cost me $1050 of propane to heat all that from November 27 to Dec 27. Only one month and propane cost was 2.41/gal.  It was a very cold December.  I called home from Africa on the 11th of Dec, it was 30 below zero!  I hated to pay for propane heat but I had never heated all three buildings before without using the outdoor furnace.  Now I know that E-Classic 2300 has paid for itself many times over.
As far as operating and maintaining it is very easy with little time invested.  As long as I use the cleaning rod (poker) running it through the ash bed every day or at least once every other day to keep the ash loose so it flows into the reaction chamber, I have never had to clean any air inlet holes.  I use the metal hoe to scrape the walls and corners to knock the dry crusty chucks off and scrape the door frame.  That takes about 45 seconds a day.  When it is very cold I fill completely full twice a day and sometimes top it off again when I quite working in the shop at about 9pm.  During very cold weather I remove ash from the reaction chamber every 2 or 3 days, and in warmer weather every week or so.  It is really important to keep the air flow good so check reaction chamber ash level frequently until you know what to expect.  I have heard some say the newer models are easier to operate but I don't know how much easier this could be.  It is hard to imagine you could have it better than what my model 2300 is. I have not had any electrical problems that were mentioned in the earlier posts.  The bars in the bottom had to be replaced once and I understand now there is a refractory that eliminates the bars if i ever need to do that again.  I am very happy with my furnace.  With $800 to $1000/month savings over 5 years, I don't know of any other investment that can pay off like that.  I cut my own wood.

[Wick]

"I heat 5000 sq ft house, 1100 sq garage and 1700 sq ft shop. "
"November 27 to Dec 27" in Africa.

go green, you got it going on man!! Welcome.

[go green]

yes it was warmer while I was there but such a rude awakening when i got back to Minnesota,  25 below zero instead of the balmy 90 degrees while is was on safari.

[petefrom bearswamp]

Now the important question, go green.
How did the Safari go?
Pete

[LeeB]

Sounds oilfield to me.

[milkie62]

Well I do not have an e-classic but have a CL 40 from 1995 and running without a hitch.I burn 8-9 cord of mostly pine and poplar.I have replaced the rope in the door only once.I only have to clean it twice per heating season and I usually do it on nice sunny days.I do dread the day if I spring a leak since this is my only heat source. Love my CB.

[Logging logginglogging]

A bit of a learning curve,
but mine runs great and I couldn't be happier, very very efficient. I burn much less wood than others. I have not had to replace my reaction chamber. I did once replace a blower, and the power switch.

[Logging logginglogging]

It ends up being personalized enough that many of us prefer no one else touching it. 

AsaG
That sums it up very, very well.
Takes some trial and error to get "personalized" with it, and I don't think there are many shortcuts. All my wood burners, tho not the E-classic caliber, have needed that personal touch and learning curve.

"Install it, load it, forget it" just doesn't work like a gas or oil furnace/boiler.

as long as its good clean hardwood its install load and forget with my e-classic 2300. Every 3 weeks or so I clean it.... but that's any boiler if you do proper maintenance.

[bobswelding]

I have a friend that wants to put in an E-classic. I know quite a few of you on here have one. How would you rate them for value, reliability, and overall performance?
Be careful. If you are talking about a Central Boiler, they are not perfected yet. I read they are making changes to the firebox and firebricks. They don't hold up like the old style classic do. Mine is 15 years old and still going.   

[Sugartree310]

I have a e-classic 2300, we are in our 6th heating season with it , we heat an 2000 Sg ft house and 900 sg ft in another building along with the hot water in both buildings, I don,t have a dealer I can count on ! It has been a nightmare from the beginning. We are going to use 20 cords of wood this year , In the past we had burned everything pine, popular mixed with hard woods and used 12-15 cords. This year we are burning all hard wood  and we are going to burn more wood . I clean the asses out once a week, fill two times a day , and  I am now thinking of shutting it down and going back to using oil again. If I where doing it again I would probably not choose this stove again.  I think I could sell the wood I do for this thing and buy oil and still have money left it's frustrating!!!!!!!

[doctorb]

Interesting Sugartree.  I, too, am in my 6th season of heating with a e-2300.  I have found it's an efficient machine that, when properly maintained, does exactly what it's supposed to do.  I heat about 4500 square feet with a 300 foot run to my house from the OWB.  I burn hardwood and burn 10-12 cords a year, all seasoned.  I wonder why we have such different experiences?  What year and month was your 2300 manufactured?  Are you sure your stove is gasifying?

[Sugartree310]

It was manufactured in 2008  I believe one of the first ones made , I have had the modifications done , door replaced , the lower chamber changed out , I put a new gasket in the door every year , enlarged the air holes , I try to keep the ashes down in fire box so the air holes are not plugged , I have a 150"run to the house, and less than a 100' run to the Sugarhouse ,  I run the boiler at the highest temp 195 , when it gets up to 195 it is back down to 190 and running again in less than 15 minutes , the wood is seasoned about a year hard to keep up when we are burning so much , I don,t get it , my dealer I bought it from passed with  in a few months after we purchased and the dealer that took over  has not been there and is unreliable  . It's just so frustrating . We should be using no more than 10 cords of wood a year  in my opinion. I don,t know if it is really gasifing

[Gary_C]

If you are boiling sap in your sugarhouse, I'm not surprised you are using a lot of wood. It takes one btu to raise one pound of water one degree F and almost 1000 btu's to evaporate that same pound of water. So it takes about a thousand times as much heat to get that water past 212 deg. F. as it takes to heat water one deg. F.