Wood Doctor Converter/ Gassifier WDHE 8,000 / Any Experience

[forest]

I have been heating with a regular classic outdoof boiler for the last eighteen or so years, but it had a bad rupture the day before New Year eve and now I am heating with an Ashley Imperial downdraft stove. I have been researching Gassifier stoves and have looked at the e-classic 2300 but have been reading the specs for the Wood Doctor which has a much better warranty on the core stove and appears to be constructed from heavier metal. Does anyone have experience with the Wood Doctor (WD) WDHE 8,000? I spoke with a Classic dealer for the region and he did not seem very keen about e-classic. I was however surprise to find lots of information on tthis brand of stove but nothing on the Wood Doctor.

[albirk]

were did the classic spring a leak (side,back,by the big v at the bottom ???) just asking and what size 5036 6048

[forest]

It was at the back of the flange in front of chimney outlet. I accidently hit it when I was cleaning out the tar that had formed blocking the smoke from leaving the stove. I would have to check the model number, but it held about four hundred gallons of water. This accident wasn't totally unexpected as everything on the stove had seen better days, but it provided good dependable service up to the point that leak occured. I was totally sold on Classic stoves and turned to them when I started my research for a new stove but was quite shocked by their dealer when I went down to look at the e-classic. He told me the warranty on the fire box and heat exchange components was for seven years. The dealer for wood doctor has told me that their stove has a warranty for thirty years on their gassifier stoves. I have asked for a written copy.

[superwd6]

I know nothing about the Wood Doctor gasifier except my Uncles buddy bought one two or three years ago and last I heard was on his third set of fire bricks. I've personaly never seen one so check out yourself where and how many fire brick are on the model your looking at. As a heating man for twenty years I smile when I here about great warrantys from smaller companys ;). Most of them , if there is a big issue find some way of going bankrupt, have someone buy the company , change the company name to something slightly different & tell previous buyers- Sucks to be you , no warranty on models sold before new company date.. If you cut your wood early enough (dry!) you will love an E-Classic 8). Rumour has it Central boiler will no longer make standard boilers after 2012. ???

[forest]

I believe Wood Doctor has been around for twenty years or so, but I agree about warranties. You certainly find out about them when you need them and they are often not what you expected. I use dry silver birch, or black ash, which has been cured for a minimum of one year. The Gassifier is very similar to the e-classic 2300 in design, but has fire brick in the bottom chamber where the gas is burned off.

[albirk]

if you still have the classic i would look at putting a new fire box in it and giving them some more time to get some more bugs worked out of the e classic then you also have a good stove to sell or trade to help lower the cost on a replacment i think it is around $1500 to $2000 plus trucking for CB to replace the firebox then your stove is back to $4000 to $5000 to sell insted of $100 for scrap

[forest]

I have the stove, but there are other issues such as the deteriation of the groove that holds the gasket on the cast iron door, and the rusting of the metal where it was exposed to the weather which made up part of the chimney of the older classic stoves. The box and chimney metal is perhaps a third of what it started as. In the end I still would end up with an old stove. The climate here is cold, it was -30 C this morning and not uncommon to drop into the -40's in Jan and Feb. I don't run antifreeze so if there are problems then there is a panic until the lines have been blown out, and most of the water removed. The lines are down deep perhaps four feet, but there are areas that go over bed rock which are vulnerable. I will use the back up system which is a central woodstove, and two electic heaters, enough to get by, but not the comfort that the OWB provided, and certainly more expensive. I considered the Wood Doctor 8000 which was somewhat of a similare design as the e-classic 2300, but with a stated 1/4 inch boiler plate and what I thought was a solid warranty. It turns out that it provides a one year warrantee on the stove and then at the discretion of the company, if the stove requires to be replaced a percentage of the cost. The first five years is 50% and decreasing after that. There also appears to be a number of unhappy folk in regards to other brands that may, or may not be made by the same company, and some question of other problems. This has caused me to reconsider the CB and the e-classic. I feel that my past classic gave me excellent service over the years that I had it and feel that it really doesn't owe me anything. This makes me a little predisposed toward the classic, but I do wish there was a little bit more information on the gague of the metal they use, and if the air is heated up before it goes into the drying and combustion chambers. I would like to see both these stoves in operation, but there isn't any that I can find in this area. Thanks for your thought, but I think that it is time to look at a new stove. I did speak to my friend who is a welder about what he thought, but he felt that it was time to move on.

[Dean186]

This makes me a little predisposed toward the classic, but I do wish there was a little bit more information on the gauge of the metal they use, and if the air is heated up before it goes into the drying and combustion chambers.

According to their marketing literature; the air is "super heated" before it enters the fusion/combustion chamber.  On my E-classic 1400 the air travels through a 2 inch steal pipe which extends through the water jacket next the the fire box and then into a metal box, shown below.  The metal box along with the large firebrick type material and three metal bars make up the fusion chamber.  I am not sure if the white piece shown in the photo is ceramic or some special size fire brick like stuff.

I have owned my E-Classic 1400 for a little over a year with no problems besides a mis-calibrated temperature gauge.  I would recommend the 1400.

I am not sure if it helps, but I have inserted a photo of the fusion chamber parts out of my E-classic 1400.

[forest]

Thanks for the photo. It in a way answers a question about the gague of the metal, which is substantial in the photo. I would speculate that it must be 1/4 inch. I am a little fixated on thinkness as it does in many ways determine the life time of the stove. Have you ran across any skematic, or statement from CB regarding the thinkness of the metal that they use. I am told that the high carbon steel is a step up from boiler plate. The heated air I think is an important design feature as it would cool down the fire if it wasn't heated. It is clear that you are happy with your e-classic 2400. Have you had much problem with the wood hanging up. When I read that a gas gun is now part of the design it made me wonder how often that it is required? I would have thought that the air pulse would insure the fire would continue despite long periods between when heat is required. My last question is about the output of this type of stove ... do you think it is as high as the old style of classic. I know it is suppose to be more efficent which should mean that they are even better, but it is an important question on those very cold nights.

[Dean186]

On my 1400 the metal edge can be seen and measured at the firebox door, the reaction chamber, the heat exchanger and a few other places.  With my micrometer it measures 9/32, a little over a 1/4 inch.  Below is a link to Central Boilers discussion of Steel Comparisons.   You are right about them using carbon steel, but I could not find them stating a thickness measurement.  The statement and link below is from their site.

"Central Boiler outdoor furnaces are manufactured using heavy gauge carbon steel."

http://www.centralboiler.com/stainless.html 

The 1400 is the smallest of their three E-Classic series furnaces.  I replaced an efficient indoor 160,000 btu boiler with mine.  You might want to use their sizing chart.

The 1400 does not have a gas gun, or didn't when I made my purchase.  Once a person gets the hang of loading wood, it seldom goes out.  I had gone the whole year without having to relight and then I spoke about that fact in one of my post and it went out two days later.  I should have knocked on wood.   I caught the situation within 30 minutes, so it wasn't a problem.  I also have my indoor furnace as a backup, if outdoor boiler water temperature drops below 140 degrees, the indoor furnace will run.  Anyway, I believe it's possible to go the whole winter without relighting.   

Example:  We had company over the holidays, so all rooms were heated, lots of people (12) here to take showers the overnight low dropped to -8 degrees.  A load of wood made it 16 hours in our 4,300 square foot house.  Had the 2400 been an option when I purchased the 1400 I might have chosen it over our 1400 just so I could be away from the house longer.  The most it will go on a load of wood is 36 hours with normal temperatures and no one at home.  With that said; IMHO I believe most people buy a larger stove than they need.

Hope that helps,  Dean

[forest]

Thats a lot to heat! I would be heating a 3000 sq ft house with R30 in the walls and R50 in the ceiling a 400 sq ft green house used from March and down the line a 500 sq ft shop which will be well insulated. My past OWB was 400 gal and I initially heated my place and my mothers home, but now just my place and the green house. The stove was probably larger than was required, but didn't seem to be any less efficent when I put fewer logs in. I was in the practic of putting wood in twice a day, varying the amount with the temperature. I felt the headroom gave me sufficent room to meet our coldest temperatures. I found as you did with your 1400 that there was a learning curve. Over the years the length of the wood decreased until I was using wood that was less than two feet, and then the number of logs that was used. The nice thing about the old stove was no matter how late I was getting the wood in there would always be live coals under the layer of ash that I always maintained in the bottom. It almost felt like a ritual to light the first fire in the fall, as that would carry me through to the spring when I would let the stove go out. I never tried to heat the water once it began to warm up in the spring. I thought that it was too inefficent to just heat the water, when the house needed little in the way of heat. I would use the inside wood stove for the shoulder seasons, once the green house was able to run on its own.

I would be a little worried to try to get by with just two hundred gallons of water. That is why my interest in the 2400. I think I would be running close to the maximum with a smaller stove when the mercury is down around the -40 degree mark. 

[Dean186]

My Central Boiler dealer has a 2400 installed at his house that is working very well.  I have heard only good things about the 2400.

[ken999]

I poked my head in a 2400 a couple of months ago when I was at my dealer. It looks totally different than my 2300. From what I saw, the FC is now all refractory, and should last alot longer that the 2300's. The revised damper location coupled with the longer lever approach makes the boiler much more wife freindly too if that is a consideration. I wish I could have opened up the FC and the new Xtract exchanger system to look ALL of it over but I didn't.

For sure, if I were to be buying one right now, I'd demand a 2400, not a 2300. If your local dealer doesn't have one on stock and tries pushing a 2300 on you I wouldn't take it.

A couple of other thing to consider. I'd look hard at the propane assisted models if they still offer that option and I would install the optional indoor controller so I could adjust set-points from inside the house.

I lit my boiler everyday over the summer for DHW. Having propane ignition would have been very handy. I'd guess that you could get at least 4-5 days worth of firewood out of a full boiler for DHW just let the boiler light on it own when powered up daily. Load the boiler, run it up to 195, adjust set-point to 150 (lowest setting for my controller), power the boiler on/off as needed. When the indoor controller shows the boiler getting down in the 150's, re-set it to 195 and let it run all the way up again. Repeat as necessary. I did the same basic program, but had to light the boiler manually and I adjusted thing from the boiler. The only thing I could do from inside was power the boiler on/off.

Here's a link to my summer burn experience.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,41487.0.html

The other nice thing about the remote adjustments and propane ignition is during shoulder seasons you could do the same basic thing as summer burning, only more often as needed for heat. This burn technique has got to burn alot less firewood than letting the stove cycle all day long trying to hold it's setpoint when heat is not required.