# hardy heaters?



## buddylee

I'm in the process of installing a Hardy wood furnace. Looking to see who is using one. I know several local people using them. Mostly see folks bad mouthing outdoor wood boilers. Last two electric bills were right at $350 each. Tired of that.


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## Singed Eyebrows

smokingout said:
			
		

> I'm in the process of installing a Hardy wood furnace. Looking to see who is using one. I know several local people using them. Mostly see folks bad mouthing outdoor wood boilers. Last two electric bills were right at $350 each. Tired of that.


 Welcome to Hearth, I can't help with tips on the Hardy furnace except to say try to burn good dry wood. OWB owners brought about the problems/bans on themselves with careless use & hopefully you won't smoke your neighbors out. Most people here have started out with traditional boilers & changed to gasification ones as finances permitted. Good luck, enjoy the wood heat, Randy


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## Tennman

Lots of Hardy's in the hills around us here in Tenn. Hope you have lots of space from your neighbors and access to plenty of wood. Otherwise they seem to be loved as dirt reliable around here. I think in our gentler climate down here the wood consumption wouldn't be too bad. I visited with a nearby farmer neighbor when I started my research and he loved his and heated his home from downed tress at the field edges. I think he's been using his for 15-20 years! But when I drive by his house you can usually see some smoke. Our home is just north of the AL line. So as far as an OWB you did good from all the users living in the hills around me.


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## buddylee

I have neighbors but we all live on 5 acre lots and I plan to burn only dry wood so smoke shouldn't be to bad. I live in the country so there is a logging operation somewhere close all the time. I know several folks with the Hardy's and haven't every heard of any major problems. I want reliability.


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## mrkool

I've used a Hardy H4 for about 10 years now, was here when I moved here in '96, just didn't know enough about it to bother,
but after paying through the nose for LP then changed to a heat pump, then electric bill got plum ridiculous, hooked up the 
Hardy to the house and garage/shop and since I'm a HVAC contractor, I can get water coils (heat ex) at wholesale.

There's a couple dozen installed around here and I've worked on a few of them, mainly Taco 009 pumps or cartridges,
but it seems like everyone just installs the 4 or 5 ft factory stainless steel pipe and no elbow at the top!

That's how I found mine in the backyard and I guess that's what caused the floor/bottom to rust away, 
as rain just pours down the flue year end, year out, so I put a 24 ga elbow on top and stopped that.

After I fill mine up with wood and the water has cooled off, it can really smoke up the neighborhood, so much,
people driving by will stop to see if my garage is on fire.

But it's funny, as the cold North wind blows the smoke straight towards my new neighbors house, across the street 
at an angle (SE) and in 3 years, they have never said a word about the smoke and I burn everything, green, wet, pine, bodock.

Only this I wished I'd done different was run 1"  pipe instead of 3/4".  

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Stihl 18"
Homelite 360
White 21 ton splitter

Hardy H4 heating:
3000 sq ft 1920's house,
2000 sq ft 2 story 4 car garage/shop
80 gal hot water tank

future plans: 30' above ground pool
                   bathroom floors
                   towel racks 
                   clothes dryer??


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## buddylee

I am also a  a/c contractor as well as refrigeration. I thought the same thing about the flue pipe but thought there was a reason for it being open on top. Wanna wire it into my two stage thermostat but not sure what I'm gonna do about the Emergency heat as I also have a heat pump. How is yours wired?


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## buddylee

Figured it out. Getting a 3 stage tstat.


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## mrkool

That's what I'm using, the Honeywell Vision Pro IAQ, but already had an electric water heater 
thermostat attached to the hot water line as it goes into the coil, 
then cut the yellow wire to the compressor contactor and connected it to the wh thermostat.

Took a couple times adjusting the thermostat, but it's working good now, breaks the compressor
at about 125Â° then closes around 100Â° to allow the heat pump or aux heat to come on.

So let me know how you connect your Hardy and a 2 stage heat pump to a 3 stage thermostat?


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## Coach B

I've had mine close to 10 years, FIL next door has had his over 15, and an older man at church says his is pushing 20.  Love the quick even heat throughout the house and the hot water.  Hate the smoke and it will eat thru quite a bit of wood compared to a modern woodstove.   As one of the others said there are a ton of Hardy heaters in my area in the hills of southern middle TN.  They have proven very reliable and will burn any kind of wood as long as you can get it in the door. Simply load it once or twice a day depending on the weather and walk away.  That must have been the selling point.  I know it was to me originally.  I used to fire my Hardy in Oct and run it almost all the way thru April, in fact a couple of years it was still burning into May.  However, i must admit that I have recently installed a Jotul indoor woodstove and love it.  Almost no smoke and greatly reduced wood usuage and still heats in a power outage.  Drawback is that it wont heat the whole house evenly, must be tended a little more often, and likes split and seasoned wood.  I am now only going to burn the Hardy thru the coldest months to cut back on smoke and wood usage.


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## buddylee

I plan to energize the Hardy pump and blower motor using the first stage on my tstat. The heat pump compressor using the second stage. Finally the heat strips on the third stage. Talked with a fellow at Hardy and he said my idea would be fine. They use the second tstat and relay because most folks don't understand wiring.


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## mrkool

Alright, please post back with how you got it wired up and I'll do the same as soon as
I can find the time, been going crazy here with service calls and replacement systems.

Customers really like the idea of a 99 year compressor and heat exchanger warranty


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## buddylee

99 year warranty ...that's funny. Would be great except the rest of the system will rust away long before then!


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## mrkool

Well, it's only good to the original owner anyway, but with all aluminum coils, lexan drain pans 
and sitting on 2 x 2 steel rails, the only thing I've seen rusting out on them are the rails.

Mines been in 7 years and not one speck of rust yet and with the UV light, haven't had to clean the coil once.
Also keeps the hot water coil clean too.


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## heaterman

I installed a lot of them back when I was a Hardy dealer circa mid 90's. As far as I know all of them are still in use except one that burned up along with about 10 face cords of wood stacked right by it.

Simply put, they smoke, they eat wood like any other OWB, (a lot) and they last a long time.  The hot water loop inside the stove works great too. 

Burning decent wood will really help to cut down on the smoke.


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