Garn Boilers

[samtmc]

I ended up not going with the Garn. I would have loved it and I found nothing but good reviews. The company seams like a class act. I however could not afford the price tag, all said and done with me digging the trench and doing a far amount of work myself it was about 20,000.00
For me the payback was not quite there (or the money)
I ended up going with the "fire chief" and just replace my old woodburner. It has been running for about 6 weeks now and after the intital learning curve I am now gettting about 10-13 Hrs of usefull burn time. (alot longer for embers to restart the fire with) it worked very well with the -18 degree temps we went thru a couple of weeks ago.
If you can afford the Garn i would go for it.
BTW the is a forum on there website that has alot of info on it.

 

[benp]

What is everyone opinion of these boilers?
GARNｮ WHS Products - GARN Wood Heating Systems

Everything I read is very positive but very expensive. The rep said they will last 30 plus years (with proper care) and they are willing to help you test the water for free for the first five years.
they claim to be very Efficient. My father has a class a boilers license and said it looks to be legit! they are very expensive 15k to 20k depending on install. I currently have fuel oil with inside wood burning add-a-furnace that I burnt about 11 cord last year and I still managed to use 300 gallons of fuel oil. on top of that we had a chimney fire and now the ins is paying for a new one, we may take the money and put in a garn.
Anybody have opinions or thoughts?

I'm a little late on a reply but just found this website, I have a little info on Garn. I installed my 1500 gallon garn in October, 1988, and have no regret at all . At that time the garn sold for $6000 while most other wood boilers sold from $2000 to $3ooo. I chose the garn because I didn't want a 24 hour fire boiler and have to smell the smoke all day, have asthma, I load it up in the evening and 3 to 4 hours it shuts off and have heat from 1 to 4 days. I have a 3572 sq, ft house heat the slab in the lower level and forced air with a water coil in the furnace plenum for the upper level. I have no idea how much it would cost to heat this house on LP, just never used it and only use the blower. I average about 6 cords a year, it also heats the domestic water. Yes you do have to start the fire every time it gets used but with that induction fan it doesn't take a lot of paper to get it going, and it burns vary hot so you don't see or smell the smoke. I drain out the water and clean the inside every 3 years and refill it with soft water and use a 5 micron filter, use 2 gallons of Freemount closed loop chemicals, this will raise your ph a little which Freemount wants and check the tds an ph every year. Garn does have a high price tag but they have always been ahead of their time in efficiency and pollution and I'm sure the new once are a lot better then mine. Good Luck
Ben

 

[SpringHollow]

Hi Ben,

Thanks for the post. Roughly where are you located? In North Dakota, your experience with the Garn would be quite impressive; in Southern California, not so much.

I am glad you had such a positive experience. I seriously considered one but the added cost of constructing an outside building for it definitely made it not an option at the time.

Ken

 

[pete785]

I am in final design stages of building my house. I like the idea of a garn boiler with infloor heat. Can I put the garn in my garage? How much space would it take up, I have a 3rd stall dedicated for wood and furnace. Would it be ok to have it sit out in open inside of garage or would I need to build a room around it? I am new to this forum so thanks for responses.

 

[JohnLeigha]

Hello Benp, we live in MN also. we are looking at a property in Linwood mn. not far from you and we are very curious about electricity bills with the Garn?? They have a garn in the pole shed that heats the house and we asked for their electric and gas bills on the 2,600sqft house and they seem really high.....curious your thoughts. could you email me please if you are able to answer some questions? thank you Leighay@yahoo.com

 

[Redneck in training]

you need to send a personal message to him. This thread is 3 years old.