Looking at buying a Maxim 250

[km55]

Hi I was hoping that I could get some help with my decision in purchasing a Maxim 250. As far as I can tell, the Maxim seems to be the most reputable for outdoor corn furnace's, being my reason I am leaning towards it. What I need help with will it suit my needs.
To date I have been on shared family gas well, but due some issues with the well I am forced to find an alternated fuel source. I plan on burning corn as I have my own elevator and grain handling facility. Propane is out of the question I think it would bankrupt me. The gas well will be a back up only now.
What I have is a 130+ year old 2400sq ft farm house with forced air. Attic is insulated and exterior walls had R5 installed behind the siding. Windows have not yet be updated, plus I still deal with drafts from a crawl space in half the house which I plan to work at this summer.
What I would like to know is if I have the heat exchanger installed into my existing furnace, how well does it work? Do you still feel the heat the same as it was being a gas furnace? My feeling is it won't be as warm. The salesman said it will actually be warmer.
Next how user friendly are they, what I don't want to be doing is cleaning clinkers out all the time, which I was told by salesman they just produce ash. Is this true? and How often should the ash be removed? And how often does the furnace need cleaning? Does it need to shut down to do so?
I guess really what I want to know is, can I start it up and walk away, and not have to babysit it everyday? A general monthly cleaning to me wouldn't be bad at all. I just don't want a another full time job. Also will this unit produce the heat when It's needed? I just can't go on the salesman's word as he is trying to sell it to me.
Sorry for such a long post but any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance Kris.

[tinman]

Hi Km..........I'm not familiar with the maxim 250 but i doubt thats its a start and forget appliance. I have a ussc 6300 corn furnace and it requires alot of attention during the day especially when its real cold and its running on high.
also I doubt that that coil would be warmer than your gas furnace.
your on the right track about one thing, "going on the salesmans word"

I'm surprised no one has chimed in about the maxim I know there are plenty on this board that have one.............they probably made the shift from burning corn to planting it

the air coming from my corn furnace is a lot cooler than my gas furnace and when your burning straight corn on the higher settings its usually making clinkers that need to be removed. my furnace usually needs some attention at least every 8 hrs or sooner in the coldest weather.

tinman
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"You know everybody is ignorant only on different subjects"...Will Rogers
"If life was fair Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead"....Johnny Carson
USSC 6300

[nogaspains]

Hi km55, all solid fuel burners require some maintains daily weekly monthly, year end. They are not plug and play like natural gas. Most of the installs have made the mistake of not using a large enough lines into the house. Water line should be 1 1/2" but most put 1" pex lines, and once they realize they can not circulate enough water to keep up with their needs, it is a little too late. How many BTU is your current furnace? Will you be heating your DHW (domestic hot water) also? I am in the installation phase of my boiler and I too am using a water to air exchanger in my NG furnace. Mine NG furnace is a 115k 92% efficient, which nets 106K BTU. With the water to air exchanger, it will be close to 120k BTU (depending upon the water temp and pump speed), which everyone I have talked to, will be hotter air coming out of the duct work! There are some books out there from Dan Holohan. At least buy Pumping Away and read before you try to install your boiler. It will give you common knowledge that will save you $$$$ and you will be thankful you did. Even if you are having the install done by someone else, there are things you need to know that all plumbers/HVAC people don't. Good luck and happy burning. Rob
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LDJ 165K BOILER / Harman PC45 / Kan_Burn Cleaner/Mover - the original

[km55]

Thanks tinman and nogaspains for your input. I figured as much that they would be an everyday possible, maintenance. The salesman makes it sounds like there's nothing to them. Not putting him down, he has to do his job, and that is sell. I just don't want to get any surprises.
My biggest hurdle is my wife, who is afraid of wood stoves, wood furnaces, etc., plus the handling of the wood. I'm hoping that this corn furnace won't be as intimidating to her, being why I was hoping that it could be left alone for awhile. Winter being my vacation time, I leave throughout the winter on week long snowmobiling trips, I just don't want her and the kids left in the cold. She's a flip a switch and leave it person, with no hassle's.
As for my furnace it's a 14yr old byrant 125k BTU 80% efficient, and being on our own gas well, if the house was cold, crank thermostat up more, never was an issue, until now. Also Yes I was planning on heating a DWH.
To go to propane I would need to update furnace to more efficient one at a cost of $3600 installed, plus yearly estimated propane cost of $4600 which is reason I'm looking at burning corn. I only want to go one way not both. Would I be happy with the performance sticking with corn, and my existing furnace? Or will there be too many headaches and not enough heat for my wife when I'm away? Having me bite the bullet and install and pay for propane?
Thanks again Kris

[jdeere5220]

Hello km55-

I've been heating my house with the M250 for 2 years now. You DO basically just turn it on and forget it.

You have to clean the ash out once a week. I do NOT shut mine down to do that, it takes about 3 minutes. You will get a good 5 gallon pail full of ash each week, maybe a little more if you are burning hard.

If you don't have an external hopper, you will need to fill it with corn every couple days. Takes about 5 minutes for me just using and old gravity box and 5-gal buckets.

Every other week I take the cover off the back of the chimney on the MAXIM and clean that, again you don't have to shut down for that.

Once every couple of months you do have to shut it down completely and clean the fire pot, stirrer, etc.. really well. I basically do that once in the winter, and the again in the spring when I shut it down for the summer. I've learned to adjust my controls so that my unit isn't in idle mode very often, which makes it stay cleaner. Others have different strategies, but it's easy to adjust the controls and the unit automatically lights and switches to different feedrates based on the heat load.

As for the air temp in your house, mine is absolutely WARMER using the Maxim than my propane furnace ever was. I put in a 140K BTU HX, and my propane furnace was rated at 140K BTU as well. It works great. I stepped up the fan on my furnace one speed (it's adjustable) to account for the extra airflow restriction. Don't forget the MAXIM will also heat your hot water. Your furnace will also run less often because you will get convection heat just from air flowing across the HX even when your furnace fan isn't running.

The unit is expensive, but I'm saving about $2K / year burning corn so it will hopefully be paid for in 4 years (actually less now since you get a $3K tax credit!). It's definitely more work than a propane furnace, but I'm out cleaning horse stalls and such all winter anyway so an extra 5 minutes to fill / clean the corn burner isn't a big deal to me. There were some problems at the very start, but all-in-all its been a real good unit and very solid built.

Make sure you are working with a dealer that has lots of experience and can size your pumps and such correctly. Better to spend an extra couple hundred bucks to do things right when you install than to have pumps failing or your HX is too small and you have to redo everything.
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Maxim M250 outdoor corn/pellet burner
Old Beat-up Gravity Box
I support Global Warming

[T_Hartigan]

I have a M175, which is almost the same as the M250.

As 5220 says this is about as close to plug and play as you can get.

I clean the ash out about once a week, which is about 3-5 gallons worth. When I empty the ash, I also brush the heat exchanger tubes also (none on a M250), but leave it running on idle when I do this. I only shut it down once this year to do a mid season cleaning. This is about the longest I can go as ash gets inside the burn pot where the air comes in and will cause issues if it fills up.

This was my 2nd year and feel pretty comfortable with knowing how much I'm burning for the weather conditions, and don't even check on it every day. I've even been gone on vacation for a week and left it running without running out of corn. Consumption will depend on installation, and heating requirements.

I have had good luck with the stirrers, but some people have had issues with theirs.

It isn't for everyone as I do get a little dirty empting the ashes and cleaning the exchanger tubes. It is a little work to fill the hopper also. If your in the elevator business, then you may have a couple of hundred bushel bin to hook up to it with the automatic transfer auger. This would be a nice setup.

I used 1" thermopex on my install with good success. I have a water to water heat exchanger with a controller that allows a min. of 140°F water to return back to the boiler. This allows me to extract all the BTU's I need with water entering at 175°F. If you have only a 20°F drop, then larger sizes may be required. Plenty of info on this if you do some searches. DON'T skimp on the water lines.

If you find yourself across the border in N.W. Ohio drop me an email and I'll show you my setup.

Tim
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3rd year with Central Boiler Maxim 175
100% corn first 2 years.
3rd year, Corn, Acorns, 1 ton wood pellets.

[km55]

Thanks 5220 and T_Hartigan, it's very reassuring to me to get info from owners of that model / manufacture . I like to hear that it can be left for a period of time. As I had posted I want my wife not have to worry about it while I'm gone on trips. For me minor maintenance is what I'm use too anyways. It be another toy in a way. I just don't want to be in a twice a day everyday routine, or I would get back into milking cows again. lol.
I have the salesman coming to look at my place this week to give me my options and a quote. They are expensive, but figure the pay back out weighs the initial cost.
Thanks Kris

[pancura]

Be prepared. My furnace melted after 4 months. After I had a new one running the steel stirator melted. Make sure you get the water suppression kit and the stainless steel stirator included.

I misssed the heating season so I can't determine if it delivers the 250Kbtu/hour.

Its not maintenance free, but I still like the device, not the company.

On 10K, $250 could have prevented all the headheaches I went through.