Portage & Main Boilers

I absolutely love my Portage and Main Boiler, can’t say enough good about it. I travel for my work and I know without a doubt that my wife can load the boiler and I do not ever worry about it. Jim (my dealer) has been such a big help, my only regret is that I didn’t buy one sooner.

We saved approxiately $1750.00 on hydro bills this year.

The P&M BL2840 we purchased from Strawbale Farms is a great unit.
This is our third year of running it and the performance has been 100% accurate. We previously owned a Woodmaster 4400 and the P&M is a far better boiler IMO. It burns hotter, cleaner, alot less wood and very easy to maintain. I wish we would have purchased a P&M to start with. It is a very high quality built unit. We are 100% satisfied with our P&M and the great customer service. We would definitely highly recommend a P&M.

The P&M BL2840 we purchased from Strawbale Farms is a great unit.
I just wanted to say thanks and give you folks some big props! My new Ultimizer BL28-40 is simply an outstanding unit. We’ve been buring wood in an OWB for 20 years and no other manufacturer comes even close. There’s no comparison…(Portage and Main) really has their act together. Alot of other companies out there are full of cr*p, this machine does exactly what they say it does. We expect to use half the wood we used to which means I can spend more time hunting and fishing with my boy!

This will be our 4th year heating our home and 40×65 shop with our Portage and Main outdoor boiler … I can’t say enough good about it! Already paid for itself, it was easy to set up and use, hands down the only way to go! Great customer service and very personable staff, fast service … and tips over the phone even! Fantastic investment and product. Thanks P&M!

The BL 3444 we purchased from Dave Jacoby at Strawbale Farms is awesome! Have no trouble keeping the kids warm 72° 5000sqft. The first year I had it running we used 90 gallons of LP for 13 month period. This runs cook top, dryer and on demand water heater. The neighbor used 800 gallons with half the house and 68° on the thermostat.

I’ve had a P&M for the last 5 years, I love this furnace. I’m 77 years old and grew up burning wood all my life, my P&M works beautifully. The controls are easy, it’s easy to maintain…had lots of people come look at it and some have said they’re going to buy one too.

I believe the stove is 9 1/2 years old and we have two heat exchangers in the house. It’s kind of split into two parts. The house is over 4000 square feet and we also heat a shop which is roughly about 1500 ft.². It is not very insulated the shop so we don’t run it full-time in there just enough to keep it above zero and then we turn it up higher when we’re working out there. Keep the house at about 25° in the back part and my wife likes the front part of the house a little cooler. We keep it around 18 or 19.  Very easy to maintain.

We are very happy with our boiler, no complaints.

We purchased our BL 3444 in 2014. We were building a shop and just made it through the 2013 season where propane spiked to $5 a gallon or more. I looked at several boiler options sold locally and after meeting with Dave at Strawbale Farms I made the choice to go with Portage and Main. Dave sized the boiler for our existing 1400 Sq Ft house with a full finished basement with in floor heat and a forced air propane furnace.

Our shop is a 40’x 54′ shop. The shop has 2 zones with in floor heat. Half of the shop is the garage that we use as a car wash in the winter.  The setup works great. I turn down the garage zone when I am working on Hides for Taxidermy. After the work on fresh skins is completed (usually a couple of weeks) I turn that zone to match the shop which we keep at around 70-72 degrees all winter. When vehicles get washed the floor is usually dry in a couple hours. The house is way more comfortable than it ever was with forced air. We never used the in floor heat as it was heated with a propane water heater. It is a different kind of heat where there is never a chill, no matter the temperature outside and now we use the in floor heat as well. The unlimited hot water is especially great. I use large amounts in tanning on top of the house usage. It’s always ready when you need hot water. Typically I Burn from Mid-November until sometime in April. We have a split air unit in the Shop to get by the rest of the heating season (along with air conditioning) when we get days into the 60-70 degrees but the nights are cooler. I burn whatever wood I can get. If burning softwood I typically go through 12-14 cords, this year had some colder weeks and I had mainly oak and went through probably 10 cords at most. It is easy to keep clean during the burning season, run a brush down the chimney once a month clean the ash daily (takes a couple minutes) fill with wood a couple times a day. After a while you get an idea what you need for wood to get thru a burn cycle. End of season I do a good clean out, oil the boiler. I take a couple hours to do it but I am sure it’s more than I need to. The boiler still look new when I scrap it down. As far as maintenance, I replaced the fan, a couple hinges on the outside door, added water treatment a couple times when they advise after the water test is completed and that is it so far.

Both Dave at Strawbales and Portage and Main have answer the phone or get back to you quickly when parts are needed or a question is asked. The Portage and Main boiler was a great option for our home heating needs.