Thermal mass

No idea about r value of walls,but we did sheath the entire exterior with OSB over the original decking and that had helped with draftiness a lot.
The rooms I've remodeled I've stuffed the thickest bat style insulation I could in there.
Basement is uninsulated, have not made it to that part of the remodel yet (time/money)
Most windows are original 1920 so you can imagine how bad they are

 

Good idea on blocking
I'm guessing with tile/stove/block I'm pushing around 2 to 2200 lbs in this area.
Each of those supports are rated at 18k to 9k depending on extension.

 

Yeah old houses blow literally our last house was built in 1929 with a 3" dirt crawl space. They used newspaper for insulation in some places and others I found old window bays with nothing in them just covered with plywood. I'm guessing your best bang for the buck is getting some cheap double pane windows. Popping interior trim off around the perimeter and running a bead of caulk between the subfloor and bottom plate can help with drafts and tighten things up a bit too.

 

Wife will never give up her original windows.
Gonna have to wait till they rot away.
Have insulated the heck out of the attic to
our house is the opposite of what would make a house easy to heat with wood.
High ceilings, bad layout, drafty.
But it's what we got and money is somewhat tight with 2 kids and wife staying at home while daughter is young

 

How’s that extra thermal mass working out?

 

Thermal mass upgrades have been really helping so far.
Today I came up with an idia for the top
Had some 2x2x1/8th angle laying around and found some more solid 1/2 blocks.
Ran 4 pieces of angle across the span and added 5 solids to the top also added 2more cinders to the back
Super stoked for this design

 

How warm do those block get? How long do they stay warm after the fires out?

 

Highest temp I've seen is low 300s
They're still over 100 for at least 12hrs

 

do your secondary tubes no longer burn? Not sure how completely blocked off your secondary tubes are.

I have the same stove.

Removing the side covers and closing the intake to the secondary burn tubes??? I would think that would take away the efficiency of the internal burning process and lose a lot of unburned smoke up the flue, therefore losing heat up the chimney.

The side covers help pre-heat the air that enters the secondary tube system to "re-burn" the smoke to ensure high efficiency and clean burning.

I like the thermal mass work and I also struggle with the high heat peaks and short "bursts" of heat this model stove puts out. My chimney has very high draft that complicates it as well as this stove's designed optimum draft is lower than my chimney draws.

 

Yes secondary tubes are completely inoperable.
They are still in place to hold the ceramic fiberboard baffle.
It may be less efficient, but I can pull 10 to 14 hrs out of a load depending on wood type and how tight I pack it.
I only did it because this stove was unsafe on my chimney in factory form.
Believe me if I could afford it I'd dump this junker in the scrap pile and buy a blaze king or something similar

 

Has your stove gone " nuclear" yet?
With a full load and air full shut down and my dampner closed this stove would run away and start to melt its top. When secondary system was operational

 

You kinda need to "run it hard" with your setup, no? As in, "low n slow" wouldn't cut it...

 

I do run it hard when it's cold out. I've never had it go nuclear but I frequently run it at 650* F on the stove top. I have 33' of chimney and it pulls like a freight train and I do almost completely close the damper to get it low and slow. This stove really doesn't have a low and slow with the amount of draft my chimney pulls.

My old smoke dragon 80's air tight I had before this stove actually would hold at 400* for 8 hours but stunk like the dickens and used 2-1/2 times the wood to keep us warm. It had a firebox twice the size of this stove. I can get about 6 or 7 splits into this stove where I could get 15 at a time into the old beast.

I've got this one where it works for me, but I agree, I would replace it with a Blaze King in a heartbeat if I could afford it...

But instead I think I need to install a barometric damper to lower the draft of the chimney to the specs the stove is designed for. I'm thinking this may smooth my burns out more with a flatter temperature curve due to a more stable draft.

 

Yes, a baro would tame that chimney...that's why many wood furnaces and boilers come with or require a baro, because they are often in the basement and are hooked to a tall chimney.

 

Low n slow on a cat stove is a whole different thing than on an epa tube stove

 

MAF143
I'm glad this stove is running safely for you.
How mine is now I average 550 to 650 stovetop temps.
Would consider this low and slow and it works well with the thermal mass
Before I modded it I would struggle to keep it below 800 stovetop. Even with smaller loads.
You must either make massive splits or barley load this stove to only be putting in 6 or 7 pieces

 

AGREED. I get SERIOUS heat from our stove but just don't get the long burn times due to the chimney pulling the heat out. I've had calm days with less draft on the chimney where I have gotten long burn times and the stove temps are still up there putting out the BTUs.

I've thought about a Barometric Damper for a couple of years, but haven't really looked into it well enough to pull the trigger. I think I will order one soon and rework my stack in the basement to get it in place and see if that does give me a longer burn time.

Thanks Dunmyer mowing llc for getting my curiosity flowing about something other than Swedish candles, porting saws, and drinking beer.

I wouldn't call my wood "massive splits", but I do like them to last through the night...

I load it right up to the tubes, get the flue up to 600 or so and shut it down completely on the stove controls and almost completely on the flue damper. After doing some more reading on the baro dampers this afternoon, I'm thinking that is my next move.

 

MAF143 let us know how the baro damper goes.