T6 Is Doing Awesome

Large stove room?

 

Bad pic but you get the idea.

 

Well last night wasn't as good as the past few nights. But it also got colder and the wind was brutal.

It was 6 degrees outside at 8pm last night with blowing winds and I reloaded the stove with oak and some pieces of walnut. My daughter was up and down all night last night until 2am with the flu so I know for a fact at 2am the house was still 74 degrees 6 hours into the burn. At 5:30 this morning the house had dropped to 68-70 depending on the room and the coal bed was pretty well burned down . It is currently -8 outside and the wind is blowing with a wind chill of around -16. I should add the stove was still above 300 on the stove top and the coal bed was probably a bit lower than I like however I haven't been packing the stove as tight since I feel it burns hotter and faster with some air gaps in the logs.

Lesson from last night is when its below 0 outside and windy if I want to keep the temps up in probably need 7 hour reloads. Even though the temps dropped I am pretty happy with the results on 2500 sq ft of house with only one stove running. The back of my house is pretty much all cheap sliding glass doors and they leak pretty bad and my basement is unfinished and cold right now so the all in all the insulation still feels like a success. Last year I would have loaded at 10pm and still reloaded at 5 am to keep the same type of temp swing. I think the wind took a toll last night as I could feel it blowing through the stupid sliders on the back of my house. If I was inherently rich I would replace those things however it's hard to choke down +6,000 dollars for good sliding doors.

 

Said it before but no comparison between my Drolet and the Summit, I hope I can find some one to buy the Summit as I am tired of looking at it, that is unless some one has an idea what its problem is.
I did find a site where many were not happy with the PE stoves but you always have to take that with a grain of salt.

 

Do you really have to spend that much to get a sliding glass door, I have one I am thinking about changing out?

 

Its 3 sliding glass doors and taxes and all the other jazz puts 3 good sliders in that price range and that's with me installin them.

The DutchwestXl struggled bad in these temps and we just dealt with 67 degrees as a a high temp in the house for a few days at a time. Within an hour and a half of a reload this morning the house was already back up to 72 and climbing. I also have a 1300 sq foot basement under my house that is currently at 42 degrees and no insulation from the basement to the first floor.

I still haven't seen a flue probe temp over 700 even when running it hard and have been and when the flu temp is 700 stove top is +550 with the fan on. I am happy with those number and don't know how I could ask much more of the stove at this point.

 

Totally agree with you and it's usually only for a short period of time. That being said I think 700 on a probe when running the stove fairly hard is pretty good. That temp would only equate to 350 on a single wall magnetic flu thermmeter.

I have been nothing less than impressed with this stove in the time I have owned it. It is well behaved, predictable, easy to run, and dumps the heat when it is needed as well as obtains burn times that rivaled my Dutchwest XL. To be quite honest my setup really calls for a furnace, boiler, or second stove on days where the temps are below zero and I realize this. At this point now I see no need to add a second stove with the new insulation. I was on the verge of doing it last year but thought I would try the insulation before another stove and so far it is working out great. Just talked to my wife and she reloaded at 2:30 with the house sitting around 72 degrees and the outdoor temps still below 10 degrees. So 9 hours on a reload and it made up temperature doesn't seem to shabby for with the temps outdoors still not above 10 degrees.

In all honesty I am just trying to be open with all of those who may read this forum and allow them to see what they might expect in real world situation. I have been around stoves since I was old enough to remember them and always used wood heat even as a kid in my parents home. Many times we (woodburners) talk about the house being 75 or 80 and how great it is but the reality is with most setups there will be temperature fluctuations from room to room and when temps dip into the single digits it will be hard for many people to keep up with the heating demand that a home will require. For the most part these problems are inherent with wood heat and the only ways to combat them are by having a very over sized stove or multiple stoves to run more than one on the days which demand calls for it. My parents dealt with this situation in the houses we grew up in by either having 2 stoves or in one house we had a free standing stove for mild weather and and wood boiler in the basement for colder temps and I can still remember times when it was below 0 outside that both of them were running full bore. The reality of the situation is when temps are at or below zero most of us are trying to maintain an 80+ degree temperature differential between the inside and outside of our house and that can be quite a feat.

Another issue that many face is when the stove reaches the coaling stage even though it is still putting out heat it really isn't enough to keep up with heat loss rate of the house. We try all sorts of things like burning down the coals faster by throwing soft woods on the coal bed and raking the coals forward, opening up the air vent all the way etc.... Many times these things work great but in my experience it can still be an issue regardless of the stove I was burning when the temps are very low and the wind is howling for days on end. I am not above shoveling coals out that are near the back of the stove if the situation calls for it and if you are new to wood burning many of us have done it on occasion. Last year there was probably a half dozen times that I had to do this due to the temps never getting above 10 degrees for about a week. In the end it was a small price to pay for being able to keep the house temps up. Another way to help combat the house loosing heat during the coaling stage is to try to tighten the house up as much as possible with caulking, fixing leaking doors, repairing leaking windows or beefing up insulation. I did all of those this summer including topping off insulation in my attic and it has been very rewarding to see how much better the house holds heat. I have yet to fight with the coal bed at all this winter and I have been able to burn it all the way down on every load so far.

 

Your posts always make me think something HAD to be wrong with my Summit.
Your flue temps are about the same as my Drolet more or less, I have about 300 surface when the stove is at 600 stove top.

 

It definitely sounds like your drolet runs like my T6. Maybe it was me that got the fluke of a stove lol. If I had as many issue as you had I would have got a different one also.

 

Gotta give a big shout out to my wife. I have been working this week from about 6am to 8-9pm everyday this week and she has dealt with the stove herself during these cold temps and done a fantastic job!!!

When I come home late she has learned how to only burn a light load late in the evening with a few splits of light wood to set the stove up for an overnight burn she has learned how to burn a coal bed down and most importantly she doesn't mind doing it all. She can judge by the look and the flu probe when it needs shut down more and when to open it up more to get it going. I definitely don't have to worry about her or the stove anymore!

 

So it was back to normal this morning. I loaded last night at about 8pm and 15 degrees outside when I got home on a perfect coal bed set up by my wife. Shut the stove down and locked it in with the flu temps hovering right below 600.

Got up this morning and the temps had warmed up overnight to 22 degrees outside and at 5 am the house averaging 73 degrees. Went down and checked the stove and the stove top was north of 325 with glowing log forms in the back third of the stove. Kicked the air open and things livened up and started glowing hotter. Left for work and my wife will reload in a few hours. So I am guessing it will be right at 12 hours for the reload. Its crazy how much if a difference this temperature is on heating demand from single digits and lower.

 

Woodstove happiness is a nice bed of hot coals in the monin...

 

I do that all the time when it comes to the wood stove but it's usually not good.

 

Lol, now that was funny

 

-2 here this morning. Went 10 hours on load from last night and the house temps this morning were around 70. Reloaded and 1.5 hours later the first floor is back up to 72 and the T6 is rolling right along.

 

Its doing well with the new insulation. I should have clarified in my post the house was 74-75 when I loaded last night so it still dropped 4-5 degrees indoors over night.

I really really need to replace at least the one slider one the back of my house that we use all the time as it is JUNK! I tried to make sure the seals are good on it but it is just plain wore out. I think the frame is slightly warped or the door isn't installed correctly. When I stand in the back dining room off the kitchen which I the main entrance you can feel the air blowing across the floor from the door. At the base of the door it feels like there is a fan blowing air through the door track.

 

Don't forget about doors. I installed a new garage service door (basement garage) and it made a 2* difference thru out the house. Just did not realize how much cool air was being pulled thru that door.