Englander NC30 deal .....ordered

Yep, I've read that on the internet.
I thought for sure the load of Oak last night would do that......didn't happen.
I take full responsibility, but haven't got a clue what's wrong...yet.
Would it be possible to have a door leak, and not notice too much?
Still seems like the handle is hangin' too low.
Ash plug leak?
Shooting in the dark.
The 600° has been running close to 2 hours or so. 4-7 hours is quite a spread.
I'll take the higher end of that please.

 

I actually got what I thought was a decent burn from that load BBar.
It's the pretty well packed full loads that have me stymied.
How many coals do you have when you reload? I end up reloading with coals that fill about 1/3 of the firebox bottom, pulled all along the front.
I'm wondering if I had a smaller heap right in front of the doghouse only, if that would keep the load from gassing so quick.

 

Post a photo of your next load. You have mentioned you have smaller splits. I am still leaning towards how much wood and how the stove is loaded that is causing your shorter burn times.

 

Will do. Yeah, most of my stuff is 3-5". Some larger.
Three years ago was trying to get stuff to dry.
Think I'll do a load of Maple for the day.
Forecast for 19° today. Should work.

 

During really cold temps, I will get some coal build up at times. Mostly due to wood not being as dry as it should. When I have really dry wood, coal build up is rarely an issue for me. But, from previous posts, that wet wood is not your issue. This leads me to believe that you are having to reload at a higher temp. This could be minimized by using the blower.

I say hold off on messing with the stove until you get a little more familiar with the stove. I still feel some of your issues come from a lack of familiarity with the stove at this point.

Also, if you always feel cold air hitting parts of your body even while wearing long sleeved shirts, I think you need to realize your insulation and draft issues are pretty bad. Your stove is constantly fighting off the cold. I would feel this when I would stand at the base of the stair case before I took care of the attic. No matter how hard I had the stoves cranking, I would still feel a rush of cold hitting me from certain directions. Hopefully you don't find this offensive. I am simply relating your issues to mine.

 

Yeah, you really need to use the full box to get a good, long burn.

 

Nothing at all wrong here with your post (s), BBar. Your straight talk is much appreciated, since I don't always read between the lines very well.
I know I'm being a little impatient, and reading about how this stove runs isn't the same as trying to run it here.

Yep, I do realize the drafts are doing me no favors.
About a 50' ranch, and while sitting in the kitchen 30' from the stove, the cold coming from the back rooms is quite noticeable.
Even though the stove room is doing much better coming to temp and holding, the rest of the house needs attention as well. Takes a lot of time and energy that I don't always have (mostly the energy).
I'll get there by the time I'm dead.

 

papadave, your door latch in pic is just a bit higher than mine. Oak on the 30 only seems to be on the primary air. second little sq hole in back secondary. Quite awhile back I had asked Englander about incorporating than into the oak feed, with some hemming/hawing the tech didn't feel it would bother anything. ( another part to fab up.) If I do not have blower running I can hear the midnight express as well.

 

That's interesting. His is lower than mine and my handle position looks more like Dexter's.

 

Ok, just loaded.
We're going to the store as soon as I get this dialed in.

 

For me this load would be better e/w in my experience with the 30. You can pack it tighter. A load like this will have about 4 hours above the 400 degree mark.

 

I asked Woodstock about the OAK on the IS. My specific question was whether all of the air for combustion is supplied by the OAK, or if the setup was like the 30 where the secondary and tertiary air is not part of the OAK. The answer was that tertiary air for the catalyst as well as some "feeder" air would not be part of the OAK and that this is mandated by the EPA. I'm not sure if that means that the tertiary air and feeder air can not be part of the OAK or must be static (unregulated). I suspect this is the same reason for the air intake system on the 30, that it is mandated to be the way it is by the EPA.

I have been thinking about that EPA rule and how it affects a stove with an OAK that is in a relatively "tight" house. The unregulated secondary and tertiary air would be limited by the "tight" house air while the primary air hooked up to the OAK would be free to breathe much easier. The end result being under "X" amount of draft, the ratio of primary, secondary and tertiary air would be very different than if the stove in the "tight" house was not hooked up to the OAK. I am not a stove engineer and I don't pretend to be one on TV, but it seems like this could be a significant difference and it would make sense to have all of the stoves air supplied from the same place, I.E. all house supplied or all OAK supplied.

 

Dex, I've also done 50% covered on both holes, but wondered if it would be better to do only one 100%.
So, you guys consider those to be medium splits? Small? There's 13 in this load.
Do you guys have an issue with splits falling into the door loaded e/w? And, what seems to be eluding me so far......where to set the air on a full load so it doesn't drop to 300 in a couple hours with a ton of wood left.
We just got back from Alpena, and were gone 4.5 hours. The stove was down to about 300 with the air open about 3/4" or so.
I opened the air and it's come back to life somewhat, with the temp now 450°.
I'm also thinking the flue needs a looksee tomorrow. Cap, at least.

 

I would consider those splits on the upper end of the small scale.

I would consider Dexter's pic on the upper end of medium.

It happens. Not a big deal. If I can, I will re-position the split with some stove gloves.

Depends on a bunch of factors. For me, the gold springy knob thing is half way between the ash lip and "closed" when I have a good burn going. Packing the load is more of a deciding factor to the length of the burn for me.

Sounds about right, based on the load and the air controls.

Again, sounds about right. More air on the coals will perk up the stove top temp.

 

So, I'm not a complete maroon then.
Gooder to know.

 

Here is the thing to keep in mind; it is an incredibly simple stove that is very consistent. That doesn't mean it is always great, but it is consistent. For the price, it is hard to beat. But, it has its limits.

To get the most out of the stove, for your situation, you need to figure out how to pack it tight, get a blower on it, and not be afraid of temps north of 650 (and learn to embrace 700). If you pack that bastard tight, get the air controls just inside the ash lip, and you have a blower going on low, your place should be pretty damm comfortable. With your draftiness, you will not be getting the 14 hours burns I get occasionally since the 30 is responsible for about 40% of the area you are heating. But, on a full load, you should see 8 of usable heat during normal winter temps with 10 hours during milder temps.

 

Dave, don't be afraid to burn it with some flames on the wood. The secondary stuff is nice but I always tried to keep some lazy flames on the wood(unfortunately with my stove/chimney it was usually an aggressive flame) This way once the secondaries start to die the primary air is open enough to keep the temps up some. That's a well built steel box let it breath a little more and I think it'll stay in the 400* range a little longer on the downswing.

 

Start splitting more square/rectangle blocks! Also when you split the triangles make them more equilateral. This way the long pointy stuff won't burn up so fast.