Picked up an Englander NC30 today...

Ash will not last as long as say some Elms , Oak , Locust or similar High density fuel if all at the same moisture content. Nothing wrong with Ash, burn a lot of because of the EAB. It is a sectional density thing a pound of Ash and a pound of Oak are going to have quite a disparity volume wise but the btu's available will be the same.

 

Thanks for all of the input everyone. I'm gonna try cutting back the air more as papadave suggested and see what that gets me. I'm also gonna bring some splits in from random places on the stack to test them just to rule the wood out.

I would be more inclined to think my wood is an issue or it is operator error before I would blame the stove.

 

Yeah, no offense, but I don't think it's the stove.
I'm still picking up little things about the stove and different kinds of wood I'm burning, and I've had this since mid-March of '14.
Maybe someone has, but I couldn't get the stove to burn well E/W.
Give it a shot. I might again when it gets colder.

 

I by no means meant to imply something was wrong with the stove. I hope it didnt come across that way. There's way too many happy owners that rave about the 30nc for me to blame the stove. I'm thinking its probably more that I'm doing something wrong.

Or maybe my wood isnt as dry as I thought it was....

 

No, nope, nah, not at all.
I've been having a bit of a tough go recently burning the Beech I have, and I can't figure out why. I just got done cleaning the flue, so thinking that can't be it (although it may be). Maybe the OAK is partially clogged (I don't have a screen on it), but that doesn't seem to be it. Maybe it's the warmer temps and it needs more air, but that also doesn't help until I add some other wood.
Although the wood SHOULD be dry (it's not sizzling, and css since 2016), maybe it's not.
Still learning.

 

I don't monitor STT, so I have no idea what is normal for my installation. I run off of my Condar flue gage, and if I keep it in the orange band, it does OK by me. That, and the way the flame looks is how I manage it. I consider the STT a result of good fire management, so if I get the fire right, the STT will follow.



I have an understading about how a stove works, and it may be right, partially fight, or totally wrong. But managing it based on this theory works for me. Remember, all a theory:

1. We don't burn wood, we burn wood gasses. We get these gasses by heating wood.
2. We heat the wood with heat from the burning wood gasses, which releases more gasses for burning.
3. Those wood gasses burn most efficiently in a hot oxygen-rich environment.
4. Modern EPA stoves provide that hot oxygen-rich environment either through injection of heated air above the flame (in a tube stove), or through the magic of a catalytic combustor (also with excess oxygen), or both.
   1. In either case, the secondary combustion (either above the fire or in the cat) does two things - "cleans up" the gasses (smoke) by burning them, and heats the wood to sustain the off-gassing. This keeps the cycle going, providing more heat output, and less unburnt gasses (smoke).
   2. A cat can be "active" at a lower temperature than the secondary burning in a tube stove, so a cat will do low and slow better than a tube stove, all else being equal.
   3. A tube stove uses the baffle to hold the heat and reflect it down, thus cooking the wood and releasing more gasses.
5. The way to get good eficiency from a stove is to burn it in such a manner so that the hot oxygen rich environment is maintained, and no wood gas goes unburnt. If that is done, there should be good heat, and no visible smoke from the stack.
6. In my stove, a sustained clean burn requires active primary burning (from the bottom) with flames (primary and/or secondary) rolling forward under the baffle. If the flame is not doing that, it is not burning efficiently.

That's my working understanding. With that understanding, I find that the backwards burn results in the type of burn I want pretty consistently. The wood is being cooked at the back of the stove, and the gasses (flames) are rolling forward past the tubes, and hopefully completing the burn there.

For a cold light, loading as described in my previous post (with two splits N-S, then an layer E-W) allows the wood to be cooked from underneath, while it works towards a high enough temp to get the secondary going. The clear air path from the doghouse pushes the fire aft, where it should be.

In either case, the goal is burning in the back of the stove as much as possible, allowing a long air path front-back on the bottom of the stove (primary and doghouse) and back to front on the top of the fire (primary and secondary mix). As an additional benefit or back-burning, with the fire at the back, the secondary air manifold gets maximum heating, for maximum effectiveness.

Sorry about the book posing as a post. Have I said this is a theory? It works for me, YMMV.

 

Well we will see what happens tonight. They're saying low of 21* so that means probably 14-16* according to my thermometer.

I loaded a few splits this afternoon to keep the fire going and have coals for tonight (solar gain was doing its thing so didnt stuff it full). I cut the air back further than I have been lately. 2 1/2 hours later I was still getting a few ghost flames from the back left corner of the load. I wasnt around to see how the temps held but I feel like that was a small win.

Did you ever feel like you have to relearn something you already knew but forgot for some reason???

 

Every day.

 

Only if I sleep in-between.

 

Have you checked to make sure the baffle boards are properly in place lately Marvin ? Sorry if this was already mentioned...

 

Yep they are good. That is one of the things I do every time I open the door to reload, I push them back and together just to be sure they didnt shift at all somehow

 

All was good for the overnight burn. I shut the air down to where it was open maybe 1/2" or so. The stove just seemed to cruise from there.

Thank you all for all of your input! I'm not sure what I was doing leaving the air open so much. It's like I have to re-teach myself something I knew already

Now I'm going to experiment with different loading and burning techniques.

 

[QUOTE="

Did you ever feel like you have to relearn something you already knew but forgot for some reason??? [/QUOTE]

All the time but I’m in my 60’s

 

All the time but I’m in my 60’s [/QUOTE]
So I've got at least another 25 years of relearning everything I knew and forgot somehow?? Great! Cant wait

 

So I've got at least another 25 years of relearning everything I knew and forgot somehow?? Great! Cant wait [/QUOTE]
Yep, then you'll forget to relearn, so.....there's that to look forward to.
By the time you get there, you'll have forgotten it.

 

Remember...he said he was burning seasoned oak AND hedge...both of which should have this stove in the ozone if he so desired. Something doesn’t sound right.

edit: Looks like you figured it out.

 

Just wanted to give a little update to this thread since I did a little work on my nc30 this summer. I put a straight edge on the door opening and found out it was bowed in slightly on the top and bottom. I may have mentioned this earlier in the thread but I can't remember for sure. Anyway I used a flux core welder on the bowed spots to put a bead on that seals up with the gasket nicely. I used an angle grinder to try to make it as level as possible all around the opening. It is ugly as chit but it seals great now.




I also replaced the glass gasket the other day.

Temps have only gotten down to around freezing but 3 or 4 splits gets the house warm enough to almost have to open windows now. Granted the wood im burning is much more dry than I've had in the past but the stove is so much easier to set and forget. That is heating from the basement as well. I'm curious to see how it goes with actual cold and full loads this winter.

 

Marvin , hat tip to you Sir. You identified a problem and corrected it. Good job.

 

Looks great Marvin. It’s hard to control a stove if it’s sucking air in unexpected places. I bet you’ll be happier with it this winter and the dry wood will definitely help.

 

My inlaws need a warped stove...they just continue to burn "low and slow"...the glass is always black a little extra air would be good.