Spent about 2 hours on the phone yesterday with 2 different techs. and neither one had any idea why my Summits runs the way it does. At least both of them gave me some credit for knowing what I was talking about. On top of that the dealer does not sell PE stoves any more and does not want any thing to do with me.
Still fighting that battle? I remember all those threads and it dumbfounded me as well. At least your Drolet is working out well. What do you think the problem is?
I honestly don't think you are going to get anywhere with PE if it is built to spec and there isn't gross manufacturing defect causing a problem. If it was me I would sell the stove on CL and be done with it now that you have found one you are happy with. The next person may love it and not have the experience that you did. I know mine has always run like a well oiled machine and the one I helped my buddy with has been running like a top. For whatever reason that stove just didn't seem to work out at all for you and even though you did everything that seemed right there was something that caused it to run much different than most others have experienced. I know that I have looked over stove setups for people that had the Dutchwest and even though everything checked out well they struggled to keep it from back puffing and fought the stove every step of the way up until they sold it and put in a different stove that ran fine on the same setup. I think for whatever reason it didn't like your setup and it was probably due to something totally out of your control such as wind of house pressure etc.
Well I think its a poor design with very little transfer of heat to the area the stove is in, I dont think wrapping a stove in a layer of metal is going to allow enough heat to escape from the stove so it just passes it through. It seems like there is nothing missing from the stove or any defects. I am just guessing but I know it does not run like its supposed to and knew it from day one, the Drolet puts out way more heat with lower flue temps.
Cert. 106, if you remember correctly my Summit had been run on 2 entirely different chimneys (one with 2 90's and one straight up) and worked the same on both chimneys. The one tech thought I had too much draft and said try a damper but ran it one year with a damper to no avail, I told him I would bet my 401 that I did not have too much draft (he did not take the bet).
There is definitely a difference in the feel of convective heat vs radiant heat and the PE is definitely a convective stove. The weird thing is though even my T6 sidewalls can get to 400 degrees when running it hard and you would think the sidewalls on the T6 would be harder to heat up than the Summit?
I do remember that and I remember you flue temps were always WAY higher than mine which always made me wonder what the heck was causing the flue gasses to be sucked up the chimney so fast. The flue gas needs time to circulate in the stove and release it's heat and something was causing that to no happen and I have no idea why. I now personally know 4 people with PE Alderleas and none of them act that way which blows my mind.
Yea BG on Hearth told me to take the sides off so I took one off and the sides got no where near as hot as my Drolet
Cert. not sure if you remember or not but there were a few who chimed in on Hearth that their PE's ran a lot like mine, not many but a couple.
A lemon would mean the stove was built incorrectly though and I'm not say it isn't but there hasn't been anything to show that yet. It makes you scratch your head. If there is nothing out of spec on the way the stove is built something has to have been causing the issue.
My best guess would have to be an air leak somewhere or a bad EBT. His flue temps were too high, it had to be sucking extra air from somewhere. Does the Drolet seem to have more control?
Well the summit most likely had a highly insulated firebox plus add to that the jacketed stove so that it was more of a convective stove was most likely a double whammy for radiating heat. But I think the really biggy was the fact you had high flue temps. Stoves I have ran usually got high flue temps while I had the door open and was flushing extra air up the flue. But I know you checked that all out before. Have you inspected it for cracks or bad welds? Can you seal off openings and pressurize it with air to see if any leaks are in the stove?
I can not begin to tell you how much different the Drolet runs then the Summit, same set up, no air leaks on the Summit, dont forget it had low stove top temps and high flue temps, EBT worked fine. I tried to convince BG on Hearth it was not right but to this day he thinks other wise, high flue temps and low stove top temps are not normal, they told me to quit monitoring flue temps but approaching 900 degree flue temps is a little unsettling. The Drolet runs much like the old Nashua (which is in use in my shop), I dont have to baby sit the stove all the time. Been heating this house with just wood since 1980 so I think I have an idea how a stove should work.
