Englander 30 update second year (read: great stoves!)

OK, this is my second year burning this stove, albeit in unusually warm winters. We had a record warm winter here last year in the Cascades, and this year had the warmest October on record, ever.

At any rate, I pulled the flue out this summer and found a loose flapping piece of metal trapped in there that was causing the stove and flue to creosote up last year. I removed that and so far this year the stove is burning much better and the glass is not coating up with soot like last year. It is also burning on the secondaries like it should almost all the time now. It is harder to light when it is above 45 F. outside with the improved draft in the flue, but other than that it is a new improved stove. I can absolutely cook this place. In these warm temps I only need to burn a split or two at a time to keep this place at 68-70 F. Overall I rate these stoves highly, especially considering the deep discount that I got with the online Home Depot deal: delivered and dropped in my living room from VA for $499 (thanks to the heads up from the guys on the 'OLD' forum in MD that I am long since banned from, many of which are here now).

My only complaints are 1) they need a fine tuned damper adjustment for the last inch. That is where I leave the damper most of the time, and I was thinking of adding a twist adjust for the last inch that would give better control with the damper, or adding an automatic thermocouple spring adjuster like I had on my Earth Stove, 2) the stock fan that came with the stove (free) is insanely noisy and so I do not use it. I use a box fan at the side to blow over the top of the stove (like I had on my old stove) with a 2x2 furnace filter in back of it to circulate the air in my house. I also never use the ash drawer/pan, it is not needed.

 

That's good to hear, I almost bought one but went with a woodstock ideal steel instead. I love the cat abilities. I'm not sure it's 4 times the stove though, even though it's 4 times the price. A big thing for me was that my current hearth and chimney position allowed me to basically just do a stove swap. If not I would have eaten up the savings with having to rebuild the hearth.

 

Agreed on the air control. Once the spring handle is about 1/2" or so (never actually measured it) under the ash lip, adjustments need to be made in very small increments. You don't just shove it in or out another 1/2". I suppose you can, but there are many fine settings in between to allow the stove to run gooder.
I usually stop the rod just about 1/8"-1/4" from fully closed.
My other complaint is the handle.
However, for the price, it's a great stove, and is more controllable than I expected.

 

They need to "change" the way all the air comes into it IMHO. Make it like my 13NC where all the air comes into the stove via the OAK manifold area.....................unlike the 30NC where the dog house air comes into the stove unregulated thru vents on the lower front corners of the stove.

 

A thermostat would be nice.

 

And a quieter blower.

 

I'd like more air control all the way around.
There's a gooder blower for the 30, but don't know about the 13.

 

Are you sure about all the air coming in via the OAK? Reason I ask is, I was told that the EPA mandates that a small amount of feeder air be supplied unrestricted, not through the OAK so as to prevent back puffing and smoldering.

 

4 years of trouble-free burning. It runs like a timex watch. Booted the squirrel cage fan out of the housing after the first year, and replaced it with two pan cake style fans which are really quiet. This stove was the best money I have ever spent on a stove.

 

Agreed on the money spent. Rotti, what kind of pancake fans did you put in the back of your Englander? I would like to replace my factory noisemaker with something that is quiet and that works. The side box fan works, but it takes up a lot of space.

 

Unfortunately the only change they are likely going to make is to comply with are the next round of EPA regulations in 2019. I think they will mandate just 1.3 grams per hour, down from the current 4.5 grams per hour?

I have not had any problems with a drafty house from the warm air secondary intakes on the stove. I have the OAK hooked up and it seems to draw fine.

 

I would like to have a 30, but then I would need someplace to put it.

"Enough with the wood stoves already!"

 

Found two fans @ a industrial surplus store up here. Not sure what they were intended for but are a larger, heavy duty version of the type used in computer towers. This is the third season for them and they seem to be working just fine.

 

You saying that you have a woman that does not like HEAT in winter? On the UP? With my ex, there was no such thing as too much wood, too many chainsaws or too many wood burning appliances. The ex-ex was a fire bug and that was in sunny and warm California.

Here I had to get a new stove, under Oregon law. Buy a house with an older smoke dragon, and it has to be scrapped and replaced with an EPA stove. It also had to be a HUD stove with an OAK because I live in a dubba wyde. The 30 fit the bill on all counts. It was cheap as chips, and also heats like a champ.

 

Computer tower fans... interesting. I used to work in the largest server farm in the world in the Silicon Valley. The fans and A/C in that place sucked up more electricity than the computers. Next trip down there and I will scrounge up some fans.

 

I'm still trying to source a piece of Aluminum to make a convection deck.
I may go to a metal shop and tell 'em what I want. My flimsy and temporary deck is doing well.

 

I agree..................but to me, it just makes no sense to have an OAK, where not ALL of the air going in the stove comes from the OAK. Sounds to me like this was a cheap way to get the stove Washington state and mobile home approved (OAK required).

 

Every little bit of air that's taken directly from outside versus coming from inside the house helps.

 

Agreed...............that post you quoted was just poor wording on my part

 

Well, all this EPA and WA state crap is crap, if you ask me. I like the idea of running an OAK though. In an ideal world the secondaries would get air from outside as well. However, they are small ports, and seemingly they (Englander) needed warm air to support the secondary combustion in the moronic EPA and WA state crib tests. Likely during cold starts. It has been a while since I visited one of the several EPA stove testing places around here. We have half of the EPA stove test locations in the US within an hour of me for some reason not known to me. I suppose I could run tubing from my OAK to the intake ports in the front of the stove, but I do not notice any drafts in the house as it is. ~Some~ air changeover is good thing in a tight house like mine. Not saying that I prefer this NC warm-air-for-the-secondaries design, but I do not see it as a huge drawback either. The noisy fan is the biggest 'problem' on this thing, and that is nit picking...