With the house finished the Nashua was probably more then I needed. It would have been nice to see 700 degree temps on a regular basis as the stove puts out a lot of heat at those temps. For now the summit is comming out when I get the chance.
The reason to have the input air closed as much as possible is that you want less air flow thru the stove so less heat is flushing up the flue. But I would think there is a sweet spot of best heat with flushing the least amount up the flue. Now supposedly these stoves operate at much lower input air as they have higher firebox temps due to the insulating firebricks on the bottom, sides and back plus the insulative ceramic baffle boards in some of these stoves and some have a blanket of insulation on top of the baffle board. Now with you saying you have too high flue temps and low stove top temps, I would say you have a leak in the stove some where. When I leave my dorr cracked open or when I leave my input air wide open i get really high flue temps and the stove top temps are usually lwer than the flue meaning my heat is flushing up the flue heat the flue too hot. Plus from previous talks I think your stove is most likely undersized for your North West Iowa climate and the size and layout of your house plus the windows you have.
Never could find a air leak. The stove does not work right so it never got a fair chance. House is way tighter then it was, not sure how much more I can stress that.
Its not just the size of the firebox, the PE does not work right, been burning wood for 35 years, I know when a stove is not working right. If the Summit kicked out the heat that others report, I am sure it would work, it would not work as well as the Nashua or heat up the house as quickly but it would heat the house.
ok man, and I wasn't trying to ne a smart azz about it , remember its what I do for a living. now , bear in mind it aint my product so it will take a bit of "learning" on my part as well. I don't know the stove very well, but I know the physics very well. may have to do some "rehashing with you about stuff which has already been 'asked and answered" but its part of the process with me, its easiest for me to formulate a hypothesis when I get straight poop from the owner. so, higher stove top temps than normal and lower stovetop temps. sounds like we are bleeding heat. what kind of flue setup are we connected to, how tall, what diameter? also is it masonry or prefab, interior or exterior? work with me and i'll work with you, may be a bit slow on the answering , this book has me tied up pretty good right now, im actually in here seeking a diversion as my brain mushed out, a specific puzzle may be a nice respite
from "fox9988" a teaching moment " I had an old Sierra on a 8" class A flue, 13' tall that drafted perfect for 30 years. I moved it to the new house and tryed it on a 6" x 13' flue with mediocre results, got some smoke on reloads if conditions were not right." thing to understand is a stove in a house isn't just a stove that happens to be in a house, the whole house is part of the system, not just the stove , not even the stove and chimney. no two houses are the same. floor plans differ, degree of insulation, windows, the "tightness" of the house these all come into play when a woodstove is introduced. think it doesn't make a difference? I had a friend who just had a new house built put in a woodstove chimney was done perfectly but when he went to start it sometimes it would fire off and other times he ate smoke, I asked him about the house, was pretty tight, asked him about what his habits were, fired in the evenings mostly, asked what else was happening in the house. anything , what were the "regular habits of the family. here's the thing without getting too deep, seems his wife would do laundry in the afternoon and load the dryer before going to bed early as she was up and gone before him in the morning. the dryer was pulling air out of the house creating negative pressure thus affecting draft. we proved it by his asking her not to start the dryer that evening and the stove took right off, next evening (similar outside temps, she ran the dryer and he struggled with the stove. he had an OAK installed and hasn't had an issue since. the house was so friggen tight the dryer was depressurizing the house to the point he couldn't pull a draft, even with a perfect flue setup
I do have a new, very tight house. When we open or close an exterior door it will rattle every closed door in the house due to the pressure change created by the moving door. One 130 cfm bathroom exhaust fan really kills the draft. The dryer will reverse the draft at times if the flue temps are low. We always crack the bathroom window (where the dyer is located) to supply the dryer and prevent draft reversal. The Sierra on a 6" chimney: Nothing other than only opening one stove door during reloads (it was a double door) or putting a fan in a window pressurizing the house made any difference. Using only one stove door helped but didn't fix the problem. Opening a nearby window didn't help. I waited until the coaling stage to reload to avoid any smoke rolling out. The Keystone on the same chimney: Drafts perfectly.
"The Keystone on the same chimney: Drafts perfectly" I have read a number of posts where a certain stove did not work very well at all but a different brand on the same chimney same house worked fine.
