Picked up an Englander NC30 today...

This post may get a little long....

Today marks 2 weeks since I installed the 30NC. I have been very impressed thus far. The control I have over the stove is impressive. While I am by no means a professional yet, I can pretty much get it in whatever temp range I want to now. I still have some fine tuning to do but I feel like I have the basics down. This is especially impressive because I gave up on the wood I had sitting all summer. I have been c/s/s standing dead elm trees that can be burnt right away. While not ideal, they are dry enough and there are enough around to get me through this year.

Some things I've learned:
1) at first I was being too timid. I've seen the comments time and time again, tube stoves like to run hot. I was so concerned with over firing that I wasn't getting the stove hot enough.
2) if needed, this thing will crank out serious heat fast. Once I started running the flue temp up high enough on a restart this stove burns great! However, I was burning through loads and getting to the coaling stage a lot quicker than I had hoped. It's good to know I can get serious heat fast if I need.
3) speaking of flue temps, dont worry about them so much (in a way). I was panicking when the flue would start climbing above the 600* mark. I've since found, even if it spikes to 850-900* it will settle as I shut down the air. My flue temp now seems to run about 50-75* hotter than my STT.
4) the NC30 has a BIG firebox! I went through a lot of wood pretty quickly loading it up. I think I'll do so much better now and going forward as I fine tune my technique.
5) dry wood is phenomenal! The difference in heat output and how soon I can set the air since I started in with the dry elm is amazing. I cant wait to burn what I have had stacked since this past spring in winter 2019/2020.
6) just because it's a new toy doesnt mean you need to play with it all the time. I catch myself always fussing and wanting to make adjustments when sometimes it seems it is best to just let the stove be and do its thing. I've also reloaded when I really didn't need more heat (55* and a thunderstorm on the first day of winter ) just to play with it. That has contributed to some of my wood consumption to this point.

All in all this stove is great! I would absolutely buy again. It's not super pretty but it performs. I still really like the look of the Drolet HT2000 I just didn't want to swing for the extra couple hundred bucks for a basement wood stove.

 

Thanks to all of you that have been so kind to offer advice!! This club continues to amaze me with the generosity of its (family) members.

 

Yep we are all positive here. I am a very satisfied customer and I haven't even attempted to contact ESW's customer service that so many people have talked about being such a major selling point.

 

That sounds great , burn on brother

 

Glad to hear it Marvin!

 

So how do you guys run the blower on the NC30? I have the smaller, hair dryer style blower. I will probably upgrade next year sometime. In the meantime I was thinking in will use this one from time to time.

Do you run it at the peak of the burn and shut it off at a certain STT?
Do you run it the entire cycle?
Do you run it only when you want to move heat around?
So many questions....

 

I don't have a 30...but on my insert stove I run the fan whenever it is hot...the hotter the stove the more I turn up the blower speed...unless the house is too warm already...then I'll turn the speed down, but chances are the stove temp has already started dropping by then.
About the only time I got the house too hot and had to turn the blower off while there was still good fire in the stove was when we had everybody over for Christmas a few years ago...16 people and a bunch of hot food make things heat up in a hurry!

 

Quick question for the experts....
I have noticed the baffle boards on my 30NC have kind of warped up in the front a bit. They are still sitting on the tubes from the second tube to the back tube. They are no longer touching the front tube as there is now a 1/4-1/2" gap between the tube and baffle boards. Is this normal/any cause for concern? I will take some pics later after I get home from work if needed.

 

Probably just got bumped and are out of place a bit...not sure if those ceramic fiber boards can warp?

 

I didn't think the baffle boards could warp or bend either. I 've knocked the tubes on mine a few times and I don't think I've bent one yet.

 

I will see if I can adjust them when the stove is cool this evening. I usually try to make a point of pushing on them before loading to make sure they are snug to the back though so I cant imagine they are out of place.

 

Are we sure it's not the tube itself that has warped, not the board, and it's just one of those optical illusion type thing happening? If it's made out of the same stuff my baffle boards are, I can't see it warping. Either the board is straight or broken, no in between.

 

My baffle boards have certainly bowed. In my case they only touch the front and back tubes, not the middle. Maybe a 3/16” clearance in the middle. Both are evenly bowed. They have changed shape for some reason and over the last 6 or so years I’ve been burning the nc30 I have not flipped them top/bottom. Maybe end to end.

 

It could be this. I will check the tube with a level when I get home and the stove is cool. It just seems odd because I have tried to be very careful about not over firing the stove. As far as I know the temp has not gotten out of control. There has been a time or two at most that the STT peaked at 800* but in those cases I immediately turned the blower on until temps came down.

I guess the other possibility is my stove top thermometer is off and it has been running hotter than I thought. I will have to calibrate the thermometer in my oven.

I do know that my flue temp (probe thermometer) rarely goes above 850-900* at peak burning. It has spiked to 1000* but not for very long. Most times it does not go above 800*.

 

As long as no external parts glow you’re in compliance with the manual right?

I wonder if flipping the boards will cause them to straighten out?

 

I am gonna check things out a little closer. Maybe flipping them may be my best option.

 

I tried to take a pic.

 

Hey Marvin . Just got around to this and for my setup, having the air 3/4 open would result in melting the whole house.
With dry wood, once the stove is up to temp, I can start cutting the air down and get those secondaries going pretty good....sometimes too good...and the result is wood disappearing too fast.
Recently, I've been able to shut the primary air 100% and still have secondaries for a long time. Lots of heat too with a nice coal bed after 8-9 hours.
I'm still learning.