Here is the replacement stove for the Madison. It is basically the same stove with a few minor changes. The draft control has been moved to the side. If you recall, the knob for the draft on the Madison was above the door and the knob would be in the way on opening and closing the door. The replacement stove has adjustable hinges in place of the welded hinges on the Madison. Also, they did away with the smartstove draft control. I don't really use it on the Madison because I am afraid that it won't close the stove down; if I can sit by the stove and wait to hear the clink of the control closing the damper then I feel good about it. However, that sort of defeats the purpose since I could just watch the flu and stove top therms to see if it is good to shut down for the night. The dog box is still too far inside of the stove in my opinion, no way to avoid building the fire on top of the dog box unless you cut your wood really short. Loading east-west means logs on top of the dog box. The dog box location was a customer complaint on the Madison so I was surprised they didn't addressed it. I am not sure about the glass retainers on the new stove; they may be a bit longer but they are still using the small four tabs to retain the glass. The handle for the door is removable. I don't really know why they would do that expect they state if the handle is left on the stove, it will get hot. Well, everything about the stove gets hot. I have found that the knob on the Madison isn't that hot with the spring design. However, I keep a pair of welding gloves beside the stove to use when refuelling. Even with the design changes; I don't think I would replace the Madison with the new stove. I think when the time comes I will go with a Drolet. If you look at the air wash, you will notice cut-outs at the side; that is the first place that smokes starts coming out of my Madison. I don't know the purpose of those cut-outs; if anyone knows please leave a comment. I think if they would just make the door smaller and increase the width of the air wash thing, it would decrease the smoke spillage a great deal. The new model number for the stove is 50-SHW06. They stated that the stove is using XBT Technology; they claim it does meet the new EPA rules for stove emissions. The only thing I found with a quick search is Expendable Bathythermograph and I don't think that is applicable but I don't know. I hope they aren't using gobbly gook speak. Maybe some of the thermodynamics guys on here can enlighten me.
he didn't get a new stove. Just letting us know that there is an updated madison model is what I gleaned form the post. Still can't figure out the stubborn resistance of not extending the vent height!! It is so much less expensive than a new drolet. Been asking about it for years in one form or another.
XBT is just what they call their firebox design (tube type) "eXtreme burn technology", or "X burn technology" (as in cross burn) or something like that...doesn't mean anything really, just "fancy" marketing...
I am, thanks. I did the same for the 30-NC replacement, the 32-NC, as I am a bit of an Englander fanboy. They're not the fanciest stoves on the market, there are many that are "better" in one way or another, but they have their place on the less expensive end of things, like what Volkswagen use to be. The draft control on the back top corner, yuck. The 32-NC also has the removable handle.
I wanted the 30-NC; was ready to purchase it but had issues finding what I needed to have the required R value for the floor. I am wondering now if that was an issue or not but it clearly stated that the 30-NC needed the R value under the stove and I certainly didn't want to risk any sort of house fire. I went with the Madison because it did not require a certain R value for the hearth. I noticed on photos for the 32-NC that it did not have the air wash channel under the flue opening. bushpilot , does the 30-NC have the air wash channel under the flu opening? I still think that is an issue with the draft on the Madison, that the air wash channel is blocking the flu opening too much. And the Madison does have a smoke issue; it has been one of the complaints by others on Lowe's and other sites.
Yes, I am not so sure about that either. The Madison is above the door and with the knob in place, the door hits the knob. My solution was to just remove the knob and I use welding gloves when operating the stove such as adding wood etc. With welding gloves I can open and close the damper without getting burned by the door. I think with the knob on that being above the door and so close to the hot surfaces that it would burn you without gloves with the knob on. It was a poor place to put the damper control. I also don't like the fact that you can't really see how how much the damper is open or closed. I though about putting some dots of white paint as a guide.
