My Napoleon NZ3000 Experience

I contracted with a local fireplace sales & service company to installed my new NZ3000 stove and since I have been in the construction and maintenance trades most of my life I volunteered to help in the process in order to see if I could learn something new. This was a retrofit job and required the removal of an existing open face, zero clearance fireplace that had we had enjoyed for many years. I must admit it was not a small undertaking to remove some brick facing, flu pipe and stove etc. to be able to install the new stove, but it was well worth it at approx. $10,000 overall and I have been burning the new stove at every opportunity since then and really enjoying it.
I am not familiar with any of the other stoves that are on the market today, but I am very satisfied with this unit and would like to contribute my experiences to the forum and on occasion will also update my post as I find other things of interest associated with the Napoleon NZ3000 stove.

1. Energy Efficient - The NZ3000 stove is very efficient concerning the amount of wood it burns in relation to the amount of heat that it returns. My former stove would eat up a cord of wood in no time and yes it would heat up the room, but most of the energy went up the flu, drawing heated air from the house with it. Not sure what the percentage of efficiency is in relation to this new stove, but it is much greater than my old stove and is evidenced by the fact that I have not used even 1/2 of the wood I would normally use in a season.

2. Burn Rate - In the beginning I was confused by the way this new stove burns wood and thought that there was something wrong with the outside air damper that might be causing a shortage of fresh air to the fire box, but this stove will burn wood in a much more efficient manner that is not to be compared to the way an open face fire place burns wood........just make sure it is burning real hot when you close the doors.

3. Starting a Fire - The advantages of using one of these highly efficient fireplace comes with its requirements as I noted when I tried to start my first few fires. The thing that bothered me most was that I would allow the fire to get going well with the doors barely open as suggested, but the moment that I closed the doors, the fire would seeming go out and start smoking and in the process would also blacken my glass doors with baked on soot.
The remedy to this problem came when I learned that this fireplace requires completely seasoned and dry wood that is stacked in a manner which allows good air flow through the stack as it burns and also that the stack is towards the rear of the fire box away from the glass. I like to lay in two smaller pieces of firewood that go perpendicular to the others first to elevate the remainder of the firewood and allow me to pour a 1lb. can of sawdust that is lightly soaked in motor oil/kerosene mix as a fire starter(looks like floor sweep)........and the most important part of the equation that I needed to allow the fire to burn for approx. 30 minutes with the doors slightly open to get the flu good an hot and enable the hot gases to evacuate quickly. also, no matter what you do there will still be some soot on the glass, but if you follow these steps it will be much less.......Remember the fire must be real hot before closing the doors.

4. Heating - I live in a house that is approx. 2000 Sq. ft. and during an arctic cold front this winter with the temperature in the teens I was able to use this stove with the blower turned on low at bed time and it will keep the house warm......please note that if you have a modern electronic thermostat on your central heating / cooling unit you may have the capability to turn off the heat and also turn the fan from auto to circulate and this will take the heated air from the fireplace and disperse it throughout the house more evenly through your existing a/c ductwork. It will not keep your house as evenly conditioned as your central heating unit does by itself, but it did keep my bedroom at 68 when the living room was about 85 throughout the night.

5. More to Come.

Mesquite

 

Detailed review!
I like it

 

Nice review! When you get time, look up Scotty's NZ3000 chimney build and install. It was a epic install, I'm sure everyone here will agree.

 

Thanks everyone for the nice comments about my post and I agree that Scotty's fireplace is incredible and wish that I could build something as nice as his.........with real stone, massive solid mantel etc. what an accomplishment.......Great Fireplace Scotty!
Mesquite