One year ago today, our PE Alderlea T5 was installed. One of the 4 greatest days of my life . We are on pace to finish the season with 3 cords, (1/3 cord burned last season). I have really easy re-starts every morning. My Sweet Melissa double checks the fire and sets the draft for the all day fire before she leaves the house. 7 hours later she re-kindles it at full throttle until I get home shortly after her. We have kept the house at a comfortable average temp of 70-74 upstairs. Ceiling fans and floor fans are a must! We live in a split level 2000 sq ft house (cut out in the wall by the stairs and ceiling fan, by design back in '72). During our week of -30 temps, the furnace ran to keep up. Really looking forward to cleaning the pipe and see how little soot I get. In the beginning, I was surprised how hot these run. Cruising temp is 700 flue. Overall, we are very happy with our decision of the T5, it was that or a Lopi Endeavor. Easy to start, Easy to control, Easy to burn all night. Easy to maintain.
Looks fantastic coreboy83 And great success in reducing what the stove chewed thru. Now... do tell... what kind of stove top temps would you say you had? I only ask because of the one tube style stove we’ve had in this house- more heat came off the glass than anywhere else, and that’s not acceptable when heating from the basement up as we do here.
The old pot belly would nuke through wood as fast as you could throw it in !! For the stove top, she usually runs 5-600 range. Truth be told, its under my kettle and don't pay much attention. The glass really throws a ton of heat. We have a daylight basement sort of. The garage is directly behind the stove, the thimble is about 1 ft off the garage slab
Looks like a nice setup and I'm glad to hear its working for you, it's a great feeling. Is that a probe thermometer on the pipe?...so 700 is internal gas temp of the flue?...What is the rest of the chimney? You might want to think about a flue damper, I bet you could slow that exhaust down without affecting the burn and "hold" more of that heat in the stove so it can get into your house instead of up the flue. I can routinely see stove top temps at +150-200 over the internal flue temp, but only if I use the damper. I try to keep the internal pipe gas temp under 550, but that temp will depend on the rest of the chimney, mine is straight up class A pipe at 20 feet, if you have a masonry chimney or lots of 90s it might be a good idea to let a little more heat go up the chimney to make sure the exhaust can get out without condensing as creosote.
That's right, we have a liner inside the masonry chimney. I like the keeping the exhaust hot all the way up. If our needs change, I can toss a damper section into my double wall pipe.
No warpage. I've heard that 1/4" is tolerable. I'm not sure about that spec... Have you experienced significant warpage ?
Have had the stove now for 5 years and raybonz was great help with it. After the first year i had it warped good so had a guy at work make me a stainless one and no problems since. Nothing big but it made a guy think twice about the thickness that it came with. Was told the back pin that holds it in place is for shipping but i left mine in and take out when needed as it keeps the baffle in place when filling it right up. Hey Whooaa Hey! Only after a certain time!
Taking it out isnt as tricky as putting it back in. And did i mention they are heavy when on your back doing it one handed? Watch the insulation on the sides man and it'll go fine.
I’ve heard that they can be pretty shifty to handle. Did your baffle gasket shred to pieces when you removed it ?
No but after a couple years i realized the insulation on the sides needed replacing which isnt a big deal at all 'Roxul'. You will have quite abit of light creosote ash on top of the baffle if its been a year since clean out but nothing to worry about.
