Picked up an Englander NC30 today...

Feel free to respond or not it's your choice, but stating...

..like the people who built the stove didn't do any of that research themselves.

is saying what exactly then?

 

I think you misread papadave, he actually tried the mods, and was pleasantly surprised that the stove was pretty well designed.

Gracious reply.

 

I tried blocking off some ports but I run my nc30 hard and I was worried that without a large flow of cooling air passing through the secondary tubes that they might melt so I unblocked them.

I think a place where most of us could gain some efficiency with this stove is by slowing the draft using a damper. I like to sweep the chimney without taking it apart so I am resisting a damper but maybe some day.

The nc30 pukes lots of heat and exhaust flow up the stack. I think that’s why it burns so clean.

 

That is exactly the reason I don't have a damper on my set up, With my Lopi ,But then again don't think I need it either , Never had to stop burning because of high winds .

 

I have a damper installed but haven't really messed with it since installing the nc30. We've been getting some pretty good wind gusts today but I haven't felt the need to tinker with it yet. Maybe tomorrow. I think it is supposed to be windy again.

 

With my old stove I would have Burned the house down without a damper

 

SootEater will go right past a manual damper...

 

Oh , now you tell me , First time I shoved a brush down my chimney , I got it stuck on damper , had to take the pipe apart to get it out , bent the hell out of it , had to put in a new one, Cleaned the chimney many times after that Needless to say I didn't F it up and again
But then SootEater didn't exist then

 

I forgot to remove my temp sensor probe before cleaning...Sooteater kicked it out, but no damage...

 

In case you don't remember, I did that too with a brush , son of beotch

 

I'm curious if you observed a reduction in secondary flame speed or weird angle of flame such as I did (different stove of course)?

I totally agree with the damper, as that's exactly what I found out on both accounts.

 

I have 2 chimney brushes, a steel one and a synthetic one. I trimmed the bristles slightly on the synthetic one so I can back n forth like cleaning a muzzleloader barrel, as opposed to all the way down, all the way up. I'd probably be in a world of hurt using the steel one with my damper installed!

 

Since we're on to talk about chimney brushes...

I bought a synthetic brush for my ss liner. I still have the tool I used for knocking out the clay tile. Could I use a 6" brush hooked to a drill to make a redneck sooteater or would that risk damaging the liner? Just a thought for the next time I clean

 

It could be done provided you make sure you have it spinning in the the right direction to not uncouple- no fun taking a flue apart to recover stuck or lost tool. The sooteater will never lodge tightly due to what it is. if you wanted to try to make your own some weed wacker line of the thickest available would be a better choice. not sure but i think .105 is the thickest, or 10-12ga stranded electrical wire.

 

Yeah that would definitely be a no go for me since I have a masonry chimney. Not fun indeed.

 

Yes, the secondaries were less jetlike and more yellow. Dropped into the fuel more than shooting along the roof like usual. It was apparent that the air was flowing slower and the flames lingering which made me worry about overheating those tubes.

 

Never had a problem with the tubes on a NC30 and I have had them glowing red+ on more than one occasion. Generally if all 4 tubes are in full after burner mode you are likely in the 650 deg F+ stove top wise at the step, I wouldn't leave it run like that though, nice clean flue after that though.

 

Lately I seem to have been having an issue with the stove burning awfully hot (got up to 800* STT last night on the overnight load) and leaving a bunch of big chunky coals. So today I did the dollar bill test. Total failure No problem. Fluffed up the gasket all around the door. Gooder to go now

It's amazing since the problem developed over a period of time, I didn't even realize how much control I had lost over the burn. Since fluffing the door gasket it's like a whole new stove. I'll be replacing that this summer.

 

Yikes!!!!