Well, I have been running my new insert for about a month and a half and we have had some January like conditions thrown in for good measure. Yesterday the high was 37 and the morning low this morning was 21. The average January high for my area is 39. How do I like the new insert vs. the old smoke dragon? I like it. It uses less wood and the house seems to stay an average of 3-4 degrees warmer with the new insert. However if I am gone for an extended period and the house temps fall it is harder to get the temps back up with the new insert. However I have not wanted to push the new insert while I have been learning its ways and the hottest I have gotten the stove top is about 625. with a medium setting. I have mostly been running the insert on low and adjusting the heat with the size of the load generally on low the stove peaks at 525. A few issues. The thermal switch for the fan had the issue that a weld spatter was holding it away from the stove so it wasn't working properly till I found it and knocked it down. The main air control was so stiff as to be unusable. I actually pulled the metal handle off the control rod. I worked on it and it is still stiff but not like it was. I performed the break in fires per the instructions but I had a small section of finish bubble and flake off on the rolled edge of the stove top. I think this was due to poor metal degreasing prior to the finish being applied to the insert at the factory.
