AK

I was trying to research as much as I could about this before I posted… but had some specific questions to my needs.

I live in Southwest Ohio.
2128 square foot “ranch”

We bought a forclosed house that already has a 56x56 concrete pad with a wall of of the cultured stone behind it.  It had a wood stove in there and so the pipe going out to the roof is already there (6 inch diameter) and I believe it is within the tolerance on the outside (3 ft?..based on the pitch of the roof).

We would like to get a stove that meets our budget (800-1300)  as well as will heat our home efficiently.

We were looking at the DROLET MYRIAD .. which alleges that it can heat up to 2100 square feet.

but then when I researched here.. lots of folks were talking about the Englander30NC.

The DROLET with the longer than it is wide firebox apparently is a “tight” fit.. we would have to I guess bring it forward to meet the clearances requirement… which are   25” ?  from Chimney to wall and 16” from what looks to be the back corner (we are setting it at an angle to the pad.. which is the corner of our home furthest from our bedroom).

It looks like we may have to extend the hearth out to meet the 16 inch clearance…. (we have to replace some of the floor in that area anyway.. which is a plywood subfloor.. so.. I guess we could just put down appropriate “tile” or stone protection ?

but looking at the Englander… It appears the clearances drop to 8 inches around the back and sides… ?? Is that right?  ..

Anyone have good recommendations about what would be appropriate for our needs?....

I like the Drolet.. and have read more reviews offsite (plus a decent you tube review) but really can’t find much about the Englander 30NC.

I think my partner would like the Englander better just from looks alone.. (legs instead of pedestal)  and some gold trim… vs the Drolet which looks more utilitarian..  I don’t care just as long as it is EFFICIENT.. does the job and doesn’t eat wood!...

We would like this to be our primary heat source.

Another point is that we do have a Cold air intake right near on the ceiling where the old stove used to be.. so we imagine he did that to help distribute the heat throughout the house?

Thanks for any assistance in advance.

Caelidh

We have sold off a lot of these hidden treasures in the past year (mostly brand new Defiants, encores, radiances from the 90’s), but there is still many to be uncovered.

I figured I would start a thread to document what we uncover from here on out. Almost everything is still brand spanking new in the crate. What I know is still waiting to be uncovered:

Various VC gas and wood products
Waterford gas and wood products
Whitfield pellet stoves
A stanley/waterford cook stove
....the unknown…........

Here’s our wall of VC product yet to be uncrated (15-20 year old time capsules!)

Im on my 5th year burning in a Secondary Combustion EPA cert. stove.  During that time I’ve been reading quite a bit here and have important milestones such as Dry Wood, Low Creosote accumulation, among other important lessons learned.

We have a close friend who “grew up with a wood stove” and is currently running a late 1970’s stove with a “slammer” install at their residence.  When they come to our house I get questions about how and why I load my stove etc.  The focus is on the amount of wood I load into the stove.  I’ve done my best to explain my understanding of my stove’s operation.  They insist I’m wasting wood by not letting 1 or 2 splits smolder for example. 

~It was all good till I came home the other day and my stove was smoldering away with blackened glass cause they loaded it for us while babysitting.~

Lately with these mild temps I have 3 fires a day.  AM, Late Afternoon, PM. And it works great for me.

Maybe what I don’t fully understand is HOW the older stoves operate?  I ran one years ago and remember smoldering pieces of wood to avoid over fires.

As always - looking for insight and Thanks.

How does one know if it IS engaged?

I think my explosions may be from engaging cat at too low a temp. Is there an optimum temp on the Woodstock provided thermometers? Could sure use some guidance here. Every time it ‘splodes, the top stone rises and soot is forcefully expelled followed by ME doing the clean-up!

Appreciate it.

I put in some ash, soft maple and 1/4 of a super cedar. Lit the stove and left the door cracked just a little. The fire got going nicely in short order so I closed and latched the door. After about 10 minutes I looked and the danged fire went out. Hum… I cracked the door again and it came back to life. Another 10 minutes went by and no flame in the stove. What is going on here? This is not normal at all. But wait! I opened the bypass but for some unknown reason never opened the draft. Wow. Talk about a rookie mistake. lol

So now the stove is running nicely and it took very little time to get it roaring. Now the cat is engaged, the draft set on 1 and heat is coming. Can I chalk this one up to a senior moment?

I’ve been thinking about this one quite a bit lately. I have the optional blower on my quad Step top 4300, and the draft is directed downwards across the stove top. Is it possible that this is cooling the the stove to the point where it is inhibiting combustion efficiency? I can;t get accurate stovetop readings with an IR thermometer when the blowers are on because the stove is obviously being cooled. Sometimes it seems that placing a fan 20 feet from the stove and just directing the airflow towards the stove would accomplish the same goal as the stove-mounted blowers. What do you folks think? thanks,.

Seems to me that, aside from less clearance needed (on paper), they are pretty much the same.  Only major difference I see is that the Encore has a CAT option to make it more efficient. 

Anyone have one though?  Any thoughts on it good or bad?

Thanks!

-Emt1581