My first EPA woodstove...The Austral II

[klxrelic]

Well, I finally decided to upgrade to a new woodstove. Picked up the Drolet Austral II.

Here she sits in the crate awaiting some attention:



Gotta wait to get some help to lift her off the crate....these suckers are heavy!

Installation should be straight forward. Teaching myself and the more particularly, the wife how to operate it properly may be the most difficult task of all!

 

[Grisu]

Congrats! Just feed it dry wood and you will be nice and cozy this winter. Do you dry your wood in that room and how long has it been sitting there?

 

[klxrelic]

Its been sitting there for over a month now. All black spruce. Feeling a lot lighter and ends are all split. Had the old wood stove going a few times and humidifier has been running full tilt.

 

[Grisu]

Hmm, I know it is just spruce and relatively small diameter branches but I am not sure that wood is dry enough for an EPA-stove. Have you split a few pieces in half and pressed the pins of a moisture meter in the center of the fresh surface? That should read below 20%.

Also, be careful when it is dry. Those round splits/logs will be hard to pack tightly in the stove and since it is softwood it can burn up pretty quickly. Make sure to close the air sooner rather and later. I would also recommend to not load the wood directly on hot coals. Rake the coals forward towards the door and drop the wood behind it. That will give you more control over the burn.

 

[klxrelic]

Thanks for the tips! This will be a learning experience for sure. I haven't gotten myself a moisture meter yet, just going by feel for now. I'll find out tomorrow if all goes well. I still have some wood left over from last year that is very dry, so I'll be using that first. When I start using this years wood I will see a difference if the wood isnt dry enough yet. Hoping to have a Moisture meter in the next couple weeks as well.

 

[Huntindog1]

How about pics of the inside of the stove. I am curious of the new design?

 

[klxrelic]

How about pics of the inside of the stove. I am curious of the new design?

I will try to get some later...after the fire goes out!

I guess this is a fairly new update of the original Austral. Couldn't find much info online about it.
There is a removable board of some sort resting on the secondaries. The stainless secondaries are replacable as well. Twist to unlock and pull out...something like that.

all installed and first fire-up this morning. Started with a couple baby fires at first as per manual.
Couldn't close door at all or fire would go out. What doesnt really help matters is that today is flat calm without a draft of wind.
So after first couple fires with door slightly ajar, I had a nice bed of coals. Raked most of the coals to the front and put down a nice layer of wood on top.
Left door ajar until flue temp hit around 450 (using IR gun). Closed door, air control full open at first then closed down to about half gradually.
flue temp hovered around 460, stove top center around (top temps vary all over the place...closer to flue pipe the warmer it seemed.

Got to see the secondary flames, that was cool to watch!!

Looked at top of chimney from outside....is it lit???? Look real hard I can just barely see a hint of smoke. Just glancing up, one would never say it was going. Big difference from my old stove hats for sure!

My two complaints so far are:

1:Air control rod: No indication of how much it is open or shut. Think I will rig up some sort of pointer/indicator showing range of adjustment.

2: you really cant open the door much without having smoke spilling out. I am so used to the old one tha tI could open the door wide open any time at all and throw in some more wood. I tried opening the rear baffle for a bit and open the door at same time for 20 seconds or so. Nope...smoke still comes out after door opens up about 4 inches.
I guess thats just the nature of the beast....probably why the manual says its best to burn in complete cycles.

 

[begreen]

Congrats on the new stove. Smoke may be draft related. This can be due to warm outside temperature or too short of a chimney. How tall is the whole flue system? Any tees or elbows?

 

[klxrelic]

Congrats on the new stove. Smoke may be draft related. This can be due to warm outside temperature or too short of a chimney. How tall is the whole flue system? Any tees or elbows?

From outside tee to top is17 feet and stove to tee is about 3 feet. So 20 feet total height sounds about right. I have one 90 degree elbow inside and insulated tee outside.

I think I am gonna try two 45 degree elbows inside to see if that helps

 

[klxrelic]

How about pics of the inside of the stove. I am curious of the new design?

Heres a couple pics as requested:


Good as I could get considering shes been running since install.

 

[edyit]

looks nice, i stole some of the wifes nail polish 2 years ago and put little dots on the air control for full open, 1/2 open, 1/4 open, and fully closed. they've baked on and are really nice for a reference point.

 

[Huntindog1]

Thanks for the pics. Looks like they did a nice job with the redesign.

That baffle board looks pretty thick and will provide good insulation properties to hold the heat up around the secondary air tubes for a better cleaner secondary burn.

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

I wonder why they got away from the welded baffle/secondary system?? I like that you can replace tubes but with the welded system you really wouldnt ever need to.

 

[Huntindog1]

I wonder why they got away from the welded baffle/secondary system?? I like that you can replace tubes but with the welded system you really wouldnt ever need to.

They had to meet new emission standards by the government. If you notice they also added another row of fire brick. The baffle board and the added row of brick makes for a more insulated firebox. Keeping the heat up higher up around the tubes and preheated air coming out of those tubes to more efficiently burn the smoke up in the top of the stove under the baffle. The older designed stove was more of a heat radiating monster as the stainless un-insulated baffle and not having firebricks all the way up the sides made for better heat radiating stove but loosing that heat made for a grams of emissions rating around 5.7 grams just passing the old standard. The new design is at 4.47 grams emissions.

 

[klxrelic]

Yeah, the baffle board is fairly thick...1 inch, maybe even 1 1/4 inch.
One thing I have noticed, after reading numerous threads here: It seems like I can run at a lower stovetop temp.
Looks like a lot of people are running stovetop temps in the 500 plus range. I have yet to get mine that high..410 was the highest I seen.

After I get a good bed of coals, I fill her up around half to 2/3 rds full. Once she gets going I have the air all the way down, secondary flame is beautiful,no smoke out the chimney. 400 stove temp, 300 flue temp . All reading are taken with IR gun.

Of course, maybe where I am burning black spruce may affect this ...I dunno

 

[klxrelic]

Took a video of the fire burning... I could almost watch this all day...



Might no be embedded .. Using the cell phone. Will fix later...

 

[Grisu]

Took a video of the fire burning... I could almost watch this all day...

Welcome to the club.

Looks great. Seems the wood is ok. You will have a nice warm winter ahead of you.

 

[Huntindog1]

Looks good, 450 is a low stove top temp could maybe due to the new firebox design to hold more heat in the firebox for a cleaner burn.

I like your secondary flames they are going good.

But if you can get a low slow burn for 10 hours it should be able to heat nicely.

What kind of wood are you burning?

 

[klxrelic]

I am burning all black spruce... That's pretty much all that's available for me to cut. Well, that and fir... I don't go near that.

Don't think I will get a 10 hour burn on soft wood. I do have a bit of white birch cut, but that won't be ready til next winter. Only cut it last week, about two truck loads. Might reserve that for overnight fires.

 

[Everhard]

I like the look of the changes! I've got the old unit - I installed and used it all last winter. With regards to the smoke coming out when you open the door - does yours still have a by-pass handle on the side? If so that's what I use before I open the door, with the by-pass open I get no smoke at a all coming out the door.
E.

 

[klxrelic]

does yours still have a by-pass handle on the side?

Yes it does. And it does help some.

Gonna try two 45 degree elbows tomorrow instead of one 90 elbow.

Tried to find some solid elbows, but to no avail. Will have to use the adjustable ones---not a big lover of them really

 

[stevepick]

Fancy meeting you here KLX. I'm investigating an outdoor wood boiler given the potential for dramatic rises in our electricity rates. I'm concerned about Spruce in an EPA stove as well. I'm looking at the Heatmaster G200, or a Portage and Main Optimizer 250. How many cord did you burn last year? You think you will burn less this season?

 

[klxrelic]

Fancy meeting you here KLX. I'm investigating an outdoor wood boiler given the potential for dramatic rises in our electricity rates. I'm concerned about Spruce in an EPA stove as well. I'm looking at the Heatmaster G200, or a Portage and Main Optimizer 250. How many cord did you burn last year? You think you will burn less this season?

Hi steve...I assume we crossed paths before!! (I am thinking RTR..)

I am having no issues with spruce. Like I am sure you have already read...it's gotta be dry.
I loaded up the stove last night @ 2230.... 0730 this morning, there was still plenty of coals to get the fire going without using splits... just started with some small round junks layered on top with the bigger stuff...away she goes.

I dont run electric heat, so the muskrat falls issue is little concern for me. I have oil/radiation....and well oil prices are half decent, but still not cheap.

Not sure how much wood exactly I burned. I go roughly by 1/4 chord per ATV cartload, so... I figured I burned 4 chord. (I cut 16 loads and burned every bit of it). I am usually sparing the wood along, just burning when it was really cold out.

Just got the new stove, and burning pretty much 24/7 now. I have more wood this year, (approx 6 chord) so I am not sparing it like usual, But, I am very sure I will get much more efficiency with this new stove.... most of my heat was going up the chimney with the old one, she would eat wood for fun.

Relic

 

[stevepick]

Thanks for the info. Yes, RTR. We almost crossed paths IRL on the T'railway several years back when I rode out to RI from town.

 

[klxrelic]

Thanks for the info. Yes, RTR. We almost crossed paths IRL on the T'railway several years back when I rode out to RI from town.

Ahhhh...Gotchya..... I remembers that.
\