Beginner questions...

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admiralburns

New Member
Dec 21, 2011
7
Virginia
Hi Folks!

I'm currently running an old Kodiak Stove that came with the house that I bought a few years ago. It looks pretty classy, but it also seems to burn through wood very quickly, and I'm interested in moving to a newer model stove. I am hoping to find something that will burn longer, cleaner, more efficiently, and I wouldn't mind a glass window.

I'm considering the Englander NC-30 and a Pleasant Hearth 2,200 sq. ft. model. I was planning on just getting the Englander, but I just came across the Pleasant Hearth model at a Lowes the other day, and it supposedly gets 85% efficiency. From what I've read, the Englander is closer to 65%. I'm wondering the following...

1. Do you folks have any advice/experience with these two stoves? Which do you recommend?
2. Are these efficiency ratings legitimate? Will I actually burn less wood per an equivalent amount of heat with the Pleasant Hearth stove?
3. My chimney pipe is about 8" in diameter (on the inside walls) and the Englander has a 6" opening (not sure about the Pleasant Hearth). I know you aren't SUPPOSED to simply use a 6" to 8" conversion piece, but I am not up for buying a new chimney just yet. Would this conversion solution at least be functional and safe for a couple of years?

Thanks so much for your input!

Burns
 
Welcome to the forum!

I have experience with the 30. It's a great stove for the price and is welded together practically in your back yard.

The 65% is a default number. For an actual comparison for clean burning (efficient use of the wood you put in it) look at the grams of particulates that the stove puts out. There should be a tag on the door of both stoves stating this. The 30 is clean, but I don't recall the number.

Both stoves have 6" flues. How tall is your chimney? With enough height you may be able to run an 8" pipe. It's hard to tell since the area of the larger pipe is much larger than that of a 6" pipe. A 6" is 28.27" and the 8" is 50.26. You might want to call Englander to see what they say about the larger pipe.

I believe Blaze king uses an 8" pipe for some of their stoves.

Matt
 
Thanks for the info so far.
It's interesting that the Englander is listed at a lower % efficiency, even though the count of grams of particulates is lower. Is the Englander also a model which has a "reburn" feature?
 
1. Lots of people on this forum have Englanders and love them plus I read reports that the Enlgander customer service is very good. I don't read much about Pleasant Hearth so they may be great too, but I don't see as much information.

2. i think the efficiency numbers don't mean you'll actually use less wood or get more heat or produce less smoke with one stove or the other. I think your fuel and your dedication/attention to burning clean will have a much larger impact on efficiency and wood use than the test results.

3. I don't know.
 
Thanks for the info so far, I'm going to go with the Englander, I am just working to find the lowest price possible.

Burns
 
The englander would be my choice out of the 2 but i don't know about going from 6 to 8". Another choice is the buck stove 91 they have a 8" flue, but twice the $
 
Welcome to the forum admiralburns.

The stoves you are looking at are good indeed, but is there a reason you've limited yourself to those 2?


You wrote, "I am hoping to find something that will burn longer, cleaner, more efficiently, and I wouldn’t mind a glass window." This really hit me as there are many stoves which can give you what you want. For example, we have a Woodstock Soapstone stove (Fireview) and previously were burning an Ashley. After installing the Fireview our wood consumption was cut in half! In addition to that, with the Ashley we were cleaning our chimney 3-4 times per year. Since installing the Fireview we have cleaned our chimney one time and that was after 2 years use. We got about a cup of soot is all. We have not cleaned the chimney since. The Fireview was installed in September 2007 and is our only source of heat so it is used 24/7 in the heating season. One more point is that although we are using only half the amount of wood, we are also staying much warmer. Even warmer yet this winter as we did some massive insulating last summer and with this mild winter we've burned just about a cord of wood so far is all!
 
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