NC-30 owners feedback & thoughts

This is the fourth year with mine and could not be happier. We burn 24/7 and have not ran our boiler in 4 years. I am actually ready to pull our current fuel oil boiler out and put in a small electric one just for a backup. We heat 1800SF and could easily heat more. We burn about three cords per year.

Yes you could spend $2000 and get a slightly better stove (TL-300 Harman) Its 2-3 x the price of the englander ,so is it 3 x better, NO. The harman is much taller, has more features and puts out more heat with longer burn times ,but from a larger load of wood. I like them both for different reasons. If you HAVE THE CASH DONT LOOK AT THE PRICE AND BUY WHAT YOU WANT. If you dont have the cash get the 30.Its a very good stove

Guess it depends if they wanted to stay with the cast iron look.

defiant3 said:

I rebuild older stoves for a living, but not all are worth doing. When I suggest people replace their Vermont Castings with an NC-30 for example, they seem convinced that they MUST spend $2000.00 or more to get a decent product. I'm not so sure, but I'd like you who've run these things to tell me, are they workin' for ya'? Are any of you former V.C. owners by chance? Help me help others, here. Thanx

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Love my 30 but I'd like to make just a few mods. Maybe drill a few holes, hook up a N02 tank and a Magic Heat Re claimer.

I stole that one off of you.

BrotherBart said:

SmokeyCity said:

Love my 30 but I'd like to make just a few mods. Maybe drill a few holes, hook up a N02 tank and a Magic Heat Re claimer.

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Go for it. Let us know how it works out.

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Having gone from an older Defiant to an NC30 Enlgander, I can tell you the heat output is vastly different. The 30 will run longer burns, likely 8 hours regularly, vs 5.5 with the D. I never choked the D when burning though. The D puts out twice the heat when it is cooking. This winter has been mild to date, so a comparison of ability is yet to come since I have just converted from the D to the 30. My guess is that if I see sustained days in the sub 25 range, the D is getting reinstalled so I can keep the place warm. I had intentions on putting the D in my garage for good, but now wondering if the reverse will occur. Burning these two stoves are vastly different experiences and approaches. I am learning things weekly and doing better, but again the weather has been mild.

Myway
How do you handle overnight burns on a 5 hour burn time with the defiant? Wake up to a cold stove? Other heat kicks in ect?

I have my 30 next to an alaskan hot air coal stoker in my workshop and ill tell you its kicking the pants off the coal stoker. Both are rated at about 75000 BTUs but the wood stove rules in this shoot out. The alaska stove uses about two 5 gal buckets of coal a day on the low setting, which is a lot i feel for the heat it puts out which is not much on the low setting.

The thing that jumps out to me about my Englander 30 is the intensity - constant intensity of the radiant heat. A few years back we still had a running gas floor furnance. It too was totally radiant - air would rise up off of it. When the furnace was running and got hot, you could stand on it and then after a bit you had to move or get yourself burned. My Englander has the same feel as far as radiant heat intensity, maybe more. The difference between the old gas floor furnance and the Englander is - the furnance would turn off at a thermostat set point (usually at 68 degrees), the Englander continues to pump heat at the same intensity for hours, hence the house is 80 degrees and the dog is walking around with his tongue hanging out. I don't know how the original Defiants were, but this Englander is one intense heater in my house - and that's keeping the stove top at or under 550 degrees.

Bill

Seasoned Oak said:

Myway
How do you handle overnight burns on a 5 hour burn time with the defiant? Wake up to a cold stove? Other heat kicks in ect?

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Usual routine was a 12-12:30 loading and 5:30-6 reload. There was enough coals to make the fire start. The Defiant takes a 24 inch log easily. I could put 5 large splits into the stove and shut the door. Thermostat air control would take over and maintain temps. Only issue was consumption. 5 cords last season and I started around the 10th of December. I have a good size wood pile, but it did not get there by magic, so making the most of it was the reason I went to the 30.

mywaynow said:

Having gone from an older Defiant to an NC30 Enlgander, I can tell you the heat output is vastly different. The 30 will run longer burns, likely 8 hours regularly, vs 5.5 with the D. I never choked the D when burning though. The D puts out twice the heat when it is cooking. This winter has been mild to date, so a comparison of ability is yet to come since I have just converted from the D to the 30. My guess is that if I see sustained days in the sub 25 range, the D is getting reinstalled so I can keep the place warm. I had intentions on putting the D in my garage for good, but now wondering if the reverse will occur. Burning these two stoves are vastly different experiences and approaches. I am learning things weekly and doing better, but again the weather has been mild.

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What size stove pipe are you running? Did you make any changes to your chimneyliner when going with the 30?

I'm in a similar situation - running an older non-EPA stove which puts out a ton of heat but I'd like something more efficient. When I get a new stove I'm prepared to run a stainless steel liner to 'match' the stove for a better draft and efficiency.

The stove pipe is the same for the 30 as it was for the Defiant. Class A double wall insulated for 21 or so feet of vertical run outside, single wall to the tune of 6 or so feet inside with a 90 degree elbow. All 6 inch. Had great draft with the Defiant, most of the time the primary air shutter was only open 3/4 of an inch. Had stove top temps in excess of 600 no problem. The stove top temp of the Defiant and the radiant heat that accompanies it is vastly different than the 30. Same top temps will produce significantly different room temps. The arguement is the amount of wood consumption differs. And it does. But so does the heat. If you have to run you older stove hot to keep the house/room temp reasonable, you better get a much larger rated epa stove to substitute it with. I would say that the EPA stove should have the capability of 50% more sq ft than you really need to heat. This will allow you to run long fires at 400-500 degrees, which is an easier temp to maintain, imo. To really heat with the 30 I need 650 to 750 and the fan going. That does not last more than a couple hours.

Plenty of 30 users out there heating average size houses on a regular basis in ALL kind of cold weather. Your house must have a high or larger than normal heat loss. You will need to either get a larger EPA stove or cut your heat loss.
IMO the money would be better spent on reducing the heat loss. One (cost free)temp solution would be to run the defiant in the coldest months and the 30 in the shoulder season or possibly hook up both stoves and alternate.

I really could not be happier with my 30. I get 8 hours of usable heat and I am heating three levels. Englander guys are great and they do stand by their stoves. Plus, their honorary Sales Manager, Brother Bart, is really witty and adds alot to the forums. mywaynow, I am surprised that you aren't happy with your 30. If anything, my 30 heats me out of some rooms in the house and I have 2300+ square feet. I really had to modify my 30s secondary intakes to keep the stove top at 600, the monster wanted to be at 700.

Honestly, I would love to have a BK, but is it worth the extra 2 K? Definitely not IMO. I also really like the look of some of the classic cast iron beauties, VC included. But in the end, the 30 is just a phenomonal deal in comparison.

I think I posted this in another post but these newer High Efficiency Non-Cat Wood Stoves are over 76% efficient , the NC-30 is touted as the cleanest burning of the big box stoves on the Market at 1.63 grams per hour emissions. That pretty low telling you the stove is eating about everything the wood is putting out.

I translate that as there is a certain amount of Btu's in a load of wood. If your burning up just about every thing there is to burn that the wood has to offer then the older 30% efficient stoves are 46% less efficient as getting the heat out of the wood than the newer stoves.

But the trick is to burn these stoves as smoke burners not wood burners. If the heat don't build up in them quick and hot and the heat is flushing up the flue (strong draft) then the stove will not perform. As what you "Will" get is a stove designed with very limited air flow to burn smoke gases , and this stove is trying to be a wood burner and it just wont do it with the limited air flow.

I filled my 30 about 2/3 around midnight, preparing to go out later on my paper delivery route.

I whiled away the time listening to an audiobook. I began to wonder what the heck was running in the background. It was my refrigerator.

The thermometer in the kitchen/dining area was 105* F. (The thermometer is about 7 feet from the stove). The fridge, about 13 feet from the stove, was warm to the touch.

As the guy from Texas says, "Oops."

Still trying to learn how to build modest fires in the thang.

Nancy

nc30 a great stove with great heathoutput, i only have 3 compaints about it.

1. easy to gouge the baffles when reloading or scooping ash
2. hinge pins fall out of the door hinges (caused me a startle a time or 2 in the dark reloading)
3. the plug in the bottom of the stove sticks up and hard to scoop ash around (for the ash tray)

thats it. other then that its a nice looking stove, a great priced stove, a stove thats easy to get a quick hot fire to heat things up, and a clean burning stove, has a rather large firebox size too that isnt obstructed like some stoves. makes it nice you can really get allot in it. i am suprized at the size of some wood i get in there.

greythorn3 said:

nc30 a great stove with great heathoutput, i only have 3 compaints about it.

1. easy to gouge the baffles when reloading or scooping ash
2. hinge pins fall out of the door hinges (caused me a startle a time or 2 in the dark reloading)
3. the plug in the bottom of the stove sticks up and hard to scoop ash around (for the ash tray)

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Greythorn....
1. git rid of your friggin poker and use a hoe/rake device instead (and don't do it all gangbusta style) :lol:
2. graphite on the door hinge pins will keep them in place.
3. replace the ash plug with a firebrick. ( I have not done it yet but I think pen has done it...I friggin hate that little ash plug too)

there ya go....problems solved....I will send my bill.... :lol:
and don't ask me how I know.....I always learn things the hard way... :shut: