This thing is absolutely silly - AKA Nick's Sirocco 30 Install

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Thanks for the detailed and thoughtful posts, Nick. I don't think we've seen that much of a Sirocco yet.

I actually think it is a good thing when something comes in a crate, with 'some assembly required'. You now know a whole lot more about your stove than most. You don't get that when you pick it up out of the showroom.
 
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jeff_t said:
Thanks for the detailed and thoughtful posts, Nick. I don't think we've seen that much of a Sirocco yet.
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No problem :) Lack of reviews was one of the reasons I've been posting so much. To be honest, I kind of went on blind faith from all of the positive posts about the Princess and Webby's threads on his Ashford when I bought it.


jeff_t said:
I actually think it is a good thing when something comes in a crate, with 'some assembly required'. You now know a whole lot more about your stove than most. You don't get that when you pick it up out of the showroom.
Click to expand...

That was the problem with the Nappy - it was all installed by pros. I absolutely love to get my hands dirty, and watching the installers put that one in without being able to help nearly killed me ;lol
 
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blueguy said:
I loaded the stove E-W as full as I could from what I had inside - I fit 11 nice sized splits in with a little room to spare that could have been filled with small splits if I had any inside. While waiting for the cat to come up to temp, I was getting a bit of a secondary show again on the left side of the firebox with another separate secondary show across the face of the cat. Closed the bypass at 6:10 and set it at 1.5. I plan to turn it up to 2 for the night as temps drop :)
Click to expand...

At 8:50, the stove top over the cat was at 570, the thermometer on the right side reading 500, cat probe over 12:00 and the flue at 400. I turned it up to about the "N" in normal, and 10 mins later, above the cat is over 600, the thermometer reading almost 600, cat probe at about 1:00, flue temp at 500 and a nice flame show :)

I'm going to leave it at this setting for the night...
 
blueguy said:
At 8:50, the stove top over the cat was at 570, the thermometer on the right side reading 500, cat probe over 12:00 and the flue at 400. I turned it up to about the "N" in normal, and 10 mins later, above the cat is over 600, the thermometer reading almost 600, cat probe at about 1:00, flue temp at 500 and a nice flame show :)

I'm going to leave it at this setting for the night...
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Have you ever seen the cat probe gauge go all the way to the top of the active range?
 
Just checked the stove at 0535, after burning at "N" for the night, there's a huge pile of coals on the rear of the stove with the stove top at 400ish. Right now, it's -7F out, and the house is holding steady at 70. I threw a few more pieces on and turned it down as it's going up to 25F today.
 
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Highbeam said:
Have you ever seen the cat probe gauge go all the way to the top of the active range?
Click to expand...

Not yet. I'm assuming it's due to my substandard wood. Although it does seem to be going higher on the gauge every night when I turn it down to 1.5.
 
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IIRC, when I unpacked it, it was reading at the bottom of the inactive zone. When I get home from work, I'll pull the probe and let it cool to room temp to see where it ends up and adjust it if necessary.
 
blueguy said:
IIRC, when I unpacked it, it was reading at the bottom of the inactive zone. When I get home from work, I'll pull the probe and let it cool to room temp to see where it ends up and adjust it if necessary.
Click to expand...

You've got to let it get ice cold, fully room temp. From what I discovered when making the same adjustment, it is supposed to point at the bottom of the inactive zone when at room temp. It only takes a slight warming for that needle to move though and then you're using bad information for cat engagement so be sure it is totally room temp. My needle spends hours of each load at the very top of the active zone.

Properly seasoned wood will improve your burning experience in many ways, you think your jumping up and down now... just wait until you get some dry wood.
 
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What kind of fire show (if any)do you get with this stove.With my harman i sometimes have to turn the air up to see flames. With the englander and the Country Hearth theres always some kind of show no matter the air setting. Im considering this stove as my next purchase. I want a cat stove
but cant get past the pot like looks of the king.
 
So far, I've gotten flames when turning up the stat to two or higher, except during the tail end of the burn. Keep in mind my wood isn't the greatest this year, so it will be different next year and hopefully flames at a lower setting.

When I first started this journey, I wasn't too keen on the looks of the Princess or King either, but as I read more and studied more pics of the Ultra models, their looks started to grow on me. If I wasn't overly worried about my draft with the 8" reducer, I would have gone for the King Ultra.

When we end up in our "forever" house, unless there is a Sirocco 40 on the street, we will have a King Ultra :)
 
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Highbeam said:
You've got to let it get ice cold, fully room temp. From what I discovered when making the same adjustment, it is supposed to point at the bottom of the inactive zone when at room temp. It only takes a slight warming for that needle to move though and then you're using bad information for cat engagement so be sure it is totally room temp. My needle spends hours of each load at the very top of the active zone.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the head's up :) when I got home, I had a bit of a surprise waiting for me. The three small splits I threw in this morning were mostly still there and the stove top at 350 - so letting the cat cool will have to wait a day or so.

Highbeam said:
Properly seasoned wood will improve your burning experience in many ways, you think your jumping up and down now... just wait until you get some dry wood.
Click to expand...

I can't wait :)
 
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blueguy said:
So far, I've gotten flames when turning up the stat to two or higher, except during the tail end of the burn. Keep in mind my wood isn't the greatest this year, so it will be different next year and hopefully flames at a lower setting.

When I first started this journey, I wasn't too keen on the looks of the Princess or King either, but as I read more and studied more pics of the Ultra models, their looks started to grow on me. If I wasn't overly worried about my draft with the 8" reducer, I would have gone for the King Ultra.

When we end up in our "forever" house, unless there is a Sirocco 40 on the street, we will have a King Ultra :)
Click to expand...
This was my experience as well, the first couple I saw in person were the parlor or classic, didn't like the bulbous look at all. The ultra grew on me and the wife surprisingly was all for whatever I thought was gonna work the best. She actually disliked some of the soapstone and enameled ones that I liked, she said they were too gaudy.
 
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Notice his probe gauge is diff then the condor.

He really should not go over 2:00 by very much.

P2160120-1.jpg
 
blueguy said:
Thanks for the head's up :) when I got home, I had a bit of a surprise waiting for me. The three small splits I threw in this morning were mostly still there and the stove top at 350 - so letting the cat cool will have to wait a day or so.
Click to expand...

You can just pull the probe out and let it sit somewhere for 15-20 minutes to cool off.
 
blueguy said:
I'll give it a whirl tomorrow afternoon!
Click to expand...

You don't have to wait, you can pull it out while the stove is burning if you'd like.
 
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rdust said:
You don't have to wait, you can pull it out while the stove is burning if you'd like.
Click to expand...


I do this every so often to check color, kinda like a spark plug, and that bugger is hot. Dont drop it!

This isnt a time for shortcuts, it's serious calibration. Take your time and let it cool fully. Leave it on the hearth for hours or even overnight.
 
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Highbeam said:
I do this every so often to check color, kinda like a spark plug, and that bugger is hot. Dont drop it!
Click to expand...

It's funny you mention that. I was doing that with my flue probe regularly with the 1450, and I've done it once or twice with the cat probe since putting the BK in :)
 
I took the time today to adjust the cat probe. I pulled it from the stove and let it cool until the probe itself felt cold in my hand. At cold, it was reading a bit below the last tick in the inactive zone:

P2190123.jpg


I adjusted it so the pointer was on the last tick which is at the very bottom of the inactive zone:

P2200129.jpg


I don't think there is going to be much difference in how the cat probe reads, but we'll see.


I also took the time to pull the stat cover and check to see if the butterfly was hitting the third screw stop before the shaft bottomed out on the stop. The "EPA hole" is in the butterfly.

Butterfly position at 1.5:

P2200124.jpg


Butterfly position at WOT:

P2200125.jpg


I also took a pic of the safety stop screw in the housing:

P2200126.jpg


With the cover on or off, the dial stills stops at a hair under 3 at WOT.
 
So I've had this burning for a week now, and I can say I still can't get over how well this stove is running. I've been getting 24 hours out of 7 split loads loosely placed, keeping the house around 70F or more. I think it's safe to say my wood usage is way down - what usually lasted me about 3 days lasted me 5 this week. Granted, it's been fairly warm this week (teens up to high twenties), but from what I've seen, even if the temps start dropping again, I still won't be using near as much wood :)
 
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I had a chance today to use the ash pan in the pedestal. With the 1450's lack of an ash pan, I was used to the scoop and dump routine with the mouth of the pail held up to the door opening to keep the ash in the box or up the flue. Having never used an integral ash pan before, I was pretty curious to see whether it was a positive or not when compared to the Sirocco's other fantastic features.

After 9 days' burning, the ash bed wasn't overly deep:

P2240130.jpg


I dug around a bit with the poker / hook tool that came with the stove to hook the plug and pull it out:

P2240131.jpg


My first impression is that this hole seems pretty small. If it were up to me, I think I would increase it to double the size:

P2240132.jpg


It took me all of a minute to push the ash build up to the front of the firebox into the hole with my coal rake upside down:

P2240133.jpg


I kept in mind some of the complaints about the plug not sealing properly, so I made sure to scrape around the top of the sealing surface before putting the plug back in. I also determined that one of the tines on my rake fits into the loop on the plug top. I'll probably hit the end tines with my grinder to thin them out slightly to fit properly:

P2240134.jpg


Just out of curiosity, I pulled the pan to see how much space ash from a week+ of 24/7 burning occupies:

P2240135.jpg


All in all, I am pretty happy with the ash pan in this stove. I definitely think the chute could be bigger, but even with it's current size, it gets the job done :)
 
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