Stove choices..Thinking about an Englander NC30 or a ds machine 110. Overnight burn time?

New member all.. After burning a us stove Wondercoal with slabwood for the last four years, it is finally time to replace our setup with something newer/more efficient. Got some helpful info on adding a new stainless chimney from here and am reconsidering my choice of stove. We are considering going with either a ds machine energymax 110(dual fuel, but more geared towards wood with reburn tubes and a plate that covers the grates for wood burning almost more of a small furnace at 680 lbs and a 3.5 cu ft firebox), or an Englander nc30. Really like the difference in price(900 vs 2000 for the ds) and what everyone seems to say about the bang for your buck value of the nc30

Read quite a bit on this forum about the nc30 that has gotten us thinking about it pretty seriously. we've got a fairly drafty, poorly laid out, roughly 1700 sq. Ft. house that the wondercoal heats okay, but to get us through until we get home from work(roughly 10-10 1/2 hours), we have to damp it down so low we get some pretty bad buildups in the chimney. On the coldest days, we would mix in a little anthracite stove coal to get a little extra burn time for an easy restart when I got home.
One of the big considerations for our new stove would be to get a burn time long enough to at least have coals to restart it before bed. from the little I've read here, it seems that kind of burn time is stretching things with a non-cat stove(don't particularly want one). With that huge firebox on the Englander, is it possible? I know everyones houses and locations are different(I am in northeast Ohio, btw.. Seldom below 0 deg. But often in the teens/single digits in late Jan/early feb.),but I was curious what kind of burn times the Englander users were getting outta their stoves. Sorry to be so long winded.. Pretty much still feel like a newbie to burning and wanted to describe my situation as best as possible.

pen said:

Are you heating from a basement with the stove, or is it in the main living space?

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Didn't think to post that. It's going in the main living space. Open living room/kitchen area on a far wall with 8 ft. ceilings, about 575 sq. ft. of the house.

Having wood ready to go shouldnt be too much of an issue. I live in a pretty rural area and burn slabwood(end cuts from hardwood when they rough kut them in the woods or at the mill). While it isn't as good as cordwood, it is ridiculously cheap around here ($5-10 a bundle. I probably get close to 3/4 of a cord per)due to lots of logging and mills in the area. I've got about 15 bundles sitting outside right now(about 3 yrs work in the old wondercoal smoke dragon).

Grisu said:

Never burned slabwood but it sounds like it is still pretty wet when you get it. Are you seasoning it in your yard before putting it in your stove? Having dry wood will cut down on your chimney deposits and give you also more heat (that is wasted by boiling off the water from the wood).

Btw. For the other stove you can also try that coal burner forum: http://nepacrossroads.com/ They may have more experience with it.

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Yeah, they are fresh cut from the woods when I get the bundles. Most pieces in the bundles are more wide than they are thick due to what they are. I let the whole bundles sit for at least a year, then cut/stack them(very few are thick/wide enough to need split) in my covered makeshift woodshed(made from old fencing. plenty of room for air to flow through it.)in the spring to burn in the fall. I attached a random pic. I found of cut/stacked slabwood from Craigslist for those who might have never seen it. Usually get somewhere around 18% or so for most of the pieces on my cheap little moisture meter from Harbor Freight..

I saw another post about the Bristol thing and checked it out myself. I just did the same thing with a supervent install kit from Lowes(123 in Kingwood TX, 198 in ashtabula oh. Sweet talked the manager into matching it :D). I think I'm really gonna consider the englander if the better half likes it.

Grisu said:

Good that you are burning dry wood. One problem that may keep you from getting long burn times may be the small size of your splits. You will probably need to pack that pretty tight to not burn that up very quickly. What kind of chimney do you have right now?

The NC30 is a great stove; you should be happy. If you have problems getting the heat distributed try putting a small fan on the floor on the other side of the house blowing cold air towards the stove room. Warmer air from the stove will pass along the ceiling to replace the colder air, thereby warming up the room where the fan is located. Of course, you should not have corners in between.

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My current chimney setup was a concrete block with 8" square tile, with about 12 ft. from the thimble to top on an exterior wall. I felt it had less than stellar performance
. it has been slowly deteriating over the years and about two Weeks ago I pulled the single wall pipe(only a 2 foot horiz. Run directly from stove to chimney) to find the clay thimble to have completely broken apart. I could probably fix it, but given the condition of the exterior block and everything else, I decided to just condemn it and go with double wall stainless straight up. gonna be closer to around 15 ft.from the outlet to the raincap when all is said and done with the new pipe I think.