Noob here, thinking about the Englander!

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wamj2008

New Member
May 14, 2014
14
Maine
Hello, this is my first post in the forum. Moved in to a house last year, had a Fisher Baby Bear in the basement, but it was unhooked. Power went out on December 23, house got down to 40 degrees on Christmas eve night. Landlords (also the in-laws who live a few houses down) were coming in at 5:00AM Christmas morning to hook up the Fisher. It was nice to have some heat going! However, didn't have any wood in the basement so I continued to use the oil furnace through the winter and burned $1800 of oil. No thanks, not this year.

I'm really thinking about the Englander 30-NC, and I know the Home Depot trick to get it for $749 delivered. I could get the stove and 4 cords of wood for less than what I burned in oil last year. I went to a local stove store to see prices on the "name brand" stoves. Holy cow. 2 or 3 times as much as the Englander. I know it gets rave reviews on this site and on the Home Depot site. I am just nervous to make the final purchase haha.

Is the Englander designed to have a secondary burn? I have roughly 1700 sq ft to heat, split between the unfinished basement and the upper floor. Too small for the Baby Bear, I think. I am going to put a vent right above the stove so the initial heat will come up into the center of the main living area. My dad has a Morso 3610. He gets great burn times and love the stove, but it's 3.5x the price of the Englander. Should I take the plunge and get the Englander? I figure it's worth the gamble at that price.
 
Welcome. Yes the Englander 30NC is a very clean secondary burn stove. It sounds like your plan may work. However, if the plan is to put the stove in the basement you are going to lose a lot of heat (and burn a lot more wood) due to the unfinished basement walls. They can eat up to a third of the btus produced.
 
You should also do your due diligence on vents above the stove. How will you be exhausting the stove (flue)?

And welcome to the forum.
 
The stove is exhausted through the lined chimney in the basement. The current stove has the pipe in the back so there is an elbow piece, 2 feet of straight up pipe, another elbow piece that swings to the right, and 2 feet of straight pipe into the chimney.

For a vent I was just going to cut a hole in the floor and put a grate there, nothing fancy.
 
wamj2008 said:
For a vent I was just going to cut a hole in the floor and put a grate there, nothing fancy.
Click to expand...

Ummm...you might want to check on that. Many (most) manuals don't allow for a vent xx feet away from the stove. There are options of fused vents that will close in a fire. That is the ultimate issue with the vent - what if a fire...

Is the "lined" chimney lined with a stainless liner or are you referring to the clay liner??
 
I think this is more of a fire code issue. In many jurisdictions floor penetrations are supposed to have fusible-linked dampers in them that will close to slow down the spread of fire. Check with the local inspecting authority for more details. A return air vent must be 10 ft away from the stove.
 
On the price issue... the englander is the real deal. I have owned two consecutive 3000$ stove and an englander. I see no compromises with the relatively cheap englander. No compromises in efficiency, steel thickness, construction quality, or emissions. Englander has just taken advantage of the economies of scale with this easily mass produced appliance. As a manuafacturer you can either sell a few stoves at a high price or sell many more stoves at a lower price and still make the same profit.

So long as you like the relatively boxy look of the englander, it is really an great stove.
 
Why not think about putting the Englander on the main level????

Welcome to the forums !
 
The Englander 30-NC is still on sale at Home Depot (Johnson City, TN store) for $649 as of today as reported on another aborist site.

Good luck!
 
I have the 30 in the basement with a similar setup of ~1700 sq basement + main level. It did quite well considering this past winter. I will be insulating my walls this year and hope for even better results this comming winter. Overall I like the stove very much. Price was great, stove runs hot and clean.
 
Moved in to a house last year, had a Fisher Baby Bear in the basement, but it was unhooked.
Click to expand...

Make sure the chimney gets inspected by a professional sweep to ensure that it can handle a new stove install. Depending on its condition it may require a lot more $$$$ to be able to install a stove safely.
 
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the 30 should handle the space. its a solid heater and will give you much more "heat per split" than the Fisher due to the reburn system.

I agree with my friend MishMouse on the chimney inspection according to the NFPA211 standard a level 2 inspection should be done prior to installing a woodstove into an existing flue. getting that done may be beneficial to the landlord(hint , see if he wants to spring for it or work something out with you for it) who could possibly write it off as a "business expense" or home improvement to a rental property, I do not know for certain if this is the case but a quick call to his tax preparer might answer that question quickly.

as for the 30 itself , my company builds them so if you have any questions feel free to ask away or PM me, whichever is your preference. lastly, I appreciate your interest in my product line. of my products I think the 30 would best fit the footprint you described in your original post.
 
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