Cringe Sort of wish I'd gone bigger...

ADK_XJ · Jan 14, 2015

EatenByLimestone said:
I probably have to be careful not to make the 30 sound like a bad stove. It's not. At its price point, under $600 for some, it's a deal that can't be beat. It heats my house cheaply and I want to be fair to it.

That said, I'm not thrilled with mine. 2 complaints are specific to the stove itself, and the other is to the style of baffle that is really quite common.

I'm not happy with the air wash system. I always have ash all over my glass. It's not a big deal with my application in the basement, but if it was in my living room I might feel differently. Some have blamed this on the doghouse air hitting the splits and sending debris back against the glass. They removed the doghouse and plugged the air holes that feed it.

The next one is also not a huge issue. I don't like the ash drawer. It's too small to be of any use. I've removed 6 gallons of ash at one time. The drawer might hold a gallon. I made a new plug out of a spare firebrick. It just a drawer that you can't store anything in now.

The last one is the ceramic baffle on the top. They aren't very durable and are pricey to replace. They do work though and that is why they are so popular. As it comes from the factory the baffle does not stop all of the smoke from exiting up and around it. Some have placed rods beside it. I shoved kaowool along the edges to help the stove. I just don't think the system is durable. Other stoves have steel or even firebrick baffles. Both are more durable. As you read the forum, you will see a good number of threads about broken baffles.

Just my opinion though. The stove does it's job.

Good feedback. I've heard/read the NC-30 is a monster but isn't exactly a "sipper" on the wood consumption end. On your other points, I'd also be considering it for a basement install to utilize an existing, centralized chimney to supplement the insert upstairs. Dirty glass doesn't bother me so much as heavy ash-ing and short-lined burn tubes.

Appreciate your 2 cents.

ADK_XJ · Jan 14, 2015

begreen said:
Any tightening up of the house is money well invested. Now, time to show the wife a video.

I just kept waiting for the plumber to show up and this to take a polite Canadian porno twist....

Just kidding, lots of great information here!

OhioBurner© · Jan 15, 2015

BradleyW said:
Out of curiosity, where in northern NY? Special place in my heart for the ADK's.

Not in the ADK's but that was our usual family vacation destination, and just in the last few years I've got back into hiking and would like to finish the 46. But I grew up a bit south of Watertown, you know, the place that's always in the center of the darkest spots on the snow storm forecasts lol!

Bigg_Redd · Jan 15, 2015

ADK_XJ said:
Anyone else feel like that?

I burn a little more than half the year (Oct-Apr). About 1 month every winter I wish I had a bigger stove. About 2 months every winter I wish I had a smaller stove. The other 4 months is just right. There is no stove that perfectly fits every heating need throughout the year.

BradleyW · Jan 15, 2015

OhioBurner© said:
Not in the ADK's but that was our usual family vacation destination, and just in the last few years I've got back into hiking and would like to finish the 46. But I grew up a bit south of Watertown, you know, the place that's always in the center of the darkest spots on the snow storm forecasts lol!

View attachment 150752

Yeah, that is a brutal area in the winter. I lived in Wanakena. We were spared most of the big snow, but not the cold.

Fsappo · Jan 15, 2015

bsruther said:
I remember reading many threads about stove size and was almost convinced that I needed a smaller stove, but my gut instinct told me to ignore it all. I wanted overnight burns and I wasn't going to get them with a smaller stove. I got a big honking stove for a 1000sf ranch and couldn't be happier. I rarely use the blower, but that's ok.

I would always go larger. If I put a stove in my 1300 SF ranch again and wanted to actually heat my home with it, I'd be at a 3cf firebox. Only gets as hot as the amount of wood you put in.

eclecticcottage · Jan 15, 2015

I was pretty much set on the stove I wanted to begin with, too large (by the "heats x-x sq ft") numbers. I did change my mind in a way though, once we got the quote. Went from the Endeavor to the Republic (sister stoves, Republic is more utilitarian and therefore less expensive). When it's single digits we could use more stove even at that. We did do a lot of sealing up of leaks this past fall so this winter has been better than last year. I'd still like a better burn time, but we burn mostly pine so I know it won't be the full 10-12 hours the stove is listed for.

ADK_XJ · Jan 15, 2015

Bigg_Redd said:
I burn a little more than half the year (Oct-Apr). About 1 month every winter I wish I had a bigger stove. About 2 months every winter I wish I had a smaller stove. The other 4 months is just right. There is no stove that perfectly fits every heating need throughout the year.

True about most things. Thanks.

ADK_XJ · Jan 15, 2015

Fsappo said:
I would always go larger. If I put a stove in my 1300 SF ranch again and wanted to actually heat my home with it, I'd be at a 3cf firebox. Only gets as hot as the amount of wood you put in.

This is back to my original point - if I could do it over, I'd suck it up and go a size larger just so I had the capacity.

ADK_XJ · Jan 15, 2015

eclecticcottage said:
I was pretty much set on the stove I wanted to begin with, too large (by the "heats x-x sq ft") numbers. I did change my mind in a way though, once we got the quote. Went from the Endeavor to the Republic (sister stoves, Republic is more utilitarian and therefore less expensive). When it's single digits we could use more stove even at that. We did do a lot of sealing up of leaks this past fall so this winter has been better than last year. I'd still like a better burn time, but we burn mostly pine so I know it won't be the full 10-12 hours the stove is listed for.

Burn time is the other piece of this I haven't really touched on. Coal retention is great and, if I've used it in the last day, I never have trouble starting a fresh load but I would have thought I'd get a little bit longer burn time (even in the -0 stretches).

I did a fresh load at 10:30pm on Monday night, got it up to 400+ heat and secondary burn. Dog woke me up at 2:30ish to go out and I found the temperature in the living room had dropped below 58 and engaged the furnace. Plenty of large chunks of coals glowing in the firebox but it wasn't distributing enough heat to reach the thermostat. I think that's a combo of poor insulation and bitter cold diminishing performance but was still surprised.

Last night, though, I did a later load (11ish) and did a completely EW stack with over half of it dry red oak. It was a little warmer last night, too, but that baby burned quite well and the blower was still going at 7:15am.

Moral of the story, still learning.

Jearley35purdue · Jan 15, 2015

ADK_XJ said:
As I'm fighting a plunging thermometer outside, there is a part of me that wishes I had pushed harder on the wife to go with a freestanding or larger insert vs our Regency i2400 that we put in this Fall. Anyone else feel like that? Maybe it's just this artic chill!

It's on me for letting the retailer talk me out of "heating yourself out of the room" with the i3100 but when I'm struggling to keep 70 degrees in a 1600 sq ft house (that's in the room WITH the stove) and busting out all my seasoned red oak to do it, I'm fighting the feeling of buyer's remorse. I do have an exterior brick chimney that I assume is bleeding out a decent amount of heat (based on the lack of snow on it at any time).

However, I do think I have a couple of things I need to tackle this Spring to give me a leg-up:

Roxul and/or Durock behind the insert to better capture / refract heat

Seal around all of my windows and put door sweeps in

Consider blow in or (gulp) spray foam insulation for this 100 year old house

Any other mid-size insert owners out there that have found ways around performance gaps in this extreme cold?

Same exact problem and i posted a similar thread not long ago. 3200 square feet and was hoping my heat pump could take a break once in awhile. Wrong was I for sure. Thing still humms like crazy. You must change your mind set or you will be unhappy. Think of ever piece of wood going I as one less btu the furnace must produce. I'm struggling getting there myself but realize I had wayyyy to high expectations for my stove.

ADK_XJ · Jan 15, 2015

Jearley35purdue said:
Same exact problem and i posted a similar thread not long ago. 3200 square feet and was hoping my heat pump could take a break once in awhile. Wrong was I for sure. Thing still humms like crazy. You must change your mind set or you will be unhappy. Think of ever piece of wood going I as one less btu the furnace must produce. I'm struggling getting there myself but realize I had wayyyy to high expectations for my stove.

What kind of stove/insert do you have? 3200 is over double my current square footage but I agree with the gist of what you're saying.

OhioBurner© · Jan 15, 2015

ADK_XJ said:
Fsappo said:

I would always go larger. If I put a stove in my 1300 SF ranch again and wanted to actually heat my home with it, I'd be at a 3cf firebox. Only gets as hot as the amount of wood you put in.

Click to expand...

This is back to my original point - if I could do it over, I'd suck it up and go a size larger just so I had the capacity.

I know this isn't necessarily common with most stoves, but sometimes the biggest stoves can also idle the lowest, so the thought of the stove being too big doesn't even apply. Like the big BK stoves. They seem to idle down very low just fine! If I had to do it again, I would probably give them serious thought, both for the large firebox sizes and low idle & long burn times!

Ashful · Jan 15, 2015

OhioBurner© said:
I know this isn't necessarily common with most stoves, but sometimes the biggest stoves can also idle the lowest, so the thought of the stove being too big doesn't even apply. Like the big BK stoves. They seem to idle down very low just fine! If I had to do it again, I would probably give them serious thought, both for the large firebox sizes and low idle & long burn times!

True dat. And it used to be you had to choose pretty vs. performance, but with the BK Ashford, it seems you can get both.

OhioBurner© · Jan 16, 2015

That is the one my eyes are set on! But then again that freak'n huge 4.3cuft King should solve any doubt of getting enough heat or long enough burn! Wish they made a larger Ashford model but its still big enough for most.

edyit · Jan 16, 2015

always good to see a fellow adk'er

i'm a few hours more north of you, literally 2 minutes from Whiteface, ready for the next deep freeze tonight?

eclecticcottage · Jan 16, 2015

edyit said:
always good to see a fellow adk'er i'm a few hours more north of you, literally 2 minutes from Whiteface, ready for the next deep freeze tonight?

Sorry, but I hate you a little bit...I love the high peaks area. I would really have a hard time with black flies instead of sand flies but it's absolutely beautiful up there.

When we bought our stove, the Ashford and Sirocco weren't out yet and I'd also never heard of BK (our nearest dealer is a couple hours away). I'm still not 100% sure I would have gone with one had they been available and I had known about them, but I'm pretty sure one of the two would be where the Republic is because of burn time (the Sirocco looks about the same as the Republic except I prefer the door swing on the Republic for the location it's in). I didn't intend on heating pretty much exclusively with wood, but the big reason we didn't drop down to the Answer/Republic 1250 was the shorter burn times. And the BKs would probably blow our burn time on the 1750 out of the water. (the other reasons for choosing the 1730 over the 1250 were: we heated with DV gas stoves before and the heats x-x sq ft was not realistic so I wasn't sure the 1250 could do it, and the tight 4" (4 1/2"?) rear clearance on the 1750 made them about equal for "room intrusion"/heart pad size)

jack_90125 · Jan 16, 2015

what works even better is 3/4 inch pipe insulation,wife cut some 35 inch slid on bottom of door and sealed it tight and no problems opening or closing.plus no tools required.works great and seals damn tight.

Woody Stover said:
Yep. I was wondering about the Keystone here at first, but with some weatherizing it turned out to be plenty of stove. These work great on wooden door jambs: http://www.homedepot.com/p/MD-Build...Weatherstrip-Kit-69938/205545482?N=5yc1vZc3dy Don't press 'em against the door too firmly when installing, just touch the door lightly and screw 'em down. They can be adjusted, too.
View attachment 150672

ADK_XJ · Jan 16, 2015

eclecticcottage said:
Sorry, but I hate you a little bit...I love the high peaks area. I would really have a hard time with black flies instead of sand flies but it's absolutely beautiful up there.

It is a beautiful area - a great place to live, too, even with the taxes. Maybe that much better of a place considering that most people don't realize the top half of NY is a state park!

ADK_XJ · Jan 16, 2015

With the worst cold-snaps snapped I'm back to heating exclusively with the i2400 after 4pm and a big load in the morning before I leave. Using NS loads when I'm home/awake and EW overnight and at work has done a lot to balance out performance and burn time when needed.

Jearley35purdue · Jan 16, 2015

ADK_XJ said:
What kind of stove/insert do you have? 3200 is over double my current square footage but I agree with the gist of what you're saying.

I have the Napoleon 1402

*Cringe* Sort of wish I'd gone bigger...

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