New Napoleon 1400PL Install (with pics)...

Hi Guys,

Out with the old Elmira and in with the new Napoleon. Did the swap yesterday morning, but needed to make sure the stove was cool. Burned up almost 100kwh (!!) of electricity in the 24 hour period it took to cool down the old stove and get the new one fired up. It was -31C overnight.


The stone pad had to be extended for proper ember protection.

In with the new...

The reason for replacement was the Elmira had been overfired severely at some point in the past and had a bad crack in the back of the firebox. It was welded up in Nov and re-enforced with angle iron but it only lasted a few months. I know of three other Elmira stoves that suffered this fate so I think there's a design flaw at work here. No firebrick, and the plate steel on the front of the stove and back is too thin in my opinion.

Impressions of the stove are favourable so far. It pumps out some serious heat and is easy to control. I thought the ash cleanout plug (opted for no ash pan) was a little large and in the way, and ideally would have preferred it to be covered by firebrick. As well, while installing all 33 pieces of firebrick (!) some of the smaller lightweight pieces were too large and needed to be shaved down a bit which was disappointing.

General construction of the stove seems good and it was light enough without brick in it that two guys could easily carry it around.

The draft control lever is kinda wobbly and chintzy compared to the Super 27, and the door latch mechanism could be designed better. All in all it's a good stove at a budget price, but if you can swing it financially my experience with the Super is that it's a slightly better designed stove, although both seem to make the same kind of heat.

begreen said:

Well done. Some folks have found the pivot screw on the air control valve to be loose. You might check that and see if it needs tightening.

Click to expand...

I'll check that out, thanks!

Tonight is going to be -29C with a windchill of -44C, wind gusts 50kph. Stove seem easy to control so I think I'll try an overnight burn on a 1/2 to 3/4 load tonight.

I made a small mistake yesterday moving the stovetop thermometer while burning and it kinda marred the finish a tiny bit - I guess the paint was still curing and I didn't think of that :-(. Any suggestions? I'll try to post a pic tomorrow.

begreen said:

Well done. Some folks have found the pivot screw on the air control valve to be loose. You might check that and see if it needs tightening.

Click to expand...

Oh and I took the advice from the other thread and opted to not install a damper, and you and the other guys were right, it certainly doesn't need it.