Magnolia Review In. I'm Eating Big Crow Here!

Alrighty Then I'm not one of those hard headed guys. I'm only 3hrs into the initial fire up of the Mag. First off I give it 2 thumbs up triple A+. This dude is pouring off the heat better than the old Nashua I gotta say. Secondary flames are quite the spectacle. No draft issues at all. In fact I have the opposite problem. I'm going to have to put in a damper to limit stove temps. With 4 splits in the stove and primary air shut its running 700 degrees and pipe temp is 400. Best part is 2 hrs later I'm still on the initial load and temps are holding solid. I'll report back in the morning to see how the over night goes. I can already see fuel consumption will be much less. Only thing we have now is to get through the gas off stage. Right now the whole house is IFR. Some have reported smoke when door is opened. Not the case here at all.
OK let the questions come.

Pics to come George. First overnight and here is my assessment. House is not any warmer but I only got up once and I used a forth the wood. So far today I've only put in 5 small to medium splits and its holding nicely since 6:30AM. Now I have something I need to figure out. This thing holds coals something fierce. The coal bed just keeps building. I guess thats OK except I'm running out of room for more wood and coals alone in this weather aren't enough. Old stove would burn to ash real fast (as would the wood to) so space for reloads was never a problem. Now I'm faced with a pile a coals that will take all day to burn up. In warmer weather that will be great but in single digits I need flames. I'm sure an all night burn is easily possible but I don't want to do that till I put in a damper or someway to regulate it down further.

BeGreen said:

wkpoor said:

Pics to come George. First overnight and here is my assessment. House is not any warmer but I only got up once and I used a forth the wood. So far today I've only put in 5 small to medium splits and its holding nicely since 6:30AM. Now I have something I need to figure out. This thing holds coals something fierce. The coal bed just keeps building. I guess thats OK except I'm running out of room for more wood and coals alone in this weather aren't enough. Old stove would burn to ash real fast (as would the wood to) so space for reloads was never a problem. Now I'm faced with a pile a coals that will take all day to burn up. In warmer weather that will be great but in single digits I need flames. I'm sure an all night burn is easily possible but I don't want to do that till I put in a damper or someway to regulate it down further.

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Rake the coals forward, put a single split on top, open up the air and burn the coals down for an hour or so.

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Thanks I'll try it.
Something I was concerned about I would like to bring up here again because I think others my have a someone similiar situation with other EPA stoves. The damper concerned me in its design with lack of ability to regulate. Well it seems to me they kinda Murphy'd it. Maybe not proof though hehe. Anyway from what I can tell its not a regualtion thing like I'm used to. Its either full open to 500 degrees or full closed there after. This stove has no secondary damper. You all can correct me on this but my limited one day experience has shown there is really no partial regualtion of the primary air. You either let alot in to get er going or you shut it down for the long haul. Primary takes care of itself.

As pleased as I am with this stove for the house I'm not so sure it would right for the garage. Things happen slow in the EPA stove and take a different approach. Being able to get a stove up to temp fast and recover fast has its advantages in a shop inviroment. In the house I do like slow and steady for a 24/7 heat source.

I just loaded mine back up and took a phone call. Went down the check on it and it was at 800 degrees stove top. And no way to shut er down. This one thing I can't believe they missed on. I'm going to have to be extra careful till I either get a damper or fab something to fully block off the air.

BrowningBAR said:

wkpoor said:

As pleased as I am with this stove for the house I'm not so sure it would right for the garage. Things happen slow in the EPA stove and take a different approach. Being able to get a stove up to temp fast and recover fast has its advantages in a shop inviroment. In the house I do like slow and steady for a 24/7 heat source.

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So, put the old Nashua in the shop.

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That was my original plan. I had 2 of them identical. One already sold and have an opportunity to sell the other. Won't need it for a couple of yrs yet. Might just off loaded while I have the chance. Still want one of those Elms.

Called US Stove ( they should call it China Stove since that swhere its made) today and guess what. They are closed for the snow storm. hehehehehe. Anyway I wanted to see what they had to say about my draft issue.

Added a couple of splits before I went to leave for work and the darned thing went to 850 stove top degrees 500 pipe. I was headed for a meltdown with no way to stop it. So I quickly took a pop can and mashed it down and stuffed it in the secondary hole. Then I made a prop rod to make a better seal on the primary. Whooooowe, got er slowed down. This problem needs addressed ASAP. This is darned dangerous not having a positive ability to shutdown.

Now for some good stuff. Even though I hate the whole made in China thing I do like the design. For a steel stove it is attractive and it appears they have thought out metal stress. Sides and bottom are bent radius and where its not they run the metal past the edge and welded in behind. Here again eleminating a potential crack point. I realize its all about heat cycles but so far I've tested its ability to withstand heat as no surfaces have warped and thats saying something givin the metal thickness its made from. I will be curious to see how it fairs after a 2/3 season.

balsabones said:

wkpoor said:

So I quickly took a pop can and mashed it down and stuffed it in the secondary hole. Then I made a prop rod to make a better seal on the primary. Whooooowe, got er slowed down. This problem needs addressed ASAP. This is darned dangerous not having a positive ability to shutdown.

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wkpoor, Whare is the secodary hole you refered to? I have only been able to find the one on the bottom rear. Is it the round hole on back, (about 2" dia), towards the top right, looking from the back?

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On the bottom in the back both primary and secondary air chambers are right next to each other. Notice only the primary air can be covered by the sheet metal damper. The secondary air is just aft of the primary and has no way to regulate it. They both go up the same square tube but are separated by a flat metal plate welded between them. Once they get to the baffle the primary is routed over top straight to the door air wash and right and left side. Secondary has to come out the baffle holes.
The hole in the back isn't really a hole at all. Its just a place to hook up an OAK tube and port air on the forward side of the rear heat shield.