Englander TNC30 Questions....

I'd been considering a Napoleon 1400/1450 stove because of the close clearances and relative inexpensive cost. Recently I've come across a very good deal on an Englander TNC30 at Englander's factory direct stove. For about the same price I can get the Englander with a 3.5cu.ft. firebox vs. the Napoleon 1450's 2.25cu.ft.

My main question is regarding the Englander side clearances. A rear heat shield is standard and minimum rear clearance is 5". Thats the easy part. The confusing part is the side clearances. Englander advertises "side heat shield available for reduced side clearances", but the manual states that side clearance is 20" with or without heat shields for double wall pipe.

What gives? They do mention that side clearance can be reduced to 12" with a protected surface per NFPA-211 standards....but any stove can have reduced clearances with a protected NFPA-211 surface. Am I reading the manual correctly? It seems like the side shield doesn't make a difference?
http://www.englanderstoves.com/manuals/30-NC.pdf -page 5

I'd really like to get the Englander TNC30 but I can't live with 20" of side clearance, and I'm not really interested in putting up a protected surface over the wall. Has anyone else made sense of this? Thanks!

So no Englander 30 users out there?

No rudeness detected! I had planned on calling them eventually, I was hoping that there were some people on here that had gone through this problem already and could share thier experiences.
:coolsmile: