Century CW2500 - Did I make a Mistake?

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Budget... well, initial budget was to try to stay under $1500 for stove and liner (which I did) but now I am trying to stay under $2000 for a different stove (just the stove itself).

Fireplace size:
Width @ front 35"
Width @ back 28"
Height 25 1/2"
Depth min 18 1/2" (along top)
Depth max 22" (along bottom)
 
Well, I really like my Enviro. I think with the amount of space your trying to heat and climate, you are on the right track with the size firebox size your looking at. Call around. You'd be surprised what you might find.
 
if you're close to 2k square feet and the layout is good then either the Englander NC-30 or one of the bigger stoves from Drolet (Fyrebug can help with the best model for you).

If you do a search you'll find several threads comparing these.

edit: just closely read your fireplace height. Never mind with the 30, it won't fit. Can't remember if any of the big Drolets will fit or not!
 
Just got a Naopleon 1402 from dynamitebuys.com. 2.3 firebox, duel 130 cfm fans. Call em up, great deals, shipped to my door. AWESOME customer service. Was on my 5th burn last night with it. loaded it up with 8 small splits at 6pm. 11pm the downstairs (where the stove is) of my 1800sq ft raised ranch was 83 degrees, and upstairs was 70. Loaded it with 5 bigger splits at 11:30pm. woke up this am at 5:30 with a full bed of hot coals, downstairs was 70, and upstairs was 67. Stove top temp was 200. It was 28 degrees last night. Put 5 big splits in this am before work, and I'll come home at 5 and there will be enough hot coals left to just throw more wood on.

I have been been running it like this for the past 5 days, and I have been very impressed. I'm even considering hooking up a fan in the stairway to blow some cold air down and get some air circulating. THe coldest it has gotten here might be 20 degrees, so not too bad. Maybe when the colder temps come i'll need the fan. since your up in the NW CT, give me a shout on here if you ever want to come by and take a look. I'm in New Milford.
 
gkoro said:
Just got a Napoleon 1402 from dynamitebuys.com. 2.3 firebox, duel 130 cfm fans. Call em up, great deals, shipped to my door. AWESOME customer service. Was on my 5th burn last night with it. loaded it up with 8 small splits at 6pm. 11pm the downstairs (where the stove is) of my 1800sq ft raised ranch was 83 degrees, and upstairs was 70. Loaded it with 5 bigger splits at 11:30pm. woke up this am at 5:30 with a full bed of hot coals, downstairs was 70, and upstairs was 67. Stove top temp was 200. It was 28 degrees last night. Put 5 big splits in this am before work, and I'll come home at 5 and there will be enough hot coals left to just throw more wood on.

I have been been running it like this for the past 5 days, and I have been very impressed. I'm even considering hooking up a fan in the stairway to blow some cold air down and get some air circulating. THe coldest it has gotten here might be 20 degrees, so not too bad. Maybe when the colder temps come i'll need the fan. since your up in the NW CT, give me a shout on here if you ever want to come by and take a look. I'm in New Milford.
Click to expand...
 
FyreBug said:
I have to repeat... EPA does not test for efficiencies. If you go to the EPA.gov web site you will see that every single stove and MFG is listed at 63%. That is EPA's silly way of saying "if you buy an EPA certified unit, you are guaranteed to have at least 63% efficiency". It's a baseline figure.

Most MFG will conduct separate efficiency testing with seasoned mixed cordwood and certified lab results for whoever requests it.
Click to expand...

Just for my own interest, how does one go about "requesting" these lab results? it this available to the general public? So far my experience with Customer Service answering questions via the Century Website has been pretty disappointing.
 
wrxtance said:
FyreBug said:
I have to repeat... EPA does not test for efficiencies. If you go to the EPA.gov web site you will see that every single stove and MFG is listed at 63%. That is EPA's silly way of saying "if you buy an EPA certified unit, you are guaranteed to have at least 63% efficiency". It's a baseline figure.

Most MFG will conduct separate efficiency testing with seasoned mixed cordwood and certified lab results for whoever requests it.
Click to expand...

Just for my own interest, how does one go about "requesting" these lab results? it this available to the general public? So far my experience with Customer Service answering questions via the Century Website has been pretty disappointing.
Click to expand...

PM me your email and I'll send them to you.
 
Well - out with the old, and in with the new last night. Visited a local stove shop and settled on a Lennox/Country Legacy insert. Blew the budget a bit but I only wanted to do this (again) once!

This thing is a monster! 500lbs is about the lifting limit of 2 average men (my poor brother and I) but we got it in after a couple hours of re-trimming the liner, sliding, tipping, heaving the new insert in place. Glad we got it done before the rain today.

Heat output, while even trying to keep the stove cool to cure paint, is amazing. Not even a comparison. The typical load of wood I could cram into the Century looks lost inside this thing. I'm almost upset its going to be warm today!

Interesting observation though - the new insert burns from the secondaries MUCH differently than the Century did. This stove looks like an open-burn propane stove while the Century looked like a gas grill on a cold tank. The way the new stove burns certainly "looks" hotter and it seems to be less sensitive to my not-so-awesome-this-year wood.

I really hate the fact that I screwed the pooch on the first stove but it was a good stepping stone into the EPA stove world I suppose. The Century is a good little stove for heating a room but not a house.

Sorry for the crappy late-night cell phone pics but I know around here - if there are no pics, it didn't happen!

I should probably start a new thread about the awesome new Country stove huh?...
 

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Great looking insert and install, congrats!

Ray
 
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