Two years ago, my wife purchased an Englander 12-FP from Lowes. For that time period, the stove sat, uninstalled, while I worked up the nerve to install it.
I cannot begin to express my gratitude to this forum for all the invaluable experience and advice that made the install go pretty smoothly.
Just before using the Englander, I read several reviews on the 12-FP, and many were not favorable. Most noteworthy were comments suggesting this model was more of a cute showcase, but not recommended to actually serve as the primary heat for a dwelling. I also read a few reviews indicating the user essentially had to keep the door cracked all the time to keep a fire going. Similar comments kept creeping up in the reviews and had me discouraged and worried that our un-researched purchase from 2 years prior was a mistake. I found myself lamenting the fact that I'd waited so long to read the reviews on this model. I kept thinking that if I had it to do over again, I probably never would have unloaded the stove from the truck and would have taken it back for the more expensive 13 model.
I am proud to say that I could not be more pleased with my 12-FP.
With a steady fire in the stove, adequate heat has never been an issue. I have a small 1200 sq ft frame home. The first half of the house has "cathedral" ceilings, and entails an open floor plan of the kitchen and living room. The second half of the house has standard 9' ceilings and entails the restrooms and bedrooms. The house is pier and beam and is pretty high off the ground (5' at the highest point). It's original purpose was to be a weekend hunting cabin, but has since been remodeled to an actual home. We have single-pane windows and could probably have better insulation. Our air ducting is under the house, and thus we have floor registers (which I actually like). We prefer to have the open front half of the house comfortably warm, but we prefer the bedrooms, etc. to be relatively cool. (Neither my wife or myself like to sleep in an overly warm room.) Given the design of our home, the central heat actually accomplished the opposite of what we preferred. In order to get the living area comfortable, the bedrooms would be sweltering. Now, our stove is located in the living area (between the kitchen and living room). The result is a very comfortable living area and cool bedrooms. With no supplementary heat, the temperature averages around 70 at the sofa (about 20' away from the stove) with the outside temp being below 32. This is ideal for us.
Maintaining a fire while we were asleep was our first challenge. I erroneously equated having the air control wide open with better heat output, and therefore left it wide open all the time. I knew, being a non-EPA, non-catalytic, stove, I'd be using a relatively good amount of wood. But, I found myself feeding it all the time, probably adding a log every 2 hours. I'd wake in the mornings to a cooling living room, and no fire. I'd resigned myself to accepting this behavior and thus expected to have to use the central heat. I even considered getting rid of the barely used stove and upgrading.
My second challenge was having large black chunks of partially burned wood.
My third challenge was blackened glass every morning, despite exclusively using seasoned oak.
After reading more posts on this forum, I discovered my behavior was the problem. With the air control wide open, the logs were burning up too fast. Each time I fed the stove, I felt the need to poke coals and partially burned wood. I now realize I was interrupting the burn cycle hence the reason I was ending up with partially burned wood and large dead coals.
I changed my behavior as such:
1. When I feed the stove, I turn the air control all the way up until the new wood is well ignited. This takes about 10 minutes, tops. Then I turn the air control down to 1/4.
2. I rake the coals to the front of the stove and put new wood at the back. I only feed the stove when the current logs have turned to medium sized coals. Otherwise I do not disturb the burning cycle. Since I've learned to turn down the air control, I use much less wood. I realized that with the air control turned down, more heat emanates from the stove instead of blowing right up the chimney. My fires now are just as brilliant but gentler, for lack of a better word. It doesn't make that blowing sound all the time, now. Now, I only get a light amber film on the glass instead of a thick black layer. Moving the coals to the front has made a huge difference as the air flow seems to be much easier.
3. About 10 minutes before going to bed, I load up the stove and open the air control wide open for about 10 minutes. Then I fully close the air control and go to bed. In the morning, I have a bright glowing bed of coals, clean glass, and a warm living room. I rake the coals to the front, put 2 splits in the back, open up the air control, leave the door cracked for 10 minutes, and my beautiful fire is back.
I am so happy with our stove, and I don't think I would have been if not for this forum. It is my hope that future owners of the 12-FP will see this post to balance out some of the other less enthusiastic reviews. One needs to understand some very essential behaviors when using this stove. I suspect the aforementioned steps are probably universal, but while some stoves may be more forgiving, the 12-FP will not perform well without strictly observing them. It may be that the 12-FP is not the ideal stove for the beginner, but once the user figures it out, they're bound to be happy with its performance in a small dwelling.
I cannot begin to express my gratitude to this forum for all the invaluable experience and advice that made the install go pretty smoothly.
Just before using the Englander, I read several reviews on the 12-FP, and many were not favorable. Most noteworthy were comments suggesting this model was more of a cute showcase, but not recommended to actually serve as the primary heat for a dwelling. I also read a few reviews indicating the user essentially had to keep the door cracked all the time to keep a fire going. Similar comments kept creeping up in the reviews and had me discouraged and worried that our un-researched purchase from 2 years prior was a mistake. I found myself lamenting the fact that I'd waited so long to read the reviews on this model. I kept thinking that if I had it to do over again, I probably never would have unloaded the stove from the truck and would have taken it back for the more expensive 13 model.
I am proud to say that I could not be more pleased with my 12-FP.
With a steady fire in the stove, adequate heat has never been an issue. I have a small 1200 sq ft frame home. The first half of the house has "cathedral" ceilings, and entails an open floor plan of the kitchen and living room. The second half of the house has standard 9' ceilings and entails the restrooms and bedrooms. The house is pier and beam and is pretty high off the ground (5' at the highest point). It's original purpose was to be a weekend hunting cabin, but has since been remodeled to an actual home. We have single-pane windows and could probably have better insulation. Our air ducting is under the house, and thus we have floor registers (which I actually like). We prefer to have the open front half of the house comfortably warm, but we prefer the bedrooms, etc. to be relatively cool. (Neither my wife or myself like to sleep in an overly warm room.) Given the design of our home, the central heat actually accomplished the opposite of what we preferred. In order to get the living area comfortable, the bedrooms would be sweltering. Now, our stove is located in the living area (between the kitchen and living room). The result is a very comfortable living area and cool bedrooms. With no supplementary heat, the temperature averages around 70 at the sofa (about 20' away from the stove) with the outside temp being below 32. This is ideal for us.
Maintaining a fire while we were asleep was our first challenge. I erroneously equated having the air control wide open with better heat output, and therefore left it wide open all the time. I knew, being a non-EPA, non-catalytic, stove, I'd be using a relatively good amount of wood. But, I found myself feeding it all the time, probably adding a log every 2 hours. I'd wake in the mornings to a cooling living room, and no fire. I'd resigned myself to accepting this behavior and thus expected to have to use the central heat. I even considered getting rid of the barely used stove and upgrading.
My second challenge was having large black chunks of partially burned wood.
My third challenge was blackened glass every morning, despite exclusively using seasoned oak.
After reading more posts on this forum, I discovered my behavior was the problem. With the air control wide open, the logs were burning up too fast. Each time I fed the stove, I felt the need to poke coals and partially burned wood. I now realize I was interrupting the burn cycle hence the reason I was ending up with partially burned wood and large dead coals.
I changed my behavior as such:
1. When I feed the stove, I turn the air control all the way up until the new wood is well ignited. This takes about 10 minutes, tops. Then I turn the air control down to 1/4.
2. I rake the coals to the front of the stove and put new wood at the back. I only feed the stove when the current logs have turned to medium sized coals. Otherwise I do not disturb the burning cycle. Since I've learned to turn down the air control, I use much less wood. I realized that with the air control turned down, more heat emanates from the stove instead of blowing right up the chimney. My fires now are just as brilliant but gentler, for lack of a better word. It doesn't make that blowing sound all the time, now. Now, I only get a light amber film on the glass instead of a thick black layer. Moving the coals to the front has made a huge difference as the air flow seems to be much easier.
3. About 10 minutes before going to bed, I load up the stove and open the air control wide open for about 10 minutes. Then I fully close the air control and go to bed. In the morning, I have a bright glowing bed of coals, clean glass, and a warm living room. I rake the coals to the front, put 2 splits in the back, open up the air control, leave the door cracked for 10 minutes, and my beautiful fire is back.
I am so happy with our stove, and I don't think I would have been if not for this forum. It is my hope that future owners of the 12-FP will see this post to balance out some of the other less enthusiastic reviews. One needs to understand some very essential behaviors when using this stove. I suspect the aforementioned steps are probably universal, but while some stoves may be more forgiving, the 12-FP will not perform well without strictly observing them. It may be that the 12-FP is not the ideal stove for the beginner, but once the user figures it out, they're bound to be happy with its performance in a small dwelling.
