Englander 30 is in. Not getting hot though. rrr

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Try the blower. It will help you distribute more heat from the stove at 600F and do a better job moving it out into the room. $160 well spent, even after you solve the draft issue. Sounds like you're on track, remember the increased efficiency comes at the cost of a more fine-tuned stove. Wood, draft, etc. all matter more in the 30NC and other new stoves than the older ones. That said, try some good dry pine or smal pieces to really get the chimney warm; as mentioned close it back 1/3 to 1/2 way and check how much the temp climbs. Even with a less-than-ideal draft, I would think 700 should be doable with that stove - less-than-ideal pine we still had our 30 crankin' with only a 9' pipe/chimney combo in our last place.
 
I can get it up to 5-600 ONLY if i have it wide open and with new wood on a hot load of coals. It dont hang around at 600 very long in an hour its back at 400. Do you still get a lot of heat from the blower with stove at 400?
 
Yes - I would suggest it; we were ready to turn our stove back because we couldn't get "enough heat" from it, adding the blower was a night-and-day difference in our case. Given an older home, I bet the layout might be a little bit broken up, and maybe taller ceilings? It really pushes the heat out from the stove, and into the room where you can move it around. We use less wood now, because we're not making a super-hot layer of air at teh top of the room we need to then push down. More goes into the room I've found a lower temp with the blower works better to even out the cycle too.
 
nojo said:
I can get it up to 5-600 ONLY if i have it wide open and with new wood on a hot load of coals. It dont hang around at 600 very long in an hour its back at 400. Do you still get a lot of heat from the blower with stove at 400?

Yes, The blower makes a huge difference in moving the heat around and you will still get good heat @ 400 °F

For all safety, intensive and practical purposes I would get a flexable 6" ss liner. You want optimal performance and sleep at night knowing you dont have to worry about a chimney fire and the stove will draft/burn better. ;-)

My set up will go to 600-650 °F easy with good seasoned splits :cheese:
 
Thanks guys!

Hiram, in that youtube vid, whats your air set at?
 
The problems you're describing sound exactly like what I experienced in my 30 with wood that wasn't well seasoned.

I'm concerned that if you are having trouble getting the stove up to temp. without the blower, adding the blower is going to make it harder to get it going.

If you haven't already, check to make sure your baffles are laying flat on top of the burn tubes, side by side, with no space between them. They should be slid to the back of the stove. All smoke/gasses should exit the stove through a ~2inch wide opening that runs the width of the stove at the top front of the firebox. If the baffles aren't sitting right, the secondaries will never fire right, and you won't get anything out of the stove.

What sort of secondary combustion do you get? Do you get the rolling dancing flames in the top of the firebox?

-SF
 
nojo said:
Thanks guys!

Hiram, in that youtube vid, whats your air set at?


Nojo,

That video is right after I pushed the damper closed. The video on Youtube looks different than the actual video. I don't know why? :smirk:

This one is better http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z2gBXfflOE&feature=related

But SlyFerret hit the nail right on the head. It sounds like your wood maybe less than seasoned by the way you describe the stove burning?

When you use good wood its a heat machine.....but just like any EPA stove if its not seasoned its not going to burn/perform right.

unseasoned wood burns fast and does not produce optimum heat. I was at my buddies house watching the Superbowl and he has to constantly stoke his stove because his wood sucks, he was less than prepared. Last year he went through 2 full cords more than me.

I load my stove and dont touch it until it needs reloading again 8hrs later.
 
I agree on the wood. I loaded up the 30 at eight thirty last night with ten degrees outside and 72 inside. Woke up at seven o'clock with the house at 66, four degrees outside and reloaded on the coals. Three year old oak and the stove half in and half out of the fireplace and no blower running since the power has been out since Saturday morning and I ain't running the genset overnight just for the blower. I only have ten hours worth of gas left and can't get out to get any more.
 
BrotherBart said:
I agree on the wood. I loaded up the 30 at eight thirty last night with ten degrees outside and 72 inside. Woke up at seven o'clock with the house at 66, four degrees outside and reloaded on the coals. Three year old oak and the stove half in and half out of the fireplace and no blower running since the power has been out since Saturday morning and I ain't running the genset overnight just for the blower. I only have ten hours worth of gas left and can't get out to get any more.

Ya need a delivery BB? ;)
 
BrotherBart said:
Hogwildz said:
Ya need a delivery BB? ;)

Yes.

Save that 10 gallons to charge up your UPS Bro. :cheese:

I know you got a big azz gas tank just outside the door. Now all you need is a piece of hose to reclaim it.

And to the OP - its your wood man. I will bet money on it.
 
Definitely agree about the lack of seasoned wood.

If I loaded my 30 up on hot coals and left the primary open, the temp wouldn't matter since I'm fairly certain that the entire thing would be glowing light a light bulb and shaking.

Once loaded on hot coals, it sits for about 3-5 minutes wide open, then about 5-10 minutes with the stove side of the spring handle on air draft being flush with the ash lip, then down to cruising mode where the tip end of the spring is flush with the ash lip. At this rate, the stove will cruise between 600 and 675.

I do this with the stove emptying into a 7 1/4 x 7 1/4 in exterior chimney (that means I don't have a perfect draft)

If you can't do that then in my opinion, you have AT LEAST 1 of 3 problems.

1. Your wood is too wet
2. You have a serious draft problem (too large diameter chimney, too short chimney, objects too close)
3. Your cap is plugged.

pen
 
I think I set a new personal record with my 30 today.

The house was 67 this morning when I loaded the stove at 7:30am. I left for work just after 8:00am with the stove cruising away at 550. I packed the stove as full as I could without going much above the firebrick. I think I used 8 splits. When I got home just after 7:00pm, the house was still 77 degrees and the stove was about 180*F. Temperature this morning was near 0*F, and the high today was about 21*F.

With a full load of good seasoned wood, the 30 is plenty capable of nice long burn times. Without good wood... it can be incredibly frustrating to operate.

-SF
 
What are your outdoor temps? I'd agree on the wood, but it's probably a combination of factors. Try some really really dry small splits and cram the box full with them, allow plenty of airspace. I bet it'll overcome the draft and take off above 600 without any chimney at all (not a good idea, just sayin'). Might not last too long, but then you'll know that it's the wood and you can figure out from there how to fix it; split smaller, mix some kiln-dried lumber or that old sawhorse you always trip on in the shop, etc.
 
I would also have to agree that it is most likely the wood. I just got my stove this winter and don't have much wood stockpiled. The wood that I have isn't all that great as far as seasoning. It was all standing dead when I cut it and it went straight into my garage. It sometimes gets frustrating trying to get the stove to take off with my wood.

I then took a wood pallet I had and cut it up and put a couple pieces in the stove. I couldn't back the air down enough and the thing was rip-roaring. I really thought it was going to blast off into the bedroom above. Can't wait till next winter when I will be prepared with dry seasoned wood.
 
Hey guys, it will burn good on a hot bed of coals. There is no spring on the damper handle. I need to get one. But when I go to bed I've learned to set the thing so that the damper rod is about 3/8" under the BEND of the ashlip. Thats like 1 1/2" under the ashlip.

This mornign woke up to 68 at 8:30, it was 70 when I went to bed at 12:30. It seems to hold the house at those temps till about 10am. So thats like 10 hours with only a minor temp drop. Not bad. I still think my draft is screwy, still getting smoke with stove top temps of like 500.
 
nojo said:
I still think my draft is screwy, still getting smoke with stove top temps of like 500.

At 500+ °F that is most likely steam you see.......unseasoned wood :roll:

You need to track down some "hard wood" that is for sure seasoned and try it.

I have some wood (8x8 splits) that is not seasoned at even 2 years cut,split and stacked.

If you can track down some kiln dried hard wood you might just want to try some. Worst case find some 2x4s load your stove half way and check for smoke after you get to secondary operating temperature.
 
Temp dropped a lot last night till this morning, the boiler kicked one, not a lot of coals. I dont think I put enough fuel in it last night.

Im basically out of real good wood this year. I have a pile of stuff that was sitting at a friends for like 3 years but a lot of it is wet and some of it is slightly punky. Almost considering getting some bricks for the rest of the year. Actually there is a guy about an hour away who has a pickup truck load of really dry stuff that I should grab.
 
nojo said:
Temp dropped a lot last night till this morning, the boiler kicked one, not a lot of coals. I dont think I put enough fuel in it last night.

Im basically out of real good wood this year. I have a pile of stuff that was sitting at a friends for like 3 years but a lot of it is wet and some of it is slightly punky. Almost considering getting some bricks for the rest of the year. Actually there is a guy about an hour away who has a pickup truck load of really dry stuff that I should grab.

This season is more than half over anyway.....

If it will save you cash over the boiler....try some bricks and let your buddies wood dry close to your stove!

Here is a current link to read.

Do you ever doubt how dry your wood needs to be?

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/52660/
 
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