Here's where I stand with the Englander 30-NCH:
1. I suspected an air leak in my flue pipe. Don't know if someone bumped it or some sealant fell out, but a whistle developed over the past week and half. Pulled the cover that finishes the "look" from the single wall to the double wall class A chimney pipe and found a significant leak where the two pipe are not quite concentric. I put some stove cement in the gap and the stove quited down. I also got much better secondary action with this little fix. With at least 23 ft of vertical class A, I knew I had plenty of draft potential, but now it's much more pronounced. I don't know what the pressure drop across the secondary tubes are, but I feel it was defiantly compromised with the stove pipe leak upstream.
2. I abandoned any dedicated N/S or E/W burn technique. I am burning the wood in whatever configuration it fits. If I got N/S across the bottom and want to do E/W on top of that - great. Reason for this is all of us in this house get hung-up on "how I should burn" vs. simply burning the stove hot for a clean burn. I should/can get both regardless of the wood orientation.
3. Regardless of the amount of wood in the firebox, I am upping the minimum stove temp before I damper down to at least 600 degrees, maybe 575. That's just a point of reference. If I go a bit higher or lower, I need to be farther above 500 it seems to get the wood and stove coookin' before backing down for a sustained burn.
4. I don't think I'll ever get some of the web video burns with glowing logs and secondaries only - with secondaries maintaining the firebox temps. I think that's a characteristic of my set-up.
5. Stove pipe damper is now always open. What I'm finding is that if I get the fire going for a long burn, the stove pipe damper works fine keeping more heat in the firebox, but as the fire dies down, but not to charcoal, the air flow being slowed down, doesn't allow enough air for the spits to burn and I loose firebox temps, secondaries and get smoke out the chimney. The doghouse air is also open too.
Bottom line is that I am going to burn this stove hot and hard to get a clean burn regardless of how much firewood I chew through. My plan is to run this stove like a gear drive garden tractor - full throttle, but regulate the speed via the gears. I'll run the stove hot and ultimately regulate the temp/btu output via the number of splits in the firebox.
That's all for now - until I change my mind on how to burn this stove again...
Bill
1. I suspected an air leak in my flue pipe. Don't know if someone bumped it or some sealant fell out, but a whistle developed over the past week and half. Pulled the cover that finishes the "look" from the single wall to the double wall class A chimney pipe and found a significant leak where the two pipe are not quite concentric. I put some stove cement in the gap and the stove quited down. I also got much better secondary action with this little fix. With at least 23 ft of vertical class A, I knew I had plenty of draft potential, but now it's much more pronounced. I don't know what the pressure drop across the secondary tubes are, but I feel it was defiantly compromised with the stove pipe leak upstream.
2. I abandoned any dedicated N/S or E/W burn technique. I am burning the wood in whatever configuration it fits. If I got N/S across the bottom and want to do E/W on top of that - great. Reason for this is all of us in this house get hung-up on "how I should burn" vs. simply burning the stove hot for a clean burn. I should/can get both regardless of the wood orientation.
3. Regardless of the amount of wood in the firebox, I am upping the minimum stove temp before I damper down to at least 600 degrees, maybe 575. That's just a point of reference. If I go a bit higher or lower, I need to be farther above 500 it seems to get the wood and stove coookin' before backing down for a sustained burn.
4. I don't think I'll ever get some of the web video burns with glowing logs and secondaries only - with secondaries maintaining the firebox temps. I think that's a characteristic of my set-up.
5. Stove pipe damper is now always open. What I'm finding is that if I get the fire going for a long burn, the stove pipe damper works fine keeping more heat in the firebox, but as the fire dies down, but not to charcoal, the air flow being slowed down, doesn't allow enough air for the spits to burn and I loose firebox temps, secondaries and get smoke out the chimney. The doghouse air is also open too.
Bottom line is that I am going to burn this stove hot and hard to get a clean burn regardless of how much firewood I chew through. My plan is to run this stove like a gear drive garden tractor - full throttle, but regulate the speed via the gears. I'll run the stove hot and ultimately regulate the temp/btu output via the number of splits in the firebox.
That's all for now - until I change my mind on how to burn this stove again...
Bill