I think part of my problem is that I went from a smoke dragon type stoves to a mighty fine cat stove that is super controllable with the air intake damper and gives long clean burns without any tinkering.
In all fairness to this stove, what I have to work through is a porportional amount of wood for a clean shoulder season burn and the damper settings to make it work. It's a bit compounded because I'm not the only one in the house working the stove - so we all need to pay attention to what works and what does not.
I feel that the E/W burns will give me somewhat less heat, but more burn time. I've got plenty of headroom for more BTU output when the temps finally take a 24/7 plunge, but even then, I want to max out the time between reloading. I've had one burn that was about 9 hrs with plenty of coals to re-kindle the fire. So with the E/W burn, I can live with a lower stove output, especially knowing I can up things with a 90 degree turn of the wood.
But - I really like the N/S loading and the squareness of this firebox to do N/S or E/W.
Also, in fairness to the stove, when I bought my Keystone last year, I was chewing nails on this forum complaining about the black glass and scratching my head about what to do. When I relined to a 6 inch insulated liner, the draft greatly improved, the glass cleared long term and it was like I bought a new and different stove - the performance was so different.
On this Englander, I think the problem lies with this operator more than anything else and my expectations of it. The stove ain't going anywhere anytime soon and I'm going to make the best of it.
Thanks!
Bill
In all fairness to this stove, what I have to work through is a porportional amount of wood for a clean shoulder season burn and the damper settings to make it work. It's a bit compounded because I'm not the only one in the house working the stove - so we all need to pay attention to what works and what does not.
I feel that the E/W burns will give me somewhat less heat, but more burn time. I've got plenty of headroom for more BTU output when the temps finally take a 24/7 plunge, but even then, I want to max out the time between reloading. I've had one burn that was about 9 hrs with plenty of coals to re-kindle the fire. So with the E/W burn, I can live with a lower stove output, especially knowing I can up things with a 90 degree turn of the wood.
But - I really like the N/S loading and the squareness of this firebox to do N/S or E/W.
Also, in fairness to the stove, when I bought my Keystone last year, I was chewing nails on this forum complaining about the black glass and scratching my head about what to do. When I relined to a 6 inch insulated liner, the draft greatly improved, the glass cleared long term and it was like I bought a new and different stove - the performance was so different.
On this Englander, I think the problem lies with this operator more than anything else and my expectations of it. The stove ain't going anywhere anytime soon and I'm going to make the best of it.
Thanks!
Bill
