wellbuilt home said:
I would like to know how the fan kit works out for you .
I could have had a heat shield and fan kit for 130 bucks when i bought the stove after the fact they wanted 400 bucks . ( yes kicking my self )
My side door leaks air at the hinges on the bottom .
I can burn up 3 or 4 splits in an hour and never move from 300o .
Im burning up 7 cord of wood a year how much wood are you going thru ?
I am going to try a magic heat heat reclaimer in the flu to boost heat out put .
I hate the way they look but i need to get more heat out put .
You can stop the leak in the side door by replacing the gasket. A leaking door gasket can contribute to poor performance by allowing unwanted air in which in turn takes heat up the chimney.
I have a stove pipe damper and find I can run the stove with it shut and the air almost closed or even fully closed and get a good slow burn cruising at 400. This is key to keeping heat in the stove.
If you are continually allowing the stove to get cold and are having to bring it back up to temp, you have the wrong stove for your needs.
When mine is cruising and gets down to hot ashes, if I load 3-4 splits of GOOD wood I can get to 500+ pretty easily at which point the heat is like the sun coming off of it. If I want to go to 600+ I load it with the drier stuff, get it blazing and then choke it down but not as much so I get a hotter fire but still keeping heat from going up the stack.
When I replaced my gaskets I found I needed to install them so they were thicker by not pulling on them. They need to be thick to get a good seal. I also found the front door seems to be designed with the hinge side clamping the gasket less than the latch side. I'm guessing they did this to help with door closure but I found I needed the gasket thicker on the hinge side to get it to seal there. So I re-installed the gasket with it more bunched up on the hinge sides. That worked. Next time I'm going with 3/4" gasket.
Don't know yet how much wood I'll burn. This is the first year.
My blower is on order.
It's going up to 56° today so I'm going to let both stoves cool and do a good cleaning. This wishy-washy weather makes it hard to keep an even keel.