Hi everyone,
I'm new to woodstoves and excited for the winter and I'd like to introduce myself.
My name is Shawn. I bought my first house with my wife last Nov. and it came with a Consolidated Dutchwest 2461 Catalytic wood stove. The chimney is a Selkirk Super-Pro exterior system which runs up right around 20ft the side of the house. The stove was pretty used and abused so my wife and I decided to restore the unit. It wasn't even fastened to the class A pipe going through the wall! So, I took everything apart and painted it, put new gaskets in all around, adjusted, polished and lubed all the joints and hinges, replaced the cat, custom-fabbed some new handles, installed new class A and stove pipe, and this time properly connecting it all. It was all a pain in the behind but I learned a lot during the whole process. I got a free cord of ash as a house-warming gift (pun intended) and burned it for the back half of last season. Boy, does this stove put out some serious heat! A few hiccups occurred hear and there (backpuffing, cold chimney syndrome, catalyst learning curve, etc.) but we made it through and are very excited to start again this winter. This past May, we cut down a massive swamp maple on my property and piled it all down the driveway. You can see most of it is neatly stacked now on two 16ft x 6ft racks I made. I have an 8ft rack along the house as well. I also picked up another cord of white oak which freshly fell on my friend's property, and may get more down the road (all the wood so far has been free). This amount should hold me over for the winter, minus the oak of course. I have some photos attached of the current setup and am anxious to hear from all of you with comments, concerns, advice, etc. I have more questions about a few things but I'll make new posts at a later date. I'll see you all in the forums!
I'm new to woodstoves and excited for the winter and I'd like to introduce myself.
My name is Shawn. I bought my first house with my wife last Nov. and it came with a Consolidated Dutchwest 2461 Catalytic wood stove. The chimney is a Selkirk Super-Pro exterior system which runs up right around 20ft the side of the house. The stove was pretty used and abused so my wife and I decided to restore the unit. It wasn't even fastened to the class A pipe going through the wall! So, I took everything apart and painted it, put new gaskets in all around, adjusted, polished and lubed all the joints and hinges, replaced the cat, custom-fabbed some new handles, installed new class A and stove pipe, and this time properly connecting it all. It was all a pain in the behind but I learned a lot during the whole process. I got a free cord of ash as a house-warming gift (pun intended) and burned it for the back half of last season. Boy, does this stove put out some serious heat! A few hiccups occurred hear and there (backpuffing, cold chimney syndrome, catalyst learning curve, etc.) but we made it through and are very excited to start again this winter. This past May, we cut down a massive swamp maple on my property and piled it all down the driveway. You can see most of it is neatly stacked now on two 16ft x 6ft racks I made. I have an 8ft rack along the house as well. I also picked up another cord of white oak which freshly fell on my friend's property, and may get more down the road (all the wood so far has been free). This amount should hold me over for the winter, minus the oak of course. I have some photos attached of the current setup and am anxious to hear from all of you with comments, concerns, advice, etc. I have more questions about a few things but I'll make new posts at a later date. I'll see you all in the forums!
