Limit of stove top temperature on NC30

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Seasoned Oak said:
If you house is cold with a 650 stove temp then you either need more insulation/air sealing ect, or a bigger stove. Id go with the insulation.
Not sure that applies, my Summit is more than enough stove except for when I have a south wind and 0 or below temps, house is farily tight and good amount of insulation, if I had a bigger stove it would be too big 90 % of the time (or more), these stoves are made to run in that temp range or higher, no problem.
 
oldspark said:
Seasoned Oak said:
If you house is cold with a 650 stove temp then you either need more insulation/air sealing ect, or a bigger stove. Id go with the insulation.
Not sure that applies, my Summit is more than enough stove except for when I have a south wind and 0 or below temps, house is farily tight and good amount of insulation, if I had a bigger stove it would be too big 90 % of the time (or more), these stoves are made to run in that temp range or higher, no problem.

Myway listed his location in the northeast which is where i live and its 50 degrees today. Plus we have been having a record mild winter so far. So the thinking here is if his house is cold now,what will it be like for the next 6-8 days when its forecast not to go above freezing here. Going to 750-800 is not going to bridge the gap IMO.
 
Been getting better results with more practice. Temps topped around 47 yesterday, 45 day before. High winds that I can hear coming out of the stove when I am loading. Temps have been hot enough in the house to the point I load only twice a day now. Got a 12 hour burn 2 nights ago, and house was 73 in the morning, outside 40. Working it out, though I am still uncertain what will happen when it is <20 round the clock.

House is insulated well, and Capes normally hold heat well on their own. Keep in mind the stove is in the basement 26x40 floor. I am pretty certain the key to keeping the temps up in the colder days will be to maintain the basement temp. That heat rises throughout the house (hardwood floors) quite well. We leave the basement door ajar too. If the basement cools, then I have an uphill battle. I do like the consumption difference vs the Defiant. Starting to wonder if the final plan will be to keep both stoves in the basement, and swap them when temps really plummet. It is pretty easy to maneuver them with a floor jack. Still have the Defiant strapped to the hand truck in the garage. I have a stair-climbing truck which is THE TOOL for moving these things.

Edit: Snowing now. Test to come soon?
 
One thing that helped with my 30 was discovering and fixing a leaky stove pipe where it connected in to my flue. Though it seemed like a little air leak, once I sealed it up, the draft and stove performance was much better.

I have found with my stove, if it hits 450 and I damper down, it holds 450. If it is 550 and damper down, it holds that temp. Same damper settings too. I don't know if it is the relationship between heat induced draft that makes the stove hold - like a rock - the temps when I damper down, but that is the way my stove operates. I think I've been over 650 a few times, never hit 700. When the stove is at 650, it's really getting hot in my house. My stove will also cruise at 650 with similar damper settings too, so I'm thinking that if you can get your stove up to temp and get it to hold that temp, you are going to pump out much more, but steady heat. You need a combo of fire and secondaries too.

I'm very interested in this thread to see how you finally make out with the 30 vs the old Defiant.

Rather than swap out the stoves, I think what I'd do - as the temps really plunge and challenge your stove's output, is move to slightly smaller splits, burning N/S with a clear path from the dog house to the rear of the stove. Don't pack the stove to the top, just to the top of the firebricks. I'm thinking that with a little smaller splits and some airspace, you will get much hotter fires and though your reload times and wood consumption may increase when you hit the coldest temps, your wood consumption will not be as much as was required by the Defiant.

Good luck,

Bill
 
mywaynow said:
What is the upper range I should use for stove top temp running this stove? Seeing 650 now, but thinking I should go up. House temp is not picking up like I would like. Stove pipe temps are not exceeding 325 regardless of where the top has been.

How confident are you in your stovetop thermometer? I have no confidence in mine.
 
Seems to react fine. She got to 750 last night when I left the stove with someone else to watch. Turned the fan on a damped it and the temp dropped within 5 minutes.
 
Wood Duck said:
mywaynow said:
What is the upper range I should use for stove top temp running this stove? Seeing 650 now, but thinking I should go up. House temp is not picking up like I would like. Stove pipe temps are not exceeding 325 regardless of where the top has been.

How confident are you in your stovetop thermometer? I have no confidence in mine.

my imperial from lowes is between 100-200f off when it starts reading over 600f our stove acording to their temp gauge is running at 850 when we peak, but in reality its like 700-750. it gets the house to 80 when its in the single digets outside. when it gets that hot. although ive had the house in the 90's that to hot tho with negitive temps outside. but its just the one level its on.

what i do is i light the nc30s fire and let it go with the door open tell a decent burn starts, then close the door with the air controll all the way out for a few minutes, then when the stove top is getting aorund 450 500 i push that air controll in tell the shiny knob is right before it begins to go under the ash lip, then i wait aboput 10 15 more minutes and push that knob so its 1/2 way under the ash lip or untill i can see it effect the flames they will slow a little then after a while the stove top is 700 or so i push the air controll in as far as it will go and its just a secondary burn for the rest the load.

works good, sometimes it gets to hot so i open a door or open the stove door if the stovetop temps are getting over 750 800 to cool it down some if i think its going to go higher then 800-850. but most the time it peak and then slowly comes back
 
mywaynow said:
What is the upper range I should use for stove top temp running this stove? Seeing 650 now, but thinking I should go up. House temp is not picking up like I would like. Stove pipe temps are not exceeding 325 regardless of where the top has been.

I cruze at 650 on the 30 and the 13 - and I don't see no dain bramage yet.
 
Yesterday temps dropped to mid/low 30s, and overnight was 27 with high winds. Loaded the 30 at 9 pm e/w 7 pieces. 6:30 this morning house 65 degrees, 2 gallons of coals in the stove. Only thing I think I could have done differently was a n/s load, since the stove took a long time to come up to temps loaded e/w with the coals to the front. Don't think it would have made a big difference. Top was at 600 when I walked away for the night. Must say the stove just does not seem to be up to the task at hand. It appears I either have a shoulder season stove or a stove for sale.
 
Dont give up yet, I had one of the best fires ever last night and it was on Green Ash which is not even my best wood so still learning here, my stove works way better with very few ashes in it.
 
Been feeding her oak, hickory and ash all along. Forecast for the next 2 weeks is relatively mild. Going to keep playing with it, but going to bring the Defiant back down to the basement too. Like the 30 but it seems to be a middle weight in a heavy weight fight.
 
I'm heating over 2200 sq feet out of a berm house (walk in basement) with a ton of south windows and the only time my summit has a problem is a south wind and bitter cold temps, yesterday it was not working very well and I cleaned out the ashes and I swear after the wood burn down the coals were hotter. I think yu just need more time as the 30 according to a lot of people on here puts out a lot of heat. There are some old posts about a guy wh replaced his 30 because it was too hot in the stove room with a summit and could not get the heat out of it. Hang in there and keep trying different things, if I want quick heat I load lincoln log style and that works great for me.
 
All I have as a comparison is the Defiant. If the 30 is at 650 stovetop, I can sit in front of it and watch from 30 inches away. That seems to be a hot stove by the feedback here. If I were pushing the Defiant, the heat radiating off the stove would keep you at 4 feet away. Coldest days the basement was 80 degrees. Started running the 30 as hot as I felt was reasonable (650) at 6:30 this morning. Temp in the center of the house dropped a degree at 8:30. I just turned the baseboard heat on for a moment to take the edge off. 64 degrees is not why I spent all the time and money processing wood, buying stoves, buying pipe and accepting the responsibility of tending a stove. Wife is not happy. End of story.
 
2 1/2 hours after the load and the air is wide open, top is 440. ugh....
 
Ripping fire?
Secondarys working?
Flue temp?
 
Sorry if I missed it but what are your flue temps. Never mind I see it now.
 
All wood is coaled up. Primary flames at the point where the air meets the wood. Flue is 340. No secondary visible.
 
You burnt the load up in 2.5 hours and even lost a degree or two?
I would switch back I guess.
 
IMHO too early to switch back unless you are freezing, I got through it with no back up heat. :gulp:
 
mywaynow said:
2 1/2 hours after the load and the air is wide open, top is 440. ugh....

Something isn't right! I loaded up the T6 at 6 am this morning stove top was 250 and the house was 69. I pulled the coals forward and lit off the front of the load 25 minutes later the stove top was sitting around 650. shut the air and left it about 1/3 of the way open, turned the blowers on high and the stove top dropped to about 500-550 (I'm quite certain if the blower was off the stove top would be pushing 750). I attached some pictures to show you I haven't burned quite 1/3 of the load yet and it is still sitting at a stove top of 550 and has now sign of letting up house temps have come up to around 73 degrees.

I know you can't tell it from the pictures but the all of my flames and orange glowing is just on the front of the logs, those logs were almost touching the glass and they have burned to ash 4 to 6 inches back into the stove. with whole formed logs still right behind the orange flaming front pieces. I am wondering if you are setting the stove up to off gas the whole load very quickly? I know after burning in my Dutchwest it took a while to get the hang of setting the stove up correctly to burn front to back but now it's second nature and takes just a few quick seconds. In the defiant and the dutch it doesn't' matter as much you just light the load up and then shut it down due to the fact you need the whole firebox heated up to get the cat light off. The key to getting the long high temp stove top temps is to set it up so the load burns from one end to the other. Do you have a flue probe in your stack? I really think the flue probe is one of the best learning tools to let you see how the stove is responding.

I agree with Oldspark I keep enough ash to carry coals but the stove need to be able to get that doghouse or boost air to keep the ends of the logs burning up from the bottom.
 

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I started a post about how my old smoke dragon was beating my EPA stove ( englander 30 ). The old stove without question put out more heat than the 30. I went back to burning coal in the old stove and kept burning wood in the 30. Both stoves are in the basement. The 30 wouldnt keep the house warm enough alone, but with a little help from the coal stove it does fine. I also added a flue damper and I think that helps keep the draft a little slower so I can get longer burns. I have a 30 foot chimney, so thats not for everyone. Dont let anyone make you feel bad about your dissatisfaction with the 30, it probably isnt big enough for your application. But I wouldnt rule out some more tinkering either.
 
If I start the blower, the top will max at 450. Right now I rearranged the logs that were on the edges and the stove looks like your pic. Top is mid 600s. I did move coals to the side on loading this morning. The logs I just moved were opposite the coal side of the load.
 
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