Well, been burning our new 1400 for about a month I think.
It really is a budget stove and some items really show it. Our version has legs and no ash tray. This is the first budget part, where the ash tray goes they've simply bolted two pieces of steal over the stamped hole, with some welds holding it and the bolt left in place. The supplied fire brick is just broken to fit around this plate because it can't sit on top of it. The other thing that stands out is the arched door. The entire arch is covered by the face of the stove, so you still have a rectangle viewing area. Otherwise the stove seems well built with nice welds and decent finish.
Now to the burn. They advertise 8 hours, and to be honest I am at 9 hours now and about to reload as the stove top as finally dropped below 300 degrees. However to get there required constant tending. This is NOT a fire and forget stove. If you load it, and tend it until the flue and draft are closed then leave it, it's more like 5-6 hours with a stove full of ash and coals. It's taken me a lot of trial and error to get there as I only have experience with old smoke dragons. I tried messing with the secondary intake, and got mixed results. I finally put a flue damper in and this has helped tremendously. Even then, this stove wants to run hot, having a stove top therm is absolutely required with this stove. The manual says not to intentionally run the stove over 700, well that's nice, because even with the flue and draft completely closed she cruises at or just slightly over 700 (needle on the last zero of 700 on scale). It will stick there for a good hour. Prior to the flue damper install she has seen the stove top at 800 and flue temps slightly over 900. The other thing the flue damper did was to keep the flue and stove top temps very close, usually not more then 50 degrees apart. Prior to the damper the flue would always be a good 100 degrees hotter then the stove.
Hot starts (on a bed of coals) can take 30-45 minutes. Cold starts can take an hour before you get everything closed.
Now, how did I get 9 hours with this thing?
Hot started on a bed of coals about and inch or so deep. Wide open draft and flue. Wait for the flames to engulf most of the wood and slowly close the draft (usually in five steps). Reducing the draft a small amount each time the flames get full. Typically on the first attempt to full close the flames go out and the stove starts to cool. At which time I need to open the draft half way again and wait for the flames to come back. Within minutes you can hear the draft flowing hard and you can close the draft all the way in one step and watch the secondaries for a bit. After about 10 minutes of the draft being closed and the flames still roaring I can finally close the flue. Then I can pretty much ignore the stove and get about 3 hours of the stove top at 600~700 degrees. Then about two hours of the stove slowly dropping to 500 degrees. By this time it's a mass of hot coals, so to keep the heat going I open the flue damper all the way. Then for the next hour I slowly open the draft to full to keep the coals stoked. Then for the next three hours I open the stove hourly and stir up the coals until there is very little left. After nine hours the stove room is still 75 degrees and the second floor rooms at 68. The outside temps are about 28-32 today.
If I do not tend this stove for the full burn I expect the furnace to be on after about 6-8 hours which is set at 63.5 degrees and as I stated a stove full of coals.
Overall, for a budget stove, even with all the tending we are in line to be saving about $2500 in propane...half of the total cost of the stove and install! If you buy one of these stoves, keep in mind it's going to run hot and will required constant tending to get the best from it.
Ian
It really is a budget stove and some items really show it. Our version has legs and no ash tray. This is the first budget part, where the ash tray goes they've simply bolted two pieces of steal over the stamped hole, with some welds holding it and the bolt left in place. The supplied fire brick is just broken to fit around this plate because it can't sit on top of it. The other thing that stands out is the arched door. The entire arch is covered by the face of the stove, so you still have a rectangle viewing area. Otherwise the stove seems well built with nice welds and decent finish.
Now to the burn. They advertise 8 hours, and to be honest I am at 9 hours now and about to reload as the stove top as finally dropped below 300 degrees. However to get there required constant tending. This is NOT a fire and forget stove. If you load it, and tend it until the flue and draft are closed then leave it, it's more like 5-6 hours with a stove full of ash and coals. It's taken me a lot of trial and error to get there as I only have experience with old smoke dragons. I tried messing with the secondary intake, and got mixed results. I finally put a flue damper in and this has helped tremendously. Even then, this stove wants to run hot, having a stove top therm is absolutely required with this stove. The manual says not to intentionally run the stove over 700, well that's nice, because even with the flue and draft completely closed she cruises at or just slightly over 700 (needle on the last zero of 700 on scale). It will stick there for a good hour. Prior to the flue damper install she has seen the stove top at 800 and flue temps slightly over 900. The other thing the flue damper did was to keep the flue and stove top temps very close, usually not more then 50 degrees apart. Prior to the damper the flue would always be a good 100 degrees hotter then the stove.
Hot starts (on a bed of coals) can take 30-45 minutes. Cold starts can take an hour before you get everything closed.
Now, how did I get 9 hours with this thing?
Hot started on a bed of coals about and inch or so deep. Wide open draft and flue. Wait for the flames to engulf most of the wood and slowly close the draft (usually in five steps). Reducing the draft a small amount each time the flames get full. Typically on the first attempt to full close the flames go out and the stove starts to cool. At which time I need to open the draft half way again and wait for the flames to come back. Within minutes you can hear the draft flowing hard and you can close the draft all the way in one step and watch the secondaries for a bit. After about 10 minutes of the draft being closed and the flames still roaring I can finally close the flue. Then I can pretty much ignore the stove and get about 3 hours of the stove top at 600~700 degrees. Then about two hours of the stove slowly dropping to 500 degrees. By this time it's a mass of hot coals, so to keep the heat going I open the flue damper all the way. Then for the next hour I slowly open the draft to full to keep the coals stoked. Then for the next three hours I open the stove hourly and stir up the coals until there is very little left. After nine hours the stove room is still 75 degrees and the second floor rooms at 68. The outside temps are about 28-32 today.
If I do not tend this stove for the full burn I expect the furnace to be on after about 6-8 hours which is set at 63.5 degrees and as I stated a stove full of coals.
Overall, for a budget stove, even with all the tending we are in line to be saving about $2500 in propane...half of the total cost of the stove and install! If you buy one of these stoves, keep in mind it's going to run hot and will required constant tending to get the best from it.
Ian
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