New stove approved !!! Need a little advice

[blacksmithden]

Wow. A few weeks back, I began looking for an insert for my upstairs fireplace. Not going to happen...it doesnt have the height.

After much grumbling about it, my wife suggested getting a new wood stove for the basement....one that we can actually use. I almost fell over tjat she actually said it ! Lol !

8 years ago, I put one in there. An Ardent Energy Aurora. Well my friends...if you want to smoke your neighbors out in a heart beat, put one of those thermostatic controlled little monsters in. Ive hardly used the thing.

Skip to today. I need a little advice. The house is 1700 sq ft. The basement is probably about 900 sq ft. I dont really care about heat output that much. Anything I put in there is going to help a lot. My main heat source is my gas furnace. My chimney is 6" and has 2 x 45 degree angles before it goes through the wall and makes another 90 degree up the stack. The stack is 27 ft if I remember correctly. Changing any of that isnt going to happen due to clearance issues. The chimney could be put in exactly the spot its in and the way its put in - full stop. Around the stove, I have 24" clearance behind and 4 ft to either side.

My main concerns are emissions and maintenance. I would like to go non-cat. I can easily make up identical copies of baffles and secondary air tube copies in my machine shop as they wear out.

Ive got about $2000 cdn for this project and Ill install it myself. The criteria are, the lowest emissions possible from a non-cat stove thats under $2k and sold in Canada. Thoughts ?

 

[begreen]

SBI (Osburn, Drolet, Enerzone, etc.), Regency, Enviro, Pacific Energy, Napoleon stoves are all made and sold in Canada. See what the PE Super 27 and the Enviro Kodiak sell for in your neighborhood.

 

[blacksmithden]

The PE Super 27 is right around the $2200 Cdn mark and rates at 3.4g/hr for emissions. Its one of the candidates for sure. That 3.5 to 4.5 g/hr emission level seems to be pretty common. If thats what I can get down to for $2ish thousand, then it is what it is. I just want to find the cleanest burning stove that I can in that price range. My biggest fear is spending the money and then getting that knock on the door at 11pm....the one where my neighbor asks me to kill the stove because his asthmatic wife cant breath in their bedroom. I get along really well with my neighbors, and Ive let the existing stove sit idle for a long time to keep everyone happy.

 

[ElmBurner]

Smoke is more a product of how you run the stove.

If you keep it hot by giving it enough air and burn dry wood, it won't smoke.

The only concern for you is getting a good draft through your chimney. If that's not a problem, you're golden with any stove. Then, the consideration goes to price, ease of use, size of the firebox, and all that sort of stuff.

Your stove looks to be fairly modern. Have you tried controlling the damper manually and see if you can get it to burn clean? If it is smoking, the thermostat control is probably choking the air off too much (or you're burning wet wood).

 

[blacksmithden]

Ive got excellent draft, and Im burning tinder dry lodgepole pine this year. Im currently cutting/stacking birch for next year. I could get my current stove to settle down if I cracked the door open and let it run full throttle....unfortunately, that turns the inner pipe of my double wall inside stuff a nice shade of glowing redish orange. We dont want to go THERE again. Lol.

Is hoping to find a stove thats below 2g/hr over 4.5 g/hr like putting in 100% more effort for a 1/2% return in this situation ?

 

[begreen]

It's unknown how large a stove your basement can handle and how the heat will get upstairs. Drolet makes some good 3 cu ft stoves. Canadian Tire sells Englanders under the Timber Ridge brand. This one may be worth considering. You'll find reviews here under the 50 SSW01 and Madison stove threads.
http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/timberidge-smart-wood-stove-0642403p.html#srp

 

[ElmBurner]

Ive got excellent draft, and Im burning tinder dry lodgepole pine this year. Im currently cutting/stacking birch for next year. I could get my current stove to settle down if I cracked the door open and let it run full throttle....unfortunately, that turns the inner pipe of my double wall inside stuff a nice shade of glowing redish orange. We dont want to go THERE again. Lol.

Is hoping to find a stove thats below 2g/hr over 4.5 g/hr like putting in 100% more effort for a 1/2% return in this situation ?

Well, that's a different deal.

If your wood is too dry, the wood wants to burn too fast and you end up with more fuel than air, which gives you a smoky fire. Opening the door gets the air mix right, but all your heat is going up the chimney (and roasting your stovepipe).

As crazy as it sounds, you need to slow down the burning by using wetter wood. Mix in some birch. A log or two per load might do it.

I wouldn't worry about the emissions stuff. One gram is the weight of a paper clip. If you see any smoke out of the chimney, the emissions are way over that, no matter what kind of stove you are using.

 

[blacksmithden]

It's unknown how large a stove your basement can handle and how the heat will get upstairs. Drolet makes some good 3 cu ft stoves. Canadian Tire sells Englanders under the Timber Ridge brand. This one may be worth considering. You'll find reviews here under the 50 SSW01 and Madison stove threads.
http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/timberidge-smart-wood-stove-0642403p.html#srp

I'm actually looking at this one. http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/timber-ridge-wood-stove-2200-sq-ft-e-p-a-0642845p.html#srp

It's built by England's Stove Works. The 50-TNC30. http://www.heatredefined.com/timberridge/stove/timber-ridge-1800-2200-sq.-ft.-wood-stove It's rated at 1.63 gr/hr. That's less than half of what the PE Super 27 I was considering. One of the comments from a buyer said it only came with legs, but the manufacturer says it comes with both a pedestal and legs. I asked the question on the site. We'll see what they come back with. It might be one of those situations where the retailer is trying to keep the cost down by making deals with the manufacturer to leave some features out. My main concern with it...475lbs ! That's going to be interesting getting it downstairs into the basement without getting killed. LOL. Obviously, pulling the bricks out and the door off will help, but with a 3.5cu ft firebox, it's still going to have a lot of iron to it.

 

[Mike M.]

I have the 50-NC30 in my basement and it is very clean burning. Just pulled it apart yesterday for a cleaning, and was impressed chimney was very clean. Its actually easy to get in the basement with a dolly. After having a few of these 2.0-2.5 cu foot stoves the 3.5 is awesome. I get most of my wood for free and its always cut to different sizes, having the 3.5 box gives lots of room.

 

[Newburnerwisconsin]

I have the 50-NC30 in my basement and it is very clean burning. Just pulled it apart yesterday for a cleaning, and was impressed chimney was very clean. Its actually easy to get in the basement with a dolly. After having a few of these 2.0-2.5 cu foot stoves the 3.5 is awesome. I get most of my wood for free and its always cut to different sizes, having the 3.5 box gives lots of room.

That looks like a great price. Can you please tell me what you get for burn times? Say with a full load of hardwood? How goes it burn overnight? Any parts or maintenance problems? Thanks

 

[Mike M.]

I don't really burn overnight. House is well insulated and we like it cool at night. In extreme cold we burn more but haven't had one of those bad winters at this house yet.

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