New to forum, couple of questions

[gogreenburnwood]

Hello all. I'm new to the forum but not to burning wood. I've heated my 1989 1800 ft. house with a Consolidated Dutch-west small convection heater with the catalytic combustor. I'm actually on my second stove, as the first ones inside pieces cracked after 5 years and I found it easier to replace then to fix (they were cheap back then). Well I discovered a few weeks ago my combustor has broken up and it is only on it's second season (I heat entirely with wood). The combustor before that only 3 years I think. I took the top off and noticed the heat shield support for the combustor was mostly gone. So I could try replacing internal parts or get a new stove. New stove is the choice.

Now Cat or not Cat. To be honest I'm tired of babying the combustor. I love the way it works and the minimal creosote buildup over the heating season, and the heat I get off it. But after much research I decided on a PE Alderlea T5. I was leaning towards the T4 because I feel it is closer in size to my CD but after reading many posts on this forum I'm going with the bigger stove. I feel the T6 would put me out on the deck.

My main concern was not firing the stove enough to keep the chimney clean. That is my question. My experience with the dutch-west has been slow burning fires most of the time with higher burn only in the coldest of weather (January and February). Will I have to run the stove at higher temperatures to keep the secondary burn going to prevent creosote buildup in the chimney? And is that going to use more wood. I have a small woodshed attached to my garage that holds just enough wood for the year, so I will be able to tell. I'm not worried about using a little more but am concerned that I could use 1/2 again what I use now.

After reading many posts I feel the people here are knowledgeable. Thank you for your comments

 

[moosetrek]

1800 sq ft plus upstate NY = T6 (IMO), I don't think you'll be out on the deck at all. I heat 900 sq ft with one and have a bit milder climate (depending on what you consider upstate NY - our farm was on the CA border but some call upstate anything north of the City). My chimney stays pretty clean if I burn dry wood. The Alderlea stoves, being convective, allow smaller hotter fires with a more even heat, so you can run it hot enough to keep clean and not feel overwhelmed. Not sure how much wood you use with the old one, so it's hard to give an opinion on whether you'll use more or not. Also how warm you like the house is a big factor too.

 

[gogreenburnwood]

Well my woodshed holds about 8 face cord but that is 15" wood for the most part, so about 2.5 full cords. We like the living room about 70-75 degrees. Our house is a passive solar design and the living room/kitchen and upstairs hall are all open with a cathedral ceiling. Our bedroom is downstairs and stays in the low 60's i guess. The 3 bedrooms upstairs are now unoccupied (isn't it great when they grow up!) and the doors stay closed. We have an attached sun-room to the living room and it has openings at the top of the wall so not toattly isolated from the living room, but we do lose some heat out there when it's not sunny.

 

[begreen]

I wouldn't worry about flue and creosote as long as you are burning fully seasoned, dry wood. In milder weather you just burn smaller fires. The T5 will burn well with a small load of wood. Our next door neighbor has the Spectrum which is the steel jacketed version of the T5. It was his experience with his Spectrum that convinced me to go with PE. They are very flexible burners working over a wide temperature range. In fall/spring you'll be burning a few medium (4") splits at a time with a 500-600 stove top. In winter you will be burning full loads with thicker splits and running with a 650-700F stove top.

 

[certified106]

Hello all. I'm new to the forum but not to burning wood. I've heated my 1989 1800 ft. house with a Consolidated Dutch-west small convection heater with the catalytic combustor. I'm actually on my second stove, as the first ones inside pieces cracked after 5 years and I found it easier to replace then to fix (they were cheap back then). Well I discovered a few weeks ago my combustor has broken up and it is only on it's second season (I heat entirely with wood). The combustor before that only 3 years I think. I took the top off and noticed the heat shield support for the combustor was mostly gone. So I could try replacing internal parts or get a new stove. New stove is the choice. Now Cat or not Cat. To be honest I'm tired of babying the combustor. I love the way it works and the minimal creosote buildup over the heating season, and the heat I get off it. But after much research I decided on a PE Alderlea T5. I was leaning towards the T4 because I feel it is closer in size to my CD but after reading many posts on this forum I'm going with the bigger stove. I feel the T6 would put me out on the deck.

My main concern was not firing the stove enough to keep the chimney clean. That is my question. My experience with the dutch-west has been slow burning fires most of the time with higher burn only in the coldest of weather (January and February). Will I have to run the stove at higher temperatures to keep the secondary burn going to prevent creosote buildup in the chimney? And is that going to use more wood. I have a small woodshed attached to my garage that holds just enough wood for the year, so I will be able to tell. I'm not worried about using a little more but am concerned that I could use 1/2 again what I use now.

After reading many posts I feel the people here are knowledgeable. Thank you for your comments

You should browse my thread that I have going on. I just switched from an XL Dutchwest to an Alderlea T6.
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/73569/

I do not feel like I should be answering your questions as I have very limited experience with my Alderlea at this point and there are many memebers who have much more experience than I can offer to you. However I can say this, so far the stove has been extremely easy to light, my secondarys light off quicker than I could ever get my cat to light off. My begining fires with this stove were very small 4 split fires and I still had the secondary's firing in 20 minutes. had my first medium/large fire last night and let me tell you what the stove can put off some serious heat. The stove seems so mild mannered with small loads but then has the ability to really put out the heat. I also find this worth mentioning with the firebox slightly over half full I easily obtained a 91/2 hour burn time. I then put 4 splits in it this morning at 6:30 got home at 4:30pm and it still has hot enough coals that I could restart if I needed to. So far the burn time/coal carrying has been pretty good. This next winter will be when I really get to test it out so I'm sure I will be reporting more information about hard burning starting next fall.

 

[gogreenburnwood]

certified106 I did read your thread and I must tell you that it feels like a episode from the twilight zone. I also have a Kubota, a B7300, I use it for everything all year. It doesn't get much rest. I've had it for about 15 years and I think it has about 800 hrs. on it. And of course you know I had decided to switch from DW cat to a non-cat a couple of weeks ago when I discovered my combustor all broken up. And before I found this forum I decided on the PE Alderlea. The only difference is that I don't really need the larger T6. I was leaning towards the T4 because it seemed closer to the dutchwest, but the threads I read convinced me to go with the T5. I get the feeling I will be burning more wood, but too be honest I am looking forward to running a stove that doesn't need so much babying to keep the cat in working order. I am already looking forward to next February because I tap 3 maple trees and evaporate on the stove. I always end up with more sap then I can evaporate and end up with about 3/4 gallon of syrup. It sounds like the cook-top on the T5 will actually boil the sap instead of just evaporating it. Maybe I'll tap 4 trees next year. I'm glad I found this forum. Thanks to all that contribute

 

[Fsappo]

Great job plowing thru the info to come to a decision. Your going to love the PE product line and with the forum members help it looks like you found the right model. Feel free to share your experiences this heating season.