NEWBIE.... recommendation question DROLET MYRIAD or ENGLANDER 30NC?

Hi,

I was trying to research as much as I could about this before I posted... but had some specific questions to my needs.

I live in Southwest Ohio.
2128 square foot "ranch"

We bought a forclosed house that already has a 56x56 concrete pad with a wall of of the cultured stone behind it. It had a wood stove in there and so the pipe going out to the roof is already there (6 inch diameter) and I believe it is within the tolerance on the outside (3 ft?..based on the pitch of the roof).

We would like to get a stove that meets our budget (800-1300) as well as will heat our home efficiently.

We were looking at the DROLET MYRIAD .. which alleges that it can heat up to 2100 square feet.

but then when I researched here.. lots of folks were talking about the Englander30NC.



The DROLET with the longer than it is wide firebox apparently is a "tight" fit.. we would have to I guess bring it forward to meet the clearances requirement... which are 25" ? from Chimney to wall and 16" from what looks to be the back corner (we are setting it at an angle to the pad.. which is the corner of our home furthest from our bedroom).

It looks like we may have to extend the hearth out to meet the 16 inch clearance.... (we have to replace some of the floor in that area anyway.. which is a plywood subfloor.. so.. I guess we could just put down appropriate "tile" or stone protection ?


but looking at the Englander... It appears the clearances drop to 8 inches around the back and sides... ?? Is that right? ..



Anyone have good recommendations about what would be appropriate for our needs?....

I like the Drolet.. and have read more reviews offsite (plus a decent you tube review) but really can't find much about the Englander 30NC.

I think my partner would like the Englander better just from looks alone.. (legs instead of pedestal) and some gold trim... vs the Drolet which looks more utilitarian.. I don't care just as long as it is EFFICIENT.. does the job and doesn't eat wood!...

We would like this to be our primary heat source.

Another point is that we do have a Cold air intake right near on the ceiling where the old stove used to be.. so we imagine he did that to help distribute the heat throughout the house?


Thanks for any assistance in advance.

Caelidh

Random thoughts . . .

Both stoves are EPA approved . . . that's a good start. Have you checked out the stove ratings and opinions section here at hearth.com . . . it's very useful.

I'm not all that familiar with the Drolet line up, but I know the Englanders are well loved here . . .

I will suggest that most of the time you want to figure out your spacing needs and go one size larger with the stove you choose . . . many times the manufacturer underestimates the space a stove will heat . . . not intentionally . . . but rather because the same size home in say South Carolina that is new and well insulated will heat up and retain the heat much different than a 1900s circa, partially or minimally insulated farmhouse here in Maine.

I will say that the Englander you are looking at will need more than just a simple floor protection -- whether you buy a pre-built hearth or make your own it needs to have an insulation value of at least 1.5 R. If you go this route you can do a search on how to build a hearth or start a thread and folks here can walk you through the process.

Clearances on the Englander also depend on whether you go with single wall or double wall stove pipe and what you have for shields . . . it appears that with double wall pipe and all shields in place you can go as close as 5 inches from the rear, 20 inches from the side and 15 inches in any corner install . . . this appears to be for an up and out install vs. a back wall install which may require some additional distance depending on the shielding and chimney pipe used.

Drolet HT2000 is comparable to the Englander. The Myriad would probably do the job though.

I'd go with the Englander. The Drolet gets good reviews on Northern tool etc but that bypass damper in the back of the the top of the stove looks like it prevents placement of secondary tubes there. I looked at the manual and it looks like there may be only two secondary tubes, more towards the front? The bypass damper is an interesting feature and may help startups, but with good starting techniques you shouldn't need it. Their manual says it will help heat the chimney faster, but says if you have children to remove the bypass handle and store it away. My stove has four secondary tubes like the Englander and I get a lot of secondary burn in that back area of the stove. The NC30 seems to be one of the best secondary burn setups out there.

Thanks..


Actually I tried calling them and was on hold a fairly long time with England stove works.... just to get some questions answered... .. .. Not really pleased with that service so far.... and when I dialed their technical service.. I got a busy signal!..

I ended up talking with a Technician.. but he sounded a bit "slow".. which was frustrating.. I purposely ran him through his pacings because if I am going to be buying this.. I want to have decent customer service....

I see it listed currently on HD for over 1,000 which includes shipping... and the blower..

hmmm

thanks

You can get the Englander at HD for 899, in the store, with the blower. They might deliver free, not sure. I plan to pick mine up.
Weird that you had a bad experience with the phone call, since that has not been the experience most here have had.
Ask your questions here, there are a whole bunch of people with this stove and is the one I'll probably end up with. TONS of info. here on this stove if you're willing to find it.
Jake is correct, the hearth r value is 1.5 for the 30, and the ctc's are in the manual which is available online. http://www.englanderstoves.com/manuals/30-NC.pdf,... There ya go.
HTH

I have a Drolet Savhana (probably spelled wrong) the stove is a huge step up from my old stove but unlike some of the burn times you see on here I can get about three to four hours of actual useful heat out of it.One reason could be the lack of hardwood in this area which would increase burn time.I am satisfied with the stove overall.We are heating about 1000 sq. ft. and unless it gets down to minus 30 or 40 F it more than does the job.The blower fan is a huge plus when it gets real cold out otherwise we dont use it.

yeah.. I have seen that folks got it at 899 at HD.. however they show over 1,000 dollars.. but that includes shipping.. so.. they probably didn't break the price down..

It is probably about the same price as the DROLET in the end with shipping included.

I need to purchase the chimney pipes anyway..

and we may have to do some adjustments on the clearances...

it looks about the same size as the Drolet Myriad (although the Drolet is higher).

but it is heavier...? It also says that it has optional side heat sheilds? But where do you get those? HD ? I Didn't see those listed...

Thanks
Caelidh

The Drolet Myriad has a smaller firebox than the Englander. The Drolet HT2000 is more comparable to the Englander.

Yeah.. the service for the Englander makes me a bit nervous.... but it seems to get a lot of good reviews

I called Northern Tool about the Drolet and got a hold of someone almost immediately and he was knowledgeble and said they have 24 hour support. etc..

Are there comparable models that are in the same price range?


thanks

I cannot comment on either one of the stoves but I assume you want to burn right away?! Do you already have 2 to 3 cords of seasoned wood at hand? Those modern EPA stove need properly seasoned wood (< 20% moisture content) to perform properly (heat your house and not cause chimney fires). Maybe get the wood first, season it over the summer and start burning next winter. That way you may also be able to get a good deal on a new stove at the end of the season when HD has the Englander on sale.

Hmmm . . . odd . . . most folks say the customer service is top notch . . . in defense of Englander . . . it could be due to the fact that this could be a busy time of year for them . . . but that said, customer service is customer service reqardless of the time of year.

I would try again . . . in talking with folks who have dealt with them they have had nothing but good things to say -- whether it be talking the home owner step by step in how to replace a part or even sending a part overnight from their factory to Maine when the home owner discovered a part was missing in the package.

We had some wood that has been curing for about 7 months... although.. not in the best location.. we need to remedy that.

I was excited about the reviews of the ENglander.. but when I get a busy signal on the tech service line....

We actually have an insert fireplace that came with the house.. not the greatest and is jsut a fireplace.. not actually a stove.. so doesn't have a blower or anything.

It's kind of irritating that the original stove was gone.. We think that the forclosure people "Took" the stove..

I'd stake my good (debatable) reputation that you will get the absolute best service through ESW, ESPECIALLY if anything goes wrong with your stove.

Maybe Northerntool has good salespeople, but I'm guessing they can't or won't go through the steps that ESW would if something goes wrong.

I'm sorry you had a hard time getting through to ESW, that's got to be a fluke, or like was said, just maybe a volume deal since it's the busy time of the year! I find our own Mike from ESW to be highly accessible. Heck, all I have to do is say his name and he magically appears in the thread. I'm not joking. I promise you that I won't send him a private message or anything. Let's see how long before he comes here to comment. I know he's limited in how much "salespitching" he does because of advertising rules on the forum, but I bet he can tell you what the busy phone deal was about!

When I had a very minor issue with my stove (cosmetic of all things) he contacted ME for my phone number and then HE CALLED ME and we chit chatted about clearances and my mantel and mailed me a whole spray can of stove paint for a teensy little area on the back of the stove that sits in the fireplace.

thanks for that confidence.... that helps. So many people have responded as "that is strange".. so maybe it was a fluke.

I have been dealing alot with service people so I am bit weary of getting on the phone ...

I just want to know I have good back up if needed....

cause it does sound like the Englander is a good stove....

Hi There, just trolling...

I work for Drolet so i'll try to answer some of the questions. BTW you cant go wrong with either stove you're looking at.

The bypass damper on the Drolet is there because it's a long firebox designed to put the wood lenghtwise (up to 21" North/South). Since most people seem to want to put wood in that way the firebox must therefore be longer than wider. The problem with this is the smoke has a longer path to travel and if your chimney is cold and/or you open the door you may get smoke back in the house. By opening the damper on startup you ensure your chimney is nice and hot and get your draft established faster. Also when you open the door, you may want to open the damper to ensure you have no smoke ingress.

As far as Sq Ft rating for stoves, I'm not a big fan of them. Every stove MFG does it because the consumer expect it. There's been tons of threads on this and if you do a search you'll get the full picture. Suffice it to say a wood stove is a 'zone heater' not a forced air furnace so your heating requirements will depends on a lot of variables.

Both the Myriad and the NC30 are big stoves with similar firebox size so the specs should be fairly close.

As far as the burn tubes the Myriad has none... As you can see from the drawing it has a thick stainless steel baffle with indents and enough holes to ensure your secondary combustion.

As far as technical support is concerned, I wouldn't crab Englander too much. At this time of the year all MFG's are inundated with calls and tech emails. I'm on the road sales guy and all of next week I will be doing it myself to take care of the overflow. If you call in July you're guaranteed zero wait time

If I missed anything please let me know.

HEY KOOL! we got another factory rep in here, i didnt know that, i welcome my new friend from Drolet!

anyway, sorry about the phone difficulties, it really is a busy time for us. usually it settles in by now but its been a big year in sales and with a lot of product there's a lot of questions, so wait times are a bit longer than i like them to be, but that said i want my techs to handle the issue by the end of the call so some of them take a bit of time to get dealt with.

as for the 30, yeah it compares pretty well with the drolet (which is a solid unit in its own right) be hard to argue against either unit.

as for contact, i'll be in the office by 8 am tomorrow. if you see this by themn, drop me a PM with phone number and i'll give you a call, let me know also a good time n case you work second or third shift i wouldnt wanna drag you outta bed. i can call any time between 8-5 eastern.

I had a blower go out within the first month of owning it last year. The first time I called I did have to wait 5-10 minutes to get anyone but they took care of me. Sent me a new blower and didn't ask for the other one back. I also called in November when burning seasons was ramping up. I think it is pretty top notch.

Wow.. thanks for the response.. that helps alot.

I will follow up tomorrow definately.



Yeah.. I can understand it being busy.. I had started this search early this year.. but got caught up with other stuff ... we had some hiccups in our renovations and still don't have our floor in .. and our roof has decided that it will now need to be replaced instead of next year..

so . I am trying to get our floor in, a roof on rebuild our back porch AND buy the wood stove BEFORE the year is up to get the tax credit.. sigh....


thanks

So what was that, like just under two hours? Lol, did I call that or what?

And Fyrebug, too. Nice!

This fall when I was shopping around for a new stove I was comparing the HT2000 & NC30.
You wont be disapointed with either the Myriad or the NC30. Both efficient and good heaters.

Some of your choices might be regulated by the clearances that you need, remember you can always reduce them with the right building materials.

Seems to be common to come down to these two brands. I was comparing the NC30 to the Legend, which could be had locally for about 799 bucks at the farm store. The legend is slightly bigger than the Myriad, and from my memory, even though Drolet SAYS the HT2000 is their biggest stove, I remember that the firebox of the Legend works out to be slightly more cu ft, but the HT2000 holds 22" logs as opposed to the 20" logs on the Legend and Myriad. My previous experiences with ESW and the wicked awesome free delivery and sale price of the NC30 pushed me that direction. I didn't have to worry about clearances, though, so that could definitely be a big deal for some!

http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewreply/854040/

yes.. ;>) Thanks

I am not sure if it is worth rushing the stove purchase just because of the tax credit. To my knowledge, it is now down to $500 and only if you have not claimed it in the years before. Given all your renovations with your new home, beefing up the insulation or putting a storm door in may be easier to accomplish in such a short time and give you an immediate payback.