normal burn times in a 30-nc

[pro5oh]

Hello all, going on my 2nd winter with my 30-nc. If I load the stove with hardwood I'm only getting about 3-4 hours out of it before the wood becomes a bed of coals and stack temp down to 250. Loading about 4-5 times a day, burned 2 cord in 1500 sq ft home in 1.5 months and thats not constant use. I have a better income now and I was considering a new jotul or similar if this is a character trait of the 30-nc. I run it with the draft slide about even with the ash lip once upto temp. My old smoke dragon VC resolute burned longer. Owners feedback is appreciated.

 

[lexybird]

epa stoves require drier wood than the smoke dragons of yesteryear ,the more seasoned the wood is the more you can damper her down and not have to nurse it with incoming air ,..and the more you do that the longer the burn times will be .nc30 users get 8-9 hour burn times... heck my little nc13(its little brother) will burn 7-8 on lowest setting so your doing something wrong perhaps theres a draft issue or some blockage

 

[rdust]

Still plenty of heat in a bed of coals. What is the stove top temp at that point? Most consider a burn time as to when the stove top gets down to 200-250 or enough coals in the stove for an easy reload not the time of meaningful heat. Obviously the hotter you have to burn the stove to achieve your desired temps. will go a long way to determining burn times. As stated above the better the wood the more you can turn down these EPA stoves.

 

[SlyFerret]

Can you define "load"? how full are you packing the firebox? I define burn time as the amount of time that the stove produces usable heat. If you have a large drafty house that is hard to heat... your burn times will be less because you have to keep the stove going at a higher output level all of the time.

On a small load of 3 or 4 splits, I can go 4-5 hours between loads. If I reload more frequently than that, I'll overheat the house, which, aside from being a little uncomfortable, is a waste of wood.

When I leave for work in the morning at around 8, I've usually loaded the stove up at 7:30 at the latest. I pack it full, get it going and head out. Temp in the house is usually 67-70 in the morning when I get the stove going. When I get home at 6:30-7:00 at night, the house has usually settled back down to about the same 67-70 degrees and there are usually just enough coals to relight with.

One thing to keep in mind is that there is still a lot of heat left in those coals. You're not going to have bright flames all the time. Usually I only have bright flames for the first half of my burn cycle.

-SF

 

[pro5oh]

Hello all, going on my 2nd winter with my 30-nc. If I load the stove with hardwood I'm only getting about 3-4 hours out of it before the wood boecomes a bed of coals and stack temp down to 250. Loading about 4-5 times a day, burned 2 cord in 1500 sq ft home in 1.5 months and thats not constant use. I have a better income now and I was considering a new jotul or similar if this is a character trait of the 30-nc. I run it with the draft slide about even with the ash lip once upto temp. My old smoke dragon VC resoulute did better. Owners feedback is appreciated.

I guess its a couple of things. I have a low draft issue and the wood isnt consistant. When I load it that means to the top of the bricks. Although even with my best dry wood I dont get 8-9 hours of above 250 heat. Stove top usually around 450-500 with the damper even with the ash tray. I remember when I was contemplating to buy this stove, someone said it needs alot of draft, and uses lots of wood. I beleive it was something like a big black hungry box....

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I probably get an easy 8 hours at 650-700 degrees at stove top. Getting it going off the coals hasn't been a problem at 250 degrees.

I don't think it uses any more wood than any other large firebox stove. The amount of heat you get out of the stove is directly related to how much fuel you put in. Lots of draft? As long as you can pull air through it it should burn. If you are able to close the primary air down at all I bet your draft is ok.

Matt

 

[pro5oh]

Hello all, going on my 2nd winter with my 30-nc. If I load the stove with hardwood I'm only getting about 3-4 hours out of it before the wood boecomes a bed of coals and stack temp down to 250. Loading about 4-5 times a day, burned 2 cord in 1500 sq ft home in 1.5 months and thats not constant use. I have a better income now and I was considering a new jotul or similar if this is a character trait of the 30-nc. I run it with the draft slide about even with the ash lip once upto temp. My old smoke dragon VC resoulute did better. Owners feedback is appreciated.

I guess its a couple of things. I have a low draft issue and the wood isnt consistant. When I load it that means to the top of the bricks. Although even with my best dry wood I dont get 8-9 hours of above 250 heat. Stove top usually around 450-500 with the damper even with the ash tray. I remember when I was contemplating to buy this stove, someone said it needs alot of draft, and uses lots of wood. I beleive it was something like a big black hungry box....[/quo

I just loaded it up, stack temp 400 stovetop 600 I'll monitor it to see how long it actually goes

 

[SlyFerret]

I heat my 1600 sqft house with my 30. I went through about 3 cords last year, and I'm on target for that same amount this year. As big as this stove is, I don't have to feed it huge amounts of wood to get it to heat the house.

What sort of stove top temps are you seeing when your stove is cruising? Is it getting up to 550-600 regularly?

I don't have huge draft on my system. I have about 15 or 16 feet of chimney with a couple of offset elbows, and the stove works great here.

I struggled with green wood last year. I had a hard time getting it to take off if I didn't have a really good coal bed. If I did have a good coal bed, I could get it to burn, but I had to keep feeding it to keep it going, which ended up making the house too hot because I couldn't let the stove cool down enough between loads.

This year, my wood is pretty good (seasoned one year), and next year, it'll be great (seasoned split/stacked for two years). The house has been a lot more comfortable, and the stove has been much easier to operate.

Edit: It just dawned on me to ask you if you're using a blower on your stove. Since the stove is oversized for my house, I don't use one. If you are running the blower though, that could help to explain why your stove seems to cool back down so fast.

-SF

 

[pro5oh]

Hello all, going on my 2nd winter with my 30-nc. If I load the stove with hardwood I'm only getting about 3-4 hours out of it before the wood boecomes a bed of coals and stack temp down to 250. Loading about 4-5 times a day, burned 2 cord in 1500 sq ft home in 1.5 months and thats not constant use. I have a better income now and I was considering a new jotul or similar if this is a character trait of the 30-nc. I run it with the draft slide about even with the ash lip once upto temp. My old smoke dragon VC resoulute did better. Owners feedback is appreciated.

I guess its a couple of things. I have a low draft issue and the wood isnt consistant. When I load it that means to the top of the bricks. Although even with my best dry wood I dont get 8-9 hours of above 250 heat. Stove top usually around 450-500 with the damper even with the ash tray. I remember when I was contemplating to buy this stove, someone said it needs alot of draft, and uses lots of wood. I beleive it was something like a big black hungry box....[/quo

I just loaded it up, stack temp 400 stovetop 600 I'll monitor it to see how long it actually goes

Ok here it is, at 9:30 pm it was cruising at 600 stovetop, loaded above the bricks, damper even with ashtray. I had to reload at 2am, and again at 7am. Does well heating without a blower, but just doesnt last, gaskets are good, door glass sooted up some.

The manual states more chimney is needed but it seems to work well with 16ft and 2 90's, although plenty of smoke escapes when the door is open. Maybe its just the wood?