Operating new Englander 30

[SlyFerret]

You guys can probably imagine how exited I am to finally be starting this thread!

Who has any tips and tricks for loading their Englander 30?

I remember reading somewhere about the air control on this stove that the last couple inches of travel don't make any adjustment. From the fully open position, how much travel is actually making adjustment to the air?

What are preferred arrangements for wood in the stove when getting the fire going? I noticed that kindling burns pretty well if it's put in at odd angles to each other, sort of randomly.

Anyone have any particular arrangements they like for non-overnigt burns?

Even being a total newbie with this stove, I've read and learned a lot, so I'm not totally starting from scratch here. We lit the first fire around 7:00 Saturday evening. Getting the stove started was a little tricky, but once we split down some wood into smaller kindling, it took off OK.

At about 10:00 Saturday night, I put in three more splits, since I wasn't quite ready to go to bed. I'm used to the burning my WMC42 fireplace, and three splits wouldn't have bought me much time, maybe an hour or so at best. At 2:00am, I couldn't stay awake any more and it was 85 degrees in the living room. The fire was burning down, but still burning brightly towards the back of the stove. I woke up Sunday morning to a few coals in the back of the stove and the room at 69 degrees (usually the t-stat has been at 64), and the stove still warm. I couldn't believe it. I hadn't even packed it full for an overnight burn and the house was still warm. The furnace hasn't kicked on since Saturday night at just after 7:00!!

-SF

 

[BrotherBart]

The last couple of inches thing was in a discussion about a 13-NC, not a 30-NC.

 

[SlyFerret]

So adjustment on the 30-NC uses the full range of motion on the air control?

-SF

 

[BrotherBart]

It appears to on mine.

 

[swestall]

BB you are a man of so many words...(LOL)
I installed one of these with my brother about two weeks ago. What a nice stove (speaks to BB's discerning taste in wood burning products).
Anyway, we followed the typical start up with kindling, get her ripping with a few med then a couple large splits, then one more big one and after about 10-15 minutes, cut down to half, then when the secondaries are established, cut down to closed. If it maintains the secondaries its hot enough, if not it will stall. If it stalls pull it out about 1/4 and get it going again then repeat. The secondaries will establish themselves and you will learn the ins and outs of the stove in your installation.

Scoop out some ash every day when you are at the point where coals have burned down. (We use a galvanized garbage pail and let it cool on the concrete floor, never anything else unless you want burn marks or worse.) That way you will be on top of the ashes and can have one day a week for real clean up.

Make sure you have a stovetop thermometer. Burn at 600 stovetop. If you want to take your stack temp on single wall it will depend on where you measure it what it will be; 450-600 stovetop will be a pretty good heating range for this stove.

BB is free to modify my comments with his long term Englander experience which clearly outstrips my knowledge of this stove.

 

[BrotherBart]

BB is free to modify my comments with his long term Englander experience which clearly outstrips my knowledge of this stove.

All sounds good to me. When we are running around the clock I target 500 stove top and run it with an inch of air or so. I find running it that way cuts down on the top end spike and produces 450 - 500 temps for the same amount of time or a little longer than running it up and shutting the air all of the way down. And doesn't have us mopping sweat for two hours till it calms down.

And ya don't end up up to your armpits in big coal chunks.

 

[swestall]

Thanks BB, ya know we have to be good to the ferret as he needs to get that house hot for the lady......who runs the house.

 

[SlyFerret]

Yeah... the stove works in that respect... apparently fire makes clothes fall off. ;o)

-SF

 

[BrotherBart]

Yeah... the stove works in that respect... apparently fire makes clothes fall off. ;o)

-SF

We are both in our sixties. That would not be a pretty sight around here. :lol:

 

[Hogwildz]

Yeah... the stove works in that respect... apparently fire makes clothes fall off. ;o)

-SF

We are both in our sixties. That would not be a pretty sight around here. :lol:

Thanks for the visual, I thin I just threw up in my mouth a lil bit

 

[swestall]

LOL- very loud....

 

[SlyFerret]

Make sure you have a stovetop thermometer. Burn at 600 stovetop. If you want to take your stack temp on single wall it will depend on where you measure it what it will be; 450-600 stovetop will be a pretty good heating range for this stove.

My wood isn't burning well enough. I'm gong to have to find some decent firewood.

I've had the stove going for about an hour and a half and the best I've been able to do is mid 300's for stove top.

I picked up a laser thermometer over at harbor freight this afternoon on my lunch break. That's what I'm using the check temps. It seems to be pretty accurate.

Maybe I'll have better luck with this firewood when I get a good coal bed established.

-SF

 

[BrotherBart]

Maybe I'll have better luck with this firewood when I get a good coal bed established.

-SF

Yep. Ya gotta have a good coal bed. And burning North/South instead of East/West will get'er rocking a lot faster. Forget the Canadian video for a couple of burns and get a good bed of coals and lay your reload right on top of them with a good bed in front to get things rolling.

Even on a good coal bed E/W burns take forever to get rolling. N/S will take off fast.

 

[cmonSTART]

Ya, I typically burn N/S unless there's a REAL nice bed of coals. For a quick, hot fire (such as the first one of the morning) I'll alternate. Rake the coals into a row in front of the air vent, 2 splits N/S on either side. One layer of E/W splits, and the top layer of N/S splits again. Leave the door cracked for about 10 minutes (or until the flu temp begins to spike out of control - yikes, did that once) and viola, nice hot fire. Shut the door and nurse the air control back to about 25% for a hot burn. Blower on med-high, doorway fans on, and watch the thermostat on the wall jump from 60 to 80 quick.

 

[cmonSTART]

Oh, and BB made reference to a "tunnel burn" or whatever he called it in another thread. Make sure air from the doghouse has a straight shot to the back of the stove. Dig a trench for E/W loads, and make a tunnel between the splits there for N/S loads.

 

[crazy_dan]

OK Ferret I will start from the begining
1. open air controll all the open
2. open door
3. put wood inside
4. put kindling in
5. put in newspaper
6. find a match
7. light match
8. use match to light newspaper
9. close door
10. watch fire build in stove
11. start getting a grin as fire grows
12. turn air down a little
13. call brother bart for advice

Sorry couldn't help it :coolsmirk:

 

[SlyFerret]

I finally got the stove up to 600 on top by the stove collar, and 550 or so in the center towards the front of the stove. Also had good sustained secondary combustion! I Set off the smoke detector in the stove room as the paint continued to cure a little bit more. Hopefully that's the last of that.

To do this, I rearranged the wood I had been burning (I had only gotten up to about 450 max on the stove top). I took my log cabin down and layed the four splits north/south on the bottom of the stove. I had a little bit of a coal bed in there too. I brought in four more splits and placed them north/south as well, on top of the ones that had been burning already.

I left the front door open about half an inch for a few minutes to let it start to get going, and then closed the door with the air on full. About a half hour later, I was getting a pretty good fire with secondary. I started closing the air down to find where I should set it to maintain the secondary. I was able to close it down to where the end tip of my spring handle was even with the front edge of the ash lip and still maintain the secondary burn.

I let it burn for another half hour to make sure that the secondary combustion would continue and went to bed.

This thing was cranking!! Last night, even the bedrooms upstairs were a little warmer than we might have liked. This morning, everything had burned down to a few glowing coals, the stove was still too hot to touch, and the thermostat on the wall was still reporting 73 degrees. WOOHOO!!

Once I get the hang of operating this thing, I'll have no problem heating my house with this stove. Now I just have to figure out how to burn it correctly with a little smaller fire.

-SF

 

[SlyFerret]

Now I'm starting to wonder if maybe my wood is passable (not perfect, but passable), and my problems are mostly related to operator error.

-SF

 

[BrotherBart]

That is exactly where the primary air control is at for my overnight burns. Works well most of the time with smaller loads too and it will hang out around 450 to 500.

After a while you will be able to load it on top of good coals and immediately adjust it to that position and let'er do it's thing.

 

[SlyFerret]

I thought about getting up this morning to reload it and get it going before I left for work, but decided not to.

I'm going to wait a little longer before I get it going and leave the house for work.

The other think I have to learn is to be patient and just leave things well enough alone. I think I do more poking around in there than I should. I guess it's still the novelty of the whole thing, trying to figure out the right log placement.

-SF

 

[BrotherBart]

I thought about getting up this morning to reload it and get it going before I left for work, but decided not to.

I'm going to wait a little longer before I get it going and leave the house for work.

The other think I have to learn is to be patient and just leave things well enough alone. I think I do more poking around in there than I should. I guess it's still the novelty of the whole thing, trying to figure out the right log placement.

-SF

Perfectly natural with a new stove. It takes a while to get settled in with it.

 

[SlyFerret]

How long does it take you guys to get a cold stove up and running?

Until I'm comfortable getting it going in the morning and then leaving the house, I'm going to keep coming home to a cold stove in the evening.

I kinda seems like I come home, get it started, and by the time I finally get it going, it's time for bed and time to damp it down.

-SF

 

[BrotherBart]

With good kindling or a good coal bed and burning N/S I can have it rocking in an hour or a little over. Once you have it rolling you can go ahead and adjust down to the temp position you have figured out and it will rise to the temp or go over a little and settle back down to it. About 15 minutes into the burn I set it and let it cruise up to 500 - 550 or so.

 

[kgrant]

I have the same stove at my cabin. Last time I got there and it was -20F inside, -30F outside. Had the stove top at 400 in 1/2 an hour. Now the stove top is 400, but you can still hold your hand flat on the sides up to where the firebrick stops, then it gets a little warm.

It was weird with the stove top at 300-400F (I forget if I have it on the first or second step, but it is centered on the stove) the flue gas thermometer (probe is about 18" above the stove top) is only 100-200F untill the stove gets warmer. But that is a good thing, most of the heat is going into the stove instead of up the stack.

Small splits of dry kindling, and lots of it. Some newspaper, and a match. Maybe some boyscout juice if you're feeling frisky.

I'm still learning my stove too. I set the air intake open a little far, woke up in the middle of the night and it was 96 in there!

The biggest problem I've had is hitting the baffles with logs and knocking them outta place. I'm learning to be more gentle with loadings. I'm used to just ramming it in there like I could with the old stove.

Cheers

 

[SlyFerret]

You guys must have really good dry wood. The stuff I have just won't take off like that.

-SF