thechimneysweep said:
Well, Someone shot me and E-mail. In our 20 years with PE, we've had two cases where cracks appeared in the welds or elsewhere. In both cases, it was our opinion that the stoves were overfired, as both exhibited two or more of these tell-tale symptoms: metal shaling, shrunken gaskets, BADLY warped baffles & rails, and premature discoloration of the 1200-degree paint. One guy let on that was heating a 3000 sq.ft. shack that had been a chicken coop, and had NO insulation in the walls. With a Super Series model, by the way, rated to heat max 2000 sq.ft. The other guy denied ever overfiring his stove, but our crew noticed he had a stack of cut-to-stove-size creosote soaked railroad ties in his woodpile.
We forwarded our observations along with the warranty claims. PE replaced both stoves, no questions asked. Which led us to conclusion that their policy is to honor every warranty claim that comes across the desk (which would be one possible reason they don't go into specifices re overfire temps etc.) I'm betting they'll do the same here, even though Hog sort of shoots himself in the foot in this three-year-old thread:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/5506/ (just rattling your cage a little there, my brother).
I know your just playing devil's advocate and also trying to make a frustrating situation, a lil on the lighter side, and I do appreciate that Tom. And I always took your word for questions I had.
If I overfired without seeing the telltale signs I have learned about and read about, then I will accept that.
As far as metal scaling, ever off season any stove will take in a good amount of moisture, which does cause rust and scaling, which will come off in layers over time. Especially with heating & cooling of the steel.
Heck I see steel tractor & trailer framing doing the same thing every day, without the seclusion & heat up and cooling down a firebox sees. Its steel, it happens. I have not problem with it if the steel lasts say 15 or 20 years.
I never had shrunken gaskets, I did have the baffle gaskets break when removing the baffle to clean the liner.
As far as the baffle. Its steel, although stainless, still steel, and still a good size area, which with heat added, is bound to sag some over time. I was thinking maybe they should put some rails inside the baffle to help support the upper and lower plates to stiffen the area and help keep them from sagging. But the welds might break from the opposing expansion & contraction. I dunno. The baffle still work, I just loose 1/4" to 1/2" of space, no biggie.
As for premature discoloration. I know the paint, I just don't know. I have never seen a firebox hold paint for a long period of time. I can guess a guy the even only ran his stove at 450-500 degrees is still going to have the paint discolor or burn off. The time frame, I just don't know. But I would also contribute the paint discoloring/burning, flaking etc, also back to the moisture, rust, heat, cool, etc. Not making exucses, maybe I am wrong. But these facts seems obvious to me anyways.
As far as home size. Yes these are space heaters, and we all want to heat the house with it. Whether we can or not, depends on house, insulation as you pointed out, etc. etc.
I keep my oil furnace set to 62 and if it needs to come on, so be it. Wouldn't a stove put out relatively the same amount of heat whether 100 sf or 200 sf? Its not like you can turn a stove temp up or down with a thermostat like a furnace.
Meaning, it has a maximum out put. Which yes it you leave the air wide open and and run it at its highest, your abusing & prolly over firing.. I never done that, except to start a reload or cold start. But in a 100sf house or 2000 sf house. if the same stove with same wood, charred good and air cut back, should put out the same amount of heat. Now will a smaller place get hotter, faster and stay hotter, hell yes. Seems to me the only difference would be the homes ability to heat up to, and retain that heat. The temps would be different in the 2 homes, but wouldn't the stove put out the same heat either way?
I have never seen the insert glow. With the exception of the baffle once in a while. See the following explanation/problems.
Here is my problem. When I got the insert. I was never told, nor did the packing or manual tell me the door needed adjustment. I think they could at least tell ya this.
Then once I got that squared away. No matter what I did, whether I cut the air to low at 350, 400 or 500, it would still run where it wanted to. usually up to about 700-750 range.There is no other user control I know off. Unless you burn 3 splits at a time. And even then, when it got going, it would run to 650. So if I cut the air backk at say 450, and it takes itself to 750, what am I supposed to do? Is it the EBT taking it there? I even used a 1" door gasket to make sure the door was not leaking. The air all the way to low. And it never mattered, from 400, 450, 500, 550, it would take itself to 750. For an hour maybe 2 while the gasses burned off. How am I to stop this?
How do I get it to stop 550 or 600 and have it not run up to 750? The stove runs to where it wants to run. With the air cut all the way to low, and the blower even on high, I have no further control.
I am open to all suggestions. Could the EBT be malfuncioning and letting the extra air in that lets it go to 750?
If I cut it back at 350, its then merely smoldering and smoking like crazy. And then drops in temp.
I love the insert. It looks nice to me, heats great, and there is not much to it. But at first it was new user apprehension, and feeling like maybe something is wrong.
But when I could NOT keep it from running to 750 or so, with air all the way low, and even cutting it back at say 400 or 450, it still ran to 750. Just took longer if the air was cut back at a lower temp. But always ended up at around 750, no matter what.
