Scan 60 wood stove

[Gunks]

Anyone knows anything about Scan 60 wood stove? I like the look but don't know if it's a good stove.

 

[begreen]

PM member precaud about the 60. I believe he had one. Scan makes good stoves.

 

[precaud]

Nope, never had a Scan. But I looked at the Scan 60 a couple years ago, the local dealer had one up and running, I was very impressed by it.

 

[wendell]

Scan makes fantastic stoves. Jotul bought them a few years back.

 

[ChillyNoMore]

I have the Scan 61, which has the same guts as the Scan 60 but has a more angular exterior style. I only fired it up for the first time about two weeks ago and I am new to wood-burning so I don't have a lot of experience with it.

That said, here are the things I like about the Scan so far:
- slim profile doesn't overwhelm the narrow room it is in
- contemporary design without the usual massive price premium for modern styling
- gigantic front glass for viewing the fire
- tons of heat comes through the glass while the body of the stove stays relatively cool

Things I am still trying to figure out:
- how to fill the narrow, tall firebox without having the splits fall onto the glass (this hasn't actually happened since I only put in 2-3 splits at a time)
- how to run the stove to get extended/overnight burns (I know this is related to the point above)
- how/whether to run the stove hotter. My Condar flue gas thermometer typically hovers around 400 deg even with the damper wide open. This may be a function of my wood or my short-ish chimney. Others have commented that the Scan stoves like to burn very hot. Perhaps the Skamol is just very efficient at throwing the heat into the room instead of sending it up the chimney.

Happy shopping!

 

[Gunks]

Hi ChillyNoMore, thanks for the response. How many square footage are you heating with the Scan 61? Is the stove your only source of heat?

 

[precaud]

Chilly, congrats on the 61 - nice stove. I don't know if your manual states it clearly, but you'll find that these tall fireboxes weren't designed to be filled to the top and burned slow like the horizontal geometries can be. Which is why they're often called fireplace stoves. They are most efficient when the flames are reaching up from the logs to the baffle above the 2ndary tubes, with the flames curling around the top edge of the baffle. If that isn't happening, then you have no secondary combustion taking place. So 2-3 logs at a time is likely to be the best way to burn it. And unless your chimney draft is poor, I'd think normal primary air feed would be 1/3 or less except during startup.

 

[summit]

scan is a nice unit, ver efficient burns, can't beat all that glass.. we don't sell too many, maybe 1/2 doz a yr, (the contemparary look isn't too big 'round here) but I've never had a complaint from any customers out there with one.... My fav is the Anderson-10. Nice smooth cast iron, and a very nice burn. I also like the double baflle design in most scan stoves, gives added heat retention and residence time in an otherwise small firebox stove.

 

[ChillyNoMore]

Gunks, I am hoping to use the Scan as the primary means to heat ~1,250 square feet (all on one level). However, I am also renovating the old rancher to create a more open floor plan and I am upgrading the wall insulation to R-40 in an effort to significantly reduce the heating load. Right now I'm in the middle of the project so I have zero insulation and not even any sheetrock! The Scan is doing fine keeping the wing where it is located warm (~500 sq. ft.) but I haven't had much luck getting the heat to go around the many bends in the hallway to the other part of the house. What type of setup do you have?

Precaud, the Scan manual mostly focuses on how to install the stove and says very little on how to operate it. What it does have on the latter topic is rather vague:
"Although feeding excessive amounts of fuel to the stove should be avoided, it is important to supply it with sufficient fuel to maintain a moderately hot fire (this is particularly important since burning wood produces volatile substances)."
Sounds like Goldilocks to me -- not too much, but not too little, either. Okay, got it... :-o

I have been able to get some nice secondary burns, but find myself needing to reload the stove every two hours. This does not even come close to the 8 hour burn time stated in the product specs. So my first assumption is that it is operator error, of course! Any tips for me?

What is the best way to determine if the problem is my wood, my chimney, or my technique? I'm burning douglas fir with a moisture content of ~16%. My chimney assembly (floor to cap) is about 12' and the manual "suggests" a minimum of 15'. However, the stove store and the installer thought that the 12' would be fine. I often end up keeping the damper wide open in an effort to keep the flue temps above 400 degrees. Other times I can close it down half way...is this just variability with the wood?

Thanks for helping me become a better burner!

 

[wendell]

scan is a nice unit, ver efficient burns, can't beat all that glass.. we don't sell too many, maybe 1/2 doz a yr, (the contemparary look isn't too big 'round here) but I've never had a complaint from any customers out there with one.... My fav is the Anderson-10. Nice smooth cast iron, and a very nice burn. I also like the double baflle design in most scan stoves, gives added heat retention and residence time in an otherwise small firebox stove.

+1 That A 10 is a beautiful stove and those Scandinavians sure know how to make a stove that kicks out the heat. I ended up buying the Morso 3450 instead of the A10 as I got a fantastic price but that little stove kicks out more heat than my Fireview which has twice the firebox.

 

[wendell]

I have been able to get some nice secondary burns, but find myself needing to reload the stove every two hours. This does not even come close to the 8 hour burn time stated in the product specs. So my first assumption is that it is operator error, of course! Any tips for me?

What is the best way to determine if the problem is my wood, my chimney, or my technique? I'm burning douglas fir with a moisture content of ~16%. My chimney assembly (floor to cap) is about 12' and the manual "suggests" a minimum of 15'. However, the stove store and the installer thought that the 12' would be fine. I often end up keeping the damper wide open in an effort to keep the flue temps above 400 degrees. Other times I can close it down half way...is this just variability with the wood?

Thanks for helping me become a better burner!

Well, the 8 hours is going to be with hardwood so you aren't going to see those numbers. With my Morso with a 1 cf firebox I reload every 4 hours but will still have coals after 8 hours but again, that is with hardwood.

What size are your splits? Burning fir, I would think you would want some bigger splits to get a little longer burn time. With only a 12' flue, you definitely shouldn't need a damper. In fact, I would think with that short a flue you might even get longer burn times since there isn't enough draft so I don't think that is your problem.

 

[jdinspector]

I was up in Minneapolis last weekend and went to Woodland Stove right near the UMN campus. I was talking with one of the salesmen about different stoves. He described the Scan and Morso stoves as "city stoves". That is, he didn't consider them to be 24/7 burners that were meant to heat. Really cool stoves though. He told me that if he were going for 24/7 that he would go with Hearthstone or one of the other stoves that they carry.

Incidentally, they had a Tulikivi masonry heater on display that was actually running. WOW! I found my new wish list item. If you've never seen one of those, you're missing something. I really liked their shop and they seemed very knowledgeable. Great display of stoves too. They had several burning while I was there. I awlays like places that are running stoves to heat the place.

 

[precaud]

Precaud, the Scan manual mostly focuses on how to install the stove and says very little on how to operate it. What it does have on the latter topic is rather vague:
"Although feeding excessive amounts of fuel to the stove should be avoided, it is important to supply it with sufficient fuel to maintain a moderately hot fire (this is particularly important since burning wood produces volatile substances)."
Sounds like Goldilocks to me -- not too much, but not too little, either. Okay, got it... :-o

Yes, that's their wording for burning small loads. The Nestor Martin manual puts is this way: "Refueling 'little and often' will give the most satisfying results." The point being, these things are most efficient when burned with lively flames.

I have been able to get some nice secondary burns, but find myself needing to reload the stove every two hours.

1-1/2 to 2 hours of flame time sounds totally normal to me. That's what my X33 does too.

This does not even come close to the 8 hour burn time stated in the product specs. So my first assumption is that it is operator error, of course! Any tips for me?

No, there's no error on your part. It all has to do with their definition of what "burn time" is, which is the maximum time between loads where you can restart a fire from coals. They're talking about the stove's burn time, not the fire's.

My chimney assembly (floor to cap) is about 12' and the manual "suggests" a minimum of 15'. However, the stove store and the installer thought that the 12' would be fine. I often end up keeping the damper wide open in an effort to keep the flue temps above 400 degrees. Other times I can close it down half way...is this just variability with the wood?

Sounds like your wood is well seasoned. I'd guess it has more to do with variations in the outside temps, wind conditions, and the like. 12' is definitely on the short side, making it vulnerable to environmental conditions (chimneys always draw better into colder weather.) Is it an insulated Class A chimney, or an uninsulated liner?

 

[precaud]

I was talking with one of the salesmen about different stoves. He described the Scan and Morso stoves as "city stoves". That is, he didn't consider them to be 24/7 burners that were meant to heat. Really cool stoves though. He told me that if he were going for 24/7 that he would go with Hearthstone or one of the other stoves that they carry.

I know there is someone on this forum that uses an A10 as a 24/7 burner, so I don't want to offend him, but the salesman is basically right. These vertically-disposed stoves are not optimum 24/7 heaters. Where they excel is heating a space while you're in it, which is how I use mine. It heats my lab and burns from 8:30am until mid- to late-afternoon. Which means I start a fire from scratch every morning. The good thing is, they're fun to use, very easy to light up, and warm up quickly.

For 24/7 burning, the stoves with horizontally-oriented fireboxes are much better.

 

[precaud]

BTW, here's a couple videos of A10's burning. As you can see, it's a brisk fire:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0pRCQI1oxw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxHeuws8B_4&feature=related

A soapstone stove with brick walls behind seems a bit redundant to me... I'd rather store heat in the wall, if it's insulated on the other side.

 

[wendell]

I was up in Minneapolis last weekend and went to Woodland Stove right near the UMN campus. I was talking with one of the salesmen about different stoves. He described the Scan and Morso stoves as "city stoves". That is, he didn't consider them to be 24/7 burners that were meant to heat. Really cool stoves though. He told me that if he were going for 24/7 that he would go with Hearthstone or one of the other stoves that they carry.

Incidentally, they had a Tulikivi masonry heater on display that was actually running. WOW! I found my new wish list item. If you've never seen one of those, you're missing something. I really liked their shop and they seemed very knowledgeable. Great display of stoves too. They had several burning while I was there. I awlays like places that are running stoves to heat the place.

Yeah, that is an awesome store. When we were first looking at going to wood heat I was curious about the Tulikivis so we drove up to take a look. The salesman we talked to was awesome. We ended up spending many hours there and the guy stayed an hour after the store was closed since we had driven so far to get there. We quickly realized a Tulikivi wasn't going to work so we were talking about their other stoves. After all that time, he told me not to buy from them and find a dealer closer. Very impressive! Still feel a little guilty from not buying from them anyway.

 

[Gunks]

I was quoted a price of $1200 for the Scan 60. Is that a good price?

 

[woodjack]

Incidentally, they had a Tulikivi masonry heater on display that was actually running. WOW! I found my new wish list item. If you've never seen one of those, you're missing something.

Can you say more about that?

 

[precaud]

I was quoted a price of $1200 for the Scan 60. Is that a good price?

That's a great price.

 

[wendell]

I was quoted a price of $1200 for the Scan 60. Is that a good price?

That's a great price.

I would actually say that is an exceptional price. I would buy it in a heart beat if you think the stove will work for you.

 

[jdinspector]

Incidentally, they had a Tulikivi masonry heater on display that was actually running. WOW! I found my new wish list item. If you've never seen one of those, you're missing something.

Can you say more about that?

Sure can... I've always noticed that wood stoves command attention in a room. The flame and heat are just natural attention getters. Well, the Tulikivi is all that times a factor of 10. They're very large (at least the display unit was), appear to be well built, and are simply massive. The one on display was a 2 sided unit, so you could see a fire from either side of it. Further, the unit on display had built in benches around it that you can sit on. The surface temp was warm, but not hot and you could feel the warmth coming off of the unit. It was just really neat.

 

[woodjack]

The Tulikivi's must be massively heavy. I'll check 'em out. Thanks for the info.