Smoke Dragon

[swestall]

Hey folks, BB: I didn't come up with it and didn't think I did; I just saw it earlier in the posts and thought I'd write about it
.
I do hope we now think of them as the Classics.

As discussed previously, I just love the old stoves; even just to look at.

I'm looking forward to having the Hearthstone Mansfield in and burning tomorrow. Its modern, but still has a look of the old Classics.

The most important thing is we are burning North American wood on North American soil and are not giving our hard earned money to NOT_North America.

Yesterday, I was having a discussion with my wife and we were talking about all this wood stuff, the new stove, etc. Of course, I got a little eye rolling because I've been so obsessed with it all for the past few months of my Defiant Ordeal....

Then I said to her, did you know that the heating oil us up to $3.50 a gallon around here? OH NO she said, I didn't. I wen't on with, do you know how much it takes to fill our oil tank with $3.50 a gallon oil?
Well no, she said. I said, let's see, 550 gallons, $3.50 a gallon, that's $1925.00 every couple of months.

Her response was instant; THANK GOD WE HAVE THE WOODSTOVE!

 

[brooktrout]

[Yesterday, I was having a discussion with my wife and we were talking about all this wood stuff, the new stove, etc. Of course, I got a little eye rolling because I've been so obsessed with it all for the past few months of my Defiant Ordeal...

Oh, I know all about the eye rolling- my wife thinks I'm a nutcase.

 

[RonB]

My wife is not at the eye rolling stage yet. When I start talking about stove/wood/forum issues she looks at me and pretends to listen, but I know she is "not there". On occasion when others post pics of their set up and house I show her and she does enjoy seeing how you all decorate and your stove installs.

 

[Gooserider]

I had an old "Classic Smoke Dragon" as our primary stove that we were burning. I felt there was no major need to upgrade, and we had other priorities for our money, and I argued in favor of the older stoves just like NBV does.

I also went through more than 7 cords of wood last winter, enough that I was worried about whether I'd have enough to make it through to spring. I got a couple of gallons of creosote when I had to clean mid season. Our CO detector frequently showed detectable but less than alarm levels of CO in the house. The stove would regularly burn down to the point where I the furnace was coming on a signficant amount, the furnace was also needed a fair bit as supplemental heat when the temp got below about 20*F. I almost always had lots of smoke coming out of the chimney, despite efforts to burn clean. I was getting a maximum of 6 hours of useable heat / load, burning 22-28" wood, about one cart load every day and a half. I filled about four 20 gallon garbage cans with ash that I had to shovel out of the stove (messy), and found I ended up with almost 1/4 of it being chunk charcoal suitable for the BBQ grill in the summer time.

Through a long series of events that aren't critical here, I ended up replacing the stove with a used VC CAT Encore over the summer. The CSD ended up installed in the basement where it is almost never used.

Since the 1st of November I've burned a bit under two cords, running 24/7 - despite this winter being much colder than last year's, so far. I have absolutely no doubts that I have far more wood than I will need for the rest of the season as I'm less than a third of the way through my supply (about the same as last years). I am getting about 2 to 2.5 days / cart load of 18" wood (Same cart, filled to the same level, but with about the same number of shorter splits) I haven't had to clean the chimney yet, but see no reason to think it might need it. I have less smoke at all times, and much of the time have no visible smoke from the chimney. The CO detector has yet to show ANY detectable CO. I get 6-12 hour burns of useable heat, depending on how hard I push the stove. The furnace is still coming on when the temps are below 10*F or so, but much less often, and for shorter cycles. While I've used a fair bit of ash for ice and snow melting this year, I have yet to fill my FIRST 20 gallon can with ashes, and it would be hard for the ash handling process to be much less of a nusiance - part of this is because the VC ashpan setup is really well designed. I have very little charcoal in my ashes, and that is mostly "gravel" sized bits, not useable for much else.

Bottom line, there is not a SINGLE thing about the old stove that was better than the new one. I'm really glad that I upgraded as I'm burning less wood, getting more heat, less smoke, less ash, and I even get to see the flames (sort of - I haven't opened the front doors or cleaned the glass since I fired up in the fall, and don't plan to until spring :coolsmirk: )

So you wonder why I encourage others to upgrade to a modern stove rather than trying to "upgrade" their CSD into a cleaner burning stove? For about the same reason I don't try to encourage people to turn their Model "T"'s into race cars....

(note, nothing personal intended about this - you don't have to do the same thing I did, I'm just not interested in "improving" smoke dragons...)

Gooserider

 

[begreen]

Hallelujah we have a believer! Nice report Goose.

 

[BrotherBart]

Hallelujah we have a believer! Nice report Goose.

I thought clean was only true in fairy tales
Meant for some other burner and not for me
My stove was out to get me
That's the way it seemed
Smoking chimneys haunted all my dreams

Then I bought a new stove, now I'm a believer
Not a trace of smoke in the sky
I'm burning clean, I'm a believer
I couldn't go back if I tried

I thought smoke was more or less a given thing
Seems the more I tried the more I got
What's the use in tryin?
All you get is smoke
When I needed heat I got tar


With no apologies whatsoever to The Monkees

 

[swestall]

Yeas indeed all, there is no doubt that the EPA stoves are cleaner, more efficient and all. We aren't improving we are just calling them Classics, because they aren't all that bad; or at least most of them aren't.

 

[Hogwildz]

Classic=old
Antique= older than dirt, right BB?

 

[begreen]

Brother Bart, it's time you put a songbook wiki together. I'm happy to start it for you, I'll never remember all the threads that are hiding these nuggets. PM me if you can with others.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Brother_Barts_Classic_Hearthsongs/

 

[Gooserider]

Sounds great, then we can get together and cut a CD at the next Hearth gathering - figure it would make Craig some more $, though not sure whether it would be from people buying the CD, or paying us NOT to have it sent to them ;-P

Who knows, maybe we could get one of those infomercials on the after midnight cable channels...

Gooserider

 

[BrotherBart]

Since I don't save the things, or the bottles they come out of for that matter, I could only find a couple in search. I know that Help Me Jotul, Help Help Me Jotul is out there somewhere.

Come listen to my story bout a man named Jed
Poor mountaineer hardly kept his family fed
Then one day he was chopping up some wood
When up to his block
Walked some snotty Canuck dude
Slick feller. Tasseled loafers. Ascot.

Well the next thing you know old Jed’s installed forced air
Kin folks said “Jed it’s freezing cold in there”
They said renewable heat is where you oughta be
So he dusted off the saw and went lookin for a tree
Bore cut. Hand split. Stacked in a Holtz Hausen.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I see a red stove and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
I see the Summits burn dressed in their amber clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes

I see a line of stoves and they’re all painted black
With kindling and splits both never to come back
Like a newbie burner it just happens every day

I look inside my stove and see it’s heart is black
I see that red stove and it’s been painted black
Maybe then I’ll fade away and not have to face the facts
It’s not easy firing up when your whole stove ain’t black

No more will my red Summit turn a deeper hue
I could not foresee this thing happening to you
If I load tight enough into the setting sun
My stove will burn for me till mornin comes

I see a red stove and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
I see the Summits burn dressed in their amber clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes

Hmm,hmm,hmm,…

I wanna see it painted, painted black
Black as night, black as coal
I wanna see it painted, painted, painted, painted black

Yeah!

(With apologies to Mick, Keef and the boys)

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[begreen]

Ah good, I missed the Holtz Hausen song, got the Jotul one and many others. I'll add the Holtz Hausen tune to the wiki. Up to 9 I think with a little help from yer friends.

 

[swestall]

The GROUP could be named, BB and the Stove Classic Kings.....

 

[BrotherBart]

The GROUP could be named, BB and the Stove Classic Kings.....

BB and the Burners. Opening soon at a venue near you. Brittney will be with us if she isn't in A.) Rehab. B.) Jail C.) The nut house.