Time to upgrade the profile picture from a Vermont Castings Encore to a 30-NC Englander.

The Vermont Castings Encore has served me well, but it's only rated for about 50,000 btu. I was heating 2000sq/ft in the middle of winter, and the Encore could do it just fine -- if it was running all the time, but I'm away from the house for 11 hours a day during the work week. So with the house at 75 F. Sunday evening, I would get home to a house at 62-58 F. Monday after work, and I could only get the house up to 65-70 F. in the 5 hours I was awake before bed. So, I wanted a bigger stove. (and not only that, I got a S.S. catalyst last year that warped to pieces, a damned waste of money)

Thanks to some posts here, I picked up a 30-NC from HomeDepot in Pennsylvania for a good price shipped. I'm eager for it to get cold to test out how well it performs.

I'll say I've always been blessed with excellent draw. I've got 14 ft. of 5.5" insulated S.S. liner in a brick chimney that can draw too hard on a cold night, and I can thank the forum for that. I've got a post in the archives of my liner wrapped in fiberglass that earned me much derision -- which convinced me to do it right with ceramic blanket. (you guys are brutal.)

Anyway, here are some pics of the new install:

That beast looks great.

Nice....sweet hearth layout. Should throw out some good heat for you.

That looks awesome I've never seen a shot of a 30 like that. Now I totally understand. The 13 looks like a baby


Ok, BB, you win..... *puts the 30 on her shopping list for downstairs.

Or "That Haus," as they say in this area of the country . I'd move in if I wasn't going to start fires in there.

+1 what BB said & I think he owes you a shirt too!

One thing you might consider, maybe over next summer, is painting the stove brown with the gold trim and black door like BB did his. I think that color scheme would really look great in your hearth.

Being a steel plate stove, you ought to be able to get that stove and room up to temp much quicker than the old VC.

I also bought the 30-NCH from Home Depot for a great price and should have it finished installed and fired this weekend. I'm looking forward to your experience with this stove.

Good luck,
Bill

I've seen the brown 30-NCs, and I like 'em. In fact, I've actually got two cans of Stove Bright Mahogany Metallic I was going to paint the Encore with, but I figured I should cure the paint on the Englander before trying to paint over its factory finish.

Looks awesome! I made the comment this morning about how many 30's were being installed with leeave96's thread... Whole lotta 30's..... Love it.. So many people to learn and hear from this season..

Mine is nothing special. Just a standard basement install... You have a beautiful hearth.. Wish I could talk the Wife into the 30 upstairs... She likes the Pellet Stove.. Its our Focal point.. I have to hide my 30... (Little jealous)

I've got a question for you BrotherBart, which I haven't really read in the archives: does this thing really promise 1.6 grams of ash per hour? That's as good as the Encore.

I brush my chimney once a year, and I get about a quart of black dust, which isn't even creosote, it's just carbon. The smoke dragon the Encore replaced would produce a 5 gallon bucket of shiny, brittle creosote. I know I should burn the 30-NC hot, but can I expect it to burn as clean as the Encore at the end of the season?

A stove with legs, as god intended!

Konrad,

That looks great!

Very nice stove and install! Man that isn't a hearth it's an altar! lol

Ray

:gulp: WOW - looks great. I am sure you will be happy with that new beauty!

I went with the pedestal, but either looks good. In fact I kept my legs for the future, should I change my mind.

;-)

Early season review.

I haven't been burning much at all. So far it's been a very mind winter, but last night it got pretty cold, and it's going to get get cold again tonight; so this is the first time I've had the stove going for two consecutive nights.

I'm burning seasoned chunks of hard maple. They're 'chunk size' because I cut them for the VC Encore, and it liked 8"-10" chunks in the largest dimension. Most people would consider this kindling, but it's what I got. I can load about 5 or 6 of these in the 30-NC for a nice hot fire. I probably tossed in 12 or so over 6 hours for a nice bed of coals. I topped off the last couple chunks at 10pm, let it burn off all the volatiles, choked down the air to 1/8th once at the char stage, and went to bed.

I came back from work at 5 and assumed the stove would be stone cold after 20 hours (the VC Encore certainly would have been), but to my surprise there was about 4" of solid coals left -- 2"-3" in diameter and still hot. I had a new fire going in less than 10 minutes with no paper or kindling. That's something the VC Encore could never do. The longest it ever retained coals for 10 hours. Very impressed.

So far it really pumps out the heat, my final assessment of this stove will come when it's time to sweep the chimney. If it burns as clean as the VC Encore, this stove is a marvel of steel box technology.

Konrad that's a great review! Sounds like that Englander is gonna heat your home nicely.. If Bart hasn't given you your T-shirt he owes you one!

Ray

Sweet hearth! Sweet stove! what an all around awesome setup, now just enjoy the heat!

Stove update. I finally got around to cleaning the chimney this fall, and after last season, the NC 30 produced about a quart of very fine black soot, mostly carbon and very little creosote. That's pretty good. That's about twice as much as the Encore, but I probably burned twice as much wood as the Encore as well. The NC-30 is twice as big after all.

I'd also like to tell you that I had my basement insulated for about 1000 dollars with this product by a local contractor. According to the specs, this will raise the R-Value of a concrete block up to 12, a 90%+ reduction in heat loss. Totally worth it. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the new insulated wall will perform.

That floor looks incredible!! Good job!