I appreciate this forum and all the wisdom gleaned from the members here. It really helped in my purchase decision and hearthpad building. Now I'm working on acquiring wood so it's useful to me ;-)
The Stove
Between the Pacific Energy Alderleas, the Napoleon stoves, and the new Jotul Rangeley, I noticed that a steel firebox with a cast iron envelope seems to be "the thing" lately. At one point, I was going to go with a Harmon TL300 or Oakwood or Oakleaf, but those things are such monster heaters, the stove had to be far away from the walls, and would have required a much larger hearthpad than my smallish front room can accommodate. The swing out warming trays originally had me enamored with the PE T5, but once I saw it in person, decided against it. They intruded too much into the cooking space, cutting the room I'd have for pots and things. So I ended up going with the new Napoleon 1400C. With single wall pipe in a corner installation, it could be 6" from the wall, 2" if I used double-wall! The new lift-top, that allows me to cook directly on the inner steel firebox was icing. I will miss side and top-loading features of the sweet Harmon, Lopi and Jotul models I was also looking at.
The Fireplace Man Inc., with a storefront at 3000 S. State in Salt Lake City is who I eventually went with. He gave me a good deal, including the cost of the variable speed blower in the near-wholesale cost stove and Selkirk pipe. Installation was slightly higher than some, but comparable to most. Although he can talk your ear off, he's been retailing, wholesaling and installing in Chicago and Utah for 35 years, so I was counting on his expertise ensuring everything went well the first time. And it did.
The Hearthpad
As I began looking, the cost of a retail hearthpad started at $500 and went up. So I decided to build my own "portable" hearthpad. Found out that flooring is not that hard, but waiting for curing times between steps (thinset, grout, wood filler, conditioner, coats of stain, coats of polyurethane, and grout sealer) turned it into a week-long project, rendering a side of my garage, and then the front-room off-limits to cars and kids for far too long. I probably could have built it for around $150, but I fell in love with this new porcelain tile my flooring store just started carrying which looks just like natural slate. It was $4.75/sqft. Yikes! In the end, the materials were $257 and labor was insane. I love what I built, but learned that $500 for a hearthpad is worth it. And if I ever want to tile a floor, I'm hiring somebody; that is back-breaking work.
The Wood
Here in the Rockies, finding hardwood is difficult. Most tree services around here also have firewood side businesses, where they sell the junk wood (cottonwood, poplar, scrub oak, pine and aspen) that they cut around here. Found a few vendors offering mixes of fruitwood. Some list oak, elm, sycamore, box elder and locust in their mixes. But finally found a guy in my valley who gets spent, rough-cut 4X4 "train dunnage" that is seasoned oak (not sure which type). He'll deliver a true cord for $240, custom cut to 16" for my stove that will barely accommodate 18" splits. Also found a guy with 2 cords left of black walnut he's willing to deliver for $200/cord, so I'm snagging that. Where am I going to put 3 cords of wood? I've got a small basketball court off the back steps that faces southern exposure. Guess I could get some pallets, stack it there and top-cover...
Initial Burns
Worked from home when I did the initial burns. Good thing too. Got it hot with the kindling created from the pine crating the stove came in, and added some "seasoned" pine sold in bundles at our local supermarket, which turned out to be fairly moist still. Had to split the splits into wrist-sized pieces to get them to burn well. Like Rose, I snagged an infrared thermometer from Harbor Freight to track things. Stove-top stayed around 450 to 500 when it was "roaring" with the cheap supermarket pine. Pipe was around 350 near the bottom and 200 to 250 near the top. Had a little fun with the thermometer since it could measure anything I pointed at. The inner coal bed measured around 650 (which was far lower than I expected), but the firebricks! Whoo! They measured between 700 and 900 at times!
The smoke from the paint curing on the pipe and inner firebox was something! Good thing the wife wasn't home. All the smoke alarms were going off at once. Had to open doors and windows and engage fans. Took about 4 hours to get all that out of the way. House is just returning to normal smelling now. First burns all worked great. Have great draft from a virtually straight up chimney about 14' tall (7' of single wall inside, 18" inside the attic, and about 7' of Selkirk all-temp outside). Wondering if I need an in-pipe damper to gain further control over the draft, or whether I should leave well-enough alone...
Pics
The Stove
Between the Pacific Energy Alderleas, the Napoleon stoves, and the new Jotul Rangeley, I noticed that a steel firebox with a cast iron envelope seems to be "the thing" lately. At one point, I was going to go with a Harmon TL300 or Oakwood or Oakleaf, but those things are such monster heaters, the stove had to be far away from the walls, and would have required a much larger hearthpad than my smallish front room can accommodate. The swing out warming trays originally had me enamored with the PE T5, but once I saw it in person, decided against it. They intruded too much into the cooking space, cutting the room I'd have for pots and things. So I ended up going with the new Napoleon 1400C. With single wall pipe in a corner installation, it could be 6" from the wall, 2" if I used double-wall! The new lift-top, that allows me to cook directly on the inner steel firebox was icing. I will miss side and top-loading features of the sweet Harmon, Lopi and Jotul models I was also looking at.
The Fireplace Man Inc., with a storefront at 3000 S. State in Salt Lake City is who I eventually went with. He gave me a good deal, including the cost of the variable speed blower in the near-wholesale cost stove and Selkirk pipe. Installation was slightly higher than some, but comparable to most. Although he can talk your ear off, he's been retailing, wholesaling and installing in Chicago and Utah for 35 years, so I was counting on his expertise ensuring everything went well the first time. And it did.
The Hearthpad
As I began looking, the cost of a retail hearthpad started at $500 and went up. So I decided to build my own "portable" hearthpad. Found out that flooring is not that hard, but waiting for curing times between steps (thinset, grout, wood filler, conditioner, coats of stain, coats of polyurethane, and grout sealer) turned it into a week-long project, rendering a side of my garage, and then the front-room off-limits to cars and kids for far too long. I probably could have built it for around $150, but I fell in love with this new porcelain tile my flooring store just started carrying which looks just like natural slate. It was $4.75/sqft. Yikes! In the end, the materials were $257 and labor was insane. I love what I built, but learned that $500 for a hearthpad is worth it. And if I ever want to tile a floor, I'm hiring somebody; that is back-breaking work.
The Wood
Here in the Rockies, finding hardwood is difficult. Most tree services around here also have firewood side businesses, where they sell the junk wood (cottonwood, poplar, scrub oak, pine and aspen) that they cut around here. Found a few vendors offering mixes of fruitwood. Some list oak, elm, sycamore, box elder and locust in their mixes. But finally found a guy in my valley who gets spent, rough-cut 4X4 "train dunnage" that is seasoned oak (not sure which type). He'll deliver a true cord for $240, custom cut to 16" for my stove that will barely accommodate 18" splits. Also found a guy with 2 cords left of black walnut he's willing to deliver for $200/cord, so I'm snagging that. Where am I going to put 3 cords of wood? I've got a small basketball court off the back steps that faces southern exposure. Guess I could get some pallets, stack it there and top-cover...
Initial Burns
Worked from home when I did the initial burns. Good thing too. Got it hot with the kindling created from the pine crating the stove came in, and added some "seasoned" pine sold in bundles at our local supermarket, which turned out to be fairly moist still. Had to split the splits into wrist-sized pieces to get them to burn well. Like Rose, I snagged an infrared thermometer from Harbor Freight to track things. Stove-top stayed around 450 to 500 when it was "roaring" with the cheap supermarket pine. Pipe was around 350 near the bottom and 200 to 250 near the top. Had a little fun with the thermometer since it could measure anything I pointed at. The inner coal bed measured around 650 (which was far lower than I expected), but the firebricks! Whoo! They measured between 700 and 900 at times!
The smoke from the paint curing on the pipe and inner firebox was something! Good thing the wife wasn't home. All the smoke alarms were going off at once. Had to open doors and windows and engage fans. Took about 4 hours to get all that out of the way. House is just returning to normal smelling now. First burns all worked great. Have great draft from a virtually straight up chimney about 14' tall (7' of single wall inside, 18" inside the attic, and about 7' of Selkirk all-temp outside). Wondering if I need an in-pipe damper to gain further control over the draft, or whether I should leave well-enough alone...
Pics
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