Adding a front grille

[begreen]

My wife and I were looking at the PE Summit and the big Morso this morning. She doesn't particularly like the big glass view. Unfortunately, neither stove has a grille option. Has anyone seen custom retrofitted grillework to dress up the front glass? How would this attach to the stove? Any thoughts? Could it be welded to a Summit door?

 

[Roospike]

My wife and I were looking at the PE Summit and the big Morso this morning. She doesn't particularly like the big glass view. Unfortunately, neither stove has a grille option. Has anyone seen custom retrofitted grillework to dress up the front glass? How would this attach to the stove? Any thoughts? Could it be welded to a Summit door?

The smaller Pacific Energy stoves have the optional "Sun burst" door but the Summit does not.

You could have a design welded up and have it fit into / onto the front door of the summit but would stay away from welding anything to the door itself.

With the pattern welded up you could have thin lip steel clips at the ends of the design and maybe have it slip between the door and the glass gasket and tighten the glass back down. If you went this route then the door design would be skies the limit on what look you wanted.

If the door design was made to be a tight fit then one could just fit it on the front of the door and hold per tight fit.

 

[Roospike]

BeGreen , For the Summit were you looking at the black steel stove model or the classic model ?

 

[Roospike]

Brian fart.............Man , you just would have so many options.

You could also go to king metals to look at all the different design options you could do / use http://kingmetals.com/

You could also do a door design and have a matching design on the top of the stove on either side of the stove pipe kinda like book ends sitting on top to complete the matching look.

 

[begreen]

We have a couple really good welding artists locally. I was thinking of keeping it simple, something like on the Quad Yosemite. Prolly a black door so that it could be painted to match. The attachment of the grille would be my main concern. Perhaps I might be able to angle screw it from the interior side?

We're still mulling this over. The F400 is fine, except when it gets to the mid-20's. Not the stove's fault, it's cooking it's heart out at those temps. But our house has a lot of glass that's been added over it's life. It's looking like we really need a stove sized to the full house. The Isle Royale is another option and she's fine with that look. But the PE is more affordable and our next door neighbor's Spectrum has proved to be a real winner for them. I also like the front to back loading option.

How long a log can be added front to back? How is the Summit with small burns when the temps are in the 40's?

 

[elkimmeg]

The cat Defiant can be used in a 6" vent situation, infact they make a flue collar for it . I know they throw plenty of clean burning heat

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

in the market already??

 

[elkimmeg]

The cat Defiant can be used in a 6" vent situation, infact they make a flue collar for it . I know they throw plenty of clean burning heat

A smaller stove would be the cat Encore ,Heats my home pretty well. I'm using the 6" flue collar. I don't know if you need 8+ hour 500 degree productive

burns on a single fill up? The cat defiant is a bit longer. Doubt CFM is going to discontinue them anytime soon, since they just re-certified them to year 2011

 

[begreen]

Not an option for us. We can't use a VC stove in our corner installation. They have too high clearance requirements.

 

[begreen]

in the market already??

Possibly, though not because I want to. But this would be the time to start thinking about it if we are going to take advantage of spring prices and inventory reduction. The new stove location and greater dependence on the stove have shifted our needs. Also, as we are using larger splits and have had some hairy experiences with fully involved logs trying to roll out of the stove. Last night, one succeeded. A large one that was well burnt, rolled against the glass. I cracked the door open to try to move it and it crumbled out over the hearth and onto the floor with flaming coals. Thankfully we no longer have carpet. This wouldn't happen with a top loader or a front to back stove.

 

[babalu87]

I know the stove I would pick

I would imagine anyone that does wrought iron railings could fit one up. I know a guy here, he can use my stove to measure and UPS it to you

I would think that pulling the glass and having small tabs welded/braised on the grill would be the ticket.
Just reinstall the glass, maybe using a longer screw?

 

[begreen]

One issue I found with the Morso is their manual is skimpy on details for installation clearances. I couldn't find any mention of double-wall pipe installations there. Also the paragraph above the diagram seems to indicate 8" from combustibles is ok, while the chart says 13". It also seems to be the least clean burning and alas, it's a front loader, so it has the #3 slot so far.

I have to check on the Oslo dimensions to see if it might work. The Isle Royale is my wife's first choice. It does give us the most installation options. MSG, any drafting issues I should know about if I connect it with rear exit vent? I'm partial to the Summit, it's a stove built for northwest woodburning, very simple operation, longest tested burn times. But it will need some window dressing and that will add to the cost.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

The isle royal is considerd a stove that drafts well on just about any chimney, there beautifull too!

 

[babalu87]

You wont be able to side load the Morso?

13 inches for a single wall with heat shield. Cant be much closer that that with a top exit anyway.
I know the 8" rear clearance is a bit of a stretch, I think it could go four inches. When I have it ripping at a 500+ stack temp I can put my hand on the rear heat shield and leave it there.

65% efficient compared to 72% MEH

 

[Roospike]

How long a log can be added front to back? How is the Summit with small burns when the temps are in the 40's?

Front to back loading for the Summit is max 21" but 18"-16" is a lot better fit IMO and you can load a lot of wood front to back @18" by the 21" wide box.

Summit burns great on 40° weather. We burn from 50° through -20° at 100% wood heating.

Summit corner install is 4" stove to wall per the corners and 6" to a flat wall w/DW pipe.

You never said if you were looking into the standard steel stove or the Classic.

 

[begreen]

Perhaps, though the clearances are tight. The Morso loads on the left side like the Oslo. According to the Oslo manual the side door is supposed to be locked down in corner installations. If the door was on the right side it would be much better.

 

[begreen]

How long a log can be added front to back? How is the Summit with small burns when the temps are in the 40's?

Front to back loading for the Summit is max 21" but 18"-16" is a lot better fit IMO and you can load a lot of wood front to back @18" by the 21" wide box.

Summit burns great on 40° weather. We burn from 50° through -20° at 100% wood heating.

Summit corner install is 4" stove to wall per the corners and 6" to a flat wall w/DW pipe.

You never said if you were looking into the standard steel stove or the Classic.

Thanks Roo. Most of our wood falls between 16-18" so I can live with that. The classic is the only model we've considered. Sounds like the only downsides with the PE are that I would need to fabricate a custom grille and we have to accept the look of an offset in the flue. I love the close clearances. The Isle Royale is a winner there too. I don't think I would go wrong with either stove.

 

[begreen]

The isle royal is considerd a stove that drafts well on just about any chimney, there beautifull too!

Does that also mean that I wouldn't need a draft damper on our 19" stack?

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

yea, i would say so.

 

[Roospike]

Didnt think to mention draft. Our Summit is on a 20' Class A SSteel chimney located inside the house through two floors. No problem with draft , i figured with our set up we would have over draft but not the case at all.

Now that i think of it I dont recall hearing of any PE owner with too much or too little draft except for hog when he had to adjust the door on his stove but was fixed once adjusted.

 

[BrotherBart]

If ya buy a Summit make sure the dealerthrows in a ball peen hammer and Crescent wrench as part of the deal.

 

[Roospike]

If ya buy a Summit make sure the dealerthrows in a ball peen hammer and Cresent wrench as part of the deal.

****************** %-P ************************

 

[nshif]

The cost of upgrading the
Summits doors might just bring you up to the cost of the Isle.

 

[begreen]

The thought crossed my mind. I have an affection for top loaders after my experience with the early VC Resolute. If the Isle Royale had a thermostatic damper it would be a done deal. (Maybe a retrofit opportunity?) Also our dealer is a Quadrafire dealer as well and may come up with an upgrade offer. But the PE is still in contention because I have yet to meet or talk with a disatisfied owner. And the long burns my neighbor is getting with the same wood I'm burning is impressive.

 

[Corie]

My vote goes to the Quad, hands down.