Drolet Alto Deco: How it's going.

[Gray_Day_On_Oregon_Coast]

Back in February, forumgoers here helped me suss out which SBI stove to get. It was a real PITA to cure the paint. Took weeks of crazy hot burns. But we've been burning it nonstop since. Here's the weather for the second day of summer and our comfort fire. I imagine you're all in flippy-floppies and shorts!

It's easy to load on my old knees and looks great. Starts easily and burns clean even though I mostly burn Shore Pine. I still prefer N/S loaders, but I've adapted. I don't get as many BTUs out of it as I did from our 1989 Pacific Energy Spectrum and it has to work harder to heat the house and use more wood. This stove has WAY more air intake control and even with my 25' Class A, I can get the fire pretty much where I want it as long as I don't overload it. No damper needed! Our old PE couldn't control the fire at all, which is why we upgraded.

I ordered through Costco and delivery was a nightmare. The guy couldn't get to our driveway. He wouldn't even come down our road, which is a nice, paved state highway because he couldn't see an obvious turnaround on a map. I went and met him at dusk at a poorly lit public park in the next town over and loaded it into my firewood trailer and had to unload it by myself with an engine crane in the gloaming and rain. It felt like a drug deal, lol.

I'd definitely recommend the stove to anybody considering one! ...but not my local LTL freight company, lol.

Anyway, thanks for the advice everybody! Happy Summer!

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Wow! Glad the stove is working great after your troubles getting it

 

[Turbo89]

Sounds like a PITA! How’d you get it in the house, a dolly and some extra hands?

How many sq-ft are you heating with it?

 

[Gray_Day_On_Oregon_Coast]

Sounds like a PITA! How’d you get it in the house, a dolly and some extra hands?

How many sq-ft are you heating with it?

Well, I backed the trailer up as close as I could to the door. Used a precariously perched engine crane with one leg hanging off the patio supported by bricks. I live on a steep hill and nothing is level. I unhooked the trailer to lower the back end and the tongue shot up and I almost lost the stove as it started to tip out. I thought I properly balanced it over the axle, but nope. My kids had run around behind it for some reason at that exact second. I jumped up on the tongue and thankfully I'm heavy as it came back down and the stove rocked back the other way. I have nightmares about that stupid move. I let up a little and it balanced itself. I had to hook it back up to the pickup. Called my brother who owes me money and we muscled the crane around and managed to stick the stove into the doorway where we lowered it onto a dolly with a piece of plywood so as not to ruin the sliding glass door track. Getting the old stove out was similarly miserable.

My advice: Find a local retailer that will bring the stove into your house and take your old one out and put it where you want or haul it away. Even if it's more expensive. It's worth it. These mega corporations or online shippers will leave you in a literal lurch.

I'm heating just shy of 2,500 sq. ft. It does the bottom floor and upper living area and kitchen really well. The heat doesn't really make it to the bedrooms. I'm also burning low-BTU wood like Shore Pine because we have blowdowns on our property every year. Every year I say, "No more flipping pine!" and then a mature tree falls down and I can't just leave decent wood on the ground...

 

[begreen]

That sounds like quite the adventure. It would be good to try out some hardwood, maybe trade out with a friend?

 

[Gray_Day_On_Oregon_Coast]

That sounds like quite the adventure. It would be good to try out some hardwood, maybe trade out with a friend?

Well, I have big leaf maple logs that laid in the sun for two full summers. I tried bucking them up and splitting them, but they need more time, unfortunately. If you bring them in the house for two - three days, they'll flare up at first and burn really fast, but the inner part smolders eventually. They'll still pump out plenty of heat and there isn't much creosote buildup. If I'd split them a month or two ago, I think they'd have been perfect. They're so close to being ready.

 

[begreen]

Wood doesn't really start drying until split. Big leaf maple takes 1.5 - 2 yrs.