Drolet Legend, Austral, Myriad

[WinterinWI]

Has anyone with a Drolet Legend/Austral/Myriad II or III removed the c-cast insulation under the stove top? What were the effects on flue temp, stove top temp and any other notable changes in the stove's operation?

I'm referring to item #54:

Cutaway showing where it is installed directly under the stove top:

And no, I'm not suggesting anyone should modify their stove, just asking if anyone has and the effects.

Open to experiences from similar stoves.

 

[kennyp2339]

The insulation is there to keep the firebox (where the wood is) warmer & faster heat up to achieve secondary reburn which occurs near 1100 deg f

 

[WinterinWI]

The insulation is there to keep the firebox (where the wood is) warmer & faster heat up to achieve secondary reburn which occurs near 1100 deg f

I'd think that the baffle would achieve that. The exhaust has already left the firebox in the area I'm referring to.

 

[kennyp2339]

I'd think that the baffle would achieve that. The exhaust has already left the firebox in the area I'm referring to.
View attachment 289894

Maybe it’s made like that to keep flame impingement away from eating at the stove top then

 

[WinterinWI]

Maybe it’s made like that to keep flame impingement away from eating at the stove top then

Maybe, but if that were the case I don't see why you'd need to have it insulated all the way back to the flue exit. There are many tube stoves without insulated tops.

While I'm very happy with this stove, I think the top insulation is holding it's heating potential back a bit.

When I run my Drolet Escape (no insulated stove top), I typically burn high output fires (heat that area up asap). This admittedly wastes more heat up the chimney, but I am able to peak around 800 stove top temp while still staying in a safe range on flue temps. Having this same type of fire in the legend I can peak flue temps at 900, keep it there for half hour or so before slowly coming down the remainder of the burn. The center of the stove top peaked at 570, 430 near the edges (IR gun). I can keep the flue temps cooler by shutting the air back sooner if I want to for a longer burn, stove top temps will peak lower in that case, but also stay at the peak for longer.

Comparing the 2 stoves, the most obvious difference other than size is the insulated stove top. Burning the same wood in these 2 stoves, 2 year split ash, 3 year split mulberry.

 

[T-roy_]

I removed this in my Austral II. Made a huge difference. I was getting 900* plus flue temps (with probe type therm) to get a 520* stove top. Now flue runs 700* for about a 650* stove top.

Only thing it did was increase flue temp and lower stove top temp…worthless IMHO

 

[WinterinWI]

I removed this in my Austral II. Made a huge difference. I was getting 900* plus flue temps (with probe type therm) to get a 520* stove top. Now flue runs 700* for about a 650* stove top.

Only thing it did was increase flue temp and lower stove top temp…worthless IMHO

I ended up removing it also towards the end of last burning season. Much improved and I see similiar temps as you. Haven't noticed any negative effects.

 

[mcmars]

I wonder if this is a good mod to do with my Drolet Myriad III stove and curious how others feel about the pros and cons of removing the upper stovetop heat shield #54 in the diagram above?? I am not really concerned about the manufacturer warranty issues, but I do have concerns of making the stove unsafe or damaging/warping the stove by removing the heat shield. Here is my experience so far with about 5 weeks of using my Drolet and not being able to get a consistent hot stovetop temp:

With a full load of well seasoned medium sized gambrel oak I find the best way is to then add some super dry slabs of aspen I get from a local mill that are about an inch or 2 thick right on the top to really heat the top of the stove. Even if I keep adding a few pieces of the aspen slab, it is hard to get the stove top to 500F but yet the flu temp with IR gun is around 700-750F, or even higher if I were to not shut the air control down to full secondary mode once the load is blazing hot. Without the aspen, the stovetop temp is near 350-400 max at the peak of the fire and after running secondary reburning, it drops to 300 within an hour or less. I have plenty of draft with 10 ft high ceilings and then 17 ft of class A selkirk double wall. I have tried various burning tactics, different mixes of seasoned wood ( ponderosa, elm, oak, cherry, mulberry, cedar), small, medium, large sizes and messing with the secondary air control. But with the air control fully closed in secondary mode, The stove runs with a cooler top (300-400) and larger pile of smoldering coals in the morning, like half full of coals. If I leave the secondary air control open a tad, it does seem to run hotter as expected, but still no where near 500-600 F I would like to get during the cold 0 to 20F nights we have been having here in SW colorado at 6700 ft elevation. Either way, I get a huge amount of coals that I have to spend the day burning down with small splits of aspen or pine as there is no front air control to help feed air under the large bed of coals. So cold cloudy days are a challenge with this stove as there is limited room for new wood. My feel is if I could burn the stove hotter, I would get better combustion, more BTU's of heat and less coals. I wish there was a front air control like my old 1980's PE cat stove had to help deal with the excessive coaling. But seems like this might be the reality of the EPA stoves from researching excessive coaling (?).

It just seems like I am not able to get the full potential of this stove that is rated at up to 90K BTU. I am not sure the small blower really does that much, but I run that at minimal speed to keep noise levels and power consumption down, or just skip it and keep a tiny fan pointed at the stove/flu as the fan control is located at the rear of the stove in an awkward location.

Yesterday, while in Grand Junction CO, I stopped into a local stove store and had conversation with an very knowledgeable and honest installer/sweep who said he removes quite a few of the Drolet stoves and replaces them with other options. He feels they are overrated for what they really can do. But I am thinking you get what you pay for ultimately, so maybe it is not fair to compare a $1400 stove with a $4000 stove. But maybe this is a good mod to help get a bit more heat from the stove and less going up the stack???

 

[ABMax24]

How is the baffle held in place? Can it be removed and reinstalled again if the results are undesirable.

SBI is doing this with a lot of their stoves to meet emissions, either a piece of c-cast or stainless sheet under the stove top. Problem is you now have to burn more wood to get the same heat into the house.

 

[mcmars]

How is the baffle held in place? Can it be removed and reinstalled again if the results are undesirable.

SBI is doing this with a lot of their stoves to meet emissions, either a piece of c-cast or stainless sheet under the stove top. Problem is you now have to burn more wood to get the same heat into the house.

Humm??? I wondered if EPA emissions was the reason they wanted to keep the top cool, guess it keeps the firebox hotterfor better combustion. If I am going to burn more wood, then maybe I am better off just making my 35 year old "Hurricane" stove more airtight and putting that back into the home. It has a 5.5 CuFt firebox, but the right door leaked a bit at the bottom from being a tad warped. I tried new gasket 2X but never could quite get the gap filled. But I have a friend who is a commercial welder, maybe it is worth considering fixing the old stove?? But maybe I see if we get some other responses on how to get a hotter stovetop on these Drolet stoves, there certainly are a ton of people using them with their bang for buck price point for a canadian made stove. I am really not sure if the fan is worth much on it, but I got spoiled with the heat exchanger/fan on the Hurricane. It has a dozen 1" pipe that ran rear to front at the top of the firebox. I measured the temperature of the air leaving the pipes at 500+ degrees with my IR gun and could feel the fan blowing the heat over 15 ft away on my couch.

If the Drolet is 90K BTU, then the Hurricane is over 200K BTU, like comparing my 2008 Prius to my 98 Suburban, haha. Prius gets 50MPH, Suburban 13 MPH if I am not hauling a ton of stuff on a trailer which would, of course, kill my Prius.

 

[ABMax24]

Humm??? I wondered if EPA emissions was the reason they wanted to keep the top cool, guess it keeps the firebox hotterfor better combustion. If I am going to burn more wood, then maybe I am better off just making my 35 year old "Hurricane" stove more airtight and putting that back into the home. It has a 5.5 CuFt firebox, but the right door leaked a bit at the bottom from being a tad warped. I tried new gasket 2X but never could quite get the gap filled. But I have a friend who is a commercial welder, maybe it is worth considering fixing the old stove?? But maybe I see if we get some other responses on how to get a hotter stovetop on these Drolet stoves, there certainly are a ton of people using them with their bang for buck price point for a canadian made stove. I am really not sure if the fan is worth much on it, but I got spoiled with the heat exchanger/fan on the Hurricane. It has a dozen 1" pipe that ran rear to front at the top of the firebox. I measured the temperature of the air leaving the pipes at 500+ degrees with my IR gun and could feel the fan blowing the heat over 15 ft away on my couch.

If the Drolet is 90K BTU, then the Hurricane is over 200K BTU, like comparing my 2008 Prius to my 98 Suburban, haha. Prius gets 50MPH, Suburban 13 MPH if I am not hauling a ton of stuff on a trailer which would, of course, kill my Prius.

The goal wasn't to cool the stove top, but to keep the gases hotter for more complete combustion.

The problem is a stove can't be sold if it doesn't meet the EPA emissions. To my knowledge there isn't a requirement stating minimum efficiency of the appliance. So business people meet the necessary requirements (like emissions) and pay less attention to other requirements like efficiency.

I like my Osburn, and it does the job. But with the reports coming out of the poor heating ability of the EPA 2020 SBI stoves I'm not likely going to recommend them as frequently anymore.

 

[MNtreewood]

We had an Austral II for 7 years that we burned full time in from October thru March. I don't remember if it had that #54 baffle or not but that stove just poured out heat sides and top in it's stock form so I was surprised to read this. On average I remember it cruising along at 650-750F stove top temp for the first few hours and that was with the air adjustment almost closed. Anymore air and it'd easily over-fire.

I do recall it didn't like partial or half loads even over a bed of coals. If it was a warmer fall or spring day/night temprature I'd log cabin stack the splits to get them up to the top by the tubes. Otherwise it'd burn dirty with some smoke. the whole load. All the other times I just stuffed it full from top to bottom of secondary tubes with splits all North/South.

 

[mcmars]

The goal wasn't to cool the stove top, but to keep the gases hotter for more complete combustion.

The problem is a stove can't be sold if it doesn't meet the EPA emissions. To my knowledge there isn't a requirement stating minimum efficiency of the appliance. So business people meet the necessary requirements (like emissions) and pay less attention to other requirements like efficiency.

I like my Osburn, and it does the job. But with the reports coming out of the poor heating ability of the EPA 2020 SBI stoves I'm not likely going to recommend them as frequently anymore.

Thank you, that all makes a ton of sense. So maybe the question is will it help to remove that top baffle? That is what caught my eye and why I replied to this thread. If I could get more top heat and less coaling, that would be wonderful. Maybe the stove is oxygen starved to control the combustion, but I have exceeded my level of engineering on understanding it all. I do like the size of the fire box, easy to load NS or EW with 16 to 20" splits or rounds.

I had to go to a dentist 200 miles away for an overnight trip and was gone for 30 hours. I came back today to a full 6 gal galvanized bucket of warm ashes still putting out enough heat to burn me if I tried as I filled the bucket with ashes, I was surprised to find coals as I left the air control wide open to burn them down. The home was down to 49 at about 2PM today when I got back and I have been throwing wood at the stove for last 6 hours and it is so full now of coals I am running it wide open at this time to help get the coals down enough to get more wood in. It is only 34 F outside and 63 in my living room with the stove, but that room is over 1000 Sq ft with 10ft ceilings, an old victorian church. I bet if I could get the attic sealed and add the R38 insulation I bought on to the R19 and get the stone foundation insulated along with rim joist, things might be different for me. But that is going to take time and money and it will not stop there is my guess to really get the home up to snuff. Tempted to try and repair the leaky warped door and re-install the 5.5 CuFT Hurricane and just sell this Drolet till I find a better stove for my needs.

We had an Austral II for 7 years that we burned full time in from October thru March. I don't remember if it had that #54 baffle or not but that stove just poured out heat sides and top in it's stock form so I was surprised to read this. On average I remember it cruising along at 650-750F stove top temp for the first few hours and that was with the air adjustment almost closed. Anymore air and it'd easily over-fire.

I do recall it didn't like partial or half loads even over a bed of coals. If it was a warmer fall or spring day/night temprature I'd log cabin stack the splits to get them up to the top by the tubes. Otherwise it'd burn dirty with some smoke. the whole load. All the other times I just stuffed it full from top to bottom of secondary tubes with splits all North/South.

Thanks for your input. I also stack the log cabin style when the stove is empty of ashes enough to build it up to the top and that does work very well to get things going. I would love to see 650-750 stove top, a bit over 500 is as good as I can get after a lot of work to get it really fired up with combo of high btu smaller hardwoods and some aspen or ponderosa pine, but it only last about 20-30 minutes before it will dip back to the 3-400 range.

My stove installer did stop by today. I told him some people here had removed the #54 baffle and got higher stove top temps. He said we could try and install a piece of thick plate steel in place of the baffle and that would likely be a good solution. I like that idea and might go that route. And he is going to help me install a flat ceiling in my coldest room upstairs that has a cathedral ceiling that goes to 13 ft and then install R38 insulation, and also air seal up my attic above the other 2 bedrooms and lay down R38 insulation on top of the existing R19. I think that will be a big part of the battle and then this stove might be able to keep things warmer in my leaky old home.

 

[weee123]

Seeing this thread makes me glad I went with the 32NC englander over the drolets I was looking at now

 

[Newbie78]

Our legend III's top will easily get to over 700 or more if I let it. It usually runs at about 600-650 for a few hours before starting to cool. It just kept us toasty through many days of -40's. So IDK what you are talking about.

Our other Drolet stove rocked too.

 

[Gearhead660]

My Myriad 2 does a great job heating a big drafty house. I have noticed the stove top doesnt get as hot as the flue gas temp. The top of the sides where there isnt fire bricks is closer to flue temps. Think mine is a 2018 model. I would think the baffle is in there for emissions and/or to keep the stove top from warping.

 

[mcmars]

Seeing this thread makes me glad I went with the 32NC englander over the drolets I was looking at now

I am not trying to bash the Drolet stove, just something is not right for me. Maybe something got shaken up wrong with the stove in transport or something I have no considered yet. Every situation is different with so many variables. It does work fine for mild or moderate temps, but there is a point where it just is not putting out much heat. There are many things I do like over my old Hurricane, no backdraft puffing smoke into the home with strong north winds, that was the ultimate deal breaker for me and this Drolet stove has not had any backdraft issues at all with same chimney.

 

[Hoytman]

Throw ONE piece of wood in with the coals (one piece) and open air controls wide open and watch the temps for awhile to let the coals burn down. Let that one stick of wood burn down until almost gone as well. When coals are gone to gray ash then add more wood for a full burn.

Try that and report back later.

 

[mcmars]

Throw ONE piece of wood in with the coals (one piece) and open air controls wide open and watch the temps for awhile to let the coals burn down. Let that one stick of wood burn down until almost gone as well. When coals are gone to gray ash then add more wood for a full burn.

Try that and report back later.

That is what I do after a really cold night. I first get a hot morning fire going on the big pile of coals as the home is pretty cold with aspen or ponderosa small/medium splits. Then about mid to late morning, hopefully the sun is out and helping with passive solar, and I can do as you just described for about 6-8 hours until it is time to build up a big fire for the evening and then another cold night. I can get cheap slab aspen from an aspen mill about 5 miles away and it includes a bunch of smaller kindling sized sticks and it burns hot and fast. But even then, just opening the air control to full is not enough. It is a ritual of using my long poker to rake the coals to get the bigger chunks to the top and near the front by the door. Then cracking the door for 10 or 15 minutes before I can close door and let it burn with air control open. Then "rinse/repeat" throughout the day every hour of so till hopefully the coals are burnt down and I can build another fire for the evening.