DS stoves Heco 420 review. I have heated and cooked with the stove for one full winter.
When I first lit the stove, I lit a stick of incense and moved it all around the door gaskets. There were several places with vacuum leaks. the door hinges can be adjusted individually to seal up leaks. The stove is very easy to light and to get the fire hot quickly with small splits. the baffle above the secondary burners makes for a very efficient burn, but makes the stove top slow to heat. It’s my first year with the stove and I’m having difficulty getting the oven up to temperature without overheating the house. I added fiberglass insulation underneath the side and rear heat shields and added additional fire bricks and fiberglass insulation in the fire box in an attempt to make it easier to get the oven up to temperature without overheating the house, but it hasn’t really worked. What does work is adding a lot of small splits, getting the fire very hot, and heating the oven up quickly and then idling it back. I think the main problem is that the stove runs best when it’s hot but it’s oversized for my 800 square-foot house in Central North Carolina so I tend to run it cool which is the recipe for back, puffing, creosote buildup, and stinky greasy smoke outside.
The stove is efficient in its wood use. The stack temperature is surprisingly cool, there’s no visible smoke coming from the chimney and almost no smell of smoke outside.
The warming oven is too shallow to put plates inside which I found really surprising. I solved it by loosening the back panel of the warming oven so it can swing out and accommodate plates. The result is that it doesn’t stay very warm in there, however.
The stove has a problem with back puffing. It mostly happens when the oven is “on “ and the hot air regulator is turned down too fast such that the flames are extinguished. I have gotten it to happen less frequently, but it still happens occasionally.
The window on the fire box is fantastic, but it will heat your legs up while cooking. I made a shield out of aluminum foil with a magnet that covers the window while cooking.
I got the three-piece stainless top. I put a thicker gasket under the stove top so it stands proud of the enamel coated perimeter which will keep it from getting scratched up.
The water jacket was easy to install, and it keeps a 30 gallon tank of water piping hot.
The stove is backed into a brick lined alcove in my house. I came up with linkage using parts off the shelf at Lowe’s hardware so I can control the hot air regulator from the front. I can access the box at the base of the chimney to remove creosote by removing the stainless steel top plates. I attached cords to the shaker grate handle and ran them around the sides of the stove so I can operate it from the front.
The stove easily heats my house, it’s easy to have all night burns and still be hot in the morning. It produces a surprisingly small amount of creosote for being a wood cook stove.
The only things I would change about the stove would be to definitely make the warming oven deeper, to make the stove available in different colors, and to make all of the controls accessible from the front. Other than that, I think I’m going to grow to love the stove. The welding work is well done, the enamel finish is well done. I feel very safe having it in my house. I imagine it will last generations. It has relatively few moving parts to wear out.
When I first lit the stove, I lit a stick of incense and moved it all around the door gaskets. There were several places with vacuum leaks. the door hinges can be adjusted individually to seal up leaks. The stove is very easy to light and to get the fire hot quickly with small splits. the baffle above the secondary burners makes for a very efficient burn, but makes the stove top slow to heat. It’s my first year with the stove and I’m having difficulty getting the oven up to temperature without overheating the house. I added fiberglass insulation underneath the side and rear heat shields and added additional fire bricks and fiberglass insulation in the fire box in an attempt to make it easier to get the oven up to temperature without overheating the house, but it hasn’t really worked. What does work is adding a lot of small splits, getting the fire very hot, and heating the oven up quickly and then idling it back. I think the main problem is that the stove runs best when it’s hot but it’s oversized for my 800 square-foot house in Central North Carolina so I tend to run it cool which is the recipe for back, puffing, creosote buildup, and stinky greasy smoke outside.
The stove is efficient in its wood use. The stack temperature is surprisingly cool, there’s no visible smoke coming from the chimney and almost no smell of smoke outside.
The warming oven is too shallow to put plates inside which I found really surprising. I solved it by loosening the back panel of the warming oven so it can swing out and accommodate plates. The result is that it doesn’t stay very warm in there, however.
The stove has a problem with back puffing. It mostly happens when the oven is “on “ and the hot air regulator is turned down too fast such that the flames are extinguished. I have gotten it to happen less frequently, but it still happens occasionally.
The window on the fire box is fantastic, but it will heat your legs up while cooking. I made a shield out of aluminum foil with a magnet that covers the window while cooking.
I got the three-piece stainless top. I put a thicker gasket under the stove top so it stands proud of the enamel coated perimeter which will keep it from getting scratched up.
The water jacket was easy to install, and it keeps a 30 gallon tank of water piping hot.
The stove is backed into a brick lined alcove in my house. I came up with linkage using parts off the shelf at Lowe’s hardware so I can control the hot air regulator from the front. I can access the box at the base of the chimney to remove creosote by removing the stainless steel top plates. I attached cords to the shaker grate handle and ran them around the sides of the stove so I can operate it from the front.
The stove easily heats my house, it’s easy to have all night burns and still be hot in the morning. It produces a surprisingly small amount of creosote for being a wood cook stove.
The only things I would change about the stove would be to definitely make the warming oven deeper, to make the stove available in different colors, and to make all of the controls accessible from the front. Other than that, I think I’m going to grow to love the stove. The welding work is well done, the enamel finish is well done. I feel very safe having it in my house. I imagine it will last generations. It has relatively few moving parts to wear out.
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