Dutchwest Review

[corkyscott]

Review of Dutchwest 300007DW. Corky here, we are well into the heating season now, here in northern New England. Our replacement stove is working well. To review, we had been using a "Freeflow" stove for about 30 years to heat our log cabin of about 1500 square feet. It has a cathedral ceiling in the main room, which promotes convection type heating. Originally, we had an Ashley stove located on the first floor. This meant that we had to bring wood in and store it near the stove, which was disruptive and dirty. When we changed over to the Freeflow, we moved it downstairs and enclosed it with a passive heat collector, from which the heat was distributed via trunklines to various corners of the house. This worked fine over the years, until the internal tubes of the stove cracked and leaked smoke into the house.

We did a lot of research to find a modern efficient stove, and ended up with the Dutchwest, sized to heat our modest home, and eschewed cast iron for plate steel to reduce cost.

While this was going on, I lined the old firebrick chimney with a 5 inch stainless steel liner, because the firebrick was coming apart at the top of the chimney. I would have gone with a 6 inch flue, but the chimney's construction did not allow that. Trust me, I tried. I ended up having to pull the 6 inch flue out in ribbons when it stuck 9/10'ths of the way down.

So the 5 inch liner was installed, the stove was installed, and I built up an insulated enclosure around the stove to collect the heat and distribute it to the various corners where we had heat grates. Again, let me stress that this is a PASSIVE heat collector, no fan is involved. The heat just rises from the stove, is channeled by the collector and is distributed to into the ductwork from which it exits, heating the house.

Now to the stove. I found out immediately that the stove requires a lot of air to get the materials burning. The trick, or at least what worked for us, was to leave the door slightly ajar while the tinder and kindling caught. I found that I had to let the wood really catch, before shutting and latching the door. Once I learned that trick, starting a fire was easy.

One of the tricks I found, was to use Birch Bark as tinder. It catches easily, and burns VERY hot, which gets the kindling going. So paper to start, birch on top, kindling, and then the wood.

So far, I've used only white pine as fuel. This is only because we had a few white pine blow downs over the last year and I'm not one to waste otherwise useless wood. True, it does not last as long as hardwood, but is does burn and produces heat so we'll use it until it's gone, then use the hardwood.

The stove works well. It gets hot enough to cook the wood, producing gasses, that the perforated pipes reignite. So if I turn it down low enough, you get this spooky look of gasses burning off the cooking wood. The gasses ignite right at the top of the stove, while the wood itself appears to be charcoling. While this it happening, the stove is producing some 500F of heat. So far, this has been enough to heat the house, letting the normal heating system rest.

Of course, it has not really gotten very cold yet, but on the other hand, I have not used any hardwood for fuel yet either.

So I'm happy. The stove is working well, the enclosure, insulated with mineral wool, is doing it's job, and we have plenty of wood left to burn.

Corky Scott

 

[raybonz]

Sounds like your stove is working well and I wish you good luck with it! You'll have to post a pic of your setup when you have a chance..

Ray

 

[corkyscott]

Sounds like your stove is working well and I wish you good luck with it! You'll have to post a pic of your setup when you have a chance..

Ray

Here you go. To protect the corners of what is otherwise stacked 3" mineral wool, I bent some flashing and screwed it together with pieces forming the base and top of the enclosure. This is a bigger enclosure than my old version when using the Freeflow stove. That version actually sat on top of the stove, this version completely surrounds the stove, except for the opening for the stove door.

The collection enclosure is connected to two large ducts that branch into smaller ducts feeding a total of three cast iron grates in the living room, and two more in each of the two back rooms. Once the stove heats up, the heat rises through the collector and out horizontally to the grates without a fan to push it along. This is important for us because the power goes out here in this area of Vermont relatively frequently. We need a backup heating system that can operate without power. This seems to be working fine, but like I said previously, it hasn't really gotten that cold yet. In the past we've seen temps as low as 32F below zero. For one two week period back in 1978/79, the thermometer went below zero and did not rise above. During the "hottest" part of the day, the thermometer would read minus 8 to minus 10 or so, then drop down to an average of 25 below for the night. Quite the winter. During those years we heated solely with wood.

Corky Scott

 

[raybonz]

Sounds like your stove is working well and I wish you good luck with it! You'll have to post a pic of your setup when you have a chance..

Ray

Here you go. To protect the corners of what is otherwise stacked 3" mineral wool, I bent some flashing and screwed it together with pieces forming the base and top of the enclosure. This is a bigger enclosure than my old version when using the Freeflow stove. That version actually sat on top of the stove, this version completely surrounds the stove, except for the opening for the stove door.

The collection enclosure is connected to two large ducts that branch into smaller ducts feeding a total of three cast iron grates in the living room, and two more in each of the two back rooms. Once the stove heats up, the heat rises through the collector and out horizontally to the grates without a fan to push it along. This is important for us because the power goes out here in this area of Vermont relatively frequently. We need a backup heating system that can operate without power. This seems to be working fine, but like I said previously, it hasn't really gotten that cold yet. In the past we've seen temps as low as 32F below zero. For one two week period back in 1978/79, the thermometer went below zero and did not rise above. During the "hottest" part of the day, the thermometer would read minus 8 to minus 10 or so, then drop down to an average of 25 below for the night. Quite the winter. During those years we heated solely with wood.

Corky Scott

Wow that would have defied my imagination! Thanx for the pic as it told a thousand words.. So essentially what you've created is hot air system with natural air flow? I remember way back when I was looking at houses seeing central heating systems that worked along the same principal using gas or oil.. The old houses had huge floor vents made of ornately decorated cast iron.. We go camping at VT's state parks every summer (we love the lean-to's) for a long weekend and go hiking.. Great state and excellent state parks!

Ray

 

[corkyscott]

Wow that would have defied my imagination! Thanx for the pic as it told a thousand words.. So essentially what you've created is hot air system with natural air flow? I remember way back when I was looking at houses seeing central heating systems that worked along the same principal using gas or oil.. The old houses had huge floor vents made of ornately decorated cast iron.. We go camping at VT's state parks every summer (we love the lean-to's) for a long weekend and go hiking.. Great state and excellent state parks!

Ray

The enclosure I fabricated for the Freeflow was essentially the same thing, but the enclosure actually used the stove to hold up one end of it. I was never happy with it because I insulated it with ordinary fiberglass. I took care to keep the fiberglass, which doesn't burn (but it melts) away from the stove door, but I always worried about over firing the stove and causing a problem. This insulation I'm using is also called "Firestop", in fact that's how the packages were labeled. It won't burn. But when I built the enclosure, I took the time to create something that stood off from the stove so that it was not subjected to contact heat.

The flashing is purely to prevent gradual deterioration of the mineral wool by rubbing against it as you pass by.

It seems to channel the heat better than the original enclosure. So far it is working quite well. The benefit of having the stove downstairs is that that is where the wood supply is stacked. By this time in the heating season, the stove and the regular heating system have produced enough heat to really dry out the wood. It catches quickly and burns with very little smoke.

I like the big window in the stove door. I sit in front of it watching the fire catch hold, it allows me to tell when I can latch the door so that I can regulate it. My wife just giggles that I like to watch the fire so much.

Corky Scott