Well, we finally had the mercury fall about 40 degrees a bit more than a week ago, so we could justify burning the new stove. My previous stove was the Morso 7110 installed with double wall stove pipe in the same room, but a different location (outside wall vs interior corner).
The new T5 is really a dream to operate and cranks out the heat so much better than the Morso. As I reported previously here https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/26651/ the only issue I have had has been a too powerful draft. After going over the mechanics, I am convinced that the stop for the primary air intake could have been installed wrong (it is a welded in place piece of steel flat bar that limits movement of the primary air lever). Having considered all the options, I think a damper in the stovepipe is going to be the best solution, even though it complicates the cleaning of the chimney. It avoids modification to the stove and provided I am able to keep the damper position constant (once dialed in) the stove should be safe to operate by anyone, which certainly can't be said of the current situation.
One of the differences I did not fully understand is the length of time that coals are "preserved" in the ash bed. The Morso has a cast iron grate built into the stove bottom and when I would open the stove in the morning, it was likely that there would no "live" coals left in the stove. Taking last night as an example, I refueled the T5 at about 10:40pm and retired to bed. This morning I could see coals glowing in the stove, but both my wife and I were going to be out all day, so we did not reload the stove at all and just left it to burn out. This evening I got home at 6:30pm, thinking that I would have a cold stove to shovel the ash out of, so I opened the door, got out my ash shovel, and scooped out a shovel full. Well, imagine my surprise when I found a 1/2" layer of ash with a 2" deep coal bed underneath. I scooped off the thin ash layer, piled on some splits, did about 2 minutes of blowing on the coals and had flames. Thinking back to the Morso I suspect that the ash drawer must have had a slow air leak that allowed in sufficient air to fully burn out the coals by providing air below the coals (just like a coal stove). The T5, which has just a small "ash chute" and firebrick on the floor of the stove is tight enough that the coals are preserved.
Frankly, I need colder weather so that I am able to burn 24/7. I need to allow the stove to die back substantially during the day and burn mostly in the evening and a smaller fire in the morning, else we overheat the house. Apparently 30's to mid 40's is not cold enough yet... I can only give Pacific energy the highest praises (other than the draft / primary air issue) and highly recommend the stove.
The new T5 is really a dream to operate and cranks out the heat so much better than the Morso. As I reported previously here https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/26651/ the only issue I have had has been a too powerful draft. After going over the mechanics, I am convinced that the stop for the primary air intake could have been installed wrong (it is a welded in place piece of steel flat bar that limits movement of the primary air lever). Having considered all the options, I think a damper in the stovepipe is going to be the best solution, even though it complicates the cleaning of the chimney. It avoids modification to the stove and provided I am able to keep the damper position constant (once dialed in) the stove should be safe to operate by anyone, which certainly can't be said of the current situation.
One of the differences I did not fully understand is the length of time that coals are "preserved" in the ash bed. The Morso has a cast iron grate built into the stove bottom and when I would open the stove in the morning, it was likely that there would no "live" coals left in the stove. Taking last night as an example, I refueled the T5 at about 10:40pm and retired to bed. This morning I could see coals glowing in the stove, but both my wife and I were going to be out all day, so we did not reload the stove at all and just left it to burn out. This evening I got home at 6:30pm, thinking that I would have a cold stove to shovel the ash out of, so I opened the door, got out my ash shovel, and scooped out a shovel full. Well, imagine my surprise when I found a 1/2" layer of ash with a 2" deep coal bed underneath. I scooped off the thin ash layer, piled on some splits, did about 2 minutes of blowing on the coals and had flames. Thinking back to the Morso I suspect that the ash drawer must have had a slow air leak that allowed in sufficient air to fully burn out the coals by providing air below the coals (just like a coal stove). The T5, which has just a small "ash chute" and firebrick on the floor of the stove is tight enough that the coals are preserved.
Frankly, I need colder weather so that I am able to burn 24/7. I need to allow the stove to die back substantially during the day and burn mostly in the evening and a smaller fire in the morning, else we overheat the house. Apparently 30's to mid 40's is not cold enough yet... I can only give Pacific energy the highest praises (other than the draft / primary air issue) and highly recommend the stove.
