Very pleased.
The set up: 24' SS liner, insulated, blocked off plus insulation both ends. Outside masonry fireplace chimney, masonry fireplace, raised hearth.
The burn: Friday night, first burn. Lots of bright yellow flame but not very hot. Blower came on for a little while. Very little smokey glass. Saturday morning burn again, a bit hotter. A bit hotter yet Saturday early afternoon. A pretty good hot burn Saturday late evening. Sunday burned normal hot fires all day until bed time.
Observations: Very happy with the unit. Very little hot paint smell, and all gone after Sunday mornings hot burn. These stoves do like good wood. My wood is well seasoned but I can see how these modern units would not want to burn poor quality wood. The draft is very good. I load it with 3" to 4" splits, let it get fully involved, and in about 10min. slowly back off the air until fully closed. Flame remains lightly on the wood and the secondaries burn vigorously until down to coals. I loaded it fairly full but not stuffed, and heat easily lasted 4 hours including coals. I think if stuffed full, including heat from coals (in other words, until blower stops running), I think it would go roughly 6 hours until refill and relighting from coals easily. Maybe an hour or so longer. Most smoke seems to burn off the glass and fire brick once up to speed after a reload or restart.
It was the warmest we've been in the 18' X 22' family room since we bought the house 4.5 years ago. (Bi-Level) It is electric baseboard. We had a high efficiency HP installed a couple years ago but there are no ducts downstairs. For AC, there is a Mr. Slim split system downstairs. I did as I learned from the great people here and put a small fan on the floor at the doorway blowing cool air into the room. As you all said, it kept us from roasting in the family room and also helped push heat upstairs.
Thanks to everyone here for the tips and suggestions I've read over the last few months.
Steve
The set up: 24' SS liner, insulated, blocked off plus insulation both ends. Outside masonry fireplace chimney, masonry fireplace, raised hearth.
The burn: Friday night, first burn. Lots of bright yellow flame but not very hot. Blower came on for a little while. Very little smokey glass. Saturday morning burn again, a bit hotter. A bit hotter yet Saturday early afternoon. A pretty good hot burn Saturday late evening. Sunday burned normal hot fires all day until bed time.
Observations: Very happy with the unit. Very little hot paint smell, and all gone after Sunday mornings hot burn. These stoves do like good wood. My wood is well seasoned but I can see how these modern units would not want to burn poor quality wood. The draft is very good. I load it with 3" to 4" splits, let it get fully involved, and in about 10min. slowly back off the air until fully closed. Flame remains lightly on the wood and the secondaries burn vigorously until down to coals. I loaded it fairly full but not stuffed, and heat easily lasted 4 hours including coals. I think if stuffed full, including heat from coals (in other words, until blower stops running), I think it would go roughly 6 hours until refill and relighting from coals easily. Maybe an hour or so longer. Most smoke seems to burn off the glass and fire brick once up to speed after a reload or restart.
It was the warmest we've been in the 18' X 22' family room since we bought the house 4.5 years ago. (Bi-Level) It is electric baseboard. We had a high efficiency HP installed a couple years ago but there are no ducts downstairs. For AC, there is a Mr. Slim split system downstairs. I did as I learned from the great people here and put a small fan on the floor at the doorway blowing cool air into the room. As you all said, it kept us from roasting in the family room and also helped push heat upstairs.
Thanks to everyone here for the tips and suggestions I've read over the last few months.
Steve
