Man Cave Heater has arrived

[raiderfan]

So after going through stove choices over and over in my head (and a bunch of PM's with BG) I decided on PE T4 for my basement, to replace my Jotul 602. The 602 worked o.k. for the space (800 sq ft) but had to be run way too HOT to do it. The basement is a stone foundation and gets pretty darn cold down there in the winter (low as 52*F).

So after ordering the T4, I started thinking that maybe I should just get the T5 instead, for a few reasons. I always remember reading on the forum to take the stove that has heating specs that would work, and go one bigger. I also read about the E-W loading of the T4 being a bit of a PITA. The T5 gave me a bigger stove, a firebox to allow N-S loading, and would also allow me to relocate it up to the living room of my house if I ever decided to go that route in the future. So I changed my order and the T5 arrived 2 weeks ago.

Hoping its not WAY oversized for the area, but I guess i could leave the basement door open to the upstairs if needed. I'm only a "weekend burner" and not looking to offset my primary fuel usage -- just looking for a nice heater for the Man Cave in the winters. Will post pics when its all hooked up and ready to go, as right now its just sort of sitting in the space where I want it to be hooked up.

2 Questions:

1) Break-in fire procedures for this stove? I've never had to break in a stove before. The Jotul was handed down to me.

2) Stove top thermometer placement? Because the Alderleas have the swivel out warming trays on top, I wasn't sure if that was the best place for the Thermometer to go, or if another place would be better.


As always, thanks for any thoughts or info!!

 

[madison]

Breakin instructions are in the manual, 3 or so short not so hot fires, expect some moisture to drip out the bottom from the (fire brick), smell wasn't too bad from my experience.

Stove top thermometer, ~ 6 " front and left or right of the pipe, on the steel top is what we have been comparing to each other in the discussions

ie: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/47446/#522211

 

[raiderfan]

Breakin instructions are in the manual, 3 or so short not so hot fires, expect some moisture to drip out the bottom from the (fire brick), smell wasn't too bad from my experience.

Stove top thermometer, ~ 6 " front and left or right of the pipe, on the steel top is what we have been comparing to each other in the discussions

ie: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/47446/#522211

Thanks, Madison.

I saw the break in fires section of the manual, but it didn't get into specifics of how hot or where to set the air. So I learned something from the "not so hot" part of your post, I guess.

 

[Highbeam]

I am so glad you picked the T5.

 

[madison]

I think you could safely start a fire, add three splits, let it die. and do this a few times adding a few more splits each time. the moisture out the bottom of the stove was the only thing I initially found unusual, but found here that it is not.

my chimney took a bit more time to break in than the stove, I could smell the chimney for a few weeks (class a) after really cranking the stove. The stove top temps , if accurate, most likely should be kept under 400-500 initially, it took about that temp for me to smell the paint on my t6. You may hear some really loud pops, pings etc when the stove first heats up, and cools down. Actually loud enough to startle you. This seems to continue to this day, but not as bad as the first yr.

 

[begreen]

Good plan raiderfan. The T5 is a sweet stove that will burn happily on a few splits. It will take a bit of extra horsepower to bring the cold basement up to temps. Once it's warm down there, open up the basement door and enjoy the heat.

 

[raiderfan]

Good plan raiderfan. The T5 is a sweet stove that will burn happily on a few splits. It will take a bit of extra horsepower to bring the cold basement up to temps. Once it's warm down there, open up the basement door and enjoy the heat.

Thanks BG. The deal I got on it all was just too good NOT to go with the next size stove up.

I do have the blower attachment for it, as well. I just didn't know if I'd need it going with the T5 instead of the T4. But will hook it up and put it on "auto",
and see how it goes.

 

[raiderfan]

so...

after breaking down the crate that my stove came in yesterday, I found a piece of cardboard that was stapled on the front of the crate. On it was an orange sticker with the model of the stove, some numbers, etc..

After ripping this off and tossing it down to the ground, I noticed that on the back of the cardboard, written in pen, its says "fix air deflector weld"

Should I assume that this was taken care of? I don't know what or where this thing would be to even check it. In all honesty, I don't even know if this had to do with my stove -- it could have been cardboard from something else where the stove was shipped from, i guess.

 

[madison]

so...

after breaking down the crate that my stove came in yesterday, I found a piece of cardboard that was stapled on the front of the crate. On it was an orange sticker with the model of the stove, some numbers, etc..

After ripping this off and tossing it down to the ground, I noticed that on the back of the cardboard, written in pen, its says "fix air deflector weld"

Should I assume that this was taken care of? I don't know what or where this thing would be to even check it. In all honesty, I don't even know if this had to do with my stove -- it could have been cardboard from something else where the stove was shipped from, i guess.

I am not all that confident regarding PE's quality assurance processes and I would assume that it was not fixed. I would stop uncrating until you hear from your dealer/retailer.

In the meantime, you could stick your head inside the door, and inspect the welds yourself, if I had to guess, the welds would not jeopardize the integrity of the stove body. Hopefully Tom will chime in.

Search for user "Sisu" posts regarding the welds on his (and others) PE's

 

[raiderfan]

Ugh.. the stove was already carried to the basement.

I did inspect all of the welds inside the firebox and they all look good to go. I just didn't know if this weld was somewhere else where you couldn't easily see it.

I also saw the quality control checklist that the dealer or PE (i don't know) included with the stove. Everything was checked off in pen and then signed as in good condition. I checked the welding part of the list, but "air deflector weld" wasn't even listed as one of the welds in that category.

 

[begreen]

I wouldn't get too shook up about it. Word I got was there was a bad run of welds in units from a year or two ago. PE has stepped up QC and inspection to catch any problems before they head out the door. PE is standing by their stoves. I would get that puppy broken it before it gets cold. Put a fan in the doorway to exhaust the paint fumes.

As for the note, it might not even apply to your stove. I leave myself reminder notes all the time, often on the nearest scrap of paper I find.

 

[raiderfan]

I wouldn't get too shook up about it. Word I got was there was a bad run of welds in units from a year or two ago. PE has stepped up QC and inspection to catch any problems before they head out the door. PE is standing by their stoves. I would get that puppy broken it before it gets cold. Put a fan in the doorway to exhaust the paint fumes.

As for the note, it might not even apply to your stove. I leave myself reminder notes all the time, often on the nearest scrap of paper I find.

Yeah, I hear ya!! I'm ready to break this baby in!! Just have to hook up the stove pipe and I'll post some pics. Then I'll start my first fire in the post-Jotul 602 era of my house

Like I said, I checked all of the welds in the firebox and checked the quality control checklist and everything is signed off, so to me it looked o.k. I just didn't know if that particular weld was somewhere that you couldn't see from sticking your head in the firebox. I even called the sales co. where the stove came from, but they don't service calls from the general public -- I would have to have the chimney co. that got me the stove call and ask about it.

 

[SKIN052]

In your owners manual it list the air defector as part #22, not sure where it is located but maybe looking at he stove and at the parts diagram may help. Love that stove by the way. Pics?

 

[BrotherBart]

I love those checklists. They are ticked off after the stove is together and headed out the door. My Englander had a major defect on the first one and a minor one on the second one and both checklists were completed "OK". The minor one was behind the firebrick.

Find that deflector and check it out. Probably not an issue but for sure easier to check in a clean stove.

 

[raiderfan]

In your owners manual it list the air defector as part #22, not sure where it is located but maybe looking at he stove and at the parts diagram may help. Love that stove by the way. Pics?

It looks, from the manual, that its part 21. In the diagram, that have it featured behind the stove, with the blower. It almost looks like the top of the rear heatshield, but that can't be it -- there is no weld there -- just screws. Underneath that, on the back top of the fire box there is a weld all the way across. That looks to be in good shape.

 

[begreen]

When I first read your thread I tried to imagine where this would be on my stove. The rear blower deflector (held in by screws) is what showed up too. If so, this is a non-event. Hook it up and get burning. Maybe that note was for a different stove?

 

[raiderfan]

When I first read your thread I tried to imagine where this would be on my stove. The rear blower deflector (held in by screws) is what showed up too. If so, this is a non-event. Hook it up and get burning. Maybe that note was for a different stove?

That's what it looks like to me, too. In fact, the air deflector in the manual is shown with two screws in the picture. Its just that there is no weld there, that's what made me think it wasn't it. Underneath that, however, is the same shape type thing, welded across. That would be the next logical place and that weld looks good, as does the rest of them.

It definitely could have been a note for a different stove, as the cardboard was just a piece that was ripped off of some box, and stapled onto the crate of my stove. Well, that's the theory I'm going with right now. Less anxiety that way! :cheese:

 

[yanksforever]

So after going through stove choices over and over in my head (and a bunch of PM's with BG) I decided on PE T4 for my basement, to replace my Jotul 602. The 602 worked o.k. for the space (800 sq ft) but had to be run way too HOT to do it. The basement is a stone foundation and gets pretty darn cold down there in the winter (low as 52*F).

So after ordering the T4, I started thinking that maybe I should just get the T5 instead, for a few reasons. I always remember reading on the forum to take the stove that has heating specs that would work, and go one bigger. I also read about the E-W loading of the T4 being a bit of a PITA. The T5 gave me a bigger stove, a firebox to allow N-S loading, and would also allow me to relocate it up to the living room of my house if I ever decided to go that route in the future. So I changed my order and the T5 arrived 2 weeks ago.

Hoping its not WAY oversized for the area, but I guess i could leave the basement door open to the upstairs if needed. I'm only a "weekend burner" and not looking to offset my primary fuel usage -- just looking for a nice heater for the Man Cave in the winters. Will post pics when its all hooked up and ready to go, as right now its just sort of sitting in the space where I want it to be hooked up.

2 Questions:

1) Break-in fire procedures for this stove? I've never had to break in a stove before. The Jotul was handed down to me.

2) Stove top thermometer placement? Because the Alderleas have the swivel out warming trays on top, I wasn't sure if that was the best place for the Thermometer to go, or if another place would be better.


As always, thanks for any thoughts or info!!

Pictures Please!

 

[raiderfan]

I'll post pics when its hooked up. Right now its just sitting in the spot where its going to go.

Haha!! It won't be anything special, i can tell you that. No elaborate setup or anything. Just going to sit on my painted concrete basement floor. But will definitely post some pics when its piped in.

 

[madison]

I would bet $100 the air deflector is part of the air wash system, open the door, and look up inside the firebox in the front and top there is an angled piece that deflects the air down the glass. On the t6 it looks like it is welded to the roof of the firebox.-- though it is covered with fine ash at this point.

 

[raiderfan]

I would bet $100 the air deflector is part of the air wash system, open the door, and look up inside the firebox in the front and top there is an angled piece that deflects the air down the glass. On the t6 it looks like it is welded to the roof of the firebox.-- though it is covered with fine ash at this point.

Ok thanks Madison. I will check that out when I get home from work.

That's actually a place I have not checked for welds, to be honest. I've looked on sides, back, back of back, but not the inside, top front. Will do!!

 

[raiderfan]

I checked that area, Madison, but I don't see any angular piece welded across the inside front of the firebox. Doesn't look as though anything is missing, either though.

 

[begreen]

I think this is the piece that he is referring to. It is integrally welded to the stove body.

 

[madison]

Indeed, that is the part I was trying to refer to, I cannot see any bolts and think it is welded to the roof of the stove body.

 

[raiderfan]

I think this is the piece that he is referring to. It is integrally welded to the stove body.

O.K. Well that checked out then. I looked there first, but thought he meant inside the firebox. I do have that welded piece in your diagram, and the weld looks good, all the way across.