MF Fire Nova 2 Review

[jbart]

For all of you out there wondering about the MF Fire Nova 2 I figured I would post a review of it here. Disclaimer, this is my first wood stove so I do not have anything or any experiences to compare it to.

Search for a stove
After extensive research I finally settled on the Nova 2 for a few reasons. First, it fit my space well and the ability to convert it to rear vent was what I was looking for in my application. I also liked the idea of a big viewing window and the 26% tax credit will definitely be a plus come tax time. I considered a woodstove insert but I wanted to avoid having to use a blower to distribute heat and liked the open look that a hearth mount provides.

That being said at first I was a little hesitant about the purchase due to the fact that MF Fire's website does not contain a single negative review. Personally I find that a little suspicious. After speaking to a local installer/dealer who said that they had good luck with them so I decided to pull the trigger.

Install
I installed the wood stove myself as follows. A 13ft piece of 6in double insulated flex liner was fed down an exterior masonry chimney. It then passed through an insulated blockoff plate to a 6in tee that I connected to the back of the stove. The flex liner runs almost perfectly straight down from the top of the chimney through the blockoff plate without any large bends etc in it. The Nova 2 sits off the back wall of the fireplace about 16inches placing the majority of the stove out on the hearth. Up top the flex liner is connected to a plate with a 4ft piece of class A pipe running out the top giving me a total height of 17ft. MF Fire recommends a minimum of 15ft for this stove. Please see pictures below of the install. Disclaimer* but after the stove was installed the mantal, bookshelf, etc were removed.

The burn conditions
I have had several fires in the new stove so far. Temps outside have been in the mid 40s during each burn. Fortunately, here in Michigan we have not gotten any freezing weather yet. I am burning seasoned Ash that I cut and split myself.

The Good
-After the first 3 fires the smell of curing paint seems to have vanished. I would recommend you open up some windows when you fire this thing up for the first time
- The veiwing glass does stay relatively clean. If it does happen to fog up, once a strong fire is going again the glass seems to clean itself effectively. That is with the exception of the edges of the glass that do tend to stay slightly fogged after prolonged slow burning. The big window really does make for a great viewing experience.
-The stove is super easy to use. With only one lever to flip I spend very little time messing with the stove. I throw wood in, flip the lever, and walk away.

The Bad
-I have found that this stove must be down to coals before reloading. If I go to open the door when their are any flames I cannot stop smoke from rolling out the front of the stove. I tried all of the tricks recommended on here (opening a window, making sure all fans are off, open bypass, crack door, etc) with no luck. I contacted MF fire in regards to this and they suggested I remove the bypass restrictor plate. In doing so I found the smoke situation improved. I can open the door but if I mess around with any of the burning wood I get smoke out the front again. Of course I do not have anything to compare it to so perhaps a little smoke out the front of a stove is not unusual.

Other Info
-I did contact MF Fire in regards to what temp the stove should not exceed. They told me it is "extremely difficult to overfire the stove" and that it is not uncommon for their stovetop meter to be maxed out for a period of time. I also have a Midwest Heath temp guage on the stove and it has hit temps of 750 degrees after I loaded 4 large logs. I do not have a thermal reader to confirm a "true" measurement.
- I did attempt an overnight burn. I stated with a pile of coals raked towards the front of the stove. 4 large splits (7in or so) were packed tightly together in the rear of the stove. I put the wood in at 10:30pm. Per my security camera the flames in the stove died out around 1:30am. The bed of coals were glowing strong until about 3:30am and when a woke up at 6:30am there were enough hot coals to light a fire with small kindling and some paper. There were not a ton of coals left and dont think I could have just tossed a medium size log on and let it go. That being said during the night my house got significantly warmer (70 degrees up to 80 with the thermostat being in the middle of the house). Without any air controls on the Nova series more wood means more heat. Being new to this I am not sure if that is standard for stoves to significantly warm up during an overnight burn or not. I wish I could keep an overnight burn without significantly adding heat to the house.

Conclusion
I am satisfied with the stove and am happy I bought it. I have wanted a wood stove for years now and finally had the opportuny to get one. That being said if I can get this smoke issue completely figured out I would be golden.

If you have any questions or feedback on my setup please feel free to reach out. As I said, this is my first time having a woodstove and am always looking to learn. That being said, I look forward to being warm this winter!

 

[Todd]

Those are interesting stoves, thanks for the review. I suspect the smoke roll out may be caused by week draft due to relatively warm weather, it may get better as temps get colder.

 

[jbart]

That is my thought. We will see as temperatures here in Michigan drop. I will be sure to make an update once that happens. I think this stove could benefit from an air control. The simplicity is nice but there is certainly a trade off.

 

[DSil100]

How is this stove treating you? I just ordered the Nova 2 as well.

 

[jbart]

How is this stove treating you? I just ordered the Nova 2 as well.

I have learned a thing or two since my initial review. With the cold start I tend to load smaller wood into the stove than what is recommended per MF Fire. I still do a top-down fire which works just fine but my bottom pieces are smaller than the diameter MF Fire recommends. The reason I started doing this was that I was having a hard time getting the bottom pieces to catch and burn well. This would result in smoke going up past the top of the door when doing my first reload. Creating a top down fire with smaller pieces does make it burn faster but creates a great coal bed when I want to load it back up. My cold start will burn for about 3-4 hours. If I do it this way, I do not get any smoke roll out. After my first reload I let it burn down to coals again and can open the door and move coals around and reload without any issue of smoke roll out. I typically reload when my stove top thermometer reads 300-400 degrees. I am not sure how accurate my gauge is but for what it’s worth that is one of my indicators.


If I load the stove up, I will get a 6-7 hour burn and be able to reload the stove without a match or paper. Most of my wood is ash cut at 16-18in so I would expect a full 21-22in piece would help me hit an 8 or 9 hour burn time. That being said, it can get a little toasty with the firebox fully loaded. Not a big deal since I like it warm, but I do think an air control would be a nice touch and could help lengthen the burn time and control the stove temp.

With the above being said the stove is a little picky about draft. If I were to throw a piece of wood in and leave the door open I will get smoke seeping out the top of the door once the wood starts to ignite or if I open the door when there is still wood burning with an open flame. This is my first stove so I am not sure how normal or common this issue is. Ultimately, I have learned how the stove works and have adapted accordingly.

So far I am enjoying it and have been happily heating my home with it. The fire is great to watch through the big window, the stove looks great, and the wife is always asking me to build a fire. That being said if I were to do it over again I would be tempted to look at some of the other offerings out there with an air control and something that would be more forgiving in regards to smoke roll out. I like the stove enough though that I do not foresee myself replacing it any time in the future.

If you have any other questions, let me know. I would love to hear about how your experience goes and how you are planning to hook up the stove.

 

[jbart]

Just an update but I have figured out how to stack wood (ash 16-18in) in the firbox where I can get a 9-10 hour burn that only requires a few pieces of newspaper and some small and medium splits to get it up an running again.

 

[3650]

Isn’t there a manual draft you can open before opening the door so that the smoke won’t roll out?

 

[jbart]

It is a single burn rate stove. The most I can do is open or close the bypass.

 

[3650]

Ok. I’m not familiar with inserts. I guess I thought there would be a damper in the stub or something but there probably wouldn’t be a good way to get to it.

 

[DSil100]

Just an update but I have figured out how to stack wood (ash 16-18in) in the firbox where I can get a 9-10 hour burn that only requires a few pieces of newspaper and some small and medium splits to get it up an running again.

I have learned a thing or two since my initial review. With the cold start I tend to load smaller wood into the stove than what is recommended per MF Fire. I still do a top-down fire which works just fine but my bottom pieces are smaller than the diameter MF Fire recommends. The reason I started doing this was that I was having a hard time getting the bottom pieces to catch and burn well. This would result in smoke going up past the top of the door when doing my first reload. Creating a top down fire with smaller pieces does make it burn faster but creates a great coal bed when I want to load it back up. My cold start will burn for about 3-4 hours. If I do it this way, I do not get any smoke roll out. After my first reload I let it burn down to coals again and can open the door and move coals around and reload without any issue of smoke roll out. I typically reload when my stove top thermometer reads 300-400 degrees. I am not sure how accurate my gauge is but for what it’s worth that is one of my indicators.


If I load the stove up, I will get a 6-7 hour burn and be able to reload the stove without a match or paper. Most of my wood is ash cut at 16-18in so I would expect a full 21-22in piece would help me hit an 8 or 9 hour burn time. That being said, it can get a little toasty with the firebox fully loaded. Not a big deal since I like it warm, but I do think an air control would be a nice touch and could help lengthen the burn time and control the stove temp.

With the above being said the stove is a little picky about draft. If I were to throw a piece of wood in and leave the door open I will get smoke seeping out the top of the door once the wood starts to ignite or if I open the door when there is still wood burning with an open flame. This is my first stove so I am not sure how normal or common this issue is. Ultimately, I have learned how the stove works and have adapted accordingly.

So far I am enjoying it and have been happily heating my home with it. The fire is great to watch through the big window, the stove looks great, and the wife is always asking me to build a fire. That being said if I were to do it over again I would be tempted to look at some of the other offerings out there with an air control and something that would be more forgiving in regards to smoke roll out. I like the stove enough though that I do not foresee myself replacing it any time in the future.

If you have any other questions, let me know. I would love to hear about how your experience goes and how you are planning to hook up the stove.

Stove should ship out the 19th to me. My fireplace dimensions look very close to yours. I won’t be able to use the legs and stove will protrude from firebox. I’m planning similar install. Flexible liner wrapped with insulation straight down, through block off plate to a tee into back of stove. It’s a 13 foot interior chimney, Im going up this weekend to repair top of it and will extend the clay flue and bricks up a bit to get closer to the 15. May need to add extension as well. This will be my first wood stove. Currently heating with pellet. Your review and updates are appreciated.

 

[EbS-P]

Stove should ship out the 19th to me. My fireplace dimensions look very close to yours. I won’t be able to use the legs and stove will protrude from firebox. I’m planning similar install. Flexible liner wrapped with insulation straight down, through block off plate to a tee into back of stove. It’s a 13 foot interior chimney, Im going up this weekend to repair top of it and will extend the clay flue and bricks up a bit to get closer to the 15. May need to add extension as well. This will be my first wood stove. Currently heating with pellet. Your review and updates are appreciated.

Why do you want a T?

 

[DSil100]

Why do you want a T?

I think it’s going to be my only option. The firebox is smaller in the back than the front so I can only push the stove back so far. It won’t go back enough for the top vent to be in line enough to use. So I’ll have to use the rear vent. I could be wrong but I thought I read somewhere you can’t just 90 into the back of a stove as soot could fall and rest in the 90 causing potential blockage. The tee allows soot to fall and rest past the path of 90.

 

[EbS-P]

I think it’s going to be my only option. The firebox is smaller in the back than the front so I can only push the stove back so far. It won’t go back enough for the top vent to be in line enough to use. So I’ll have to use the rear vent. I could be wrong but I thought I read somewhere you can’t just 90 into the back of a stove as soot could fall and rest in the 90 causing potential blockage. The tee allows soot to fall and rest past the path of 90.

Is the MF user configurable rear to top vent?

 

[DSil100]

Is the MF user configurable rear to top vent?

The Nova 2 is and I believe the newer Nova 1 is as well

 

[EbS-P]

The Nova 2 is and I believe the newer Nova 1 is as well

Rear vent would not be my preferred method the surround likely won’t fit and your 16” hearth will likely need an extension. But it’s workable.

 

[DSil100]

Rear vent would not be my preferred method the surround likely won’t fit and your 16” hearth will likely need an extension. But it’s workable.

Not my preferred either, will definitely need hearth extension. This isn’t the insert model though. Just free standing, no surround.

 

[Natalia R]

I have never had a wood stove and got a Nova 2 installed a month ago. I am new to all of this so I am learning a lot. The stove is beautiful and the dimensions fit my fireplace perfectly so that it sticks out just a little and the vent goes up the top. The main issue that I am having is similar in that if I am not incredibly careful when reloading, I get smoke up the top of the door even when I open it very slowly. I have to wait for coals. This was not expected and if I had known this would be such an issue I would not have gotten it. I have taken to MFire and the installers who are very familiar with this stove and they constantly point me to look at my wood. I use seasoned wood and I use a moister meter to check each log before loading. I am not sure it's the wood, but I really don't know....but now that I read your post I feel like this is just how this stove is. I don't think it's a draft flue issue since it was just installed and I felt the installers really knew what they were doing.
I am learning every day how to do it right, but there are times when I am tired or I really need to reload and go to sleep or I need to leave the house that waiting for coals to reload seems unreasonable. If anyone has any suggestions let me know!

 

[DSil100]

I have never had a wood stove and got a Nova 2 installed a month ago. I am new to all of this so I am learning a lot. The stove is beautiful and the dimensions fit my fireplace perfectly so that it sticks out just a little and the vent goes up the top. The main issue that I am having is similar in that if I am not incredibly careful when reloading, I get smoke up the top of the door even when I open it very slowly. I have to wait for coals. This was not expected and if I had known this would be such an issue I would not have gotten it. I have taken to MFire and the installers who are very familiar with this stove and they constantly point me to look at my wood. I use seasoned wood and I use a moister meter to check each log before loading. I am not sure it's the wood, but I really don't know....but now that I read your post I feel like this is just how this stove is. I don't think it's a draft flue issue since it was just installed and I felt the installers really knew what they were doing.
I am learning every day how to do it right, but there are times when I am tired or I really need to reload and go to sleep or I need to leave the house that waiting for coals to reload seems unreasonable. If anyone has any suggestions let me know!

To rule out the firewood issues, maybe purchase one of those over priced plastic wrapped bundles of firewood outside supermarkets or convenience stores. I believe those are usually kiln dried. If happens with the kiln dried then firewood isn’t the issue.

 

[Natalia R]

so I did that but I am not sure. It was just a few pieces and I had a bed of coals, I put the logs down and waited longer than I usually would before closing the door and sure enough some smoke came out from the wood. I think I might need to get some more and just burn that type of wood for a full day to see the pattern.

 

[Todd]

How tall is your chimney? Sounds like these stoves are very draft sensitive to operate correctly.

 

[jbart]

so I did that but I am not sure. It was just a few pieces and I had a bed of coals, I put the logs down and waited longer than I usually would before closing the door and sure enough some smoke came out from the wood. I think I might need to get some more and just burn that type of wood for a full day to see the pattern.

It is interesting to hear that I am not the only one experiencing issues with smoke roll out. Do you have any issues with ash floating up through the top of the door too when moving coals or reloading? Sometimes I will get a nice little dusting on the top of my stove if I start poking around in the firebox too often.

Also how hot does your stove top run if you fill it up? With a full load I am seeing temps up around 750F.

If anyone is looking to try a lightly used Nova 2 for a discount and in Michigan, hit me up🙃.

 

[Natalia R]

I am not sure how exactly to measure my chimney. I’ve been talking to the installers about this and they feel like there isn’t an issue with that side of things. When I was just using the fireplace the draft was excellent so I feel like the problem isn’t there either but maybe something isn’t right and I should get someone to look at it, I’d just rather not pay since I’m still paying off the stove.
Given that other people are having similar issues I’m feeling like it’s just a sensitive stove and I’ll have to live with it? Yea I also get some ash when moving coals around but I’m less worried about that and more worried about inhaling smoke through the years and I have a small dog so I’ll also be looking to get rid of it next year. If anyone is looking for one who lives in MA. It’s a gorgeous stove and I feel like the tech support they have is incredible, but my health and families health is my number one priority.

 

[Natalia R]

It is interesting to hear that I am not the only one experiencing issues with smoke roll out. Do you have any issues with ash floating up through the top of the door too when moving coals or reloading? Sometimes I will get a nice little dusting on the top of my stove if I start poking around in the firebox too often.

Also how hot does your stove top run if you fill it up? With a full load I am seeing temps up around 750F.

If anyone is looking to try a lightly used Nova 2 for a discount and in Michigan, hit me up🙃.

I don’t have a thermometer I’m just using the gauge that came with the stove. It does get hot

 

[jbart]

I am not sure how exactly to measure my chimney. I’ve been talking to the installers about this and they feel like there isn’t an issue with that side of things. When I was just using the fireplace the draft was excellent so I feel like the problem isn’t there either but maybe something isn’t right and I should get someone to look at it, I’d just rather not pay since I’m still paying off the stove.
Given that other people are having similar issues I’m feeling like it’s just a sensitive stove and I’ll have to live with it? Yea I also get some ash when moving coals around but I’m less worried about that and more worried about inhaling smoke through the years and I have a small dog so I’ll also be looking to get rid of it next year. If anyone is looking for one who lives in MA. It’s a gorgeous stove and I feel like the tech support they have is incredible, but my health and families health is my number one priority.

Once you learn the trick to loading the stove you should be able to minimize any smoke roll out when reloading. It took me a bit to figure it out but I now happily use it whenever I can. I would recommend you keep experimenting with it. I have really enjoyed burning wood so far this year. Ive gone through about a face cord and a half of ash.

Keep us updated on chimney height.

 

[mellow]

If these stoves are sensitive as it sounds if you are rear venting to a shorter uninsulated liner you are bound to get smoke spillage.