Need a new wood stove, englander NC32 Vs 15-W08?

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mouthfulloflake

New Member
May 26, 2023
19
Arkansas
I need a wood stove for a 900 square foot room.
Last season I installed a terrible old stove ( the only one I could find fast locally)
a King brand 2007B, no air control, no reburn tubes.
it worked last winter, but not well

I would like a newer, more efficient stove, and hope for over night burns.

I know the NC32 is a classic, but the new ones do not have a blower, that is an issue to me.

the 15-w08 seems like a good deal on paper, but ive heard stories of the door warping?

any other stoves I should be looking at in the sub $1500 price range?

I have the flu in place, 6 inches, straight up.

I appreciate any info that is shared, happy burning!
 
The Drolet Escape 1800 is popular in that class. So is the True North TN20.
 
The Drolet looks like a nice stove, but adding the blower puts it around $1700

advertised with an 8 hour burn time, and a relatively small firebox.

thanks for the recommendations, I will look into these stoves, I might have to raise my $1500 budget to get what I want.
 
A 2 cu ft stove should be more than sufficient unless the room has very high ceilings or is poorly insulated and sealed. If the room is just average with an 8' ceiling then the Drolet 1500 should work well for Arkansas. The True North TN20 is a 2 cu ft stove.

The Drolet Escape 1800 should be more like $1500 with the blower included.
 
About $1300 with blower...and free shipping...these guys will often run promotions in the fall where the blower is included for free too.
This is basically the SBI factory store.
Also...
 
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How tall is your 6” flue?

Currently just over 12 feet, I am planning to ad another section of double wall on top. It was letting smoke out during re-loads last winter.

It is nice that drolet actually lists the suggested minimum flu length, looks like they usually want 12 or 15 feet

Another 48" section with some guy wires and I'll be a touch over 16'.

Surely that will be enough?
 
About $1300 with blower...and free shipping...these guys will often run promotions in the fall where the blower is included for free too.
This is basically the SBI factory store.
Also...
Thank you for those options, I will check them out!

I think I will fatten the budget to get a larger firebox.
The room has r19 in the ceiling and r12 walls.

Almost entirely glass windows and doors though and an uninsulated floor ( for now)

But I also like to open the double doors to the main house and get some warming into there when it is really cold ( or when the power is out).

The ceiling clearance might be an issue , it's 7 feet or less where I installed the stove. Hmmm
 
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If you are looking for a heating beast, that is a good one. But if cost is important. The Englander 32-NC is a better value and its predecessor, the 30-NC has a good track record with many Hearth.com members.
 
The lack of a blower bothers me on the new nc32

I can use a larger stove to mitigate the heating costs of the main house too

I was burning the old one hard to keep the room warm
 
Add one, it's optional on other stoves. Highbeam added a convection deck to his 30-NC.

Or just use a fan to convect the heat. Note that the 32-NC has not had the door warping issue. If you want to heat the larger portion of the house, put a table or box fan in the main house, placed on the floor, pointing toward the woodstove. Run it at low speed. It will blow the cooler air down low, toward the woodstove. The denser cool air will be replaced with lighter warm air from the stove room. It's an effective way to move the heat.
 
Be nice to hear from a handful of actual seasoned 32 users here. Relatively slim numbers compared to the 30 unless I have missed the threads?
No blower? That doesn't fill my cup.
No leg option if my feeble memory is correct. Manufacturing cost reduction. Perhaps? Dunno.
May also need to use a removable loading door handle? Kind of like to have that explained in detail? I just may be missing something? Clearly.
Worth researching all your options. Enjoy shopping!
 
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Add one, it's optional on other stoves. Highbeam added a convection deck to his 30-NC.

Or just use a fan to convect the heat. Note that the 32-NC has not had the door warping issue. If you want to heat the larger portion of the house, put a table or box fan in the main house, placed on the floor, pointing toward the woodstove. Run it at low speed. It will blow the cooler air down low, toward the woodstove. The denser cool air will be replaced with lighter warm air from the stove room. It's an effective way to move the heat.

Begreen, I appreciate your input. Perhaps I should have stated earlier that this is not my first wood stove.
Sometime in 1990ish I realized it was easier to push cold air into the warm zone than move warm air into the cold zone.

I was really just looking for some actual feedback on these stoves before I drop $2000 on ,one that is to me at this point an unknown product.
 
Be nice to hear from a handful of actual seasoned 32 users here. Relatively slim numbers compared to the 30 unless I have missed the threads?
No blower? That doesn't fill my cup.
No leg option if my feeble memory is correct. Manufacturing cost reduction. Perhaps? Dunno.
May also need to use a removable loading door handle? Kind of like to have that explained in detail? I just may be missing something? Clearly.
Worth researching all your options. Enjoy shopping!
Englander postings here seemed to have dropped off sharply since 2020. Part of this is due to the closing down of web presence and shifting to SBI management I think. I went up to their website and the links to most model stoves were broken. The 2 cu ft version of the new series (the Madison 15-SSW01) was a decent stove and most seemed satisfied with it. I'm not sure what the new model number is. Last year they came out with many new models for the big box stores and we have not heard much about them. The model designations are somewhat obscure.
Englander stoves are in the SBI sub-forum. There are some 32-NC postings there.
 
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I bought a 15-W06 late last December to replace our "too little" F3CB what with the price of oil projected to be. So I needed a stove that would happily heat the entire house without having to fill it every hour or so. It obviously out heated the Jotul (three times bigger) so I needed to build smaller fires. I must say with all that room in the cavernous firebox, it was a lot easier to get a fire going and maintain it.

As far as door warpage I haven't had any issues and all appears to be ok. However, with all the air vents in the thing (2 non-closing), I can't imagine an air leak from a non tight fitting door is going to make much difference. Oh, and I only used the blower a couple of times as I have one of those "vortex" kind of fans that blows cold air back to the stove. A lot quieter too.
 
However, with all the air vents in the thing (2 non-closing), I can't imagine an air leak from a non tight fitting door is going to make much difference.
Thanks for the update. We haven't seen a lot of reports on the new-generation Englanders. The air supply to the fire is tightly controlled. It has to be balanced for the proper burn. The boost air and the secondary air enter the firebox at controlled locations with specific and planned air volumes. A warped door can admit a lot of air at the wrong location(s) which leads to an uncontrollable burn and often overfiring the stove.

Take a look at some of the past threads of the 50 SSW02 for examples of bad behavior. Note that this was not with every stove that came out. We only heard a few reports of the door warpage and there were other reports of no warping with the same stove.
 
No issues that I know of. It's a good big heater.
 
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Ok, so

in this massive heat wave I am thinking about the Drolet Escape 2100

it is on sale right now for $14xx

blower and outside air kit will make it around $1700

it seems to have the same firebox dimensions as the
 
dang, more looking shows me that the Drolet escape 2100 and the Century FW3500

only seem to be different about the arc door on the Drolet,and the deflector on the back panel of the 3500

any insight on that?
 
Century and Drolet are SBI's value lines. Osburn is the step above. Many of these stoves share basic designs. The Osburns have some trim improvements and a tougher C-cast baffle.
 
I ordered the Drolet Escape 2100.

it arrived a week later ( Today)! It is still sitting on a pallet in the yard, and I might even burn it out there a time or two to set the paint.

anyway, I ordered the Outside air intake with it.

instructions say to NOT go down through the floor, but go out a wall?
what is the reasoning there?
 
You want to pull fresh air from outside the building envelope.

If you’re installing the outside air kit to stop a negative pressure situation, pulling air from inside the building doesn’t help alleviate the negative pressure issue.