Hello all, and thank you for the wealth of knowledge that you guys drop.
So I recently decided I wanted an alternative to my gas boiler and baseboard heat. I looked at the wood fireplace, thinking back about the monster stove that ate the 5 cords of wood ever winter, my teenage chores, and thought gas? Lucky for me that is when I found your forum.
From the great talks about insulated liners, that almost doubled the cost of that project, to the repeated advice that a professional should knock out your terracotta liner, that I completely ignored (4hours work). Even what stoves did what in the real world.
If it wasn't for you guys, I would have spent a ton more and gotten a worse end product.
Thank you.
So here is my amateur review of my 2023 P.E. neo 2.5 insert.
I have a 1600 sqft mid century raised ranch with a 24ft exterior masonry chimney. (700 down, 900 up)
I am using a 5.5in insulted liner. Still overdrafting a bit, but will deal with it later. Chimney is on windward side.
The neo is great, some ticks, but great. We are in shoulder weather right now (low 40) and I am burning one med small split of oak at a time, air turned all the way down, to keep my downstairs at 70-75 during the day. Usually mess with it every 90-110min.
At night I have been using 2/3 larger splits (full box) at 11:30 when I go to sleep and it will still be pumping heat when I wake up at 7:30. Rake the ash, throw in a split and it's going again.
I have learned it prefers no more than 1 1/2in of ash and definitely load east west if you want decent burn times. The center air vents literally burn holes through the wood. Very cool to watch. Thing is super easy to use.
Blower is quite, seems to be a redesign from the pictures I've seen of the earlier ones. No rattle.
If that all sounds good here are the issues.
I am getting little to no re-burn. Have tried it every wich way, but no love. About to remove the baffles again and reassemble to see if I did something wrong.
Door doesn't seal the best on the latch side. Dollar slides faily easily out. Reached out to P.E. but nothing back so far. I can always make something so it latches tighter but shouldn't have to.
So I have carbon build up on the glass. Lots after a night of slow burning. It is not just the latch side either.
And slow burn is not that slow. Will probably have to plug the hole on the bottom if I want a long smolder.
Paint on the shroud scratches if you look at it weird. Thing doesn't get how so how do they expect it to cure?
Over all I am dam happy and warm. Feel like it was well worth the investment. And to make it better even my wife stopped calling it a waste of money and curls up next to it to read.
![[Hearth.com] Neo 2.5 and a thank you.](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/302/302939-cdea19edd809beb891590ed41c4c4edf.jpg?hash=1oht_F1RTG "[Hearth.com] Neo 2.5 and a thank you.")
So I recently decided I wanted an alternative to my gas boiler and baseboard heat. I looked at the wood fireplace, thinking back about the monster stove that ate the 5 cords of wood ever winter, my teenage chores, and thought gas? Lucky for me that is when I found your forum.
From the great talks about insulated liners, that almost doubled the cost of that project, to the repeated advice that a professional should knock out your terracotta liner, that I completely ignored (4hours work). Even what stoves did what in the real world.
If it wasn't for you guys, I would have spent a ton more and gotten a worse end product.
Thank you.
So here is my amateur review of my 2023 P.E. neo 2.5 insert.
I have a 1600 sqft mid century raised ranch with a 24ft exterior masonry chimney. (700 down, 900 up)
I am using a 5.5in insulted liner. Still overdrafting a bit, but will deal with it later. Chimney is on windward side.
The neo is great, some ticks, but great. We are in shoulder weather right now (low 40) and I am burning one med small split of oak at a time, air turned all the way down, to keep my downstairs at 70-75 during the day. Usually mess with it every 90-110min.
At night I have been using 2/3 larger splits (full box) at 11:30 when I go to sleep and it will still be pumping heat when I wake up at 7:30. Rake the ash, throw in a split and it's going again.
I have learned it prefers no more than 1 1/2in of ash and definitely load east west if you want decent burn times. The center air vents literally burn holes through the wood. Very cool to watch. Thing is super easy to use.
Blower is quite, seems to be a redesign from the pictures I've seen of the earlier ones. No rattle.
If that all sounds good here are the issues.
I am getting little to no re-burn. Have tried it every wich way, but no love. About to remove the baffles again and reassemble to see if I did something wrong.
Door doesn't seal the best on the latch side. Dollar slides faily easily out. Reached out to P.E. but nothing back so far. I can always make something so it latches tighter but shouldn't have to.
So I have carbon build up on the glass. Lots after a night of slow burning. It is not just the latch side either.
And slow burn is not that slow. Will probably have to plug the hole on the bottom if I want a long smolder.
Paint on the shroud scratches if you look at it weird. Thing doesn't get how so how do they expect it to cure?
Over all I am dam happy and warm. Feel like it was well worth the investment. And to make it better even my wife stopped calling it a waste of money and curls up next to it to read.
![[Hearth.com] Neo 2.5 and a thank you.](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/303/303103-b34f234d0d3cd79298be1753e046fadf.jpg?hash=wsl6Wl-jkD "[Hearth.com] Neo 2.5 and a thank you.")
