Old Defiant upgrade to ... T6??

[brulaz]

Our old Defiant has served us well for maybe 35 years.
But lately with asthma and other issues, we're thinking a newer, cleaner, EPA 2020 certified model might be in order.

So I guess they are really that much better with respect to air quality?
And worth the high $$$?

Looking at an Alderlea T6, for example. And I guess there's a new clean Defiant as well.

 

[begreen]

It's a great old stove but the modern units are over a magnitude cleaner burning and more efficient. Other benefits are a cleaner glass, nicer fire view, a cleaner flue and less wood consumption.

 

[brulaz]

OK, thanks. Just needed some reassurance that were not throwing money away I guess.
Enjoyed your review of the Alderlea T6.

 

[begreen]

There are several large stoves that may work. One major difference between the Defiant and the T6 is that the Defiant is a radiant heater. It radiates heat from all sides (but can be shielded in the rear). That's why it has high clearances. The T6 is a convective stove. The heavy castiron jacket has an air gap between it and the steel stove body. As the air is heated it warms the cast iron and convects up out the trivet top. This has several benefits like reduced clearances and a heat reservoir that releases heat as the fire dies down. But, you don't get that searing strong heat from the sides that you may be used to. Modern castiron stoves that are strongly radiant are the Hearthstone Manchester, Jotul F600, VC Defiant 2n1. Some unshielded steel stoves are also strongly radiant.

 

[brulaz]

...
But, you don't get that searing strong heat from the sides that you may be used to.

That may be just as well. We love the radiant heat but there are times when it is just too much.
Thanks for the explanation of the differences.
The Defiant's required high clearances do make it easy to drop-in a more modern stove.

We'll prolly end up with a new Alderlea T6. It will be interesting to see how it works in our old house.

 

[brulaz]

What about differences in radiant heat from the front?
Our old Defiant has cast iron front doors (no glass) whereas the Alderlea T6's front door has a large glass insert.
Is there a difference in the amount of radiant heat off these two surfaces?

 

[begreen]

I can't tell you the actual difference. It's been a couple decades since I last stood in front of an old Defiant. I can say that the front of the T6 is very radiant. My son singed his pjs standing in front of it one morning.

 

[brulaz]

Well that answers my question well enough!
One practical advantage of the glass front might be seeing how the fire is doing and whether it's smoking too much.
Pretty much guesswork based on temperature with the Defiant. Or running outside to look.

While building the fire in the Defiant this morning I also realized that it might be nice to have a more square firebox as well. We can put in really long logs from side-to-side, but can only put very short logs in front-to-back with the Defiant. Normal lengths can be tilted somewhat, but we can't really construct a square "log cabin" except with short kindling.

Definitely looking forward to the new stove, but it prolly won't be getting here until summer.
So won't be able to try it out until next fall. Oh well. Thanks for all the help.

 

[begreen]

You're welcome. Keep us posted on progress.

 

[brulaz]

Well, a couple of us 70+ old-timers managed to get the Defiant out of the living room, and the Alderlea installer found lots of space and clearance available for the new stove. No modifications necessary.

Haven't built up a large fire in the new Alderlea T6, but can say that it works very very well with smaller loads.
The glass front is radiates more heat than the Defiant's cast front but, as mentioned above, the separated cast sides take longer to heat up and radiate less. We love the Alderlea's huge glass front, in part because we can see how the fire is doing; always a problem with the Defiant.

But am confused with the Alderlea's air flow; it seems to come in from the bottom ... somewhere. It seems very well distributed however it enters the firebox and exits all around the edges of the top? The Defiant's airflow is rather obvious by comparison.

And not sure how to best to load logs into the Alderlea's square firebox. It was pretty clear with the Defiant's tall, long and narrow box; we always threw them in lengthwise from the side. Looks like they can go in either way with the Alderlea.

 

[begreen]

The Alderlea's primary air flow comes via the airwash over the glass. There is also a small amount of boost air at the bottom front of the firebox. Secondary airflow comes from the holes in the underside of the baffle.

I've moved this thread to the Main forum where you will find a lot of information on the T6. Here's a shot of it fully loaded.


If you go to this thread you can see how the stove is loaded. It has a big belly.

Starting a fire and running an EPA stove

Questions about starting a fire and avoiding a runaway stove come up so frequently I decided to document starting our stove. This is a Pacific Energy Alderlea T6 with about a 3 cu ft firebox. The stove is connected to a straight-up, 20' interior flue. The outside ambient temperature is 34ºF. The...

www.hearth.com

 

[brulaz]

Ahhhhhh, thanks. I'll try a top-down NS load once I can trust myself Not to overload and overheat the house. We burn mostly hard maple, some beech, oak. Never done a top-down start before.

 

[begreen]

Start out with a partial load of 5-6 medium-sized splits. That will be enough to get the firebox hot enough for secondary combustion. Here is a video with the same firebox in a Summit.

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[brulaz]

Thanks again. Great video that answered a Lot of our questions. Acting was a bit "wooden " though (ha-ha).

Guess I gotta split our pile of hardwood a bit finer though as it has a lot of big pieces that the old Defiant liked.

 

[begreen]

Thanks again. Great video that answered a Lot of our questions. Acting was a bit "wooden " though (ha-ha).

Guess I gotta split our pile of hardwood a bit finer though as it has a lot of big pieces that the old Defiant liked.

Try it with what you have. I load the T6 with large splits in 5-6" range all the time, sometimes with even larger splits. As long as they are fully seasoned they should burn well and for a long time. Fill the gaps with smaller splits. There were a couple big ones in my avatar burning in the T6. This pic is a hot stove reload.