PE Alderlea T6 Learning Curve and Observations

[leeave96]

How about some pics of that T6 in full burn action?

I know - I know - I need to post some pics of my Keystone - just ain't good enough with these 'puters ... yet

Thanks,
Bill

Hopefully tonight since it hasn't been over 40 today and supposed to get down to 27 tonight plus break in fires are over. This is probably the only year you will see me get excited about 27 degrees in April. How do you like Englander?

I haven't hooked it up. That will come late Summer after the addition is finished.

Great looking stove you got!

Bill

 

[certified106]

Finally loaded it just a little over half full much more and I think it would run us out of the place. Flue temps seemed a little high 750. It jumped from 500 to 750 really quick and even with the primary all the way down for a good 30 minutes it is still hanging around that temp (stove top is 700) so I'm not sure if I didn't start shutting it down soon enough. Does the fan help lower the flue temp much on this stove? I have never had a flue temperature probe in the chimney and I'm used to seeing the stick on magnetic thermometer on the outside of my single wall pipe hover around 300 to 400 (anyone know what that equates to for an internal temp). Another thing I noticed is with more of a load and longer pieces of wood the load really wants to burn at the front of the firebox during the beginning stages of the burn which causes the flames to lick up towards the flue exit and be pulled over the top of the baffle.

 

[begreen]

Nice shots. Is there some locust or Osage Orange in there? If the stove was hot on the refill you could be seeing some EBT action there, burning off the excess outgassing.

How are the room temps? Think you'll make it through next winter?

 

[raybonz]

Very nice pics Cert! Gotta say those secondary burns are rather mesmerizing to watch.. Are there cat stoves that give a similar fire show? Need to redo my hearth before I can consider another stove and it could be tricky as my hearth abuts an irregular shaped chimney.. Not sure how to approach this yet but it sure would be much easier if it had flat stone instead of field stone (this chimney has a cultured stone on it).. I think you're gonna like that stove and forget you ever had a Dutchwest!

Ray

 

[skinanbones]

you can double the surface temperature and be really close to what a probe would be reading. So at 400 surface you should be about 800 inside. The P.E. stove will turn on the secondaries at about 550-600 inside temp or about 275-300 on surface temp. Don't be afraid to let that stove run either, been pretty common to run 900- 1000 inside temp on all my P.E. even had to up to 1800-1900 inside temp one time and there's no damage done.

 

[certified106]

Nice shots. Is there some locust or Osage Orange in there? If the stove was hot on the refill you could be seeing some EBT action there, burning off the excess outgassing.

How are the room temps? Think you'll make it through next winter?

The stove was fairly warm and had about an inch of good hot coals on the bottom at the reload time. I checked the EBT about 40 minutes into the burn and it was about a third of the way open while the temps were up in the flue (not real sure what to think about that). No Osage Orange, I don't even think I have had the pleasure of cutting any of that wood. The only thing I had in there was 4 year old red oak and one chunk of white pine. When I am loading on a bed fairly good bed of coals and the wood catches easily should I shut the air back almost immediately?

Room temp was getting up there around 77 I think. Let me tell you what that stove will put off serious heat I have a really hard time imagining stuffing that fire box full and letting it go to town. I will say that inspite of it seeming like it was going to burn the whole load down in an hour it easily went 9 hours without a problem and I think it could have went 11 without a problem. I loaded it up at 9:30pm went to bed at 12:00am and it seemed like it had burnt a substantial amount flue temps were at 620 and stove top was 725. I got up at 6:30 and there were still big glowing chunks on the side of the stove and the whole bottom of the stove had orange glowing coals. Flue temps this morning were 200 and the stove top was still almost 300. It took about 5 minutes to have the wood lit off and 15 minutes before I shut it down and walked away. This morning I brought the air down in more stages and more quickly. It was a four split fire and the stove top settled in at 600 with the flue probe running about 500 which seemed a little more reasonable to me.

 

[certified106]

Just in case anyone wonders I changed the name of this thread to more accurately represent what it is about. I also thought it might be easier for others searching for PE experiences to find this thread when searching the forums.

 

[begreen]

Nice shots. Is there some locust or Osage Orange in there? If the stove was hot on the refill you could be seeing some EBT action there, burning off the excess outgassing.

How are the room temps? Think you'll make it through next winter?

The stove was fairly warm and had about an inch of good hot coals on the bottom at the reload time. I checked the EBT about 40 minutes into the burn and it was about a third of the way open while the temps were up in the flue (not real sure what to think about that). No Osage Orange, I don't even think I have had the pleasure of cutting any of that wood. The only thing I had in there was 4 year old red oak and one chunk of white pine. When I am loading on a bed fairly good bed of coals and the wood catches easily should I shut the air back almost immediately?

It depends on the wood, the wood species, dryness and size. If the pine wasn't in there I would expect to have it open for maybe a minute before closing it down in steps, maybe 50% for a few minutes, then all the way. I would not mix in pine unless the coal bed has really died down. Save the pine for shoulder season burning and fire starting. And it depends on how hot the coal bed is. I like to let the coals die down a bit more before reloading with the stovetop at about 300F.

Room temp was getting up there around 77 I think. Let me tell you what that stove will put off serious heat I have a really hard time imagining stuffing that fire box full and letting it go to town. I will say that inspite of it seeming like it was going to burn the whole load down in an hour it easily went 9 hours without a problem and I think it could have went 11 without a problem. I loaded it up at 9:30pm went to bed at 12:00am and it seemed like it had burnt a substantial amount flue temps were at 620 and stove top was 725. I got up at 6:30 and there were still big glowing chunks on the side of the stove and the whole bottom of the stove had orange glowing coals. Flue temps this morning were 200 and the stove top was still almost 300. It took about 5 minutes to have the wood lit off and 15 minutes before I shut it down and walked away. This morning I brought the air down in more stages and more quickly. It was a four split fire and the stove top settled in at 600 with the flue probe running about 500 which seemed a little more reasonable to me.

You're burning hardwood, so you will see different burn times, coals and heat than I do. It sounds like the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Enjoy!

 

[oldspark]

Cert106, what is your chimney setup, size, length, any 90's, just cant get my summit past 600 or so and am wondering if I need to redo my stack.

 

[certified106]

Cert106, what is your chimney setup, size, length, any 90's, just cant get my summit past 600 or so and am wondering if I need to redo my stack.

6" flue 6' of double wall then Class A all the way up from there. The chimney is an interior chimney straight up 27' no offsets or elbows. I can't imagine not being able to get this stove to 600 as I was hitting 600 with a 4-5 split small fire and the primary air all the way down. At this point I'm more concerned with whether I can control it with a full load.

Edit: I should add that where I was reading the stove top temps in the above post from last night was 700 I took a few other readings later on and other spots were between 700 and 740.

 

[leeave96]

I am very impressed with these PE stoves. At first glance, I was turned off by a steel stove with a cast iron jacket - it kind of struck me as a bit artifical. Why have steel inside cast iron - why not just have a cast iron stove in the first place.

But from a DYI standpoint, it's pretty easy (at least for me) to weld-up a crack in the firebox - not so easy with cast iron. So with the looks of cast iron, the durability of an all welded (and heavy duty) steel box, large window, N/S loading - I'm thinking I could own one of these T6 stoves down the road. We have a dealer that stocks them some 40ish miles from my house.

But for now, it's going to be the Woodstock Keystone and Englander 30.

Great stove, great thread.

Bill

 

[certified106]

I am very impressed with these PE stoves. At first glance, I was turned off by a steel stove with a cast iron jacket - it kind of struck me as a bit artifical. Why have steel inside cast iron - why not just have a cast iron stove in the first place.

But from a DYI standpoint, it's pretty easy (at least for me) to weld-up a crack in the firebox - not so easy with cast iron. So with the looks of cast iron, the durability of an all welded (and heavy duty) steel box, large window, N/S loading - I'm thinking I could own one of these T6 stoves down the road. We have a dealer that stocks them some 40ish miles from my house.

But for now, it's going to be the Woodstock Keystone and Englander 30.

Great stove, great thread.

Bill

I hear you on the steel firebox and the cast outside at first I was like what is the point in that. However so far I will say the extra mass is great and helps hold heat as well as even it out. As far as the steel firebox goes I figure it's lifetime gaurantee so if I do have a problem with a weld PE will take care of it.

It seems like the Englander 30 has great reviews on this site and people love it so I'm sure you will to. I actually thought about getting one instead of the PE but I got a good deal and I like the look of the cast iron more (actually it's more my wifes preference) since it goes with the decor. I am looking forward to hearing your review of the 30 next year. Running this stove definitely has a different feel to it than my previous cat stove, case in point I let it get to fired up last night on a reload as I'm used to having to really have the wood blazing before engaging the cat so the draft stays strong. I had much better results shutting it down quicker this morning and the secondary's still caught fine giving me alot longer lower burn than when I got the whole load blazing and then shut it down.

 

[snowtime]

With a good chimney the T6 will get to some impressive stove top highs like 800 to 900. If you want to control the temp but want long burns let the stove top temp get to 300 or below before loading large splits and close air off as soon as bottom splits start burning. You are not looking for a smoldering fire you are looking for the lowest setting that will give you a quality fire. Every install is different but you will get the hang of it.
Personally I covered up the ebt as I did not like its action. The stove burns clean at high temps even without the ebt.

 

[begreen]

900F is too hot. Turn out the lights and you may see a dull glow around the flue collar. If the stove is getting that hot it needs the draft or air intake restricted more.

 

[snowtime]

As I said 800 t0 900. That means when it's running hard it's usually at 850 or so. No glow here. We are off grid and run the stove in a dark room all the time. If this stove wasn't a welded steel fire box then I would worry. One of the reasons I bought this stove is it's strength and resistance to high temps. Now if I had one of the glued stoves I would be feeling it's deterioration every time it got hot.
Of course we only run the stove hard when its cold out. I keep a good eye on it and looks like this stove is built right.

 

[oldspark]

I am not so sure I want to fix my chimney as the wife will burn the house down, I am being serious here.

 

[flhpi]

I have had my T6 since last December and it has been great. I did notice that I could not turn it down enough though. The ash door was covered and I adjusted my door but the fire would still burn too hot and fast. I ended up doing a modification on the air inlet on the bottom of the stove. This lets me restrict more air. The mod worked great for me. I have checked the stove pipe for excess build up and it is clean. The corner of the glass will get dark then burn off when I increase temps. Well worth the effort.
Congrats on the new stove. I really like mine.

 

[begreen]

I am not so sure I want to fix my chimney as the wife will burn the house down, I am being serious here.

Give it a rest sparky. Do you want more heat or not? If not, why an entire winter of grumbling?

 

[certified106]

I have had my T6 since last December and it has been great. I did notice that I could not turn it down enough though. The ash door was covered and I adjusted my door but the fire would still burn too hot and fast. I ended up doing a modification on the air inlet on the bottom of the stove. This lets me restrict more air. The mod worked great for me. I have checked the stove pipe for excess build up and it is clean. The corner of the glass will get dark then burn off when I increase temps. Well worth the effort.
Congrats on the new stove. I really like mine.

I appreciate your posts on the PE from earlier this year and they weighed in on my decision to purchase the T6. So far I have been pleased with what I have seen from the little I have burned it. Just curious what kind of burn times you are getting with the modifed air setup.

 

[flhpi]

I get around 12 hours. That is fully loaded with hardwood like red oak and locust. When I get home there are red hot coals to mix around and get it going again. It varies with the type of wood and how much ash I have in the bottom of the stove. My house is older and has been added onto several times. It isnt the most air tight house I have seen. Because of this my temp in the house can vary from 78-65 degrees.

When I did the mod I used my dremel tool with a cutting disc on it. The plate that covers the air inlet would not close due to the metal stop hanging down from the stove. I just notched out my adjustment plate and now I can dial back the air. My stove has the air sucking sound too. Almost like a furnace but cheaper.

 

[certified106]

I get around 12 hours. That is fully loaded with hardwood like red oak and locust. When I get home there are red hot coals to mix around and get it going again. It varies with the type of wood and how much ash I have in the bottom of the stove. My house is older and has been added onto several times. It isnt the most air tight house I have seen. Because of this my temp in the house can vary from 78-65 degrees.

When I did the mod I used my dremel tool with a cutting disc on it. The plate that covers the air inlet would not close due to the metal stop hanging down from the stove. I just notched out my adjustment plate and now I can dial back the air. My stove has the air sucking sound too. Almost like a furnace but cheaper.

Thanks I appreciate the info. so far I haven't really gotten the chance to stretch my T6's legs so most of that info and posting will have to wait until next year but so far I have found the stove very easy to burn and operate.

 

[certified106]

So last night it got down it was going to get down in the 30's and barely hit 42° all day. Needless to say I hurried home from work so I could get one more burn in on T6. Started with a small 4 split fire that burned down to 350° stovetop by 9:30 last night. I then put two large splits EW on the bed of coals and three 12"x3-4" splits NW on top of the long ones (all this wood was tucked into the back of the firebox). After putting the wood in I left the air control all the way open until the wood started to catch (we are not talking about many active flames), I then started shutting the air down in increments as soon as I noticed the wood was starting to flame up more at the new air setting. This process was performed 3 times over a period of maybe 15 minutes and the results were outstanding. I ended up with wood that was barely burning with very tiny amount of active flames on the wood but yet the whole top of the firebox was full of secondary combustion flaming down towards the wood. The stove top temps were about 600 and the flue was running 550 so the temps seemed pretty reasonable and the fire show was awesome with huge long jets of wavy flames coming down from the top of the baffle. The burn time seemed reasonable also as I reloaded at 9:30 and at 6:30 there was still a couple of 4" in diameter coals glowing in the back of the stove and half a firebox of small orange glowing coals with completely clean glass. The only problem with this stove is I end up staying up way to late being completely mesmerized by the fire show and it makes me feel like I am wasting my wood if I'm not sitting there staring at it hahaha. I am still amazed at how quickly the secondary combustion kicks in and starts burning cleanly and my wife has even commented on the fact that the CAT took way longer than that to get lit off (probably just due to how old my stove was). If I had neighbors they would probably wonder why the next door idiot has spent so much time staring at his chimney in the last two weeks

 

[madison]

The only problem with this stove is I end up staying up way to late being completely mesmerized by the fire show and it makes me feel like I am wasting my wood if I'm not sitting there staring at it hahaha.

a little allman brothers, grateful dead, or phish @ livephish.com amplifies the experience

 

[VCBurner]

Hello Certified,

I haven't been around as much as I was in the winter, but, I thoroughly enjoy reading your posts about the T6. I'm glad you decided to keep all the posts on your new stove in one thread. People will get a much more comprehensive look at experiences you have with the stove and you'll find yourself reading your thread over and over again. I do it every time the burning season starts to remind myself of everything that I've learned about the stove! Thanks for the picture with the trivets out. The stove looks great and sounds great too!

Take care,
Chris

 

[Bigg_Redd]

Great looking stove there. Anxious to hear how to heats compared to the dutchwest.

Now you need to update your profile!

pen

Is there any doubt or question in your mind?