Nice review BG. I've always thought the Alderlea series was classy looking and I liked the concept of the design. Sounds like it lives up to it's billing and you've made a great choice!
PE Alderlea T6 review continued - part 2
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Very nice review BG! Eloquent.
I also find the T6 very easy to operate. I do not leave the door open when starting a fire though. I put 2-4 rumpled sheets of newspaper down, put a bunch of split pine kindling (cut offs from my saw) and some larger splits of hardwood on that and fire it off. The draft control is full open until the fire gets going well. I then add the larger wood when a good base of coals is established leaving the draft fully open. I've found the amount of coals in the stove or the smaller fire being burned relates to how long the draft stays wide open. I then to down to 1/2 draft and allow the fire to reestablish getting the fronts of the wood charred. Operating burn position of the draft control ranged from 1/2 to 1 1/2 the width of the tab open. It would be nice to have an indicator on the draft as you said.
The stove is in the basement with an open stairway and heated a total of 1900 sq ft at -20 this winter. That is when I ran it with the draft open 1 1/2 widths and had a good heating fire for 6 hours or overnight. Now that spring is here, with over a foot of snow to still melt, I am burning smaller fires of 3 to 4 sticks. 2 NS (is that front to back?) and 1 or two crossed on those but not full EW. Similar draft positions as with a full stove.
We designed to use passive solar so it gets warm in here when the sun is strong through all the windows facing SSW but I would rather open windows to cool the house down if needed than be cold.
When were were researching stoves, Tom comparison of soapstone to steel construction was the soapstone is more a radiant heater and the steel more convection type of heat. For our application in the basement to heat the whole house the steel convection stove type was recommended. The cast wrap and way cool trivets sold us on the Alderlea T6. Pricey, but a great heater.
We switched from a King parlor heater type well into winter so wood use comparison is best guess. About 30% less wood use and it kept us warm without loading every few hours.
Tom and the folks at Chimney Sweep are a pleasure to do business with and extremely knowledgeable and helpful. Great customer service!
I am looking forward to many warm winters with the T6.
Congrats on the sale price and no shipping charges!
I also find the T6 very easy to operate. I do not leave the door open when starting a fire though. I put 2-4 rumpled sheets of newspaper down, put a bunch of split pine kindling (cut offs from my saw) and some larger splits of hardwood on that and fire it off. The draft control is full open until the fire gets going well. I then add the larger wood when a good base of coals is established leaving the draft fully open. I've found the amount of coals in the stove or the smaller fire being burned relates to how long the draft stays wide open. I then to down to 1/2 draft and allow the fire to reestablish getting the fronts of the wood charred. Operating burn position of the draft control ranged from 1/2 to 1 1/2 the width of the tab open. It would be nice to have an indicator on the draft as you said.
The stove is in the basement with an open stairway and heated a total of 1900 sq ft at -20 this winter. That is when I ran it with the draft open 1 1/2 widths and had a good heating fire for 6 hours or overnight. Now that spring is here, with over a foot of snow to still melt, I am burning smaller fires of 3 to 4 sticks. 2 NS (is that front to back?) and 1 or two crossed on those but not full EW. Similar draft positions as with a full stove.
We designed to use passive solar so it gets warm in here when the sun is strong through all the windows facing SSW but I would rather open windows to cool the house down if needed than be cold.
When were were researching stoves, Tom comparison of soapstone to steel construction was the soapstone is more a radiant heater and the steel more convection type of heat. For our application in the basement to heat the whole house the steel convection stove type was recommended. The cast wrap and way cool trivets sold us on the Alderlea T6. Pricey, but a great heater.
We switched from a King parlor heater type well into winter so wood use comparison is best guess. About 30% less wood use and it kept us warm without loading every few hours.
Tom and the folks at Chimney Sweep are a pleasure to do business with and extremely knowledgeable and helpful. Great customer service!
I am looking forward to many warm winters with the T6.
Congrats on the sale price and no shipping charges!
could you yell out i love my pe or something.... let us pe owners know you are happy and excited! i am jumping up and down right now as if it was in my house
cmon begreen give us something.........
cmon begreen give us something.........BeGreen,
I don't know if your review could have been written any better. You covered every base and ansered any questions I think most people would have.Once again ,very nice review! I would also like to thankyou for your reply to my question on your other thread.The Alderlea is a beautiful stove, and it sounds like one thats very easy to operate no matter what the weather/temps. are outside.and still being able to keep your inside temps. at a comfortable level.Nice to hear that you and your wife are enjoying your new stove! I do love hearing about your new stove,and hope to have either the T-5 or the T-6 for this coming winter.
goose
I don't know if your review could have been written any better. You covered every base and ansered any questions I think most people would have.Once again ,very nice review! I would also like to thankyou for your reply to my question on your other thread.The Alderlea is a beautiful stove, and it sounds like one thats very easy to operate no matter what the weather/temps. are outside.and still being able to keep your inside temps. at a comfortable level.Nice to hear that you and your wife are enjoying your new stove! I do love hearing about your new stove,and hope to have either the T-5 or the T-6 for this coming winter.
goose
iceman, we love the stove. What else can I say? But we are new to it. Ask me again in the winter when it's 20 and there's a 40mph wind straight from Canada buffeting the northside of the house. That's when I think the stove will really prove itself. Now that the stove is fully installed and in place, it fits in well. I love not feeding it so frequently. With spring conditions I'm only building one fire at night. Start it up about 7pm, add big splits about 7:30pm, char and damper down. When I go to bed there is still a full bed of glowing coals. My wife has been building fires when I'm not home and likes the easy starts. Happy campers here.
vtdavid, good observations. I've started a couple fires now with the door closed and it worked fine. The stove is drafting well and keeps the glass pretty clean. You can see the air wash working when the stove starts up. That's a show in itself.
PS: as we get more used to the stove I will add to the review. For example, this weekend I tried the ash system and prefer the Jotul's simplicity. However, I don't expect to be dumping ash that frequently except during periods of heavy burning so this may not be a big deal. I do like the little slot on the ash lip for pushing ash into the ashpan. That will get frequent usage.
vtdavid, good observations. I've started a couple fires now with the door closed and it worked fine. The stove is drafting well and keeps the glass pretty clean. You can see the air wash working when the stove starts up. That's a show in itself.
PS: as we get more used to the stove I will add to the review. For example, this weekend I tried the ash system and prefer the Jotul's simplicity. However, I don't expect to be dumping ash that frequently except during periods of heavy burning so this may not be a big deal. I do like the little slot on the ash lip for pushing ash into the ashpan. That will get frequent usage.
Nice review of your new stove. My question is why do you leave the door ajar when lighting? Sounds very
dangerous to me. If something comes up to distract you in those 15 minutes and you forgetfully leave it
ajar you will certainly soon have an out of control fire in you stove. With a good install it will probably stand
it but who knows........
I used to do this with our jotul f3 but quit it after a few scares of smelling an overheated stove when I went
to do something else. Our new quadrafire has two drafts whcih could cause the same thing if we went away
leaving the starter draft open by mistake but maybe not as bad. Still, something to think about.
dangerous to me. If something comes up to distract you in those 15 minutes and you forgetfully leave it
ajar you will certainly soon have an out of control fire in you stove. With a good install it will probably stand
it but who knows........
I used to do this with our jotul f3 but quit it after a few scares of smelling an overheated stove when I went
to do something else. Our new quadrafire has two drafts whcih could cause the same thing if we went away
leaving the starter draft open by mistake but maybe not as bad. Still, something to think about.
Force of habit from the last 4 years with the F3CB and F400. They were both connected rear exhaust which added an elbow right after the stove. That reduced draft enough when the stove was cold to necessitate leaving the door slightly ajar until the kindling was fully burning. I've had a few space outs but never had an out of control fire with just kindling in the stove. If I didn't catch it in time, the kindling just burned itself out and I'd have to start over.
Last night I didn't leave the door open on the Alderlea and it was fine. We're going to try top down lighting next and see how that goes too.
Last night I didn't leave the door open on the Alderlea and it was fine. We're going to try top down lighting next and see how that goes too.
Now I understand. If you only put kindling in and used that to start a draft if forgotten it wouldn't have much to burn. A good
idea.
In my younger days if I was in a hurry to go to bed or leave for work I would load the stove and use the door cracked tecnique
for a quicker ignition. In my case it could get out of control easily if not watched closely. The couple of times I did forget the smell
of the hot chimney would readily let me know I had to shut the door. Of course if you were to do this and leave without checking it
you may be in trouble but with a good installation it probably could stand it. The biggest concern of this high chimney temp would be
a chimney fire. Just some hindsight for those new to wood burners that this quick method of ignition isn't really a safe one and after a
few times I decided to give it up before it bit me and our house.
I usually load the full load at the same time as my kindling placing the kindling and part of a firestarter under the load of wood. Always
works well for me. When I did try to get kindling going and then add wood it always put out the kindling as I would bump it while adding
the wood and in this state it was very touchy at keeping it burning.
Kind of like leaving eggs to boil on the stove and hearing loud exploding noises from the front yard. We all make mistakes but some
could be avoided by being more careful.
idea.
In my younger days if I was in a hurry to go to bed or leave for work I would load the stove and use the door cracked tecnique
for a quicker ignition. In my case it could get out of control easily if not watched closely. The couple of times I did forget the smell
of the hot chimney would readily let me know I had to shut the door. Of course if you were to do this and leave without checking it
you may be in trouble but with a good installation it probably could stand it. The biggest concern of this high chimney temp would be
a chimney fire. Just some hindsight for those new to wood burners that this quick method of ignition isn't really a safe one and after a
few times I decided to give it up before it bit me and our house.
I usually load the full load at the same time as my kindling placing the kindling and part of a firestarter under the load of wood. Always
works well for me. When I did try to get kindling going and then add wood it always put out the kindling as I would bump it while adding
the wood and in this state it was very touchy at keeping it burning.
Kind of like leaving eggs to boil on the stove and hearing loud exploding noises from the front yard. We all make mistakes but some
could be avoided by being more careful.
Thank you so much for this well written and informative review of the Alderlea! I've been researching wood stoves for some time now, and when I first glimpsed the Alderlea I loved its features (specially that cooktop trivet!) and started looking into it more in depth. We are replacing an old Earth Stove pellet stove. It's not practical for us to have a pellet stove (and we really don't understand why the former homeowner installed one), as we live on forested property with an abundance of good firewood that we can't burn! So we are planning to rectify that with the Alderlea T5.
My biggest concern is overheating the house, as we had this problem in our previous home. Even though our home is around 2000 sq ft, it is somewhat U-shaped and we can only effectively heat about 1200-1500 sq ft. After reading your review, I no longer have this concern... I think it will be just fine with the gentle heat of the cast iron, and the smaller stove size (T5)!
We have found a showroom which has it on display and we'll be taking a look tomorrow. I really appreciated having the opportunity to read your review so we'll know what to look for and which questions to ask. Thank you so much!
My biggest concern is overheating the house, as we had this problem in our previous home. Even though our home is around 2000 sq ft, it is somewhat U-shaped and we can only effectively heat about 1200-1500 sq ft. After reading your review, I no longer have this concern... I think it will be just fine with the gentle heat of the cast iron, and the smaller stove size (T5)!
We have found a showroom which has it on display and we'll be taking a look tomorrow. I really appreciated having the opportunity to read your review so we'll know what to look for and which questions to ask. Thank you so much!
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