Quadrafire Isle Royale - Review for ELK

[Roospike]

Hi Roo,

Wow, that is quite the explanation.

All I want to know is: which of the 3 options do you use? I always rake the coals, load the stove fully and leave the air alone. It takes a long time for the stove to char the wood and the fire goes throught different stages: smoulder, yellow flames, die down, secondary flames, coals. My gut tellsl me that by not charring the wood first, I get a longer lasting fire. Is that correct? Is my gut feeling wrong?

I have tried some of the other options too but I have no clear idea of what is best/lasts longer/gives more heat. The fuel is use changes so much I cannot replicate the same fire over and over and test the different burn strategies.

Thanks

carpniels

I heat my home 100% with wood from 50° through minus 20° so i use all methods of burning wood. Less heat in the spring and fall and more in the dead of winter. What gets me is the wood burners that say "yeah , 550° stove top is best" .........?............Best at what ? you cant heat your home from out side temps 50° ~ minus 20° with a 550° stove. Stoves are not like a home a furnace with a set BTU and the furnace turns on and off depending on the heat you need. The stove needs to be set to run at hours at what ever temp is needed to maintain home heat. I'll range from 350° through 700° . Normally the higher temps like 600°- 700° is a smaller "hot load" in the colder of winter to bring the house temp up to par then i will reload the stove after the small hot load has burned down to a load to maintain the house temp and run it at 450°

The less heat that is needed .........the less wood and less chared.
More heat = more wood , more chared , more secondary combustion , higher stove temps.

 

[Andre B.]

<< snip

Your other points of the EBT looks good,
The EBT works great ! Why would they want to change? it ?

Because based on the threads here lately EBT does not always work great and some of the modes of not working great apparently result in over burn conditions that cannot be immediately shut down, manual draft shut but the EBT draft still open.

I didnt know any issues reported of the EBT (

Because based on the threads here lately EBT does not always work great and some of the modes of not working great

What threads was this posted in ? The EBT dont "over burn" that i know if and for what is the need to turn the stove all the way off ? Where are you getting this information ?

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewreply/72337/

"After about 10-30 seconds one of two things happen. The first is that the reburner ‘stalls’, the rumble ceases, and the flue temp drops from about 550 down to about 250 within 5 minutes or less."

That would be fixed by having a visual indicator of when the EBT control goes from the positive feedback mode to negative so the operator would know not to shut down the manual control. Or some kind of latch to hold the EBT draft open that is manually set at the start of a fire and is automatically released when the EBT goes over center. That would make it a true light the fire and walk away system.

"Now sometimes in case two is that the temps don’t drop when I choke the primary air inlet. The temps continue to climb and stay elevated for hours and there is nothing to do about it, except one ‘emergency brake’ I tried successfully."

That could possibly be caused by the delay between the high temps at the top of the stove and when the EBT control sees them.

 

[BrotherBart]

Andre that isn't the PE EBT. You linked to a thread about the VC Everburn system.

 

[Gunner]

Well the 8hrs at 600 may seem unbelievable but I did not make it up. I haven't used any stopwatches or spent the day watching the thermo but I know I can do it. Many others are claiming a good 6+ hrs of productive heat from smaller fireboxes so I don't think it's that unrealistic.

I load the stove for an overnight burn around 9-9:30 at night I wake up 6am thermo is always between 5-600. My situation may be different like I said before due to the fact I have a very good draft. I run the air completely closed after charring with very active secondary present.

I have had to adjust my loading techniques for extended burns and only load really big wood when I want a long burn, and save the small stuff for during the day and when we are home.

I started another thread https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/5974/ about my burn times and being away all day. I work 24 hr shifts the GF is away 12hrs with her commute, the coles notes are 13+ hrs after loading the stove when she gets home and I'm still at work the ecofan is still spinning.

I might start sounding like a broken record here but one thing that might make a difference is the fact that the "classic" summits are double walled. The outer steel is reflecting heat back against the main steel body resulting in higher surface temps that last longer. Wrapping your cast iron stove with another sheet of steel allowing a 1" air gap is going to raise your temps I think.

He is a pic of the type of wood I load for extended burns. Are you guys loading 8" and 9" rounds?

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Do not even ATTEMPT to say negative things about PE around here.. you might get hung by your toes LOL.

 

[BrotherBart]

Do not even ATTEMPT to say negative things about PE around here.. you might get hung by your toes LOL.

I wouldn't dream of dissing PE stoves. I think they are wonderful wood stoves. But I have about decided, after asking the question every six months or so, that I am going to have to spend a couple of grand just to find out "AT WHAT TEMP DOES THAT %*&$@ FLAP OPEN AND CLOSE?!!".

 

[bacsales]

The Pacific ebt and the Vermont Castings Everburn are completely different. Just because they are both thermostatically controlled does not mean they are the same. The Vermont Castings has a refractory package in the rear of the stove to mix smoke and fresh air. This allows for top loading. In fact every top loading non catalytic stove uses a derivative of this system see Lopi or Harman. The Pacific ebt uses a thermostat to regulate the secondary air instead of using the main draft lever ala country, regency, lopi or avalon. But the principle is the same as the others I mentioned. Add air through a baffle or tubes to the top of the stove and mix with smoke and heat and bingo more heat less smoke.

 

[Roospike]

Yeah , I was thinking Andre was talking about the everburn VC stoves with the past threads but wanted to give the benefit of a doubt that i might of missed something somewhere.

The Pacific Energy EBT is not the same design of the everburn but if we are talking the everburn design then i can see where Andre is coming from ,
Simple mistake................... JUST DONT DO IT AGAIN! :snake:

As MountainStoveGuy stated , we almost had a hang-n by the toes event. ;-)

 

[Roospike]

Do not even ATTEMPT to say negative things about PE around here.. you might get hung by your toes LOL.

I wouldn't dream of dissing PE stoves. I think they are wonderful wood stoves. But I have about decided, after asking the question every six months or so, that I am going to have to spend a couple of grand just to find out "AT WHAT TEMP DOES THAT %*&$@ FLAP OPEN AND CLOSE?!!".

Looks like your going to end up making the buy , the question you keep asking about is part of the " Patented Extended Burn Technology" and them answers dont come easy.

 

[bacsales]

Do not even ATTEMPT to say negative things about PE around here.. you might get hung by your toes LOL.

I wouldn't dream of dissing PE stoves. I think they are wonderful wood stoves. But I have about decided, after asking the question every six months or so, that I am going to have to spend a couple of grand just to find out "AT WHAT TEMP DOES THAT %*&$@ FLAP OPEN AND CLOSE?!!".

I am laughing out loud.

I will make some calls for you!!

 

[Jags]

Carpneils -
I run an Isle Royal also, so I thought I would share a couple of things that I have learned from it. First is, after a good fire has been established I will shut my air control to about 20%. Just last night I did this and maintained 4+ hours at 600 deg on a "modest" load of hardwood. I commonly do this at night or when leaving for work with a full load, and 10 hrs later will come home to a stove top temp of about 200+ deg with a fair amount of coals left. If I open the air flow more than 20%, I may get higher stove top temps, but the wood consumption can go really crazy (not a linear increase by any means). Second, always have a nice ash layer in the bottom of the stove. This does make quite a difference in its burn characteristics and wood use. I have also compared loading the wood from left to right, vs. front to back. I did not notice any difference in the actual burn, it just seems like you CAN get more stuffed into the box with the front to back method. Downside is that you would have to cut your wood to smaller lengths to use this method (roughly 15" or smaller from front to back).

 

[begreen]

Great thread! Thanks for the info Jags. Although we may be poking at some manufacturer's claims. And nudging the boasting rights of PE owners a little, they're both still great stoves. I'm not sure the metal sides has a lot to do with it, but maybe. Napoleons have a similar construction and seem well received. Seems like a worthy research subject for Corie.

 

[Jags]

Great thread! Thanks for the info Jags. Although we may be poking at some manufacturer's claims. And nudging the boasting rights of PE owners a little, they're both still great stoves. I'm not sure the metal sides has a lot to do with it, but maybe. Napoleons have a similar construction and seem well received. Seems like a worthy research subject for Corie.

The only downside I can see to the Isle Royle is that you can't get it in Whore House red. What a shame. :lol:

 

[begreen]

If they had it in blue-black enamel with a thermostatic damper, I'd be picking one up... like yesterday.

 

[Andre B.]

Yeah , I was thinking Andre was talking about the everburn VC stoves with the past threads but wanted to give the benefit of a doubt that i might of missed something somewhere.

The Pacific Energy EBT is not the same design of the everburn but if we are talking the everburn design then i can see where Andre is coming from ,
Simple mistake................... JUST DONT DO IT AGAIN! :snake:

As MountainStoveGuy stated , we almost had a hang-n by the toes event. ;-)

Well back from a teeth cleaning to find my foot in my mouth.
I really hate alphabet soup and not having enough time study everything.

Still think the temp sensor should be on top.

 

[Gunner]

Carpniels, are you adding wood like this? These two logs will be loaded north/south at one time and any remaining space at the top will be filled with smaller splits, the smaller splits give an immediate "top down secondary". By the time the smaller splits at the top are burt down the larger logs are well on there way and are able to sustain secondary by themselves.

 

[Roospike]

Let me help you out if i may brother Gunner.

 

[Roospike]

Yeppers , large hardwood and well seasoned wood is going to make a world of difference in heat and burn times. Rounds will be a key to larger wood.

Pictured below is a pic of the Summit load with large splits and a round about 8" across. The pic is just for example of log size and shown as loaded in a non hot coal stove.

 

[Gunner]

Let me help you out if i may brother Gunner.

Thanks...just goes to show ya the S.O.N.A(Summit Owners of North America) are always lookin to help a brother out. :snake:

 

[Roospike]

********************* ;-) **************************

 

[begreen]

Are there any Harman Oakwood owners that care to step up and describe how that stove burns over the long burn? It would be great to hear how that stove does. Also, Shane, what are you seeing with the Leyden with regard to the heat output curve over time?

 

[carpniels]

Hi guys,

Jags, thanks for the writeup. I actually did what you described last night and indeed I got a much longer and hotter fire by closing the air to 20%. This was with very large splits of ash.

I could not believe the size of those rounds. 9 inch and unsplit. Doesn't that take forever to dry? I normally split ever piece of wood at least once, to get the bark broken and improve drying capacity.

Remember, I am still trying to get rid of all the wood I cut for my Castine and VC intrepid II. those are much smaller stoves so a lot of my wood is small (16 inch long and maybe 4 inch across. Naturally, that does not help with burn times.

I will go to my woodpile and see if I have anything close to that size and load it up the way Gunner did. Lets see what that does.

Take care. I need to blow snow. a foot so far and another on the way before tonight.

Carpniels