Second report on my 50-tvl17

[48rob]

I'm really excited!

My stove is really small (1.1 cubic foot firebox)
It isn't supposed to burn very long.
I didn't expect it to.

Yesterday I kept a decent fire going all day, then at 7:00 pm I put a 4" round and 3" split of Cherry on a decent bed of coals.
I opened the air and got them going, then closed the air and went in the house.

Came out this morning at 6:00am expecting to find a stone cold stove...

It was still warm!
Not hot mind you, just warm, 98 degrees actually.
I opened the door and shot the inside coal bed at 250 degrees.
A little stirring revealed some nice embers.
I put a little kindling on the embers and waited.
5 minutes later there were flames!

After 30 minutes of burning the stove hit 330 degrees.

Now I realize that "warm" and a few "embers" isn't the same as useable heat, but to have a stove with max burn times under the very best controlled circumstances of 6 hours or less go 11 hours with only two small pieces of wood is very encouraging!
My pieces were, combined, around 5 pounds.
The stove can hold around 45 pounds.

I either got really lucky, or someone did a good job designing the stove and just picked a low number for burn times.

Rob

 

[Fsappo]

Nice job. Burn times are so strange as quoted. I used to burn a Buck Cat stove, I forgot which model, in my showroom. It was one of the medium ones. 24 hours and the stove was still 200+ degrees surface temp and the glass hot enough to burn you. The quoted burn time was half of that. My Enerzone 3.4 which I used to heat my house, has a 3.4 cf firebox would only burn about 8 with a full load of wood (but put out gobs of nasty heat)

Sounds like your in for a long happy relationship with your stove. Find out if she has a sister for me.

 

[SmokingAndPoking]

I think marketing folks could really benefit from understating a product and letting customers be pleasantly surprised that the product is even better than the sales literature indicates!

 

[48rob]

I think marketing folks could really benefit from understating a product and letting customers be pleasantly surprised that the product is even better than the sales literature indicates!

Quite right!

Under promise and over deliver...

As a reasonably educated buyer (not school, but research) I can tell you that while getting a pleasant surprise is nice, and appreciated, it would be better for me as a buyer to just have cold hard facts so I can compare apples to apples, instead of comparing apples to oranges and then finding help like this board to help sort things out.

An over abundance of information on a product is good too.
I wondered about what the back of the stove looked like.
Best I could find was a line drawing.
What I found online, and the thoughts here were enough to convince me that your stove was really the only logical choice for my set of circumstances.
I wonder how many others are considering the same stove, but want/need a little more information about it?

I'm not getting after you, you did a great job on the stove as best I can tell, but if the folks in marketing listen to you...

I feel privileged to be the first review, and appreciate you coming on to comment!

Rob

 

[begreen]

Sweet. I was tempted to get one for the greenhouse but already had the Jotul. Still, it would be fun to have one to play with for awhile.

 

[FyreBug]

I agree that stating reasonable burning time from stove manufacturers is a must. A good burn cycle time would be when the secondary are fully engaged until there are enough embers to re-ignite a piece of wood. In effect this is what we state for our brand.

While it seems there is a lot of wishful thinking on the part of some MFG's it can be said that it is a tricky job to state a burn time to satisfy everyone. The customer wants it and if you shoot too low they will purchase one that states a longer burn time (i've seen it happen where 1 hour in the marketing literature made a difference in a sale!). Burn times will vary a great deal depending on the species used, the draft, moisture content in the wood, how one loads the stove etc...

It's a bit like the square footage coverage for a stove. The answer is it depends... Wise customers do well to educate themselves at Hearth. com to get a good feel for a particular model.

 

[cadia]

Rob~
My 50-TVL17 is on the truck on its way to Maine.
It will be here friday.
What size is your shop and is it insulated?
S'cuze me if you posted this info somewhere before.
I'm thinking of putting it up on a 3 inch thick slab of granite.
Thanks , Sally

 

[48rob]

Rob~
My 50-TVL17 is on the truck on its way to Maine.
It will be here friday.
What size is your shop and is it insulated?
S’cuze me if you posted this info somewhere before.
I’m thinking of putting it up on a 3 inch thick slab of granite.
Thanks , Sally

Hi Sally,

My shop is insulated.
2x4 walls with 3.5" fiberglass and the ceiling has 8-12" of fiberglass.

The room is odd shaped, but pretty much 24' long x 12' wide.
The stove is pretty much in the middle.

It's taking me a while to get used to running it, but I'm quite pleased so far.
Very easy to operate, with just one air control handle.
It has an air jet just below the door in the front middle of the stove that blows straight in.
Keeping a channel open to the back is easy and keeps the wood burning well.
The air tubes of course are on the top.

Setting it up on the granite sounds like a good idea.
It does set a little low.
I've been considering raising mine 6-8" but my flue is so short now I'm not sure it would be wise.
I'll probably wait until I have a season's experience with it.
I'll be storing it under the workbench in the off season, as it is easy to move around.

Since I don't sleep in the shop, it hasn't been burning 24/7, but I fire it up every morning (usually some hot coals left, though not really enough to throw new wood on and have it catch) and run it all day then go in about 7:00.

Most mornings the stove is around a hundred degrees and the shop about 60 degrees, warm enough my back up heater hasn't kicked in yet.
I'm burning softwood splits in the daytime, and loading two or three rounds of Cherry at night.

I'm finding myself wishing it would get colder so I can really fire it up...it has only been around 20 degrees so far, and a small split of Willow every hour or so keeps the shop at 75-80 degrees.
When I have to go out for a couple three hours I'll put 2-3 splits on and usually have hot enough coals to light a new split with the air open full.

I've had it up to 575 degrees, it feels like it would keep me warm at 50 below... it realy kicks out the heat if you ask it to...and I don't have the blower option.
The stove has a well designed air chamber around the firebox, I'll bet it really cranks out a lot of heat with that fan going!

Since it has that air chamber on top, the best place to measure stove "top" temperature is on the sides, about even with the top of the door and about three inches back from the front.

I hate being cold... But It feels like Hawaii when I walk in the shop... so all is well!

Rob

 

[gasavage]

This is great to hear. The guy that designed the stove, Corey, used to be a regular here on the forums. I can remember when he was a college student before going to work for Englander. Hey Mike...pass on the good word to Corey! Yeah I've been around a while...just don't post much.

 

[cadia]

Rob
Thanks so much for the detailed reply-all helpful!
I'll be using mine on an area that is used intermittently.
About 600 sq ft. and gets a solar boost most of the day.
Sounds like it will be perfect!
I dont like being cold either- I keep teeshirt temperature all winter
In the main part of the house with a monitor heater and a jotul 3!