Us stove forester install and use

[Burnysanders]

Hello new guy here first season burning, built everything myself except the stove and pipe, anyone else using a us stove forester or similar model? This is my first home so didn’t have the money for the lopi I wanted settled for the tsc special and it has turned out so far to be a great efficient stove but seems it can run cool sometimes. I have a bit of build up in my chimney, I’ve been burning 24/7 since December mostly ash and red oak, stove door is a pos but I’m sure the kid that built it in China thought it was good any tips or advice on this stove? Any complaints? Also having a outside chimney doesn’t seem too bad.

 

[kennyp2339]

I had a US stove 2500 from TSC, the stove functioned as advertised, first big gripe that you might come across, but prob not since you dont have a straight up setup, be very careful when cleaning, for your sake, just take the black stove pipe off in one piece and walk it outside to brush out, my first issue was when removing the very fragile baffle board, they did not use stainless steel screws to anchor down the secondary reburn tubes, instead they used sheet metal self tappers that snapped when I tried to remove them, had to re-tap all the reburn tube mounts, just avoid this if you can.
The second thing that was big, was door gasket replacement, the groove cut in the door was to big for the gasket they recommended using, I had to take the door with me, and the old gasket to a stove shop and we had to find the next biggest size which was a weird in-between size. (ended up using a high density gasket to)
My third complaint, which I think was fixed on later models, was stress cracks that developed on the corners of the door cut out on the stove body, rather than being square there now rounded over, but it was to late for me.
Your stove will treat you good, I know with mine, it heated my house very well and was controllable, it just fell apart on me after 3 seasons of use, treat it well and it should take care of you for many years. BTW the house looks awesome and your hearth area is great looking to.

 

[Burnysanders]

Thanks it was a lot of work! My gasket is already showing wear unfortunately, the blower isn’t very strong so I keep a box fan on the dining table my wife hates this haha so far so good the air wash on the door works very well I noticed. A lot of reviews said the stove was hard to get lit I had a problem once but it was probably the wood, stove stunk horrible for the first 3 weeks and still does if I take it up around 700.

 

[logfarmer]

Welcome first of all and nice looking install.

 

[Burnysanders]

Thanks I am so grateful for this stove right now with the temps at night in Michigan, I’m proud of my install I like to think I’m one of the special group of people in their early 30s that aren’t afraid of work!! Haha what temps do most of you keep your house at without using to much wood or over firing? Also it’s hard for me to keep temps up overnight, I still have coals but the furnace is on at 6 when I wake up?

 

[logfarmer]

Your setup looks very nice and did a swell job. We keep our house in the mid 70’s( where the boss likes it lol). Our stove is our only source of heat, our house has decent insulation and when it’s down in the single digits the temp is still around 70-72 in the morning. If ya don’t need much heat in the day, throw in less wood! I leave 3” of ash in my stove at all times helps with keeping coals for a restart if I don’t need the heat. I even bank the coals for the day sometimes if it’s in the upper 30’s.