Maintain those temps, boys

[Whitespider]

see Whitespider you should re-install that elitist stove back in the house where it belongs

FAT CHANCE ‼ Y'all can have 'em... and keep 'em ‼
I don't need, or want that sort'a aggravation... life is too damn short for that crap.
*

 

[slowp]

Elitist stoves and smaller well insulated houses are good things. Gots to turn my stove down now. I sleep best in cold temps so fire goes out at night, window is open, and house cools down to 55 degrees when low is 27 outside.

 

[Highbeam]

Elitist stoves and smaller well insulated houses are good things. Gots to turn my stove down now. I sleep best in cold temps so fire goes out at night, window is open, and house cools down to 55 degrees when low is 27 outside.

I'm up in the foothills, 23 this morning. They are threatening burn bans this weekend so I'm trying to heat soak the house and shop. The cat stove makes that really easy in the house but the shop stove requires lots of loading and tending to maintain high output. So you guys really like these furnaces?

 

[Idahonative]

FAT CHANCE ‼ You'll can have 'em... and keep 'em ‼
I don't need, or want that sort'a aggravation... life is too damn short for that crap.
*

Aggravation??? Our elitist stove is SOOOOO boring. Load it once a day and then just watch it....all black, boring as can be, just chugging heat out all day & night. I had my fill (15 years) of building fires everyday, getting up in the middle of the night to stoke the fire, getting up in the morning to a cold house, coming home from work so I could work on the fire. I'm older and smarter now. I have a lot of other things I'd rather be doing then tending fire.

 

[slowp]

My elitist stove heats my house up enough that I usually let it go out during the day. I have it going now mainly to get some dough to rise. They are a terrible invention, aren't they? Yes, we should have to go back to the smoldering, chimney clogging earthstove days....sigh.

 

[Idahonative]

My elitist stove heats my house up enough that I usually let it go out during the day. I have it going now mainly to get some dough to rise. They are a terrible invention, aren't they? Yes, we should have to go back to the smoldering, chimney clogging earthstove days....sigh.

LOL...my mom still heats her home with an Earthstove. Great stove for it's time but she smokes out her corner intersection just about everyday. I'm kind of embarrassed when we drive over there and it's smoky...it's a very busy road now a days.

I'm not a big fan of the EPA (or most any gov't agency for that matter) but I have to say our EPA stove is the best investment we've made in a long time. It is amazing how easy it is to heat our home and how it cut our wood usage by 40%. My cousin just put one in their home and all he says is, "I can't believe..." and "It's amazing how...".

 

[Whitespider]

I had my fill (15 years) of building fires everyday, getting up in the middle of the night to stoke the fire, getting up in the morning to a cold house, coming home from work so I could work on the fire.

Yeah... I hate that also... that's why the idiotic EPA firebox only lasted one season in my house... one season of doin' that $h!t was enough‼
About half way through that season my wife looked at me one day when I got home from work and said, "I hate ta tell ya' this dude, but your new wood burner sucks‼"
She weren't tellin' me anything I already hadn't figured out.
*

 

[Idahonative]

Yeah... I hate that also... that's why the idiotic EPA firebox only lasted one season in my house... one season of doin' that $h!t was enough‼
About half way through that season my wife looked at me one day when I got home from work and said, "I hate ta tell ya' this dude, but your new wood burner sucks‼"
She weren't tellin' me anything I already hadn't figured out.
*

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say: I think you might have bought the wrong EPA stove.

 

[olympyk_999]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here

get back...its going to break on you

 

[Oxford]

You're wrong, @Idahonative - he didn't buy it. Somebody gave it to him, he put his fingers in it without knowing what he was doing, and he's been weeping like an orphan to anybody who will listen that it was a plot against him specifically and true Americans generally ever since.

Edited for punctuation. Damn a comma.

 

[olympyk_999]

it was a plot against him specifically and true Americans generally ever since.

are you saying it's not?

 

[Idahonative]

You're wrong, @Idahonative - he didn't buy it. Somebody gave it to him, he put his fingers in it without knowing what he was doing, and he's been weeping like an orphan to anybody who will listen that it was a plot against him specifically and true Americans generally ever since.

Edited for punctuation. Damn a comma.

Oh, I got it now. Man, I wish he could see our stove perform...it's a thing of beauty. It's been pretty cold here lately with no sun (inversion) and this thing just keeps our house at 70-72* like clockwork. Loaded Red Fir in it 24 hours ago and just went to load it for the night. It's still a foot deep with wood! Got down to 12 last night and 22 today. Like I said, best investment we've made in a long time. I can't imagine how someone COULD'NT love one.

 

[BoBDoG2o02]

I think we should start a club. The Elitist Blaze King Brotherhood.

 

[Whitespider]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say: I think you might have bought the wrong EPA stove

Wrong??
Not wrong, I just don't like the way they operate.

I don't like...

• the way it makes extremely high heat while the secondary is active, but heat drops way off when it ain't... I'd rather have a relatively even heat output throughout the entire burn cycle.
• the need to adjust the combustion air during the burn cycle, or every time fuel is added... I'd rather have "set 'n' forget".
• the way it tends to fill up with coals when continuous high heat output is required, and screwin' 'round raking them, piling them, leavin' the door open, and all the other little tricks people suggest just further pizzes me off... I'd rather be able to just toss more fuel in when required and slam the friggin' door.
• the need to let the fire burn near completely out to shovel out ashes... my box heats my entire home, letting the fire go out in January/February is ridiculous. And I don't wanna' shovel them anyway, I wanna' pull the ash drawer, dump, and slide it back in, even when the fire is burning full-tilt... a 10-second job.
• cleaning baffles, heat tubes, glass doors, and whatever else... my maintenance routine is emptying the ash drawer, period.
• the sensitivity to draft and the need to get it "just right" with some sort'a gadget... screw that, I use a key damper, and simply change its setting two or three times during the heating season as winter progresses.

It seems that many like their new-fangled boxes... that's a good thing, they paid for 'em, they should like 'em.
But at the same time they list a bunch of complaints about the "older" boxes... such as short burn times, plugged chimneys, cold houses, massive wood consumption, and more. The thing is, I don't experience any such things, and there's a few others on this board that don't experience them either... at the same time, some of those same few others have the same dislike for the new boxes as well. This tells me there's a whole lot more to it than simply the box... it may be operator error (with both types), or it may be something more than that.

I believe making firewood should be the hard part, burnin' it should be the easy part. I walk downstairs twice a day (sometimes three if it's nasty cold and windy), open door, toss wood in, slam door, walk away... empty ash drawer as needed... the house stays a constant 70°-71°... it don't get any friggin' easier than that.
*

 

[flotek]

You'll never convince white spider so you might as well forget about it . He thought he was wrong once , but he made a mistake ! Hey in the end use what works for you can't fault the guy for being pleased with his particular heating rig . Personally I'd take a EPA furnace any day over a smoke dragon but I've personally seen the benefits firsthand between several true forced air furnace designs to know the difference and see the benefit ..To each his own

 

[Marshy]

Well I wouldn't speak in absolutes on that .You do that on many EPA stoves before the cycle is complete you'll end up with a heavy coal bed that provides little heat . Over coaling can be a big problem in cold months where you keep throwing wood in the firebox before the charge is burnt down

Not just on the newer EPA stoves but it can happen on the older stoves like my Shenandoah. It happens in the coldest parts of winter where I need a lot of heat and have to keep it stoked. I find it helpful to occasionally mix in large portions of softer wood species that burns to ash and doesnt coal much.

 

[Marshy]

I have a grate with an ash door...if theres too much coaling, I just open the ash door and it burns em down quick and also burns very hot...basically turns it into a forge

I've melted my cask iron grate doing that.

 

[Whitespider]

Not just on the newer EPA stoves but it can happen on the older stoves like my Shenandoah. It happens in the coldest parts of winter where I need a lot of heat and have to keep it stoked.

I don't know how the Shenandoah is designed, but all combustion air is feed under the grate in my box. That keeps the coal bed screamin' hot and burning from the bottom up... ashes fall through the grate. Over-coaling has never been an issue... keeping a deep coal bed during the coldest weather makes more heat, a lot more heat, and requires less "stoking" of the fire. When I know the weather is gonna' turn nasty cold I intentionally start building a deep coal bed during the day... which in turn keeps the house up to temp all night long.
*

 

[Marshy]

Wrong??
Not wrong, I just don't like the way they operate.

I don't like...

• the way it makes extremely high heat while the secondary is active, but heat drops way off when it ain't... I'd rather have a relatively even heat output throughout the entire burn cycle.
• the need to adjust the combustion air during the burn cycle, or every time fuel is added... I'd rather have "set 'n' forget".
• the way it tends to fill up with coals when continuous high heat output is required, and screwin' 'round raking them, piling them, leavin' the door open, and all the other little tricks people suggest just further pizzes me off... I'd rather be able to just toss more fuel in when required and slam the friggin' door.
• the need to let the fire burn near completely out to shovel out ashes... my box heats my entire home, letting the fire go out in January/February is ridiculous. And I don't wanna' shovel them anyway, I wanna' pull the ash drawer, dump, and slide it back in, even when the fire is burning full-tilt... a 10-second job.
• cleaning baffles, heat tubes, glass doors, and whatever else... my maintenance routine is emptying the ash drawer, period.
• the sensitivity to draft and the need to get it "just right" with some sort'a gadget... screw that, I use a key damper, and simply change its setting two or three times during the heating season as winter progresses.

It seems that many like their new-fangled boxes... that's a good thing, they paid for 'em, they should like 'em.
But at the same time they list a bunch of complaints about the "older" boxes... such as short burn times, plugged chimneys, cold houses, massive wood consumption, and more. The thing is, I don't experience any such things, and there's a few others on this board that don't experience them either... at the same time, some of those same few others have the same dislike for the new boxes as well. This tells me there's a whole lot more to it than simply the box... it may be operator error (with both types), or it may be something more than that.

I believe making firewood should be the hard part, burnin' it should be the easy part. I walk downstairs twice a day (sometimes three if it's nasty cold and windy), open door, toss wood in, slam door, walk away... empty ash drawer as needed... the house stays a constant 70°-71°... it don't get any friggin' easier than that.
*

Sounds to me like you used one of those secondary burn type stoves. I'm eventually going to try a cat stove (BK), I've never been a fan of how the secondary burn stoves work. They are supposed to tolerate wetter wood but they secondary doesnt kick on until the gas temperatures are nearly 900-1000*F anyways. The cat stoves are working down as alow as 500*F and BK stoves have thermostatic air control so, toss your wood in 10-15 on high then set it and forget it.

My main complaint about my Shenandoah is short burn times and wood consumption. As long as my wife it home to toss wood in it its not a problem but it does suck getting up 4-5 hours in peak winter to keep the hosue near 70*F.

 

[Marshy]

I don't know how the Shenandoah is designed, but all combustion air is feed under the grate in my box. That keeps the coal bed screamin' hot and burning from the bottom up... ashes fall through the grate. Over-coaling has never been an issue... keeping a deep coal bed during the coldest weather makes more heat, a lot more heat, and requires less "stoking" of the fire. When I know the weather is gonna' turn nasty cold I intentionally start building a deep coal bed during the day... which in turn keeps the house up to temp all night long.
*

I'd like to see the grate and inside of your stove if possible. The Shenandoah has a 11" round grate and air comes through the thermostatic air control and into the ash pan area and up through the grate as long as the ash and smaller coal falls through but, it doesnt do it on its own during the cycle. I have to rake the ash and coal over the grate each cycle to get it clean. If the ash in the pan backes up or I dont rake the ash/coal then the combustion air has a second pathway which is a small gap between the door and main firebox. This can be helpful because the wood can be forced to burn from front to back length wise and will keep coals in the back of the firebox longer but total heat output suffers some.