The not-so-difficult to run EPA stove

[Steve NW WI]

There have been comments in another thread about how difficult the newer "EPA stoves" are to operate. Last night, I lit my stove from cold, and took pics from an empty firebox till reload today. If I had a time lapse option on the camera, I'd have used it, you'll just have to settle for pics of each step that I clicked manually.

Before fire temp. Timestamp on the camera of 6:42 PM (add 4 hours for actual times, my camera clock must not be set right):



An empty firebox, 6:42 also:



Loaded. Mostly oak, a stick of elm on the right, and some pine to get going quick, also half of one of those fire starter bricks, cause I got a box of em for Christmas. Noodles would have worked just as good. 6:45PM:


Leave the door cracked open till you've got some good fire going, 6:55PM



Wait just a bit longer to get the wood charred and starting to coal, then turn down the single control lever. 7:23 PM. This seems like it's taking a long time, it is, partly due to me making some supper while I was at it, and partly from being a full-cold start. Reloading onto coals is much faster, as you'll see later.


Come back just shy of 10 hours later, to enough coals for a quick relight, 5:20 AM:


Add a few sticks of pine, enough to last till I fill it before work (about 4 hours):


Open control lever all the way and close door - top of stove temp at time of reload was still 300° 5:22 AM:


Let it fire up for a few minutes, and close the control lever and wander off to see what's up in AS land. 5:25AM:



Temp just seconds later, still up 5 degrees from the start of the process, despite a 10° drop in outside temps:



So easy a caveman could do it. Aliens apparently have a harder time with it though.

 

[nathon918]

what are those? KD spruce in the last 2 pics? if so you could light that with a match...

 

[Steve NW WI]

Scrap from work. Pine/fir/spruce something. I'm OK at figuring out what flavor wood is in it's upright and growing state, but by the time it's lumber I can just tell you it ain't hardwood. It is pretty near match light, but so's my elm with all the strings hanging off it. 2 year dried oak needs just a little more convincing to get going, but not much.

While I'm here, current stove top temp is 600°, basement temp of 75° (on the little white egg thermometer in the pics, about 20' from the stove), and outside temp of 14°.

 

[Chris-PA]

Yup, came downstairs this morning, basement still warm and the old furnace blower still on (it wasn't that cold out) and raked small amount of coals to the center. Added a large ash split on either side and three others across the top. Left the door cracked while I poured some cereal, went down and closed it up (inlet still open). Ate my breakfast, closed down the inlet and left for work.

 

[oldspark]

So is the OP trying to pick a fight, difficult compared to what, my old stove was a set it and walk away and never have to worry about it, amazing what dry wood will do for you even in an old stove (even keeps the chimney clean if you burn right).
New stoves like to be tweaked now and then but overall with the house a little tighter its working fine, but not as easy to run as the old stove.

 

[Steve NW WI]

So is the OP trying to pick a fight, difficult compared to what, my old stove was a set it and walk away and never have to worry about it, amazing what dry wood will do for you even in an old stove (even keeps the chimney clean if you burn right).
New stoves like to be tweaked now and then but overall with the house a little tighter its working fine, but not as easy to run as the old stove.

This was a response to one of Spidey's posts in the "best stove" thread, where he's maintained multiple times that the new stoves need "constant fiddling" to work right. Just showing that it can be as simple as I've shown above. My old Woodchuck that this stove replaced took about the same amount of "fiddling" to get going as this one does.

As to this being "picking a fight", the fight's been going a long time. I'm just posting this so I can refer back to it every time I hear how hard these stoves are to run. I can only take being told something is true when I know it not to be true for so long.

Edited for grammar.

 

[TonyK]

Jotul Firelight CB. Open door, feed wood, feel warm. Simple really.

 

[Jredsjeep]

i dont have the same stove but i have found my NC30 from Home Depot to run about the same. got a good 8 years or so burning as a primary heat soarce with it. the wifey likes it about 75 in the house and you know what they say about a happy wife!

heck the real test was when my M-I-L could run it and keep the house warm with no furnace backup over Christmas last year when my little girl was born. this lady can bearly turn a screwdriver but she ran the woodstove for days with no previouse experiance while we were in the hospital.

 

[Hddnis]

I think Spidey might just be a fiddler type, so he worries it more than he needs. Which is fine, world needs those types too.

Going from a non-EPA anything stove to my Quadrafire did take just a bit of learning, but once I got the hang of it that thing is easy to run. I can get 6-8 hours on a load of softwood, good clean burn and plenty of coals left. If I load up with a nice hardwood I can get to 12 hours, even on a cold night.

I plan to get a Blaze King next, know several guys that have them and I've run them while house sitting the neighbors place over the holidays during the cold snap, they seem to be everything they're cracked up to be.



Mr. HE

 

[Steve NW WI]

I just snapped a couple more pics, filled the stove before work. I'll upload them tonight, and that will finish out a "day in the life". 2 1/3 fillings, a couple flicks of the lever shortly after loading, and nothing else needed.

Soooooo difficult, I tell ya.

 

[CTYank]

My 13-yo micro Morso is just about that complicated. Of course, it does have a real hard time disposing of much wood anything near that Drolet. Once I figured out the internal airflow patterns, I was on autopilot with it.

The huge benefit of these Spidey-maligned stoves is the greatly reduced emissions, just so long as you feed them dry wood. The polycyclic organic matter (POM) in woodsmoke is a powerful carcinogen, not just a nuisance we can overlook. Turning such schmutz into heat, truly priceless.

Excuse me for a few, while I build it back from coals.

 

[oldspark]

This was a response to one of Spidey's posts in the "best stove" thread, where he's maintained multiple times that the new stoves need "constant fiddling" to work right. Just showing that it can be as simple as I've shown above. My old Woodchuck that this stove replaced took about the same amount of "fiddling" to get going as this one does.

As to this being "picking a fight", the fight's been going a long time. I'm just posting this so I can refer back to it every time I hear how hard these stoves are to run. I can only take being told something is true when I know it not to be true for so long.

Edited for grammar.

Maybe spidey is a little over the top but hard for to disagree with a lot of what he says, my summit does take more fiddling then the old stove but not constant by any means.
A lot of people who burn EPA stoves seem to be discovering dry wood for the first time in their lives, many posts by some who say if this was my old stove the cap would be plugged by now, another one is single wall stove pipe will only last for a couple of years, water dont burn very well.

 

[stihly dan]

Steve, what was the temp in the house after the 10 hrs of being gone? If the basement was 65* I would think it wasn't heating the house for a few hrs by then. Easy now, just curious.

 

[Chris-PA]

Steve, what was the temp in the house after the 10 hrs of being gone? If the basement was 65* I would think it wasn't heating the house for a few hrs by then. Easy now, just curious.

This is where thermal mass is really your friend (not to mention insulation of course). That is going to vary a lot with type of construction.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Steve, what was the temp in the house after the 10 hrs of being gone? If the basement was 65* I would think it wasn't heating the house for a few hrs by then. Easy now, just curious.

1st thermometer pic was after the stove was out most of the evening. 2nd pic (70.something) was after the 10 hour burn.

 

[flotek]

Looks extremely complicated and hard to understand( so you rake the coals forward and then add wood or add wood then rake the coals ?? Ugh. !So hard to figure out ) id just use an old barrel stove and toss some tires in it .10 hrs burn ain't hardly enough time for me to make a gallon of my moonshine shucks you can fit all 4) Geo metro in that ol drum and she'll burn for 3 days straight and as a side benefit after it's lights off the chimney not only do I achieve secondary combustion but the young ins get to see an amazing light show in the front yard like the Fourth of July

 

[Whitespider]

I think Spidey might just be a fiddler type, so he worries it more than he needs.

I wish that were the case... I fiddle with it because it stops heating.
That explanation don't hold water... I don't fiddle with my furnace, I don't worry it one iota.

As far as difficult... I don't believe I ever said "difficult"... I believe I said a PITA to be constantly fiddling with it to keep it heating and/or burning down the coals.
Yesterday morning at 4:30 AM I opened the door of my furnace and tossed some firewood in, closed the door, walked away... that's it, open door, load wood, close door, nothing more. I thought maybe I'd need to add more before the house came up to temp... but it wasn't that cold out, so one loading was enough. We actually made it into the lower 30's late yesterday afternoon, and at 9:30 last night it was still 72° in the house so I didn't even check the furnace before bed. This morning, at 5:00 AM, 24½ hours after touching it last, 67° in the house, I opened the door of the furnace, saw there was a couple coals still glowing, tossed some wood in, closed the door, walked away... that's it, open door, load wood, close door, nothing more. So, over a 24½ hour period (from 4:30 AM yesterday to 5:00 AM today) I spent a total of maybe 60 seconds... maybe 60 seconds, likely less... "fiddling" with my furnace.

It ain't, and never has been a question of "difficult" to run... just a PITA to run because it requires constant attention to keep heating.
I'm happy for you that your new-fangled stove runs good for you, or as you want it to... mine don't run, or heat worth sour owl crap.
On the other hand... my old fashion, non-EPA certified, smoke dragon furnace nearly runs itself, heats like a Banshee when needed, and is damn miserly on wood consumption during times of "normal" temperatures... it uses less than that EPA-certified stove I have ever did. (shrug) I don't see how I could expect or ask for anything more, it does exactly what I expect and ask it to do.

Steve NW WI,
Did I say, "the new stoves need "constant fiddling" to work right"?? (As in a "blanket" statement.)
Or did I say mine does, and pointed out where others have said the same thing to some degree... such as dragging coals around, placing splits just so to get coals burning down (actually, that one seems quite common, almost universal), making adjustments during the burn cycle, low heat output during the coaling stage, etc., etc., etc. OK, so your's works wonderfully for your purpose, but that don't seem to be the universal consensus... many (not all) are saying theirs requires more attention than the old smoke dragon did, some (not all) are saying a lot more attention. My smoke dragon requires near zero attention... and other than an occasional flue damper adjustment, none of my other smoke dragons required much in the way of attention either.

I've always believe in the KISS theory of doing things... simplicity normally equates to a wider range of usability, less chance for "issues", and much simpler "work-a-rounds" if any "issues" do materialize. Ya' wanna' call it a campfire in a box?? OK , call it whatever ya' like... makes no matter to me. I'm gonna' stick with what works well, what works well over an almost infinite range, and what has worked well since way before I was here. Obviously some (if not many) are finding the new-fangled stoves somewhat finicky under many conditions (just read the posts)... why take the risk, when what has always worked, still works?? KISS‼
*

 

[stihly dan]

1st thermometer pic was after the stove was out most of the evening. 2nd pic (70.something) was after the 10 hour burn.

oh, thought those pics where of your basement temps.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Yes, that is basement temp. Upstairs stays a couple degrees cooler, but still nice by my temperature preference. I can crank the basement up to 80 if I want 75 upstairs.

The basement is my "guy place" - satellite tv and radio, saw workshop, reloading area, and beer drinking space. Upstairs is just blah house stuff, except with a bigger TV and AC when it gets too hot.

 

[Oxford]

I'm helping my son with a book report. Can anyone confirm that it was Mark Twain who said "Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience"?

Wait- what are we talking about here?