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We put one of these in back in November in a fireplace where the old stove rusted out.
Summary review
We love it. It has a small firebox, so you need to learn how to start it well, but the upside is that it burns very efficiently. We generally don't burn more than 8 16 inch logs a day. It also looks very nice in the fireplace.
More details
all designs involve tradeoffs. We had an exisiting 8 inch insulated stainless steel flu. One contractor insisted on needing to take it out and replace it with a 6 inch flu. I have a background in engineering (though this is not my area of expertise) so I can appreciate the pluses and minuses. The 8 inch flu has almost twice the cross sectional area, so the energy required to move the whole column of cold air up and keep it drafing is higher than it would be for a 6 inch flu, so you have potentially a drafting problem. Our building code allows a reducing cone for 8 to 6 inches, and frankly it has not been an issue. (If you have a very tall chimney, though, you need the opinion of an expert - here the chimney sweep is probably more help than a salesman.) We consulted the local codes via our chimney sweep and had him install it. It was less than a two hour job.
Much more of an issue is the size of the firebox. To start a fire you just don't have the room to put cardboard, kindling and large logs in all at the same time. So you need to use either short logs (8 -10 inches) in a T-pee or you need at least three longer pieces that are more finely split, so 2 inches max approximately, and lay them with lots of air space. Leaving the door cracked slightly to allow lots of draft helps keep the heat up in the lighting phase. Once you have a bed of coals, it will start anything, and once a log or two are burning, you can close down the damper and you get a good deal of heat even when you don't see roaring flames. We are tending after the start up to put one large log on the coals at a time, occasionally when it's really cold, two.
The blower runs max 25 watts, measured with a meter, which is maybe .4 Kwh per day, or even at our .20/Kwh cost, you're talking less than $3 per month for the blower. So use it. The air washed window works pretty well. I do clean it off with water most days. Keeping the damper restricted reduces airflow and you do get some film, depending on what you're burning sometimes more, If you stay ahead of it, you can keep the glass clean. These EPA stoves are not your grandfather's pot belly stove that suck volumes of air and swallow all the wood you can throw in. So expect a bit of a learning curve if you have used the fireplace as a fireplace or you're used to the previous generation of wood stoves. Because of the small firebox, it is easy for things to fall out, so be sure you have fireproof hearth to meet code in front.
A word about delivery - big, heavy box on a pallet. We moved it from the drive to the door for the installers with the forks on our tractor because we could. The chimney sweep and his partner were able to get it in the door through the mud room and into the fireplace, but they have a lot of experience with stoves. The freight company was able to get it off the truck, but they didn't have the equipment to move the pallet once it was on the driveway. So plan ahead. would have loved to put in a picture, but the upload isn't working.
A less expensive fireplace insert, and for good reason. It is “so very EPA certified” and approved for California it’s actually difficult to get a fire established without leaving the door open a crack until the fire is burning well. I’ve owned seven wood stoves of different brands over the last 50 years. Possibly I miss-read the advertising literature, but I thought it was supposed to have been manufactured in Canada. Is there a city in China named Canada? Sticker on the back says made in China. The Californiakated air intake port is “cute,” about an inch in diameter for full burning mode. Pros: It heats my living room. Cons: see above comments. Keep shopping. . . Elsewhere.
I live in the northeast and wanted a wood stove as a backup for my liquid propane. The effectiveness and ambiance of the stove is so pleasant, the propane may end up being the backup for this :)
This stove does put out some heat. The glass door is nice, and with a decent draft it should stay fairly clean. Instead of a variable speed blower, add an ash pit tray and a grate. Also, the firebrick was cracked when it arrived. Spaces between the brick are so large, the metal back of the stove could be seen. Solution: Refractory (Rutland) cement in a tube! The door handle can get really hot, so something different should be done here.
love it