Any Napoleon 1900 users on here ?

[HeatsTwice]

BTW, you can see one of the bottom ventilation holes in the second photo of the set at this location:

(broken link removed)

Just click on the yellow button which says "view photos".

Scott

 

[begreen]

It sounds like you did your homework. Nice to see it finished off cleanly. As an engineer do you have temperature probes in the wall? I'll bet if not, you thought about it. ;-)

 

[HeatsTwice]

Well, if I had really done my homework, I would never have bought a Vermont Castings stove and started 5 years ago with the Napoleon.

But the wife would only let a red stove in the house and VC was the only one I could find. Now all she cares about is if the house is warm and smoke free.

 

[HeatsTwice]

BTW, I have two questions.

1) In post number 12 of this thread, Jake indicated that he has pictures of his stove. Would anyone know the URL to those pictures so I can see them.

2) I did not buy the blower on my Napoleon 1900 and wonder if they really make that big of a difference. I already have ceiling fans moving air around the house. Is the blower really worth it?

Thanks

 

[glenng]

BTW, I have two questions.


2) I did not buy the blower on my Napoleon 1900 and wonder if they really make that big of a difference. I already have ceiling fans moving air around the house. Is the blower really worth it?

Thanks

I have the Napolean 1400. I use the fan 95% of the time. The only time I do not use it is if the temps are above 50f and I don`t want to overheat the house. If it were to stop working I woould purchase a replacement ASAP. The fan throws a LOT of additional heat. BTW I`m very happy with my 1400.

 

[drhiii]

Ah. Another 1400 owner. I started using a dual fan device that is part of an ozonator unit. It pushes air through the 1400's air spaces intended for the blower attachment. And I have a simple fan that blows across the stove piping just above the stove itself. I have them on timers and occasionally, like this eve, will run the upper fan for longer periods of time. Keeps the place totally warmed. This eve temp went into the lower single digits and after throwing in a single very dense pinon split, it warmed the place up to where we went to T shirts, it was so warm. Talked to a neighbor this eve and he'd been communicating to some other neighbors this eve and discovered oil and gas bills in the $300 - $500 range. Ours was less than $30, almost all for gas water heater and gas stove. The fans tho really distribute the heat and optomize the stove's output. It really is a great sense of satisfaction to have this heat coming from this no frills stove and warming up this old house like it does.

BTW, I have two questions.


2) I did not buy the blower on my Napoleon 1900 and wonder if they really make that big of a difference. I already have ceiling fans moving air around the house. Is the blower really worth it?

Thanks

I have the Napolean 1400. I use the fan 95% of the time. The only time I do not use it is if the temps are above 50f and I don`t want to overheat the house. If it were to stop working I woould purchase a replacement ASAP. The fan throws a LOT of additional heat. BTW I`m very happy with my 1400.

 

[HeatsTwice]

A local dealer who I speak with regularly sells lots of Napoleans; they are high quality stoves.Last year he burned a 1900 to keep the snow off a large greenhouse roof...I saw the stove one day jammed full of softwood....stovetop thermometer reading just under 900*!When I asked him about overfiring it,he said"naw,I burn her like that all the time."Right or wrong that stove was used in that fashion all season;now I don't know if he warped the guts out of that stove or not, but it's gotta be fairly rugged to have lasted even one burning season IMO.

I now have put two thermometers in different locations. One on the stove top under the trivet and one on the front - top of the stove as seen in the 5th picture at the location below.

(broken link removed)

The thermometer below the trivet reads 900+ degrees when the front thermometer reads 650. This is probably what the local dealer was reading when he said it was the stove top temperature. And yes, I have been running it that hot since I bought the stove without any ill effect so far. I just didn't know it.

 

[KevlarMT]

We just installed a 1900 a month ago and love the lower gas bills. The stove has been working very well and heats my home (2400sq/ft) without any problems. I have noticed something recently that someone on this forum may be able to help with. We burned it for 3 weeks without any issues. (The first day we had lots of smoke in the house but I am sure that was just the metal of the stove curing - it stopped after the first few hours of burning) A week ago I let it burn out and removed the excess ashes. We fired it up again and I am noticing that when I open the door, we get smoke rolling out of the unit. This never happened before and I can't figure out what has changed. The chimney is over 20' tall and enclosed inside the house. It had great draft when we first started using the stove. I have tried opening a window in the room. I also experimented with turning off the clothes dryer which is in the next room. That seemed to reduce the amount of smoke. I also looked to see that the fiber baffles had not been bumped or moved. Any ideas why we would suddenly start getting smoke out the door when it didn't happen before?

Thanks.

 

[HeatsTwice]

Have you got a hot fire going in the unit when you open the door and see the smoke rolling out. I would guess not. The issue, I think, is that you have to get the system working by building a hot fire - with the air intake fully open. After this, your 20' chimmney will draft just fine. Its all about gettng that first draft started. BTW, my chimney is 18 feet.

 

[drhiii]

Couple of things... I own a Naploeon 1400. As someone mentioned, make sure yuahve some kind of flame going on. Even if you toss in a kindling, just to get some heat rising. I find I sometimes need to get even a simple piece of kindling burning to create draw.

Also, make sure your baffles are pushed as far back as they will go. Have found even an inch or two will cause some puffs of smoke to roll back into the house.

These two things are necessary we have found. Where is your incoming air? Is it outside source, or from the house?

Gas bill all winter has been $20/mo for the hot water heater. Not $300-$500 which everyone around me is paying to keep from freezing. I like that too... I just restcked my base of pinon and man, is pinon wonderful or what? One decent round kept my 1800 sq ft house toasty for several hours while it is a balmy 18 degrees. Not that cold, but still... wunnerful heat...

We just installed a 1900 a month ago and love the lower gas bills. The stove has been working very well and heats my home (2400sq/ft) without any problems. I have noticed something recently that someone on this forum may be able to help with. We burned it for 3 weeks without any issues. (The first day we had lots of smoke in the house but I am sure that was just the metal of the stove curing - it stopped after the first few hours of burning) A week ago I let it burn out and removed the excess ashes. We fired it up again and I am noticing that when I open the door, we get smoke rolling out of the unit. This never happened before and I can't figure out what has changed. The chimney is over 20' tall and enclosed inside the house. It had great draft when we first started using the stove. I have tried opening a window in the room. I also experimented with turning off the clothes dryer which is in the next room. That seemed to reduce the amount of smoke. I also looked to see that the fiber baffles had not been bumped or moved. Any ideas why we would suddenly start getting smoke out the door when it didn't happen before?

Thanks.

 

[HeatsTwice]

So now its been 4 months since installing my Napoleon 1900 stove. I have burned about 3 cords in it without any problems or noticable signs of wear. Now that we are experiencng heavy frost in the area, its nice to pack the 3+ cubic foot firebox with wood at night and still find a large bed of coals 10-11 hrs later.

After burning about a cord of pine, I decided to sweep out the chimney. When I looked down th 16 foot run (from the top) I could see that the pipe was very clean even before I brushed it with my 8" steel brush.

Great Stove this Napoleon. Really blasts the heat for a very long time.

 

[HeatsTwice]

I've finished tileing the wall behind my Napoleon 1900.

Looks ok to me. This project is now done.

 

[HeatsTwice]

More shots of same stove.