The OP is not happy with the biggest and best performing stove on the market (in my opinion and many others) I seriously doubt he will be happy with any EPA stove or furnace for that matter. Some people just can't get past the massive amount of heat produced from these old smoke dragons. They were inefficient, but heated like crazy. Most people welcome the lessened wood consumption, long burn times, and the even heat distribution, but some people are only looking for big heat and that's it. Often the home is bleeding Btu's so rather than weather seal the home they just let that old stove eat gobs of wood. I think this is one of those situations.
I have spent somewhere near $800-$1000 out of pocket trying to sort out the various air bleeds around this house. A new door, lots of weatherstripping, several new high E windows, and so on. Pretty high buck to spend to lower my utility costs in a rental!
It ain't no R-2000 home, that's for sure. But this isn't Northern Alberta either.
And the advice I got here? Open a window!
Now, as much as I understand the reasoning behind it, which is to do with the pressures of the hot air attempting to rise and working against a draft on this stove that pretty much seems about as powerful as the fart of a guy that has been freight-trained by the entire Pride parade, this house was set up from the start to use what I had, more or less, and is ill equipped to deal with what I have. The cold air return was essentially meant to travel in via the stairwell from above, while warm air was supposed to be circulated by the blower. Thus, no negative pressure mass in the basement. In theory.
Wood, I have. 800+ acres to pick over, just of the private land, plus about triple that again in crown/public land above. Yeah. I am 'that' guy I guess.
I am looking for a lot of heat. This stove is what I was sold when I was told what I actually wanted (steel box, black, big door, BIG inside) was not going to happen.
Not BS'ing anyone. I was sold this stove, it wasn't that I walked in there saying I want that, this and the other. I discussed the chimney, I discussed the thimble on the chimney, and was assured it would work.
My choices were legs, ash box, or neither, so I have neither, as that was my best of the three options.
It got me a stove that was closer to the ground ( which got me a larger rise to the thimble too), but as someone pointed out, it's my fault for choosing that, if I didn't want to have to knee down to see, rather than it being a bit of a strange (in my opinion) engineering decision to eat 2 or more inches off the top of the door's height to accommodate the cat housing.
I have been told outright that the conversations I had at the dealer, could not have happened, if they had any knowledge at all, yet I have also been told I should have talked to them if I was not happy.
It's been an interesting combination of mixed messages, as well as outright reading comprehension failures (assuming that the posts prior to the writers were actually read).
Yeah. I know what assuming gets me. But I generally assume folks are not stupid, until they prove it isn't just ignorance. There is a cure for ignorance. Stupid, we just have to try to stop from hurting anyone. Esp. me.
Cheers
Trev
