Drolet HT3000 vs HT2000

[Ludlow]

The one thing I hate about those stoves is that it is too big for my application. I really wish I could have one.

 

[amace]

IIRC you had to take the 50SSW02 back for a manufacturing defect. We don't see many of them being reported in the Drolet line.

yea i took a chance and got a warped stove, went to lowes and checked out the other 2 that they had and they were both warped

 

[kennyp2339]

My ht2000 is a heating beast and hold coals forever during 40 degrees weather during the day its heats my house on 24 hour cycles like a bk but i guess its probably my setup coals heat all day and starts right back up 24 hrs later

That's great A friend of mine just ordered the stove and is waiting for it to come in, we tried picking up a Englander nc13 but it was warped, he tried ordering a nc30 and HD would not deliver it to either his house or a closer hd store so he went with drolet, can wait to put that sucker in.

 

[moresnow]

That's great A friend of mine just ordered the stove and is waiting for it to come in, we tried picking up a Englander nc13 but it was warped, he tried ordering a nc30 and HD would not deliver it to either his house or a closer hd store so he went with drolet, can wait to put that sucker in.

There are now two running in my circle (HT2000). Both are working great. Betcha your friend will be pleased. Rather amazing stove for the dough!

 

[amace]

Well I just placed my order should be here before Christmas

 

[amace]

Just got my Drolet hooked up last night, only did one small burn but so far its very nice. I can tell a huge difference between the Drolet and the Englander.

 

[Woody Stover]

Just got my Drolet hooked up last night, only did one small burn but so far its very nice. I can tell a huge difference between the Drolet and the Englander.

In what respect? How does draft seem on the 8" chimney? I would think so, since it sounds like a tall chimney..

 

[begreen]

The Drolet is less draft sensitive compared to the Englander. That's a characteristic I like about this stove.

 

[amace]

In what respect? How does draft seem on the 8" chimney? I would think so, since it sounds like a tall chimney..

Actually its a 6" chimney, i got confused when i looked at the connection from my stove pipe to the chimney but its all 6" just made it look like it went from a 6" to a 8" and i never paid anymore attention to it. The 2 major things for me that i have seen so far is that the metal seems to be heavier and that there is an door adjustment to make it seal correctly which i thought was really nice. For the burn i havent really had a chance to do anything since i just made a small fire in it last night but its suppose to get in the 20's tonight so i might actually fire it up. I did notice for the little bit that i did have fire for it seems to stay warmer a little bit longer.

 

[Woody Stover]

The Drolet is less draft sensitive compared to the Englander. That's a characteristic I like about this stove.

Breathes easier, or something else as well? I see they list minimum chimney height at 12'..

The 2 major things for me that i have seen so far is that the metal seems to be heavier and that there is an door adjustment to make it seal correctly which i thought was really nice....I did notice for the little bit that i did have fire for it seems to stay warmer a little bit longer.

Did you get the 2000 or 3000? You can add it to your signature by clicking your user name above..you'll get more action.
Yeah, it pays to look these stoves over well, especially the value lines, and try to assess the build quality, design of functional parts, and ease of service/maintenance. It's possible that your impression of it holding heat longer could be due to heavier steel. You can't by any chance come up with firebox top and wall thickness..? I see that the 2000 weighs in at 487..beefy stove.

 

[begreen]

Breathes easier, or something else as well? I see they list minimum chimney height at 12'..

Yes, they work well with a shorter flue. I have also noticed over the years that there are fewer complaints when connected to a tall flue. Of course this is subjective, and YMMV.

 

[amace]

Breathes easier, or something else as well? I see they list minimum chimney height at 12'..
Did you get the 2000 or 3000? You can add it to your signature by clicking your user name above..you'll get more action.
Yeah, it pays to look these stoves over well, especially the value lines, and try to assess the build quality, design of functional parts, and ease of service/maintenance. It's possible that your impression of it holding heat longer could be due to heavier steel. You can't by any chance come up with firebox top and wall thickness..? I see that the 2000 weighs in at 487..beefy stove.

It is a 3000, I burnt it a little more last night and I believe that it will take a little bit longer to get the temp up in the house compared to the Englander but I really only added 2 pieces of wood at 7 o'clock last night and when i checked it this morning at 6 o'clock the stove top was 200 degrees and there was a least one big piece of coal that was still cherry red. For anyone that has this stove or knows anything about it do you know what the over fire temp is. I asked Drolet but they just have me a basic answer of a thermometer 18" on the stove pipe and keep it between 300-600. I had the pipe up to 450 and the stove was as high as 650 but i cut it back because i didnt want it to over fire but my flue temp dropped down to around 300 and hung out there.

 

[Woody Stover]

It is a 3000, I burnt it a little more last night and I believe that it will take a little bit longer to get the temp up in the house compared to the Englander but I really only added 2 pieces of wood

You'll soon experience the massive heat produced by a full load in the box, and I don't think the 3000 will have any problem heating the room as fast as the old stove.

do you know what the over fire temp is. I asked Drolet but they just have me a basic answer of a thermometer 18" on the stove pipe and keep it between 300-600.

Conventional wisdom is that you roughly double what you read on a magnetic surface flue meter at 18" if you want an approximation of what the internal temp is. I like to see about 350 on my SIL's PE T5 surface flue meter (it's only at 15",) then I feel like we're not losing a bunch of heat up the stack. You'll soon find that the flue meter will correspond to what you see on the stove top, once you've established the load and cut the air to your cruise setting. I'm happy if we keep the stove top below 700, and I think that is safe for most secondary-burn plate-steel stoves..

 

[begreen]

I like to see about 350 on my SIL's PE T5 surface flue meter

250 would be better in this case. 350 means excess heat is being wasted up the flue.

 

[Woody Stover]

250 would be better in this case. 350 means excess heat is being wasted up the flue.

I'm workin' on it. 18" meter might make a little difference, too..

 

[begreen]

I'm workin' on it. 18" meter might make a little difference..

Ideally the flue gas temp should be at or a bit below the stovetop temp once the stove has fully warmed up. Our stove's flue typically tracks at about 100º below stovetop temp, with a probe thermometer.

 

[amace]

You'll soon experience the massive heat produced by a full load in the box, and I don't think the 3000 will have any problem heating the room as fast as the old stove.
Conventional wisdom is that you roughly double what you read on a magnetic surface flue meter at 18" if you want an approximation of what the internal temp is. I like to see about 350 on my SIL's PE T5 surface flue meter (it's only at 15",) then I feel like we're not losing a bunch of heat up the stack. You'll soon find that the flue meter will correspond to what you see on the stove top, once you've established the load and cut the air to your cruise setting. I'm happy if we keep the stove top below 700, and I think that is safe for most secondary-burn plate-steel stoves..

oh it heated up the basement pretty dang fast, just didnt seem like the upstair was warming up as fast but it still warmed up and i didnt fire it that much. Plus it was pretty dang windy and cold last night and i think i lost some heat when it comes up the stairs to the front door. I am looking forward to the weekend when i keep it going for all day long.

 

[amace]

Ideally the flue gas temp should be at or a bit below the stovetop temp once the stove has fully warmed up. Our stove's flue typically tracks at about 100º below stovetop temp, with a probe thermometer.

is this with double what the temp actually shows on the pipe?

 

[begreen]

is this with double what the temp actually shows on the pipe?

The temperature is with a probe thermometer on double-wall stovepipe. Surface temps on double-wall don't mean much.

 

[Woody Stover]

oh it heated up the basement pretty dang fast, just didnt seem like the upstair was warming up as fast but it still warmed up and i didnt fire it that much. Plus it was pretty dang windy and cold last night...I am looking forward to the weekend when i keep it going for all day long.

Yeah, you'll get a better idea how it heats upstairs when you have a full load in there and the stove is pumping sustained high heat. Get an infrared thermometer gun and find out where cold air is coming in, if your weatherization could use improvement..
Depends on the insulation and air-sealing you have, but the wind can killya. It's killing me here, and I've been slow to address the leaks.

 

[amace]

Yeah, you'll get a better idea how it heats upstairs when you have a full load in there and the stove is pumping sustained high heat. Get an infrared thermometer gun and find out where cold air is coming in, if your weatherization could use improvement..
Depends on the insulation and air-sealing you have, but the wind can killya. It's killing me here, and I've been slow to address the leaks.

I feel ya on the slow to address the problem, my first door leaks and i have knew it for a few years but havent really fixed it yet.

 

[Woody Stover]

I'm hoping that fixing a few cold air leaks will keep this old man's feet a little warmer.

 

[amace]

Yeah, you'll get a better idea how it heats upstairs when you have a full load in there and the stove is pumping sustained high heat. Get an infrared thermometer gun and find out where cold air is coming in, if your weatherization could use improvement..
Depends on the insulation and air-sealing you have, but the wind can killya. It's killing me here, and I've been slow to address the leaks.

What IR gun do you use to measure your stove temp?

 

[Woody Stover]

What IR gun do you use to measure your stove temp?

It's a re-badged Fluke.

 

[charmander]

Hello. Firstly, thank you all for this site and the information on it. It has been extremely helpful for a complete wood-stove-millennial-novice such as myself. This is a longer post so I apologize to those who find is mundane but I hope it can help future first-timers in the future.

Background
I recently purchased a Drolet HT3000 and installed a Duravent (single-wall) chimney in my house. This is is my first home and going into it I knew it was extremely energy inefficient (~$400 for electric heat last January) so I wanted to find an alternate energy source and landed on a wood stove. I chose this route because running natural gas to my house is not an option yet and wood stoves are just cool. This is my first ever experience with a wood burning stove so everything is new. This site along with Youtube has gotten me far enough where the flue is fully installed and I can light fires (bad ones so far). I thought the hard part was over after the chimney install but I made the mistake of not researching how to actually make a fire once the stove is in place. After combing through these forums and others it appears that it is more nuanced than "point and shoot".

Mistakes

1. "All wood is created equal" - Turns out I can't just scavenge wood from my land and throw it in the fire.
2. "Stove operation is simple" - Turns out I can't just start a fire, close the door, and reap the benefits of a warm home.
3. Lack of fuel preparation. See mistake #1.
4. Craigslist.

Setup

• Drolet HT3000 stove
• Blower
• Single-wall Durablack stove pipe inside the house. Goes vertical 4 feet then 45 degrees parallel to drop ceiling then 8 feet Class A chimney through and above roof. (see picture)
• Chimguard stove thermometer placed ~5 inches above stove. I'll move this to 18 inches based on this thread.
• Temporary non-combustible "hearth" (rubber mats).

Progress so far
I have made a fire every day since installation was complete (10 days so far) always from a fresh start. The first fire consisted of newspaper, cardboard, wet twigs I found, and some green wood (not split) my neighbor gave me. After putting enough love (cardboard) into it and holding the stove door slightly ajar, I was able to get a fire to 400 degrees. I then closed the door with the air-intake wide open. Fire didn't last long and the windows was covered with creosote a few hours later.

Since the initial cluster of my first fire, I did some reading on here and realized the importance of seasoned fuel. I bought some "seasoned wood" on Craigslist even after reading the warnings on this forum. The seller told me that it was split 4 months ago but the trees had bid felled 2 years ago so I bought a cord (stupid I know). I tried making a fire with it but it too was too wet and I was not able to get the fire really going. I bought a moisture meter and split some of my newly "seasoned" wood and most of the pieces are hovering around 45%. So that chord will be used next year or maybe even year after that. I will properly store it until then.

After this debacle I got back on this forum and found some direction to burn compressed sawdust blocks. It was recommended for first year unprepared burners (me) who don't have access to actual seasoned wood. I bought a couple packs of these 'bio blocks' from the local farm store along with some kiln dried kindling and some fire starters. My logic was: I can at least learn to operate the stove with these three items since they seem to take out some of the variability of cord wood.

I was able to make some good fires with these ingredients but it takes a decent amount (4-5) of these blocks to get the fire up to temperature (~400-425) but I only get those temps by holding the door slightly ajar. When I close the door (even with the air intake wide open) the temperature drops to ~300 and then lasts about an hour.

Until yesterday's fire I have always left the air intake fully open but then I read on here that I should slowly close it to induce secondary burn. I played with that last night and seem to make some progress. I saw good secondary burning happening and the fire burned slower lasting a couple hours. The fire burned at around 325 degrees but that took 7 of the compressed logs (2 to start the original fire from cold then 5 to get the fire going off of coals from the first 2). And finally to my current:

In other posts on Hearth, there are warnings about using more than a couple of these compressed wood blocks due to overheating. As I stated above, I used 5 of these blocks and with full air intake plus the door begin slightly ajar I got the thermometer to 400 at which point I closed the door and slowly throttled the air intake.

Questions:

1. My fire temps range from 300-400 which seem low compared to other accounts in this forum (note that my thermometer is only 5 inches above stove so this is even worse). I often see you all saying your temps range to 500s, 600s, and even 700s before throttling it down. Is this user error on my part, a fuel/air issue, or other?
2. Any other feedback for a first-timer is greatly appreciated.

Positives:

• The thermometer is accurate as it reads the same as my thermo camera
• It has been an addicting hobby so far
• Even though my fires aren't as hot as I expect, every evening I make a fire by the end of my trials my house is heated to almost 70 (granted it has not been too cold lately)
• I have a good draft (smoke never enters the house

Conclusion:
I know I have only been making fires for 10 days and I know by next winter I will have figured out a lot regarding my stove based on trial and error. But until then, thank you all for your time and knowledge.