England's Stove Works / Englander 32-NC strange behavior

[lebrunmn]

maybe I’ll look for a used englander 32 that the customer says “won’t heat” and pick that up for cheap and bend the air wash thing to replace my cracked 30.

Good idea--now you know the secret...

 

[Enplater]

No one burns pine/fir around here except for an outdoor rec fire. You can't give it away
But if that is all you have....

Same here, we have a lot of that white pine and it has a ton of sap in it. Everyone still thinks it’ll instantly give you a chimney fire if you burn it in an indoor fireplace. Most people use it for camp fires here too.

 

[begreen]

And yet many folks only burn pine. It will work as fire wood as long as it is fully seasoned and not allowed to smolder. What causes creosote is when people burn pine that is green or poorly seasoned. It will burn because of the pine oils, but there is a lot of moisture in unseasoned wood and that will lead to cool flue temps and creosote buildup.

 

[bholler]

No one burns pine/fir around here except for an outdoor rec fire. You can't give it away
But if that is all you have....

I like it for spring and fall burning when you just need a quick fire

 

[snobuilder]

It gets a bad rep as a creosote builder. Good to hear that it burns cleaner when dry.

 

[brenndatomu]

Honestly, when its reeally cold out, and you need to push your stove hard to keep the house temp from dropping, as long as you are around to feed the stove, pine will keep the house warmer than oak. Yeah, I just said that
Don't believe me, try it. The best combo is about 90% pine (or other softwood) and 10% oak...for a lil coal bed...

 

[bholler]

Honestly, when its reeally cold out, and you need to push your stove hard to keep the house temp from dropping, as long as you are around to feed the stove, pine will keep the house warmer than oak. Yeah, I just said that
Don't believe me, try it. The best combo is about 90% pine (or other softwood) and 10% oak...for a lil coal bed...

I can certainly believe that. But I am not usually around to load it

 

[grog18b]

I burn mostly Ash in mine. I have found that once you have a coal bed burning, open the air up all the way, and it will burn those coals. Just keep pulling the coals towards the door, as they burn, and you should be able to burn most of the coals to ash. I like to plan the fires so by morning I am burning the coal bed, and the coals will burn most of the day (when temps fluctuate between teens at night to 30-40 during the day.) it will heat the house enough on those coals to last most of the day. Clean out the ash and start another fire around 7pm. I'm retired though, so I have time to rake coals during the day.

 

[Redbone]

Dang! I had the exact same issue as lebrunmn, and have tried for two weeks to get it resolved. The NC-32 is in a new room addition. I have two NC-30s and an older NC-13 (one downstairs and the other two in outbuildings).

The new stove only had 14.5 ft of chimney pipe, so I started by adding an additional 4 ft. No change, very disappointing. I triple checked everything, all good. Then I remembered this forum from 2013 when I needed some help with the second install (NC-30). Came back in, found this post, and read all the suggestions (dry wood, straight vent pipe, etc.). Check, check, check.

Then I came to Grog’s post, checked the air wash, and found it was actually touching the glass when the door was shut. Quick look at the NC-30 downstairs and I see the air wash plate sticks out maybe 1/8”. Five minutes with a 15” cresent wrench and I fired the NC-32 up using my usual bottom up fire lay.

Perfection! The NC-30 is burning brightly with the door shut tight, and responds well to the damper.

Thank you, sir! 🫡

Rick

 

[Gregminct]

Hi all-
We just installed a new (Manufactured 12/21) Englander 32-NC to replace our sadly split-at-the back-seam Fisher Mama Bear. The Fisher was here when we bought the place, and we've burned her for 10 years, now. Sadly it has a split seam in the back that needs repair, and that will take some time to get welded. So we thought we'd go green and buy an EPA-approved appliance.

The strange behaviors:
1. Even when we let the flames build for 30 mins or more, with the door cracked, the flames die within 1 min. once the door is closed. Stove temps are around 300, primary air fully open. Could there be an obstruction of the primary air? I know the new 32-NC's no longer have a doghouse by the glass, and so I cannot see where the primary air comes into the stove. For now, with the door cracked, we essentially have a fireplace...

2. Even with a decent firebox of flames, opening the door more than a few inches will cause smoke to pour into the room--and yes, I'm opening it painfully slowly. It's almost as though there isn't a strong enough draft or there's some type of obstruction. Would this type of behavior come from a faulty primary air damper? The double-layer of ceramic batts above the secondary burn tubes look to be OK, but not really certain what faulty ceramic batts would look like. We've never achieved a secondary burn anyway.
3. Could this just be a draft issue? Having the primary smoke route to the flue just a few inches from the door (and only a few inches wide at that) sounds like a recipe for smoke rolling out of the stove, so I'm guessing EPA-rated stoves probably need better draft than say an old Fisher Mama Bear. But then, I'm not an EPA-rated stove designer.

For anyone who has read this far--many thanks. I'm calling the company tech line on Monday, but hoping that someone with more experience in this forum might have a solution.

Stay warm,

-Mark

I am confused by a downdraft cap, etc. Secondary air stoves, as someone mentioned, rely on a good draft. If the chimney is 85 or 90 degrees versus 45, that's quite a lot of holding back the air column. You need to fill the vertical column of the chimney full with 150 degree air or even much higher, and that's with a wide open freely ventilated column of air. You want to possibly get rid of the downdraft preventing cap, run dry wood enough to get the stovetop up to between 400 and 650 nominally with the door open an inch, and then close the door. I run my stove hot, the secondary burn looks like clouds of burning gas. It's also a big firebox and you really have to push that wood to keep those BTUs coming!
If the stove is 300 or less, it's going to be a struggling fire. Don't be timid on a big fire. The hotta the Betta!

New video by greg mcbrien

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[begreen]

That looks like a nice burn .