ESCAPE 2100 little to no heat output

[Lowtech84]

Short story:

I have a 2100 Escape located in my basement of a 2 story 1500 sq./ft home.
The basement is uninsulated.
The stove vents into about 5 feet of single wall stove pipe w/a 90 degree bend to go into a masonry chimney.
The chimney is about 25 ft. w/a 6 inch insulated liner.

For the life of me I cannot get any real heat out of this thing.
The only thing i seem to be good at is making big mounds of charcoal.

I don't have any buildup on the glass. So I assume the fire is plenty hot.
I have a magnet thermometer on the flue about 12-18" away from the stove. I get that up to about 500-600 degrees Fahrenheit and start to close off the air supply to the stove.
But no matter if I leave the stove wide open or close it all the way down I don't feel any heat.

As far as wood goes I don't think that's the issue. This gets into the longer story.

Long story:

Bought this house in October of 2021.
The came with an oil furnace and a double door huntsman woodstove both vented to the same 25' chimney. Everyone advised not to run the woodstove vented to the same flue as the oil furnace. So I never ran the woodstove and relied on the oil furnace for the 1st winter.

Jan 2023- I had the oil furnace inspected and it was in bad shape and needed to be replaced. I replaced the oil furnace w/a direct vent propane furnace. This opened up the chimney flue so I could run the huntsman woodstove. Ran that for the rest of the winter.

Fall 2023 - Had the chimney flue swept. Found that the flue had collapsed and needed to be repaired. I had the clay flue removed and a 6" insulated flex pipe installed in the chimney. It was at this time the escape 2100 was installed.
I tried for maybe a month while winter had not settled in yet but I was able to really get any heat out of the stove. At this time I chalked it up to my wood not being properly seasoned.
From then until recently I have been using the hunstman woodstove. Running it about 1/2 capacity it did a decent job of keeping my house warm while the temps were above 0 degrees Fahrenheit. I could get the main living area about 70 without issue. I could push it to 75 by the end of the day.

Jan 2025- I have been testing my wood for moisture and it is well below 20%. Even reviewed my technique for testing the wood. Started doing a fresh split and testing from there. I no longer see any hissing or moisture evaporating when burning.
Running the huntsman w/the smaller flue ended up being more than I could handle. Running at 1/2 load id need to refill about every other hour. Every few weeks id sweep the chimney (have access from the basement). Had a couple bad back puffing incidents.

So I reinstalled the Escape 2100 a few days ago. Even with the drier wood I cant really seam to get any heat good heat out of the stove. I am burning a hardwood mix of maple, cherry, ash, oak.

I contacted SBI/Drolet about installing a flue damper and they said never install a flue damper.

 

[kborndale]

You need to insulate the basement, right now you are trying to heat the earth around your home. If the stovetop is getting to 600 degrees you are producing plenty of heat, just not enough to heat the earth. Insulate. A flue damper is for when your stove is running too hot, I don't see how it would be useful for you now.

 

[Lowtech84]

You need to insulate the basement, right now you are trying to heat the earth around your home. If the stovetop is getting to 600 degrees you are producing plenty of heat, just not enough to heat the earth. Insulate. A flue damper is for when your stove is running too hot, I don't see how it would be useful for you now.

I agree the basement not being insulated is one of the problems.

The thermomotor is on the flue not the stove top. To your point I have on occasion put it on the stove top and do get a similar reading.

But even w/the temps the way they are i don't feel anywhere near the heat output from the huntsman.

Am i not closing the air down fast enough? Am I closing it down to fast? Am I closing the air to much?

Why is there such a large amount of charcoal? Is that expected. I would think I would have little to none.

thanks for taking the time to reply!

 

[Gearhead660]

The external temp of stove pipe is 500-600? That sounds like too hot internal flue temp. Try closing off primary air sooner. Agree with others about the need for insulating. Lots of heat lost to the concrete walls.

 

[Lowtech84]

The external temp of stove pipe is 500-600? That sounds like too hot internal flue temp. Try closing off primary air sooner. Agree with others about the need for insulating. Lots of heat lost to the concrete walls.

Thanks for the reply.
Ill give it a shot for sure. I thought i needed to get the fire ripping before i closed down the air.

 

[kborndale]

Don't close it down all at once. Do it slowly in increments.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Huge hunks of charcoal is often the result of too much moisture in the wood. How exactly are you measuring the moisture content? The new stove will be much pickier about its wood than the old stove.

Some species of wood make a lot of coals, but it’s normally a sign of wet wood.

 

[Lowtech84]

Huge hunks of charcoal is often the result of too much moisture in the wood. How exactly are you measuring the moisture content? The new stove will be much pickier about its wood than the old stove.

Some species of wood make a lot of coals, but it’s normally a sign of wet wood.

Ash/maple/cherry/oak.

Been split since about fall 2023.
To test I believe I am supposed to spilt the piece of wood i am testing again and take a reading from the side that was split. Not sure if that makes sense. Just a cheap moisture meter from home depot or lowes.

Tested a piece and sometimes it reads 0-5% other spots its about 15-16%. Not sure im going to be able to do any better than that. Its certainly not over 20%.

thanks!

 

[Lowtech84]

Thanks for the reply.
Ill give it a shot for sure. I thought i needed to get the fire ripping before i closed down the air.

Added more wood to hot coals when the flue thermometer was reading 200.

Tried cutting the air down when the flue thermometer hit about 400. About 1/4 increments at a time. Flue reached just past 500 when i closed the air completely.

Its probably been 1/2 an hour and moved the thermometer to the stove top and that was at 600 degrees.

thanks!

 

[moresnow]

I had the clay flue removed and a 6" insulated flex pipe installed in the chimney.

Is the bottom of this liner capped?