Osburn 1800 insert

[tinman100863]

Just setting the record straight on this Insert . About the Burn time on this unit , Its my 3 rd season with it and by now I do know what I doing, I have REAL seasoned wood for it ,Flue is GREAT, Gasket is GREAT, BUT for burn times, realistically at max, its 3 hours at the most now im talking about where you get heat coming out of the unit< after all that's why we burn . I have spoken to that guy from osburn co over the phone in my first and 2 nd year did what he said but you know what , its still a 3 hour heat thing no matter how you cut the mustard !! yes its sized correctly , but the truth of the matter is its a small fire box, ( and yes I tried burning ,east & west,north & south )
I do love it but its just the burn times that suck!!.And Mister from the company , if your going to resond to this , I got one better for you , Come to my house and show me that 6-7 hour burn time(heat coming out ) you said I can get and I will pay $500 bucks no questions asked !!
jut my 2 cents

 

[begreen]

It's a 2.1 cu ft firebox. The amount of heat needed is going to vary, sometimes dramatically, depending on the house, the installation, the wood and outside temps. The insert should be capable of providing good heat in an insulated area for 6-8 hrs. during shoulder season burning. Drop the temps outside down to the teens, add some wind and leakage around windows and doors and the burn time could easily drop down to 3 hrs.. This isn't peculiar to just this make and model stove. Most will see their burntimes halved when the weather gets cold due to increased heat loss in the house.

Is the insert installed in an exterior wall fireplace? Is there a block-off plate at the damper area?

 

[bholler]

Also what wood are you using and what is the moisture content of that wood?

 

[rwhite]

What fan speed are you running? I could get 6 hours from the Osburn 1600 insert. Insulated flue and block off plate?

 

[rwhite]

My set up was a 1600 insert (1.8 cuft box) exterior masonry chimney, 17 ft of 6" liner, insulated with block off plate. Burning mostly fir and lodgepole. From a cold start I'd load n/s, let stovetop temp get to 400 or so then shut down the air. I was never able to shut air all the way down. I had a mark on the rod so it was open about 1/8 of the way or so. I'd still get chimney smoke until I hit 500 or so. Stove would cruise about 600 or so for a few hours then start creeping down. Usually I'd be down to coals in 5-6 hours, but enough for a restart. I usually bought or scrounged a cord of hardwood every year and use that at night to get 6-7 hours out if it. Fan was always ran on lowest speed unless I started to get north of 700 then I'd crank it up and cool the stove top. I thought it was a very good stove. Mine was made in a transition year so i could never get a straight answer on whether the baffle was supposed to be the newer vermiculite with blanket or fire brick. I used fire brick and it always seemed to work well. Make sure you leave a few inches of ash when you clean. If I would clean all ash my burn times and heat would suffer for a few days.

 

[tinman100863]

What fan speed are you running? I could get 6 hours from the Osburn 1600 insert. Insulated flue and block off plate?

no room for insulated flue, fan speed: medium ,Block off plate : the installer put it at the top of the chimney. you could get six hours ? really ? do you? is it heat or the coal burning?

 

[tinman100863]

It's a 2.1 cu ft firebox. The amount of heat needed is going to vary, sometimes dramatically, depending on the house, the installation, the wood and outside temps. The insert should be capable of providing good heat in an insulated area for 6-8 hrs. during shoulder season burning. Drop the temps outside down to the teens, add some wind and leakage around windows and doors and the burn time could easily drop down to 3 hrs.. This isn't peculiar to just this make and model stove. Most will see their burntimes halved when the weather gets cold due to increased heat loss in the house.

Is the insert installed in an exterior wall fireplace? Is there a block-off plate at the damper area?

Exterior wall, The installer put the block off plate at the top of the chimney

 

[tinman100863]

Also what wood are you using and what is the moisture content of that wood?

oak ,maple,cherry,etc,moisture:16% & under , atleast 3 yrs seasoned

 

[brenndatomu]

This sounds like one of those "what is your definition of heat" threads. I have a Drolet 1400i which is a 1.8 or 1.9 CF stove (depending on which literature you look at) made by the same company as the Osburn (SBI) and I can get 8 hours of "heat" out of it. Now, my definition of heat is hot, or at least pretty warm air still coming off the stove. If your definition of heat is raising or holding the temp in the house, then yeah, I'm probably down to 6 hours depending on the temp outside.
A load goes like this for me normally (I usually only use the 1400 when it is over 30-35* out, below that is wood furnace time)
The first 2-3 hours the stove is raising the temp in the house, the next 2-3 hours the temp has leveled off, and the last couple hours the temp has started dropping again.

 

[tinman100863]

This sounds like one of those "what is your definition of heat" threads. I have a Drolet 1400i which is a 1.8 or 1.9 CF stove (depending on which literature you look at) made by the same company as the Osburn (SBI) and I can get 8 hours of "heat" out of it. Now, my definition of heat is hot, or at least pretty warm air still coming off the stove. If your definition of heat is raising or holding the temp in the house, then yeah, I'm probably down to 6 hours depending on the temp outside.
A load goes like this for me normally (I usually only use the 1400 when it is over 30-35* out, below that is wood furnace time)
The first 2-3 hours the stove is raising the temp in the house, the next 2-3 hours the temp has leveled off, and the last couple hours the temp has started dropping again.

YOUR correct on the definition !
my first 2 hours are raising the temps, then after that its coal burning which now you have house temps dropping, I bought this to heat my living room , not to watch coal burning! I guess what really pees me off is the fact that the MFG trys telling me I can get 6-8 hours of heat which is not true on this unit!!

 

[rwhite]

Exterior wall, The installer put the block off plate at the top of the chimney

no room for insulated flue, fan speed: medium ,Block off plate : the installer put it at the top of the chimney. you could get six hours ? really ? do you? is it heat or the coal burning?

I'm sure you'll get a few responses but I would suggest a BOP at the bottom insulated on top of it with roxul. And turn the fan to low. Not sure what you define as heat, if there were still coals it was heating, usually the stove top temp would be over 200 at the end of a burn. The idea of a stove is to heat the thermal mass of a home so that it releases it long after the stove goes out. That time period is going to vary based on factors in your home (insulation being #1). But I could get a 6-7 hour burn from the time I lit it to when I still had good coals for a restart. Granted the insert didn't solely heat my house. I had a poorly insulated, 1940's, 2600 sqft, 3 story house. I still kept the NG furnace set at 67 and it would come on about 4-5 in the morning. But I would say that the insert provided 80% of the heat for the house. Are you burning 24/7. I know with my exterior chimney it took days to get it warm so once I did, I tried to not let the fire go out and burned 24/7. If you let the chimney get cold your starting a square 1 again. If I were to let my chimney get cold it was about 4-5 days before I was back up to normal operations with the house holding heat and long burn times.

 

[tinman100863]

I'm sure you'll get a few responses but I would suggest a BOP at the bottom insulated on top of it with roxul. And turn the fan to low. Not sure what you define as heat, if there were still coals it was heating, usually the stove top temp would be over 200 at the end of a burn. The idea of a stove is to heat the thermal mass of a home so that it releases it long after the stove goes out. That time period is going to vary based on factors in your home (insulation being #1). But I could get a 6-7 hour burn from the time I lit it to when I still had good coals for a restart. Granted the insert didn't solely heat my house. I had a poorly insulated, 1940's, 2600 sqft, 3 story house. I still kept the NG furnace set at 67 and it would come on about 4-5 in the morning. But I would say that the insert provided 80% of the heat for the house. Are you burning 24/7. I know with my exterior chimney it took days to get it warm so once I did, I tried to not let the fire go out and burned 24/7. If you let the chimney get cold your starting a square 1 again. If I were to let my chimney get cold it was about 4-5 days before I was back up to normal operations with the house holding heat and long burn times.

JUST for kicks I will take off the cover plate and look into the block off plate being down low. will keep the fan on low ,and yes its always a cold start here , Im gone for work about 12 hours a day so 24/7 is not happening here. Its a weekend thing for me , if home earlier then I give it a whirl and lite up!(FYI the room with the insert has 15'-0 cathedral height , with poor insulation) is that the culpit??

 

[rwhite]

Without a BOP I think your fighting an uphill battle with an exterior chimney. I'd pull the stove and install one. You may be able to just pull the surround and make a 2-piece plate which can be just slid into place. Mine just rested on the smoke shelf on the rear and I drilled and anchored it on the brick in front. Just slide it on top of the smoke shelf, put insulation on top and lift the front up and screw it to the brick.

 

[rwhite]

JUST for kicks I will take off the cover plate and look into the block off plate being down low. will keep the fan on low ,and yes its always a cold start here , Im gone for work about 12 hours a day so 24/7 is not happening here. Its a weekend thing for me , if home earlier then I give it a whirl and lite up!(FYI the room with the insert has 15'-0 cathedral height , with poor insulation) is that the culpit??

Do you have a ceiling fan? If so running it on med in reverse will help. I think you have the perfect storm against you that no stove may work well. Uninsulated exterior chimney, cold starts, no BOP, and 15' ceilings. Ceiling fan and BOP would be the 2 things I would do first.

 

[brenndatomu]

(FYI the room with the insert has 15'-0 cathedral height , with poor insulation) is that the culpit??

Well, that will make a HUGE difference for sure. A proper BOP will help no doubt but with those high ceilings its a bit like peeing on a forest fire. Running the ceiling fan as mentioned will help push that heat back down, but it is always gonna be an uphill battle for you. The stove will still keep your main heater from running as much though.

Just an example, we have many 15' ceiling buildings at work. When I have to replace lights I know that I will need to shed some clothes because it is pretty warm at the ceiling. The temp down at the floor is ~50-55* F...so there is at least a 20* difference from floor to ceiling.

 

[black smoke signals]

https://www.hearth.com/talk/wiki/make-a-damper-sealing-block-off-plate/

 

[begreen]

JUST for kicks I will take off the cover plate and look into the block off plate being down low. will keep the fan on low ,and yes its always a cold start here , Im gone for work about 12 hours a day so 24/7 is not happening here. Its a weekend thing for me , if home earlier then I give it a whirl and lite up!(FYI the room with the insert has 15'-0 cathedral height , with poor insulation) is that the culpit??

A block-off plate at the damper area will help increase heat output. High ceilings with poor insulation definitely can be the issue. Get on a ladder and measure the temp up at 12'. I bet you will find where the heat is. Is there a ceiling fan running in the room?