Our moderator graduated from his Smoke Dragon into the Modern age of clean effecient burning

[elkimmeg]

To coin the usual call we need pictures and lets see fire then a detailed route of how this came about ,Then the real world results you are experiencing

Goose had this smoke dragon that wanted to replace and join the clean world of efficient burning HE wanted to see for himself what an EPA stove could do.

He like me was limited to rear exit options. That eliminated all top exit stoves I gave him the older Cat Encore I had removed from the donor that received the new non cat encore.

After fully dissembling it it was too far gone to proceed forward. I knew this stove was not going to be the solution . Back in Aug., I was poking around in the local Want Advertiser and saw another Encore for sale in my town. $500 1998 vintage. I took a look IT was so good I bought it on the spot. The ad generated 42 calls, hoping I would not pay for it or fail to complete the deal A few gaskets is all it needed. It had been well cared for and had little abuse or over firing. It may be one of the best deals one hears about this year ( concerning stove purchases)

Basically the griddle, and damper gaskets was about it. This stove was as good of condition as when I got mine a year or two earlier. Even the cat was only 2 years old and plenty of life ahead I basically blew out the stove cleaned the cat and compartment and sold it to goose for $500 Many here doubted some of the preformaces I reported using my stove and the working of a Cat stove. I let Goose to deny or confirm from his own experiences, now he is up and running . Pretty good burn times for a 2.2 cu ft fire box AYE

Now for the rest of the story from Goose

 

[restorer]

Congrats Goose, nice job Elk. Does this mean we will no longer here the virtues of smoking dragons?

 

[Eric Johnson]

Actually, two of us did.

 

[swestall]

I had one of those when they first came out back in 1987/88. It was a great stove which I upgraded to the newer Defiant CAT and that was a great stove. We all know I'm having problems with the NC model and am most likely going to go back to the CAT and rebuild it. BUT, $500 is the deal of the decade for that stove, really great find and the burn-goes-on. Great good luck with it!

 

[elkimmeg]

Well Goose comments?

 

[begreen]

See later post. Sounds like puff the new magic dragon is smoking a bit.

 

[Gooserider]

Well, as I've posted in other threads (perhaps excessively) I'm delighted with the new stove overall. though it has seemingly developed a leak in the back left corner seam. I'm getting amazingly long burn times, using a LOT less wood (about 50%) while keeping the house more comfortable.

It has been an incredibly EASY stove to operate, I flat don't get how people can think it was a hard stove to figure out, as the old smoke dragon was more complex...

I've been getting a bit more smoke than I was initially expecting, but still far less than the smoke dragon, and now that the weather's getting cooler, the amount seems to be getting lower still.

Per the request for pictures, here you go - you can see why we call our setup the "Brick Rocket" - it's a really odd configuration, but we really like the new rocket engine... The slate in front of the brick hearth is the extension that I built, 18" wide, the full length of the brick hearth, and matches / ties into the similar slate entranceway that isn't in these photos.

Gooserider

 

[ecfinn]

Per the request for pictures, here you go - you can see why we call our setup the "Brick Rocket" - it's a really odd configuration, but we really like the new rocket engine... The slate in front of the brick hearth is the extension that I built, 18" wide, the full length of the brick hearth, and matches / ties into the similar slate entranceway that isn't in these photos.

Gooserider

Wow, Thanks for posting those pics. That's quite the brick contraption you have there eh? Actually I kid. It looks great and certainly a unique feature for your house. What is the ceiling height in that room? I'd love to see some other pics of your house as it sounds like its much more interesting than mine. Is the round brick chimney continued on the outside of the house to complete the brick column effect?

Anyway, thanks for sharing.

Eric

 

[Todd]

Welcome to the wonderful world of clean burning cat stoves. That is one cool looking hearth! It does look like a rocket.

 

[JohnnyBravo]

that rocket looks heavy, i like. just a touch of thermal mass there to heat and cool.

 

[begreen]

Awesome setup Goose, that's very impressive. I like the older brick. When was it built?

 

[swestall]

Just BEAUTIFUL! Second that sentiment about the thermal mass of that brick stack. Once it gets hot it should retain alot of heat in that big room. The CAT stoves are definately easier for operation too, much less futzing to get and maintain the burn. What did you find with that seam? On the one I had, there was a small space on the top/side seam where the cement had fallen out. Operationally, it didn't make a big difference but when in slow burn mode the stove would puff out that seam when the CAT ignited the smoke/gasses. So nice that you are using less wood too. It seems to me the NC version is using a bit more wood than the CAT version did.
Operationally, even though I am finally figuring it out, its more complex than the CAT and I'm not sure the wife/daughter will be able to master it so easily. You have the best stove, CONGRATULATIONS, HAPPY BURNING AND HAVE A NICE (AND WARM) THANKSGIVING!

 

[Gooserider]

The house is lovely, or it would be if we cleaned it up more often, but not terribly practical... It was built in the mid to late 80's by a surveyor - who did lots of strange things with it. They gave the house to their daughter and built a second house next door where they avoided a lot of the mistakes they made with this one. The daughter and her husband had a messy divorce, and Mary-Anne bought it as part of that mess. The living room ceiling is 24 feet at the center, the house has a 12/12 pitch roof, which the living room follows. The rocket is about 15 feet tall where it leaves the room, but it doesn't continue outside, the chimney on the roof is fairly boring rectangular brick, about 7 feet high on the high side of the roof where it exits. (I suspect it may be crowding the 10-3-2 rule, but it drafts well at 25 feet tall.)

It is a pain in some ways - I need a 20 foot changing pole to change the lightbulbs in the ceiling fixtures. The ceiling fan went out a few years back, and in order to get up to replace it, I had to rent and erect an 18 foot scaffolding tower in the middle of the living room. When I put in low voltage wiring (Ethernet, CATV and phone to all rooms, including the bathrooms, over 6K feet of wire in the walls) I found it was the hellacious to wire - the place has FIVE different attic spaces, and I had to run wire through four of them!

The house has a much smaller square footage inside than it's footprint would suggest, in part because of the living room, and in part because of the steep roof. If it was a standard design, it would probably be about 2500 ft, instead its only about 1800.

There are essentially three sections to the house, the living room, then a combined kitchen dining area, and then a block with two bedrooms (we use as offices) and a bath. The master suite is on the second floor over the Kitchen and bedroom sections, but it's narrower because of the roof pitch.

I will try to get some more pictures up, will need to run around with the camera some more.

Gooserider

 

[begreen]

After this thread dies down, be sure to move the stove pics over to the Picture Perfect forum under VC Encore. They'll be inspiring for future owners.

 

[Gooserider]

I'll try to remember to do that. I may also take some of the other related photos and put them into a Wiki article or something like that as a demo of how I built my hearth extension. I didn't do the full down to the joists and block, then build back up approach, but I did go down to the first layer of subfloor, so it's a good sample of a minimum "non-combustible surface" that is flush with the floor type extension. (in my spare time...)
Gooserider

 

[iceman]

goose now that the dragon is outside can you try thr baking soda experiment????

 

[Shane]

Conrats on the Encore I'm sure you'll get the leak squared away. I'm jealous.

 

[Gooserider]

goose now that the dragon is outside can you try thr baking soda experiment????

Possibly, once the weather warms up in the spring - right now I've got everything tarped down for the winter. When the spring time comes around, I am probably going to try and make it into a Brother Bart style smoker, and it might be a great time to try experimenting w/ baking soda or other such things before I start getting out the cutting torch... (the conversion will take some major surgery...)

Gooserider