PE Alderlea T5 operating tips?

[Todd]

How far do those trivets swing out? Could you place a large cast iron skillet on top for cooking?

 

[Woody5506]

How far do those trivets swing out? Could you place a large cast iron skillet on top for cooking?

They swing out fairly far, but I don't think you'd be able to fit bigger than a #8 skillet on there. Possibly two though, one on each side of where the flue collar juts out a bit.

 

[Samsquanch]

How far do those trivets swing out? Could you place a large cast iron skillet on top for cooking?

The maximum width in the center of the "circle" is 15.5" and the minimum is about 12". Here's a Lodge cast pan that measures just over 10" rim to rim for reference (I think that's a #8 based on the cooking surface diameter?)

 

[begreen]

How far do those trivets swing out? Could you place a large cast iron skillet on top for cooking?

The T6 trivets swing out for a wider opening, two pots can fit, but the front to back distance is the limiting factor. A 12" skillet is the largest we have tried, but I generally don't hot fry directly on the stovetop, too messy. On top of the trivets closed one has a more moderate temperature to work with. More like medium heat on an electric stove or lower if desired.

 

[Samsquanch]

The T6 swing out for a wider opening, two pots can fit, but the front to back distance is the limiting factor. A 12" skillet is the largest we have tried, but I generally don't hot fry directly on the stovetop, too messy. On top of the trivets closed one has a more moderate temperature to work with. More like medium heat on an electric stove or lower if desired.
View attachment 257188

Doh! Not sure how I missed front to back as being the smaller measurement on the cooktop.

Looks like just shy of 10.5" front to back between the trivet tab doohickeys on the T5. For added versatility get yourself a cast iron stove chicken like this for a medium heat option! That being said, I'd have to agree with Begreen that cooking anything without a cover on the stove is a mess waiting to happen, but it is nice to have the option when the power goes out.

 

[thunderhead]

If i put in say, one or two splits on an already hot fire, say during the day for maintaining lively even heat , how long should i leave the air open? A few minutes? Till it scortches? Until the smoke is gone?

 

[Samsquanch]

If i put in say, one or two splits on an already hot fire, say during the day for maintaining lively even heat , how long should i leave the air open? A few minutes? Till it scortches? Until the smoke is gone?

Kind of all of the above. We often throw on two or three smaller splits closely centred North/South in the firebox to ride out a few hours before a full load or to moderate heat output a bit, as you can still burn cleanly with a fairly small load of dry wood in an already warm stove. I usually reload around 200-250f as read on the flue probe @ 18” and can start dialing back the air in a few minutes. Loading hotter than that, you will most likely find you are dialing back pretty quickly depending on what type of wood you are burning. I can certainly attest to others warnings about not throwing a couple of splits on a hot coal bed with the flue temp around 400 as being true - Do that and you will be trying to pump the brakes pretty hard and dealing with a runaway.

Short (but long) answer - watch the fire behaviour and start dialing back in stages when you see secondary combustion on the go, or it seems like things are taking off explosively, and go outside and have a look at your plume until you get the hang of it. It should be able to clear up in a few minutes with dry wood generally speaking. You may find you may not be throttling back more than half way with smaller loads depending on your draft. Oh, and adding one split at a time generally doesn’t work too well -two is really the absolute minimum for a clean and efficient burn on a preheated stove unless you aren’t concerned about smoke etc.

 

[Woody5506]

The maximum width in the center of the "circle" is 15.5" and the minimum is about 12". Here's a Lodge cast pan that measures just over 10" rim to rim for reference (I think that's a #8 based on the cooking surface diameter?)

Can't you lift your trivets a bit and swing out completely?

 

[Samsquanch]

Can't you lift your trivets a bit and swing out completely?

With some lifting and wiggling, yep. The pins fit pretty tight in the bushings on ours. As long as a person is careful not to load up the trivet when it's swing out unsupported, it shouldn't be an issue. Heck, you could lift them both right out and double your cooktop size.

 

[Woody Stover]

I've got the blower, going to install it tomorrow. I saw that they have rubber washers where the blower is mounted to its frame. Has anyone done it, or do you think it would be a good idea to also install some rubber washers when mounting the blower frame to the rear heat shield? Is any vibration or noise transmitted from the blower frame to the heat shield? I want this thing a quiet as possible..

 

[thunderhead]

So a month in, I am very happy with our install! Getting the hang of it... I know much better now what air settings, STTs, secondary appearances correlate with proper burning. The sound of the EBT operating is also a useful clue, at least for our setup, on when to turn down the air without killing the secondaries. Thanks for all your help!

After one month, I think the stove matches its advertised heat output and burn times. It heats our house well, maintaining 72-73 degrees on a medium-level output... if I ran the stove towards the high end of its ability for more than a short period of time it overheats us, especially the upstairs. For overnight full loads, using 16 inch doug fir splits loaded NS, I get useful heat for 6-8hours, the home's other heat sources kick on after 7-10 hours(depending on outside temp and exactly how well I loaded it), and enough coals for an easy restart last about 10 hours. It can fit larger splits, so if I ever get my hands on 18 inch dense splits, surely the burn times will be even better. Have not tried E-W overnight loads... still collecting enough 15 inch splits for that. The glass stays quite clean. The stove responds well to air control.

How often do you folks inspect/clean your chimneys? Our roof is tall and hard to access, so I am thinking about getting a soot-eater or something similar, and one of those cheap phone camera borescope cables? How hard is it to access the T5 chimney this way from the bottom? Thanks!

 

[begreen]

How often do you folks inspect/clean your chimneys? Our roof is tall and hard to access, so I am thinking about getting a soot-eater or something similar, and one of those cheap phone camera borescope cables? How hard is it to access the T5 chimney this way from the bottom? Thanks!

Burning dry wood, once a year. Cleaning bottom up with a sooteater is easy. Remove the baffle, put a rag in the secondary supply tube and clean.

 

[Kobuk]

I own a T5 and wondering about using a soot eater. I was thinking to slide my pipe up off the stove and try and make the turn up the pipe with the soot eater. Is removing the baffle easy or is it something that gets all warped? If I remove it is there any insulation material that I'll have to sourse and replace? I think I'm done climbing on to my metal roof and having to tie myself off with a rope.

 

[Woody Stover]

I own a T5 and wondering about using a soot eater. I was thinking to slide my pipe up off the stove and try and make the turn up the pipe with the soot eater. Is removing the baffle easy or is it something that gets all warped? If I remove it is there any insulation material that I'll have to sourse and replace?

I've never used a SootEater so I don't know about making 90-degree turns with it.
The baffle just has a pin that locks it in place once it is positioned over the secondary air tube. Remove that, lift the baffle off the air tube, and move the baffle to one side so that the other side can drop down off the rail, and pull it out. It's somewhat heavy, but not too bad. There is a flimsy fiberglass gasket that seals between the baffle and the air tube, but last time I just used masking tape to hold in place a gasket I cut out of interam gasket material. I'll see next time I pull the baffle, whether it held up OK. Some guys have made a more durable gasket out of round stove gasket, unraveling and weaving together the cut ends. Search "hogwildz donut gasket" or something like that.
Then there are two fiberglass insulation strips that run front to back on top of the baffle rails, between the sides of the baffle and the sides of the firebox..those have to be in position when you re-install the baffle to keep the smoke from escaping around the sides of the baffle to the flue exit.
This video shows the components well, but that plate he pulls out is the boost air distributor, not an "air wash" for the glass, as he claims..

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[Kobuk]

Thank you for that. I did see one version of making that rope gasket. Is it weaved or just a bunch of overhand knots on each strand? I think I'll order me up some rope before I take my baffel out. My stove is 7-8 years old and I haven't taken out that baffle yet so I imagine that the gasket is missing.

 

[Woody Stover]

Thank you for that. I did see one version of making that rope gasket. Is it weaved or just a bunch of overhand knots on each strand? I think I'll order me up some rope before I take my baffel out. My stove is 7-8 years old and I haven't taken out that baffle yet so I imagine that the gasket is missing.

it might still be there, since you haven't taken the baffle out. It doesn't hold up well when you take the baffle out and put it back in.
Here's a pic of the one I made from interam gasket. If I'm careful when I remove the baffle, I might be able to tell if it held together or not.
If you find one of the @Hogwildz threads, he unraveled the ends of the rope gasket, then wove the ends to each other.

 

[Woody5506]

Easy to drop the baffle and clean with a sooteater but not sure about that 90 degree bend quite honestly. And yeah the baffle gasket is pretty worthless, I just buy the regular ones from the dealer usually a few at a time and replace once a year after cleaning, unless I can keep the current one intact when removing the baffle which has only happened a couple times. I've eased up on sweeping my chimney to just once a year but when I first got the stove I was a bit paranoid and would do it 2 or 3 times a season although I was burning sub par wood.

 

[thunderhead]

Is it easier to disconnect the lowest bit of connector or remove the baffle?

Thanks!

 

[begreen]

It's easy (and neater) to drop the baffle, then stuff a rag in the secondary supply tube and sweep with the sooteater. If you approach the flue hole from the bottom of the firebox the angle of entry is more like 135º. It will go up the flue without issue. This is how I clean the T6 without issue using the standard black rods.

 

[Kobuk]

I think that I’ll try dropping the baffle and use soot eater from the bottom. I just ordered some of the rope material to make a rope style gasket. Seems to make more sense after reading responses on this forum. Thank you for all of your help!

 

[thunderhead]

How much of a heat plume do you notice on top of your stacks? Mine seems pretty significant especially during the peak an hour or 2 after big reloads. This is with the air turned down completely. I wish i had a stack outlet temp gauge to tune efficiency. I bet we are sending more heat up the stack than we should be but im not sure.

 

[Woody Stover]

How much of a heat plume do you notice on top of your stacks? Mine seems pretty significant especially during the peak an hour or 2 after big reloads. This is with the air turned down completely. I wish i had a stack outlet temp gauge to tune efficiency. I bet we are sending more heat up the stack than we should be but im not sure.

Early in the burn will be when stack temps are highest of course. We see quite a bit of heat coming out, but we have a shorter stack than you do, about 15'. Our air is cut pretty low, like yours. I figure it's keeping deposits in the chimney low, but I haven't checked.
I don't recall if you have the blower but that would be a way to get more heat into the house, as opposed to up the stack..

 

[thunderhead]

Early in the burn will be when stack temps are highest of course. We see quite a bit of heat coming out, but we have a shorter stack than you do, about 15'. Our air is cut pretty low, like yours. I figure it's keeping deposits in the chimney low, but I haven't checked.
I don't recall if you have the blower but that would be a way to get more heat into the house, as opposed to up the stack..

No blower yet... we could get one. We have been opening the trivets to help route more heat inside verse out. Our stack isnt crazy tall... 22 feet maybe.. and our environment is benign... so i suspect our flue isn't pulling too hard.

I think thats just the consequence of a secondary stove? They are all going to surge a little inefficiently after a big reload? Totally worth it for these gorgeous secondaries dancing around!

 

[begreen]

I think thats just the consequence of a secondary stove? They are all going to surge a little inefficiently after a big reload? Totally worth it for these gorgeous secondaries dancing around!

It's more a matter of technique, the wood burned, outside temps and the house's heat loss. A stack thermometer helps one fine-tune technique as well as a good eye. I am learning all over now with a digital probe thermometer. It provides real-time feedback which has been quite educational.

 

[mar13]

It's more a matter of technique, the wood burned, outside temps and the house's heat loss. A stack thermometer helps one fine-tune technique as well as a good eye. I am learning all over now with a digital probe thermometer. It provides real-time feedback which has been quite educational.

With "real time" data, do you tend to let the flue temp peak higher before shutting be down? I'm guessing with the Condar flue probe's lag, people unknowningly adjust for the lag you've noted.