The Summers Heat 50-SFP12 (Englander 12FP) is sitting in my old fireplace right now. It's on a cement slab, so no hearth concerns. I took off the entire mantel, so no clearance issues.
I did end up using black pipe with a blockoff plate and ran into a planning issue at the chimney top. I have the adapter, the Class A pipe length, but I somehow ended up without the Chimney cap or rain protector or whatever it is called. I KNOW I put it in the cart. When I was at the register I asked the clerk to give me a total midway through and I realized I was wayy over what my wife would allow, I said "ok, I want this, not that, this, not that" and must have overlooked the cap.
Well, without the cap i didn't want to have uncapped type A, so I installed a length of stove pipe (cringe) that is exterior. I happened to have a cheap galvanized top for a vent pipe, so that is in place, but i think it might be restrictive, not sure.
So, one trip back to the store this weekend to get that cap and I'll be set.
On another note, my wood doesn't seem to be quite as seasoned as I'd like, but close. At this point I don't have much of a choice and will just use what I have and hop up on the roof several times to keep track of buildup.
break-in wasn't as bad as I expected. It really just smelled like burning wax, maybe a little bit like an electric motor when it gets hot. I couldn't find directions in the manual for the correct methods, but thought I remembered three cycles of increasing intensity being the recommendation. That's what i did. Third fire didn't even smell.
Anyway, threw some hefty logs in there today at 10:45am, started up fairly quickly with a couple of tiny cuts off of these http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000DH4O3
When I knew it was burning well I pulled it back to about 2/3 and went to work. (took 30 minutes to get to 300)
12:00 I started wondering if it was safe (I've burned before, but you just get nervous with a new stove, this is only my 7th burn in it, but first unattended)
Drove home, and as I pulled up I didn't see a lick of smoke out the chimney. that's NICE! Temp was like 500ish, so i started wondering if it might not get out of hand while I was away, so i choked down to 1/2 and went back to work.
1:00 Just to be safe I went back to check it out, and I could see a little smoke in the exhaust, but not much. Went inside and temp was more like 400, so I put it back up to just under 2/3 and here I am back at work.
The thing I'm most enamored with is the reason I got this thing. I'm using SOOOOO much less wood to run it! I throw three splits in and am good for 4 hours of running pretty hot, or I can choke it back to more like 350 and run for about 6. I am hoping that most of the moisture is just on the surface, but I'm afraid it isn't Most of it is only seasoned since April, but it's so much better than any other years I've burnt. I'm already ahead for next years wood, depending on how much I burn. I might not actually burn less with the new stove because It seems to be so much easier than the FP, and more effective in sending heat to adjacent rooms (I think I was drawing sooo much cold air from the house that the adjacent rooms were chilly because they served as cold air returns!) Now the heat rises straight from the stove and warms those rooms (kinda a split level thing going on).
Another problem is that I still have some firewood for the FP that is just too darned long to fit in the stove!
I did end up using black pipe with a blockoff plate and ran into a planning issue at the chimney top. I have the adapter, the Class A pipe length, but I somehow ended up without the Chimney cap or rain protector or whatever it is called. I KNOW I put it in the cart. When I was at the register I asked the clerk to give me a total midway through and I realized I was wayy over what my wife would allow, I said "ok, I want this, not that, this, not that" and must have overlooked the cap.
Well, without the cap i didn't want to have uncapped type A, so I installed a length of stove pipe (cringe) that is exterior. I happened to have a cheap galvanized top for a vent pipe, so that is in place, but i think it might be restrictive, not sure.
So, one trip back to the store this weekend to get that cap and I'll be set.
On another note, my wood doesn't seem to be quite as seasoned as I'd like, but close. At this point I don't have much of a choice and will just use what I have and hop up on the roof several times to keep track of buildup.
break-in wasn't as bad as I expected. It really just smelled like burning wax, maybe a little bit like an electric motor when it gets hot. I couldn't find directions in the manual for the correct methods, but thought I remembered three cycles of increasing intensity being the recommendation. That's what i did. Third fire didn't even smell.
Anyway, threw some hefty logs in there today at 10:45am, started up fairly quickly with a couple of tiny cuts off of these http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000DH4O3
When I knew it was burning well I pulled it back to about 2/3 and went to work. (took 30 minutes to get to 300)
12:00 I started wondering if it was safe (I've burned before, but you just get nervous with a new stove, this is only my 7th burn in it, but first unattended)
Drove home, and as I pulled up I didn't see a lick of smoke out the chimney. that's NICE! Temp was like 500ish, so i started wondering if it might not get out of hand while I was away, so i choked down to 1/2 and went back to work.
1:00 Just to be safe I went back to check it out, and I could see a little smoke in the exhaust, but not much. Went inside and temp was more like 400, so I put it back up to just under 2/3 and here I am back at work.
The thing I'm most enamored with is the reason I got this thing. I'm using SOOOOO much less wood to run it! I throw three splits in and am good for 4 hours of running pretty hot, or I can choke it back to more like 350 and run for about 6. I am hoping that most of the moisture is just on the surface, but I'm afraid it isn't Most of it is only seasoned since April, but it's so much better than any other years I've burnt. I'm already ahead for next years wood, depending on how much I burn. I might not actually burn less with the new stove because It seems to be so much easier than the FP, and more effective in sending heat to adjacent rooms (I think I was drawing sooo much cold air from the house that the adjacent rooms were chilly because they served as cold air returns!) Now the heat rises straight from the stove and warms those rooms (kinda a split level thing going on).
Another problem is that I still have some firewood for the FP that is just too darned long to fit in the stove!
