Challenges

Tuesday we started to get cold rather than hot water at the kitchen sink. I had burned the stove low and slow, feeling fine with non-intense heat, since I am a miser with logs and trying to save money. It wasn't until Tuesday night that the thought crystallized in my head that there was a problem. Pushing the reset button on our EFM 80's vintage boiler down in the basement, it would choke and burst into flame, sputter, and struggle to a stop. I checked the fuel and thought it was at 1/3 of two 350 gallon tanks. I figured maybe some debris got into the filter and clogged it. I figured I could get to that Wednesday sometime.

Wednesday I ran some errands and eventually got to changing my oil filter. My boiler still would not come on. We called the plumber. Good plumbers are busy; it is cold. He couldn't get out until Friday. The weather man was calling for 15 degrees F and we began to put more logs in and open the air intake all the way to our showroom burn unit. We started to get cool. I was getting maybe 400 degrees F out of the burn chamber and then I cracked the lid and got it up to about 600 degrees F.

My house dropped down to 64 degrees. The water coils seemed unphased by the heat and that bothered me. It seemed like the water in the system did a better job of cooling the coils running through the burn system than the fire did heating the water in the pipes. We found out that part of our wonderful warm in the radiator system was furnace heat.

Well, now the furnace heat is gone. We found out today when the plumber came that we are out of oil. The plumber also replaced the filter in the pump and replaced a clogged nozzle, after scolding me for letting it get so dirty.

The Sedore is heating our home but now only to about 65 degrees, except in the showroom where it is often up to about 70. At the moment we don't have tap water since we haven't placed an order for more oil (for the demand hot water system which was consuming much more oil that we thought.) Instead we are planning to install an electric hot water heater and continue to rely on our Sedore for our house heating.

As far as the coils go my theory is that we need to increase the amount of coils in the burn chamber in order to have the stove function more like a boiler. Not sure when or how I will get to making that change. But in the meantime the stove is saving us and we are grateful.

12 plus Hour Burn on my Sedore

Almost full chamber of split oak, mostly dry, 11:30 Friday night. I went to bed and woke up 7:30 AM Saturday, a bit worried to find only 1/3 of the wood consumed. The wood got caught up on the sides and the solid fuel was burning on the side, like a cigarette. Good heat on the top, maybe 300 degrees, lasted until well past noon. At 1:30 I put in more wood in a verticle position with lots of room to look down between the logs. Then I cracked the lid and let it rest until air rushed in from the down draft, ignited the new fuel (maybe 15 minutes), closed it, and reexamined the burn chamber about 7:00 PM. Four logs were charred in the corners and I put in two new pieces of split oak.
My theory is that I'll get more heat from wood in that if the burn heats the top and all the sides of the burn chamber without a dense mass of corn, pellets, acorns, or cherry pits insulating the sides of the top like fire bricks do in conventional stoves. If the things are not tightly packed together, more heat gets radiated, corrugated steel or not.
By the way, I've burned for 3 weeks now and I have only emptied the ash bucket twice. That should leave me time to wash my plate glass window and go to church on Sunday.

Bob

Psychology of the Sedore

We have concluded that the Sedore Stove is a split personality. It can be burnt hot and pretty much burn up all the creosote that would otherwise go up your chimney or it can be burnt warm for most efficient use of your wood in terms of BTU's, but then small amounts of creosote can build up inside your chimney.
Right now we are burning hotter since we had some cold nights. Here in PA, it was down to 0 the last two nights. We had 62 on the 2nd floor when we got up (stove is on the 1st floor and 2nd is heated by the hot water going into the heating system.) but then we have gotten it back up to 66 this afternoon, so not too bad. But 0 is nothing compared to Minnesota. I read in the paper today that it was 40 below in Minnesota where the Sedore is made. I am sure Bruce Wolfe (US manufacturer) is glad for his Sedore these few days.

Water Coils

Our Sedore 3000 has two water coils installed in the burn chamber. We have successfully hooked it up to our currently hot water heating system. We have an oil fired hot water system that heats our 3 story house with radiators. There are 2 zones and 4 coils. We have the water coils hooked into the 2nd zone and it is keeping the radiators on the 2nd floor quite warm and comfortable. It is interesting to always have them warm, in contrast to the oil system where they would be warm and then cool down and then warm again.

Above is a picture of the stove and the system.

Welcome

Welcome to the new blog for VisionStone Stoves, a family owned and operated start up business in Jim Thorpe, PA. We sell wood, coal, gas, corn, and pellet stoves, but we are really excited about our new multi-fuel Sedore stoves from Minnesota. Since we are the only dealers in PA, we would like to reach across the whole state to people who would be interested in this incredible stove.
We hooked up our Sedore 3000 a few weeks ago and have been quite toasty since then. In fact right now the temperature on our second floor is at 74 degrees, which is a bit hot for this mountains gal. Before the stove we were heating with oil and with prices as they are we kept the temperature at 62, so this is quite a switch. We have been burning only wood so far, but this stove is capable of burning corn, pellets, all types and sizes of wood, sunflower seeds, and a few other things. It is quite versatile.
I hope to post some pictures soon, but in the meantime all the info you might need is over at the website.