Are you happy with your stove choice?

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Very happy with my defiant.
It's rated for the same 2400 SQFT as the regency but puts out
more heat for much longer on less wood and it's easier to load
and I got a great deal.
 
I put ours in in 2009 and am still happy with it. I have a PE Summit Insert that is heating our 2400 sq ft. 1979 home. Fairly well insulated but still has leaky doors and windows (original).

It does a good job keeping the house around 72 degrees in the main living areas, but the bedrooms are over a crawl space and not a full basement. The bedrooms seem to stay around 62-65 degrees. I think the crawl space needs to be better insulated as I do a very good job of pushing the cold air to the stove to keep the air circulating in the house.

My only complaint on the stove is the blower. It is in our living room with the TV and I have to run the blower on high to keep the house warm. It produces a ton of white noise and we have to crank the TV to hear it. Kind of annoying but I can't seem to find any information about how I could make this blower any quieter. Seems to me a blower replacement could be made that is quiet...

It does pretty well heating the house until the temps reach the low 20's, then it has to run full blast. The natural gas furnace typically comes on in the mornings for an hour or so before I get up. But on any day over 30 degrees, we can get 8-10 hr burn times, which is nice when the wife and I are at work.
 
I am happy with my stove choice 95% of the time. When it is below 10 °F, I get up in the middle of the night to reload to keep the heat pumping. The rest of the time it works good. I think that however imho, and is the case for a lot of us - Researching prior to purchasing the stove, I have seen that purchasing too big of a stove causes the operator to build too small a fires, and then increasing the chance of creosote, ect. I love having the stove for many reasons, free heat #1 in my book, but the feeling of self reliance/ independence, good excercise, being in the woods, family gets involved, ect.
 
Four woodstoves since 2004,the BK makes five I'm happy,huge firebox,great burn times,don't always need what it's capable of giving but when I need it I know it's there. Last night zero to 5 above,3 monstrous splits,1 BL,2 hickory house at 74 this morning beautiful coal bed threw on 4 white oak splits good till this evening.
 
I am definitely happy with the T6! Here is why, When I loaded the stove and went to bed last night it was 22° outside when I got up this morning (13°) and got around to loading the stove it was 10 hours later and I still had whole glowing logs in the back 1/4 of the stove. I could easily have went 12 hours maybe 13 or 14 and still had the house temps at 72°. I just need to start giving it a little more air at night so it burns quicker as it really wasn't ready to reload yet this morning. O well I would rather deal with a stove still pumping heat ten hours later than it being cold and having to get it going again :)
 
Fairly happy with my Napoleon insert, it keeps the downstairs in my very drafty farmhouse nice & warm. HOWEVER, I think perhaps it's undersized for the job we've given it, it would be nice to heat a few more rooms than we do. I think I would have installed a larger freestanding stove if I knew then what I know now. Not unhappy enough to switch it out. Just going to install a couple more!
 
I'm not overly impressed with my 5700 QuadraFire. I think for all the wood the stove holds, over 3 cu ft , the heat output is disappointing. I read some other posts on here, that the earlier 5700's produced much better heat. I think the side heat shields ruin the stoves heating potential. You basically get heat from the glass door and top of the stove. I'd buy a Woodstock stove next time.
 
I am happy with our Enerzone, it works well for what we got it for. We use it to heat the basement rec room, which is where we spend most of our time after work in the winter months. It would have been nice to get something with a bigger fire box, 1.6 cf doesn't give us real long burn times, but for the money we had to spend this was the best choice I could find in our area. I did manage to get about 6 hrs out of it last night, which is the max.

I'm working on the wife to get another stove for the upstairs. She wants to go with gas for the push button on. But we have access to free wood on the farm so I was thinking something more along the lines of a Jotul Rangeley. Either way that will be a couple of years down the road.
 
Been very happy with my stove. In all the years that I have been running it now, I have had to tap one of the door hinge pins back into place. Darn stove. ;-)
 
I've only known my insert for 4 months now...but I'll chime in. I'd say I'm 85% happy. The Declaration has a pretty big firebox (2.9 cu. ft.), but is oddly shaped. It's super wide, but not that deep. It then tapers at the back. You have to get creative in loading it. The air control knob is very stubborn to move. This is because the location of the passage in the faceplate is off just a bit. Simply, it rubs. It rubs a lot. Sometimes you have to use two hands. I'd like to increase burn times (4 hrs. average) as I learn the insert. With properly seasoned wood and extensive practice in monitoring temps and gradually shutting her down, I might have to damper my doghouse. That just sounds funny. I don't have any complaints on the way she burns or blows...lol. In all seriousness, the blower on this thing kicks butt. We never use it more than 75%. The bypass damper is great, eliminating smoke spillage during starts and reloads. The air wash works great and the glass stays clean for the most part. I'll chime in after heating season to offer a complete evaluation after just one year.
 
I'm happy so far. I bought an "el cheapo" from a fleet/farm type store last spring. It looks good, burns wood and was about $200 new. I'm sure as I get better with burning I would appreciate having a better unit. But for the time when I got it, it was a good choice.
 
I am thrilled with my Vermont Castings Madison. It is one of the last stoves VC designed with reburn tubes instead of Everburn. Comes up to temperature fast with no kindling required, throws plenty of heat for the spot it is in, can reload through the front or side door, thermostat like air control require 2-3 adjustments in the first 45 minutes and then it usually regulates itself, and will even burn wood that hisses without complaint. I have to dump the ash every 24ish hours of burning, but the drawer system makes it incredibly clean and easy. I've had to replace one door gasket and two fire bricks in nine years of ownership.

I'm happy with the Jotul 550. It made an oddly proportioned fireplace that only worked with a roaring fire AND a smoke shield useful. It converted the cold end of the house to the warm end of the house. I like that I can turn down the blower if the room gets too warm. My wife prefers the hot air from an insert over the radiant heat of the stove. I find startup is a pain compared to the stove. I only need to empty the ash every 72ish hours of burning, but I usually end up needing a vacuum. The large insert seems to take a long time, kindling, and lots of fussing to get up to temperature compared to the medium sized stove. Even when reloading onto a good bed of coals, it REALLY doesn't like anything but perfectly dry wood. Need to crack the door an inch for 30 seconds before opening it all the way or I get smoke into the room. BUT, when it is running steady on dry wood its great. Lots of heat and don't need to touch it for 4-5 hours. No maintenance required in one year of ownership.

Both are very well built, look good, and heat well. I wouldn't have paid the price premium for VC and Jotul if they didn't. Both were ordered on the phone and self installed to reduce some of that price premium.
 
I don't think I'll ever be 100% happy. I say strive for perfection! Lol
 
I am happy with my stove. I had never heard of this website. I had heated with a wood furnace for years and had quit as my kids had me on the go all the time. We started cleaning out the back half of the basement to make a family room for the kids to have friends over. I wanted a small stove to take the chill off just when needed when we wanted to spend time down in the basement family room. This so I didnt have to run more electric heat and raise the bill higher. I got an old small buck "saver" stove from my Dad to hook up down there. But the wife started wanting a fire place so she could sit down there and watch the flames. I told her aint going to happen fireplaces are not efficient. Menards had the little Vogelzang Defender stove that was EPA certified with the burn tubes and all for $499 . It had the window so my wife could see the fire. At the time I was trying to put burn tubes in the little buck stove but had no window to see how good it was working. Then Menards had it onsale for $399. Thats what got me to the store and when I got there I saw the bigger Vogelzang Performer and it had 4 secondary tubes and advertised 12 hour burn times and it was on sale for $699. I was at a weak moment in my life and said what the heck and bought the bigger one. For the price it was a heck of a deal and it lives up to its name The Performer. Its a little over 2.1 cubic foot box is just right for a medium size stove. Some things I would have liked is to be able to load North South and a deeper front lip so it could hold more ashes.
 
I am pretty pleased with mine... But if I would have know then what I know now. I would've tried like heck to stuff the NC-30 into my hole in the wall. Might of had to do some demo but I'd a shoe horned her in!. I could have bought two of them...hmmmm!

Seriously though, My Buck does very well. When I do some "venting modification" to my house it will do terrific!
 
Funny I was just thinking about this last night as we were sweating in 77deg. I am happy w/our Quad 7100fp. I know if I was living in a different area where the winters are more harsh I would have not installed a ZC fireplace, rather I would have gone w/a true free standing wood stove. Typical winters here are in the 40s during the day, 30s at night w/occasional 20s at night. Outside of 2-3 weeks each winter where temps drops below 20deg during day and in the teens at night, it's really one long shoulder season for us here. Yesterday it was 52deg outside, thus why we were sweating inside @ 77deg (and that was only w/2 medium sized splits in the stove). So I am happy w/the Quad 7100FP; it's really a very attractive unit in our home.
 
Backwoods said:
I love having the stove for many reasons, free heat #1 in my book, but the feeling of self reliance/ independence, good excercise, being in the woods, family gets involved, ect.

+1
 
I am happy with the TL-300.
I like that it has the grill option which I tend to use quite allot.


But, as with anything I would like to see improvements.
1) I would like it to have a thermostat in it that would help keep the secondary combustion chamber working so that their would be less stalls.
2) Bigger box
 
I'm generally happy with my Vista Insert. As I've said before, it's well built, easy to use and puts out a lot of heat for its size. My only complaint is that I wish it were bigger, but that isn't going to change, since nothing bigger will fit in the fireplace and I don't have a good place for a freestanding stove. If bigger were possible, I'd stay in the PE family and go for a T5 Insert in brown. When I went insert shopping (before I discovered this web site), I went to the two closest places. The first one didn't have anything that would fit. The second had the Vista and a another insert for a few hundred less (I don't recall the brand). The salesperson showed me the flimsy-looking baffle board and burn tubes in the cheaper stove and the stainless steel baffle in the Vista and upsold me nicely. I'm glad he did, as I've never had a problem with the Vista and don't have to worry about damaging the baffle when I'm loading splits into the small firebox. Probably the only time I'd ever consider replacing the Vista is if PE comes out with a T4 Insert in the brown....
 
After several years with the hearthstone and 20 some cords of wood through it I am running into problems with it that tell me that these stoves aren't meant to be used for full time heat. The door latches suck and are of the design that wears with use until a major stove tear down is required to fix it. The ash pan is useless and is only there to look pretty, make the sale, and not a functional piece. The paint is wearing off rapidly. My latest issue is that the door hinges are sagging, the pins are harder than the cast iron frame holes and they have opened up leading to slop and a misaligned gasket plus even more wear on that lousy door latch.

Stoves should last a long time I would think. The hearthstone is a still very good stove and does most things right. Just don't go and use it much.

My next stove will not have these throw away features. Whether it is a BK or a woodstock it WILL have a cat in it. The long burn times are just that important for people that actually use a stove for their heat.
 
TheOnlyZarathu said:
I have a PE Summit Pedestal. Best stove I ever owned, and I've been heating with wood for 32 years. Nothing else comes close.

I have the same stove and i must say that i'm growing to like it. the first couple of seasons (this is the third) i was not finding it to be not one of my more enjoyable stoves that i've had. i think i like the cast iron stoves, love jotul small stoves, but this one fit the bill as i was trying to heat @ 2400 sq ft upstairs and downstairs. i have a joutl upstairs that i use sometimes during shoulders or warm weather. the summit does good....the firebox is pretty large and the burn times are pretty good. if i get another, it will probably be something with a cat....mabe a princess bk or mabe a defiant....something with a thermostat is really appealing.....i'd get a bk king but i'd have to redo my chimney.

cass
 
I like my Quad 7100 just fine. It does as you would expect.
This is my first time heating with wood so I have nothing to base it on.
must be tons better then a regular fireplace.

I probably have to work it harder then a stove to get the same heat out of it.
 
No complaints with the T6. I wanted a simple, big heater that looked and performed well. Given the clearances and our moderately sized living room, I wanted a mostly convective stove. It does the job well.
 
Todd said:
I don't think I'll ever be 100% happy. I say strive for perfection! Lol

Todd's signature line very soon:

Woodstock Progress (2012)
Woodstock Fireview (2005) sold in 2011
Woodstock Keystone (2010) sold in 2012
Woodstock Keystone (2011) sold in 2012
Stihl MS290
EZ Brave 8 ton splitter
Axe
maul
Fiskars X27
 
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