Trying to pull the trigger on a PE Summit...Too big?

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ejwoodward

Member
Oct 15, 2008
24
Western NC
Hello Folks,

After spending 3 years with a Jotul Castine (F400) I have decided to go bigger. I absolutely love the cast iron stoves but I have a tight corner to fit in. Of all the steel constructed stoves, I like the PE line the best. I know the rule is to go bigger instead of smaller but I am concerned that I may be overdoing it.

With the F400 i was not able to heat my 1,564 sqft, 1970, poorly insulated home very well. Even with the warm winter we had last year the Castine only did "ok" at heating the house but still was on the chilly side of what I would like. Our winters here in the mountains of western NC get colder than most people think. We can have those 40-50 degree days one week and then have a high of 10 for the two weeks following with wicked winds and blowing snow.

My install is on the far corner of the house in the living room with cathedral ceilings that flow into a loft and then into the kids room on the far side of the house. Our master room is on the lower level on the far side of the house below the kids room. Kitchen is between the living room and master room. The Castine was able to make the loft toasty, the kids room cool, the living room decent, kitchen "ok", and straight out cold in the lower master bedroom.

The reason for going with a larger stove is to get a bigger punch while getting meaningful heat for a longer period of time (Castine only gave about 4 hrs of meaningful heat). Is the Summit going to be too big? I feel like the Super 27, being a 2.1 cubic ft. box, is not that much bigger than the Castine's 1.7 cuft. box.

Would love to hear your thoughts....Thanks in advance
 
Get the Summit and don't look back. Big honkin steel stoves rule!
 
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I understand the woes of a drafty house. I oversized my stove for my house for the same reason (under the advice of BeGreen). I am very happy I did. I rarely fill the firebox all the way, but when I need it I have the extra firepower.

The other part of this is every year I work on tightening up my house little by little.
 
Just do it. You won't regret it.
 
Another option would be to improve your insulation and keep the Castine.
 
Thanks for the nudge guys. I had considered improving the insulation but that would mean messing with some of the aesthetics in our cathedral ceilings. I have made as much of an attempt as possible to seal up cracks and we did replace all the windows. Besides, I can't burn fiberglass insulation so that really wouldn't be much fun :) The Castine was a GREAT stove but I really struggled getting good solid burns even with well seasoned wood. I would load it at 10 pm and back her down for the night. By 2 am most of the meaningful heat was gone but I did have enough coals left to things going again at around 6 am . I am thinking that the bigger stove will give me a bigger punch throughout the day/night and compensate for the heat loss in the house. Plus I won't have to make as many back and forth trips to the woodpile.

Thanks for the replies. I have been a lurker to this site for about three years but have not been much of a poster. My wife thinks I'm and addict but she never complains when its ripping cold outside and the house has that unique warm smell of hot iron.
 
I upgraded from 1.7 cf to 3.2 cf and it made a huge difference. Not just in burn times but the immediate heat output is way higher.
 
You will giggle like a little girl when you realize how much easier life is with a big old firebox. Enjoy the uninterrupted sleep!
 
The bigger firebox is going to give you much more leeway when it comes to needing heat.

I'd say go for it, but I'm alittle biased to the PE line anyways :)
 
IMHO, no.

Never have used the one on the 13. Never ever.
 
If you note where I live, I do indeed appreciate the weather here. That looks like a fine stove. I am having a hard time telling if it is a convective unit. My install is in the far corner of my home, like yours, and my convective stove does indeed push the air to the other corner. I stopped using the fan after the first year except when my kids want to dry off. When I was shopping for stoves (I got mine at Etowah Fireplace and Patio) they tried to sell me a stove based on burn time. Had I bought the stove they suggested I suspect I would have blasted my family out of the family room and had cooler bedrooms. I stumbled onto my stove because it had very close clearances and I was able to tuck it in the corner of the room, and not perceivably out in the middle of the room like the downdraft wonder-stove they suggested. I have a couch and a love seat off to the side of my stove and it is comfortable there when the stove is up to temp.

I really don't have any stoves to recommend per se, but I did wonder if a convective appliance would be better in your install? I have been happy with Etowah Fireplace and Patio btw despite the fact the salespeople may not know as much as the folks on this forum. If I was going to do it again, I think I may consider a CAT stove like the BK Princess (if they are convective) but i worry that when we do get a warm up, those stoves would just burn to long.
 
I like having as ash pan. It's so easy...no extra effort required to contain dust or keep hot coals in the stove. That said, the stove I'm running now has none, so it's not a deal-breaker for me, just a little more hassle. Not familiar with the PE ash pan setup but the Keystone and DW work great.
 
The big PE has that EBT system that may be nice or it may be a hassle, for sure it adds complication. I'm at 1700 SF and would probably hang with the super firebox and its long burn times. Your burn times should be the same with the summit or the super, oddly.
 
Doing The Dixie, Hi. I am Closing on a house in Holebrook LI soon. If you don't mind me asking where did you buy your Pacific from?
Lurking around here I am leaning toward a PE super insert. The dealers around seem close in price but a bit more than I figured installed.
 
The big PE has that EBT system that may be nice or it may be a hassle, for sure it adds complication. I'm at 1700 SF and would probably hang with the super firebox and its long burn times. Your burn times should be the same with the summit or the super, oddly.

Hmmmmm....You have me listening. But when I compare the firebox size it's almost the same as the Castine that I had and was unhappy with it's ability to heat 1564 sqft. I do like the Step Top model which is not available with the Summit and the better price. I just don't want to undersize myself again. I don't think I was ever able to break 69 degrees in the house on a 30 degree day with the Castine going 24/7.
 
The mid-szed PEs and the Castine are not the same size, usable firebox. I would give the PE about .5 cu ft. over the F400.

However, are you sure it was the stove? The Castine can really heat, you just need to feed it more often. But this depends on having good dry wood. If the wood is not seasoned, subtract a good 25-30% of the heating potential of the stove.
 
Having used the Castine for 3 years I did learn that well seasoned wood worked a lot better. Last year I burnt 2 1/2year (cut and stacked) hardwoods and I got great performance from the stove but I had to feed it constantly and push the stove to heat the entire home with mediocre results. Nighttime was the hardest because I really only got meaningful heat from 10 pm to 2 am on a fully packed load. By 2 am, the stove temps were down below 250 and the house temp would drop quickly. I would wake up at 6 to enough coals to get things going but the house would be a lot colder than I would have liked. This is why I am thinking a "convection" type stove is going to serve me better than a radiant. I know a convection stove is going to heat differently so I don't want too big and end up not being able to fully utilize the stove and end up burning small fires because I am blowing us out of the living room.
 
Hmmmmm....You have me listening.

Would you like more info about the EBT system on the summit or the sizing issue? 1564 SF in NC is well within the specs for the super firebox. You don't need the bigger stove. Nobody ever (I sure can't recall anyone) complained about too much stove though and loading a larger stove is nicer.
 
Got a Jotul 500 Oslo and we have the same kind of conditions in OKC for a tighter 2200 sq ft house and it seems to be doing well. That cast iron seems to radiate substantially more.
 
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