P.E. Summit Reality Check?

I walked into the local hearth shop, today, to see what they carried, and just to kind of get a feel for what the place was like. I have this little red miser alert that tends to flash when I walk into a place where I may be paying a premium for the mahogany trim and marble surfaces. As soon as I walked in, there it was, blinking away at the upper left hand of my field of vision. However, I work in the trades, and know a number of their working guys from jobsites, as they're also the largest HVAC outfit in the area. I also do the repairs and service on their overhead doors, so I know the gloomy depths that hide behind the fancy hearth shop. Dusty, not particularly well organized, but with everyone knowing just where to lay hands on what they need. The kind of place I feel at home, in other words. So I didn't immediately flee for the sake of my wallet.

They had one of the stoves I've been wanting to get a first hand look at, the PE Super. They didn't have the summit, but the helpful and semi knowledgeable seeming young man did quote me a price of $2450 for a pedestal model. I was originally set on a Drolet Austral, but since becoming obsessed with these forums, have been trying to broaden my horizons, a bit.

Can anyone here comment on the summit v. the Austral? For instance, I'm still trying to figure out whether "extended burn technology" translates into a real world system on the stove, or is just garble-speak for "it's got air tubes in it, just like the others". I'm not asking for a "mine is best" kind of thing, but would love to hear what users of the stove think of it. And if you happen to know what "boost air" and "floating firebox" mean, in real world terms, it would help me decide if there's enough there to justify paying around 200% the cost of the Drolet. I realize that having an actual face to talk to about stove issues is worth a bump, so I'm giving around $500, just because it comes from a local showroom. But that still leaves me with an awful lot of cash between the two.

Just to clarify, I do really like the looks, and whatnot, of the PE products I've seen. Just don't know if I like them a grands worth, without some real world reasons for that extra cash.

etiger2007 said:

My best advise for any stove is ( going by your signature) get your wood now and stock up. If you wait to get your stove and the wood togehter youll be mad at the stove when really its your wood thats not dry. Good luck on what u choose.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Ed.
A friend of mine bought the adjoining lot to his this summer, along with about 120 decent sized red pines, planted years ago by the local utility company. We worked through about 70 of them, so far, with another 40-50 to go. I've got about 2/3rds of them drying at his place, to be moved to my place, this coming spring. He'll keep the rest, for camp fires. Looking for a source of hardwoods (natural born scrounger, me), but I've burned pine in the past, and it'll work, in the interim.

Thanks, guys.
By the looks of the web page on prices, I'd pay just as much direct (sans sales or deals). Have to think about showing the wife the literature. If she sees those nickel legs and door, however, I have a feeling I'm sunk for another five Benjemins. She's humoring me on the whole wood heat thing. She got a couple big rocks and an iPad for Valentines and her birthday, this year, so she's being lenient. Don't know if she's going to be $2500 lenient, though.

One of the main reasons I'm looking at the higher priced stoves is for the thicker steel, BrotherBart. Don't know if it makes that big a difference, in a brick lined stove, but it can't hurt, if I can set aside enough extra cash to afford it. Also, in the case of the Summit, I like that I can just change out the baffle, if needed. The Austral seems like like a great stove, but it's got a welded baffle. If I were ever to pull a truly bonehead move, and warp/damage it (bonehead move? Me!?!), not sure what the procedure would be to fix that. In the end, it'll be down to time, and the budget. No matter what, I'm going to have a decent wood stove, by this time next year.

Thanks again, guys. You people respond faster, and better, than many of the professional customer service people I've dealt with. Think I'm becoming addicted to this place. Hopefully, I can return the favor, eventually.

Nico1986 said:

i recently bought a new stove insert and i know the process is long and needs to be well thought out i kept just narrowing it down to two or three everytime i went to another shop and got more info on diffferent stove brands.i also had the pe summit in my final three i utimately went with the osburn 2400 money wise a more reasonable price and is heating my 2500 sq ft house now avg 73 deg through out house and have not added ceiling fans and vents yet. not trying to say mine is best or anything like that but sounds like ur shopping for a big house to heat and for the money im very happy and impressed with the osburn 2400 just saying look into it very reasonable and a beast.

Click to expand...

Guess I should actually give a bit more info. My house is a 1923 story and a half of only 1500 square feet, but with original windows, poorly insulated, and drafty. The reason for the big stove is that I need to be able to keep things toasty for the wife, as I gut a room at a time, as money allows. Winter is my lightest time, at work, so work tends to get done in the coldest months.

Also, while I've never run an EPA certified stove, past experience taught me that burn time was a matter of cubic feet and air control. Get a big box, learn how it behaves, and squeeze down the air as much as is acceptable, while keeping a decent burn. Fuel in, air metered, BTU's out. Simplistic, but it used to work. Need less heat? Load less wood, a little more often. Been lurking around here, trying to refine things, but I think I'll only really learn these new stoves, hands on. Looking forward to learning something new, though.

stoveguy13 said:

as it has already been stated the pe has a thicker steel top and some difference in construction but you are not comparing apples to apples drolet will be sold in the big box stores and carry a lesser warranty but at a much more reasonable price the PE will have a longer warranty and a higher price and are going to be supported threw its dealer network.the drolet are well built stoves and i would not worry about them falling apart the real thing you are not getting with the drolet and the thing that you are getting with the PE is the dealer support. that being said if you think you want the same larger firebox you can get with the austral you can look at the osburn 2300 same size firebox as the austral and the same warranty and support you would get with the pe. the real thing you need to decide is if you need that dealer support and that extra 1k$ or not.

Click to expand...

Kind of the same conclusion I have been coming to. I like that the higher priced stoves are built heavier. I'm more comfortable with the replaceable baffle, though I don't know enough about the subject to say whether I'll ever need a new stainless baffle in the Austral. Pretty sure I can't think of anything I would need a dealer to help with, but then it's the things you don't think of that can bite you. I'm familiar with iron stoves, but haven't ever owned a steel unit. Contrary to how it sounds, I'm actually having a great deal of fun with this.

Doing The Dixie Eyed Hustle said:

Your wife needs a "whoops upside the head", IMHO.

Just saying.

*Dix, who is not known for pulling punches*

Click to expand...

Taken in good humor, Dix.

My wife is a delicate little pixie, who uses her ancient and unknowable pixie-powers to, in subtle and inscrutable ways, steer the big, brutish and knuckle dragging hubby she deigned to allow to share her life. In short, she's a spooky little thing. Wondrous and lovely, but spooky.

I'm lucky in my marriage. No matter what I do, I always seem to get more than I give. Year 15, in a few weeks.