Need help deciding on a new epa stove

rki said:

Hi there, my actual square footage of the entire house is around 2000. Downstairs, on the opposite side of my staircase is an office and off the kitchen across from the office is a long hallway with a Bathroom and a laundry room. But I do not expect to heat these areas entirely with the woodstove. Don't think the heat could sufficiently go around these corners or down a long hallway. So it would be great if a 2.5 cu ft woodbox could do the trick but I don't want to regret getting something undersized. It gets mighty cold where I live. I'm in the Berskshires at only 1300 ft but I sit on top of an open apple orchard and the west wind is wicked during the winter. I do like the Woodstock stoves but I cannot use my MA woodstove voucher with them. I am really leaning toward the BK Ashford with the 2.75 firebox but am having a crazy hard time locating a BK Dealer somewhere within 100 miles. I did a dealer search on the BK website and it came up with a couple local dealers but when I called them both places said they never carried BK. The closest dealer is actually in Montpelier VT. Weird! So, I will call BK directly Monday morning. Maybe I can order through a local Dealer? And this would be sight unseen too..a leap of faith in the Ashford. I have read so many good things about this stove. I think it will be the perfect match. Hope I can pin one down. Thanks a bunch for your input!

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RKI

I do not have access to a full list of dealers as I am halibut fishing in Alaska this week.

Our sales person for your region is Ken Lemire. his number is 978-866-8686 and he will be able to help you.

Please also point out any dealers you found on our website that claim to not sell the products as Ken will look into these oddities.

Thank you,

Chris Neufeld
BKVP

Here's my recently installed Ashford in brown enamel.



I'm just beginning to get used to it but already I can see that it can do very long, slow burns. Today I would add a chunk of wood and it would burn for hours. With long slow burns, heat can penetrate through the house, at least if it's well insulated. It's certainly a lot colder where you live than where I do. But this stove is designed for homes as large as yours and larger. Can't tell you how glad I am to have found it. Of course I'm on the west coast, in Washington, where these stoves are manufactured. You'll have to see if you can find a dealer who can sell and service your stove.

Parallax said:

Here's my recently installed Ashford in brown enamel.

View attachment 134598

I'm just beginning to get used to it but already I can see that it can do very long, slow burns. Today I would add a chunk of wood and it would burn for hours. With long slow burns, heat can penetrate through the house, at least if it's well insulated. It's certainly a lot colder where you live than where I do. But this stove is designed for homes as large as yours and larger. Can't tell you how glad I am to have found it. Of course I'm on the west coast, in Washington, where these stoves are manufactured. You'll have to see if you can find a dealer who can sell and service your stove.

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Maybe it's just my eyes but what is sticking out on the right side(facing the stove)?
Air adjustment or bypass?

rki said:

I do like the Woodstock stoves but I cannot use my MA woodstove voucher with them. I am really leaning toward the BK Ashford with the 2.75 firebox but am having a crazy hard time locating a BK Dealer somewhere within 100 miles.

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Not to take anything away from the BlazeKing Ashford but last year Woodstock was able to participate in the program: http://blog.woodstove.com/2013/02/commonwealth-wood-stove-change-out.html
If you are considering a Progress I would give them a call. They are not that far from you, just up I-91 in Lebanon, NH. You could drop off your old stove, pick out your new one and then have a sweep install it if you don't want to do it yourself.

And I would expect either stove in principle to be able to heat your entire house. Your main problem will be the heat distribution. Especially getting some of the warm air to flow into that low ceiling area downstairs may be a challenge.

HotCoals said:

Maybe it's just my eyes but what is sticking out on the right side(facing the stove)?
Air adjustment or bypass?

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You mean the door handle? There is a cat bypass handle on the right too, but it's not visible in this photo.

This Ashford is my first stove so I can't compare it to anything else. Did a lot of research before buying, probably 80 to 90 percent of it here, and I heard good things about the Progress too. Ultimately, the Blaze King made more sense for me. But part of the reason was proximity, the factory being just a few hundred miles from my home, leaving me with five local dealers to choose from (and to force to compete on price).

Grisu said:

Loading those lighter wood species may be part of your problem. I burned a lot of pine and ash last winter and found that a full load of ash produced a much more controllable burn. The pine, on the other hand, burned off really fast and got the stove really hot - close to an overfire when I was not vigilant about the air. In your situation, I would try some larger splits of dense, dry hardwood and see if the temperatures are still too hot for you. You could also check the door gaskets to see if they are airtight when your burns are still hard to control.

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Hey Grisu how are ya? Na, I stay away from pine unless it's shoulder season, Late October early November, And yes big block size 6"x7"or 8" about16"-17" long are better, and all wood is 2+ years seasoned, I use my Lignomat moister meter that I use for woodworking, I split a few and get readings of 14-17% for the most part. I do have alot of oak just don't use it and a full cord and half of locust. I really don't even think of burning a full load of small splits, Way to hot. This house only 1250 sqft was built by my dad for burning wood or coal, The only rooms are 2 bedrooms in the back of the house and a bathroom on one side, The rest is ALL open, No walls,or hall ways. {Living room - Kitchen - Dinning room - Small den area are one open room It's pretty cool}. He only went with 8ft ceilings, I wish I had 9ft that would help a bit, When I was young he had the old steel frame crank open single pane windows and it was drafty and worked well with the old cast dragon he had. When he passed, I had new insulation blow in the walls and attic I put the best Anderson windows in, I removed the dragon and put in a small used ELM stove things were good, But you had a 8" Pyrex pie plate for a window! And the wife and I wanted a better fire view. Soo we bought the PE spectrum nice big window for viewing, Great Stove! just to much for this house. Brother Bart even sent me a pm on the air lever-mod to slow it down a bit and that did help, Gaskets are not the problem, I even removed 3ft of chimney pipe it was a bit high, To slow the draft. The real answer to my problem is a cat stove plain and Simple, A buddy I have has a {old} BK Princess {not a real good looking stove} in my opinion, But she just purrs along low-slow and steady, Ready to rip if need be. I'm semi-retired now, I'll save enough for one of the newer nice cat stoves by next year. And I'll pull the old Elm out of the wood shop and put the PE in it's place. Thanks for thinking of me however!! Jay

rki said:

HI, Woodstock is not on the list of participating dealer this year. I would consider if they were. Thanks

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Definitely sounds like a program schemed up by people who don't know their ass from their elbow. "Let's throw money at people for cleaning up the air (doing what they should need zero financial motivation to), then exclude the manufacturer of some of the cleanest burning wood stoves in North America. Oy.

rki said:

Hopefully I can see the Ashford by early next week! So excited!

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I know how you feel.

rki said:

It is my understanding it is up to the dealer to sign up to participate. My guess is that Woodstock did not want to be added to the list of dealers. Maybe last year was a hassle for them?



Chris, Thanks so much for your help. I called Ken this morning (what a nice guy! )and he pointed me in the direction of a brand new BK dealer that is about 20 miles away. I was just there the other day looking at Alderlea's but there were no BK stoves in sight. Thats because they just signed up to carry the line and their shipment of stoves is on the way. Hopefully I can see the Ashford by early next week! So excited!

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You're most welcome. Hope it works out for you.

Chris

Love my Jotul Oslo...great first stove for me....though I must confess...I secretly want an Ashford. Sort of wish I would have waited another year, but can't complain about the Oslo...heats my 2400 sq ft pretty nice.

rki said:

I never considered Blaze King because nobody around here carries them. I just checked them out online and the Ashford sure does look nice. I just might take a road trip to see one in person. A little worried about a CAT stove because of scary reports of having to burn perfectly dry wood all the time. I try to burn 2yr seasoned wood but last year I ran out of my good stuff in Feb and had to burn a cord of my 1 yr old wood.
If I ran into a situation like that again would the Ashford have a hard time burning 1 yr. seasoned wood?

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Not that anyone would recommend it, but woodstock has run tests with 30 - 35% moisture wood and their stoves have done quite well. You may want to check them out, as they also make some nice looking stoves.

I know the Cape Cod has been getting some grief on here, but mine has been great for the year I've owned it. Extremely easy to control, clean glass and long burn times. I don't get the burn times that the BK Ashford guys report, but overnight burns are no problem. I'm always a skeptic of purported internet burn times/temps as I believe the laws of physics place some fairly concrete limits on such things. I think any of the stoves you're considering would do the job, but don't rule out the CC if it's one you like. It is a looker.