Wood stove that can heat when I'm at work

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No recommendation on a stove but a different perspective, especially because northern MN is my home. The perspective has a focus on the heat you need as related to firebox size of your prospective new stove. With this perspective you can calculate quit easily how big your stove needs to be.

You say
... if I keep it around 450 to 500 stovetop temp it will heat my house to 70 to 72 until it gets below zero and then it will not heat over 70.
You need to answer how much wood in pounds are you burning per day to get the heat you want? Divide that weight by 24 and you have your pounds of wood per hour that your stove (or your new stove) needs to burn. And if during work you are gone 10 hours until reload, multiply x 10.

Next take your typical wood and weigh out the 10 hours weight of wood you need. See how big the pile is, and that will be the quantity of wood you will need to load into your prospective new stove to achieve your goal. If your new stove is more efficient than your current stove, then adjust accordingly. If your old stove is 65% and new is 80%, then 65/80 = 0.81, and your adjustment factor would be pounds of wood x 0.81 for your new stove.

Keep in mind that well seasoned wood (20% MC) and an interior flue temperature exiting the stove at 400F has a heat content of 6050 btu/lb. If your 10 hour wood load weighs 40 lbs (4 lbs/hour x 6050 = 24,200 btuh), then don't believe anyone who tells you a couple of splits will last while you are gone at work, unless those couple of splits weigh 40 lbs. You can't get more heat out of wood than the btu content of the wood.
 
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Go catalytic. Blaze King ultra should do the job. Especially if it is in the basement. I don't think I have heard of anyone on here with a progress hybrid or ideal steel in their basements. But I could be wrong.
Personally, I think a Progress Hybrid is just to good looking to be put into a basement. However, over a 8 to 10 hour burn, I'm confident it will put out every bit as much heat if not more heat then a BK. And I get 14 hour burn times routinely with full loads of well seasoned oak and hickory. The Woodstock Progress Hybrid is an awesome heater and good looking to boot. And their customer service is second to none.
 
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Everybody gets a vote, you don't have to agree, tell us your opinion and why.

I have an nc30 noncat and a bk princess cat for the home. For full time heat when you are gone all day you need a stove big enough to do the job and with a long enough burn time to keep doing it while you're gone.

If you need 500+ then the nc30 won't do it for more than a couple of hours. I wish it would, it's a great noncat but noncat stoves are pulse and glide machines. It will still have coals after 8 hours but not a hot stove in my experience.

The cat stoves from bk and Woodstock will do what you are asking. They are made for this. The bk is the only brand with a large stove that can easily run 24 hours on the medium outputs.

I had the same problem as you. Easy to find a stove that can heat the house, harder to find one that can do it unattended all day but very much worth the effort. I dumped a hearthstone to get the bk and its long burn.
 
Personally, I think a Progress Hybrid is just to good looking to be put into a basement. However, over a 8 to 10 hour burn, I'm confident it will put out every bit as much heat if not more heat then a BK. And I get 14 hour burn times routinely with full loads of well seasoned oak and hickory. The Woodstock Progress Hybrid is an awesome heater and good looking to boot. And their customer service is second to none.

Some good points. Both Woodstock and bk are very efficient and will have similar burn times at the higher settings when comparing the equal sized stoves. Bk makes a large cat stove though that just plain holds more fuel so can go farther.

If you buy a good woodstove, customer service is not very important. Doesn't hurt though.
 
Everybody gets a vote, you don't have to agree, tell us your opinion and why.

I have an nc30 noncat and a bk princess cat for the home. For full time heat when you are gone all day you need a stove big enough to do the job and with a long enough burn time to keep doing it while you're gone.

If you need 500+ then the nc30 won't do it for more than a couple of hours. I wish it would, it's a great noncat but noncat stoves are pulse and glide machines. It will still have coals after 8 hours but not a hot stove in my experience.

The cat stoves from bk and Woodstock will do what you are asking. They are made for this. The bk is the only brand with a large stove that can easily run 24 hours on the medium outputs.

I had the same problem as you. Easy to find a stove that can heat the house, harder to find one that can do it unattended all day but very much worth the effort. I dumped a hearthstone to get the bk and its long burn.
My progress hybrid can easily go 14+ hours on good seasoned hardwood and still be giving off nice heat from the soapstone and have a beautiful bed of glowing coals. And yes, the glass remains nice and clear so I can see what is going on in the firebox and enjoy the fire show.. However, I like to do 12 hour burn cycles because it fits into my schedule. I also enjoy interacting with my stove, so reloading in the morning and evening is enjoyable for me. And it is a source of pride when visitors come into my home and comment on how beautiful the stove looks and how comfortable the heat feels. Just my opinion.
 
Some good points. Both Woodstock and bk are very efficient and will have similar burn times at the higher settings when comparing the equal sized stoves. Bk makes a large cat stove though that just plain holds more fuel so can go farther.

If you buy a good woodstove, customer service is not very important. Doesn't hurt though.
Customer service is worth its weight in gold when you have a problem. And I have read some stories here where both BKs and Woodstocks have had some issues. Not many for sure, but when you need help, you need help.
 
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I think the main take away here is that there are many different situations and variables to consider when selecting a stove, and no one particular stove is always the best choice. We all have our favorites and biases, but we need to keep an open mind and appreciate the many good heaters out there. Matt KH, good luck with your search.
 
I wouldn't focus as much on stove top temperatures. The real solution is getting the most BTUs out of your wood. So what you want is a high efficiency number with a large firebox. What good is higher temperatures if 40 % of your btus are going up the chimney?

The reality is both Woodstock hybrids and Blaze kings have almost an identical efficiency rating. So either way when operated correctly, you are getting the same heat out of both stoves.

The Ideal Steel is capable of 24 hour burns too. I chose to load It half full and take a good 10 hour burn.
 
I have no problem moving heat throughout my house with the use of a very small box fan blowing toward the stove great room from the colder areas of the house.
I have noticed a huge difference in the even heating of different rooms in my house just from the use of my ceiling fans. I turn the fans to reverse and leave them on low. Since the heat rises, and people are usually seated, it more evenly heats the column of air, and the adjacent rooms as well.
 
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Amen to that! Mine as well!
So is my non-hybrid Mansfield. Any stove in the 3 cubic foot range should be putting out heat after 8 hours. My Ashford still has wood in it in the morning! Now That's what I'm talking about!
 
Let's get back to the OP instead of another long, drawn out mine vs yours debate. Matt, for a longer burn at a lower rate a catalytic stove should do the best job. Major brands to look at are Blaze King, Woodstock, and Buck. If you want a non-cat, go for a large capacity stove with good mass for heat storage. Cast iron clad stoves and soapstone are good in this regard.
 
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The Ideal Steel can definitely go longer than 12 hours
Here's a pic of mine at 18 hours on a full load of softwood
That said, the longest burns are definitely reported from the BKs.. I'd say if you want an easy 12+ WS or BK, if you want an easy 24+ then BK.
 

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Thank you for all of the advice. Do the catalytic stoves hold there temps good. Like the bk can I keep the stove top around 500, because that's all I need or the drolet ht2000. I only get about 2 to 3 hour burn in the us2000 when I keep the stove top around 500. Is that to hot I don't know?
You will find that you produce more heat at lower surface temps, with the larger surface area of a 3.0 cu.ft. or larger stove, versus your 2.0 cu.ft. stove. If we simplify the problem to a cube, V = s^3 dictates s will increase by 14%, and A = 6*s^2 means your surface area will increase by 31%. So, for the same temperatures and materials, your new stove will radiate a third more heat.

In reality, given most stoves are more rectangular than square in cross-section, the difference will be even greater.
 
Working on a 16+ hour burn as we speak with the Woodstock PH. This picture was taken at the 15 1/2 hour mark. Overnight low was 28*, great room temp where stove resides is 74* and rest of house is 70*. Stove top temp is 204*. Burning 5 splits of oak and hickory.
 

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