Jotul f100 vs f3cb vs f400

I have been using the f100 for about 7 years now. We bought this little stove because it was the only one that I was sure would fit in front of the existing fireplace. Then we moved and we have a dedicate hearth for a stove now. I thought we would be pushing our luck heating 3200 sqft with this little guy but it does a surprisingly good job. The furnace will kick on in the morning right before we get up but that is it. My problem is not about the amount of heat this thing can put out but the length it can put it out. I can get a good solid 4 hours of heat out of this and I can even, if everything goes perfectly have coals left over in the morning. More often then not though, I have to get up at 2 and reload it. I would prefer to sleep all night so I am contemplating a slightly bigger stove.

The hearth will accommodate the f3cb, if the f400 goes on there it will only have about 12 inches from the front of the stove to the front edge of the hearth because of how far back the stove pipe is in the f400.

So my 2 questions are will I be able to tweak the f3cb to get me into the morning with a bit more coals? Will the f400 roast me out of the house and will the 12 inches in the front of the stove be an issue?

I would love to hear from people that have had at least 2 of these stoves. I have read many (and will read many more) posts about the experience of owning just one of these. I would really like to hear comparisons.

BrotherBart said:

I heated my basement office with the F100 for awhile and then the F3CB. And frankly I didn't find the F3 to provide much more as far as burn time than the F100. I loved burning in the little F100. I would go with the F400 were it me hoping to sleep through the night.

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begreen said:

I've had the F3CB and F400. Burn time is about 50-100% longer with the F400. F3CB would burn about 3-4 hrs. The Castine would burn 6-8 hrs. with good hardwood. 4-6 hrs burning softwood.

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Your comments are interesting, because according to Jotul the f3 should burn an hour longer than the f100 and the f400 should burn and hour longer than the f3.

I really am afraid I will roast us out of the house with the f400 though, unless I try to turn the glass black.