Best rear vent stove if not BK?

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Calentarse

Calentarse

Feeling the Heat
Feb 25, 2011
445
MD
So, my dad has fallen in love with my BK, however, he needs rear vent. He has a 2 story Victorian home 2500 square feet.

He currently has a Fisher Momma Bear "smoke dragon" and is considering replacing it with a new, EPA stove. His stove sits on a brick hearth and it goes up about 6 ft. above the floor on the back wall. The pipe on the fisher is 8" and enters the hearth at about 3.5' up the wall. His chimney is an old masonry chimney, about 25' 7" square.

What stove should he get? I'm trying to talk him into a BK princess and to vent it up for three feet, two 45s and then into the wall above the hearth. Obviously, this would require a lot of money and a lot of modification. Any rear vent stoves worthy of the BKs reputation? Pacific energy? Woodstock?
 
You would be surprised, call a couple local masons and see how much they would charge to move the crock/thimble up. What I see as an issue here is the 7" chimney, might have to run a 5.5" insulated stainless liner down it because any cat stove is going to run like crap exhausting into that cold void.
 
There have been reports, though i have no first hand experience with that length of burn. I have had my PH about two weeks now. So still learning it. Burning dry, but rather punky wood(ash, black cherry, and some hemlock). With my sub par wood i am geting 12 hour burns easy. It has been rather cold here so i have been running it a little harder. The one warmer day we had several days ago I got a 14 hour burn. I am still learning this stove but even my first burn after the breakin burn got me 11 hours. I have full confidence that when i start into some better wood here in a few weeks i will be able to average around 14 hours. I could definitely see getting 16+ in milder weather or climate.

I define my burn time as the time that the stove top is above 300F.
 
Calentarse said:
Do either burn long and slow, like 24 hours?
Click to expand...
I usually burn the PH on a 12 hour schedule for my convenience, but have tested it to 16 hours with plenty of coals left for a reload. I'm pretty sure I could have gone to 18 hours if I had tried. Of course this is with good and dry oak and hickory. On the other site where most of the IS Woodstock people are, there is a guy who ran his IS for 24 hours on good dry oak. He was one of the original beta testers.
 
Calentarse said:
Do either burn long and slow, like 24 hours?
Click to expand...

No. Absolutely not. However, the Woodstock is absolutely the stove I would have if I just had to vent out the back and burn time was important, which, it is. The WS stoves are the best rear vent stoves you can get right now. I believe all of their stoves are capable of rear vent.

If BK went away I would have a hard time choosing between IS and PH. Both are very good. Have your dad look at the pictures and see if he can live with "the look" of them. Like the old BKs they have a look that is not always received well.
 
I can't say absolutely not without running one. The Ideal Steel may very well run on low for 24 hrs according to recent reports. The stove is too new and we are just getting the first results of it running here on NW softwoods.
 
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Has anyone heard if Blaze King is planning to offer a rear vent option in the future, or if Woodstock would consider adding a bimetallic thermostat to one of their stoves? It seems like an ideal combination that would capture a large share of the market, those of us looking for long burn times in a stove that can be rear-vented into low masonry fireplaces.
 
I've seen quite a few reports of the Ideal Steel going 24 hours... if I was looking for a rear vent, that one would be hard to beat.

The Absolute Steel looks promising, but the firebox is smaller than the IS.
 
I am the OP of this topic and my parents are a little surprised that the progress doesn't heat their house better. It eats wood compared to my BK and doesnt give off that much more heat. They like it but when it gets really cold their gas heat is running in the morning. A bimetallic thermostat would be a welcome option to a rear vent stove. Let us know when you find it!
 
Calentarse said:
I am the OP of this topic and my parents are a little surprised that the progress doesn't heat their house better. It eats wood compared to my BK and doesnt give off that much more heat. They like it but when it gets really cold their gas heat is running in the morning. A bimetallic thermostat would be a welcome option to a rear vent stove. Let us know when you find it!
Click to expand...

Be sure you're comparing apples to apples.. are the houses the same size? Insulation? Layout?
 
drz1050 said:
Be sure you're comparing apples to apples.. are the houses the same size? Insulation? Layout?
Click to expand...
I wonder if we were to put the same amount and type of wood in both our stoves, would the same amount of heat be garnered from the Progress as the BK?

My dad was keeping my BK lit for me the other weekend and after a week of running it, he said, "that stove is amazing. I couldn't get the half the burn times you do."
 
mellow said:
Wood circulators are rear vent and bimetallic ;)
Click to expand...
I'd like to know too. Are they the things that are outside and heat your water or whatever that you have to then circulate?
 
Do the two of you share the same firewood? Is it possible he is using wet wood that would have done fine in the Fisher?
 
JA600L said:
Do the two of you share the same firewood? Is it possible he is using wet wood that would have done fine in the Fisher?
Click to expand...
We do.
 
drz1050 said:
Be sure you're comparing apples to apples.. are the houses the same size? Insulation? Layout?
Click to expand...
I think they should swap stoves for a month or two. ==c
Calentarse said:
Are they the things that are outside and heat your water or whatever that you have to then circulate?
Click to expand...
No. If they were, they wouldn't need to rear-vent. ;)
 
Calentarse,

Call me tomorrow. 509-522-2730

BKVP
 
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Calentarse said:
I wonder if we were to put the same amount and type of wood in both our stoves, would the same amount of heat be garnered from the Progress as the BK/
Click to expand...
Yep, there is X amount of BTUs in a load. I think that if stove efficiencies are equal, heat realized should be the same.
 
Yes, the same total amount of heat would be equal (the integrated area under the time-temperature curve). What I've heard BK owners say is that the curve is longer and flatter, i.e. More uniform heating over long periods, with less dramatic peaks and valleys. This is where woodstoves start to act more like a furnace with a thermostat.
 
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