Stove Purchase

I think in the end it depends on your preferences and what will work for your install. I have heard plenty of good things about pleasant hearth stoves. But I also used to own a nc30 and it was awesome. It put out a ton of heat. In general lighter doesn't mean better. In the stove world weight of a stove is generally looked at as a good thing.

If you could elaborate on your setup we might be able to give you more pointed advice, example chimney length and setup, stove location, size of house wanted to be heated, insulation quality?

begreen said:

Be careful about reading specs. Sometimes they are not what they seem on the surface.

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And even when acting in good faith (not always to be assumed), different companies have different protocols. I have a Jotul F500 Oslo, rated at 70,000 btu output. I also have an Englander 30 NC, rated at "75,000 + btu". I burn both from the same woodpiles, and the difference in heat output is far, far more significant than those ratings suggest. And why shouldn't they be? The Englander has almost 50% more capacity and far more surface area to radiate heat.

Check Ebay for those stoves. There are a Few deals with shipping. I found my last one on there and paid $700.00 for 2 of them. I had to pick them up about 2 hours away.

You might consider the fact that the NC30 is made in the USA with highly reputable customer service and a much longer track record for being rock solid. Not that the pleasant hearth isn't a good heater, but it's a Chinese made stove with little or no dealer support from what I understand...

HighHeat22 said:

If you look at their firebox dimensions the pleasant hearth seems to have a bigger fire box at least in height which says 19 inches compared to the nc30 which says 13.75 even the width shows bigger at 25.5 inches compared to 20 inches. Does the pleasant hearth have a bigger fire box than the nc30. I know everyone raves about the nc30 but I like the pleasant hearth better and I am limited in depth space and the pleasant hearth is much lighter

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I have not used either stove, but I can impart one little bit of experience, I would lean toward a shorter/wide firebox over a taller one. The shorter box will produce those awesome clean burning and heat producing secondary flames easier and for longer than a taller box. If you want a small fire in the taller boxes, it seems you have to get creative in stacking the wood in there in a log cabin or teepee style to get the secondary burn to work well...gotta get that fire up close to the baffle...at least at first. 3 splits in a tall box may burn...but not real well in my experience.
And the difference in weight says a lot to me...I'd go for the 500# made-in-the-USA stove over a 300# china stove everytime...the little extra hassle of dealing with that extra weight during install is a small price to pay for years of heat from a really smooth running stove like the 30.
And don't forget customer service, does Pleasant Hearth have a rep on Hearth.com like Englander does? I've seen him go above and beyond more than once...priceless

Oh, and the 30 is on sale for $519 from the Durango Colorado stove...another $99 delivered to your door...and I hear that often times a couple extra greenbacks to the delivery guy will get it inside your door. Once inside it should be very easy to get it to its permanent home via a 2 wheel dolly. $618 total delivered price for a stove like the 30...no brainer decision to me

Englander would be my choice. Both will work but the Englander stoves do have a reputation for heating and service. In the end, you can't throw $300 at the Pleasant Hearth and make it an Englander after the fact. You really do get what you pay for.

"Rated up to 1800 sq.ft." is if you live it a tight house in Georgia. Go bigger.

Woody Stover said:

"Rated up to 1800 sq.ft."

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Sq. ft. mean nothing. It assumes a "standard" ceiling, which may not be correct.

All that matters is the volume to be heated and that is independent of sq. ft. (all the difference in the world if you have cathedral ceilings versus "standard" ceilings for the same sq. ft. floor space).

Think instead of cubic feet or cubic meters. In other words, one needs to think of volume, not area. There are many web sites that give the needed BTU or KW needed to heat a specific volume. Look them up before purchase of any stove.