Anyone like top loading stoves?

Our Quadrafire Isle Royale is a top loader and a front loader. We only use the front door to start a fire when the stove is stone cold. Otherwise, we're using the top loading feature. The baffle lays back and prevents 90% of the smoke from coming out the top when you're reloading. However, it does not prevent the heat from escaping and giving you a blast. It's a bit of a trick to load it but I can get a lot of wood in the box. We're very happy with it.

The Glenwood C cookstove in my avatar is a top loader and works great. This bad boy was made in 1909 and is still serving as we type. Pumps out some seroius heat too. Only downside is it eats every couple of hours due too the smallish firebox that cookstoves have too regulate and change temps. Other than that, it's a huge chunk of cast iron that heats 2/3rds of my house.

Top load is probably easier when doing a big wood load. I rarely use it, tho, b/c have to move kettle, trivet and thermometer off first. You still have to open the bypass or get billows of smoke. It's personal preference - I wouldn't dismiss a stove I liked b/c it lacked it.

I just started using an Isle Royal with top loading. I've used it about a week. My technique is to swing the top tube shelf out of the way using the exterior handle, put on my welding gloves, get a couple pieces of wood close to the stove ( meanwhile, stove does what it does when the shelf is rotated - smoke gets directly pulled into the flue), use my left hand to insert the handle/tool and lift the lid, and use the right hand to drop/place the splits in. I don't get any smoke out of the top when I do it this way. I can feed the wood in quickly. I do not spill any ashes or hot coals out the front. Logs can't roll out. Close the top. Return the shelf to the right place. If I have put wood in the wrong place and it interferes with the shelf, I open it back up and use a poker to repostition the wood. This whole process takes about a minute in real life!

However, I can pack more wood in if I use the front doors.

Overall, I consider it a plus and am glad it is there. It seems to seal very well, overall I am impressed with the Quadrafires quality.

I have the Oakwood and I like NOT having to bend over to load up. I only open up the front door to start the fire.

Don't forget the cooking grill!

A couple of suggestions from someone who used the site earlier to choose a stove. Search the forums for previus threads- the Oakwood and Lyden are both a similar style stove that differ in design (downdraft) from the norm. Also previous discussions on top load. Ours is side loading which works great.
I also wouldn't rule out cats- Alot of people here are very happy with long burn times, etc.

Atomichawg,
Check out this post: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/34533/

In short, I prefer top-loading. I believe its easier, faster, and you can get more wood in the firebox.

My VC Encore has top and front load option. I, like other posters, typically only use the front doors when I am setting up a new fire in a cold stove. After the kindling gets going I do all my (re)loading from the top. Typically don't have any trouble with smoke so long as I remember to open the bypass first. The griddle is easier to open and close than the front doors and I think that might be my reason for developing the top loading habit.

Used many stoves and am currently running two top loaders. Honestly don't think we could give it up on any future stoves. Just love it too much. Very clean, convenient and most of all very SAFE. No worry about hot ashes and burning logs rolling out at you when you open the door. We could load from the front doors on both but never need to. We even build the fire from the top load door. Yes, you can fill the firebox more complete form the top. Can't speak for all stoves, but as long as your chimney has a good draft going it is not '90%' smoke free like someone above mentioned but rather 99.5% smoke free. Works great.

Side loaders are worth considering too. Never used one but you get some of the benefits of top loading. Depending on the model, it appears some give better access than others to fill the firebox completely from the side.

The Oakwood is a beautiful stove, I only wish I needed a stove that big as I would consider one. I had never seen the Avalon Arbor (ie Lopi Leyden) but checked it out and it looks great too. Appears to be smaller than the Oakwood so maybe its a stove I could consider some day.

My dads stove was a tempwood, imagine a steel rectangle with a round lid in the middle and two circular draft tube covers that swivel from one side to cover the draft tubes flanking the lid. the pipe was on the back at the top. You could load that thing to the top and it would burn all night. Getting ashes out was a chore as you had to dredge for them through that same hole.