what stove to get?

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elfsmachone

New Member
Feb 23, 2010
17
upstate ny
i am getting close to getting a new stove. i am soooo stuck between the pacific energy alderlea t6 and the jotul 600? please any info would be great.
 
House layout, square footage, etc would be helpful.


A floor plan would be awesome :)


And a location as to where you are would be most beneficial.



Welcome to the forums, Elf !!!
 
to get that question answered truthfully, some one that had all three stove would be the only one that could help you. The guy who had the Jotul will tell you that stove id the best thing going, see where I'm going with this. All the stoves you mentioned are great stoves Im sure, so pick the ones that has a dealer close buy, and that you feel good about. And dont listen to all the bull sheet you will probably get
 
ok here we go the house is an older house that we have been trying to get sealed up. with some success we have managed to get some of it fixed but still not 100 percent. so on with the layout. walk in the front door into the kitchen that is 11 foot by 13 walk threw into the dinning room that is 17 by 12 wide turn to rt. and enter into the wood stove room that is 11 by 11, then into the living room threw the wood room, living room is 16 by 12. 8 foot ceilings. the upstairs steps are out the other side of the woodroom with a door at the bottom of the steps that works awesome as a flew to control heat upstairs. awesome convection upstairs.


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PE and Jotul are both tops, so as far as quality you can't go wrong with either. I'm wondering what your sq footage is, total downstairs and upstairs, and if you should size the stove down a notch from the big boys.

Also, look closely at all the dimensions and clearance requirements of both stoves to see if there are any factors that would make one a better fit over the other. If not, buy the one you like best.
 
I'm curious about the "Wood Room" myself?!

They kinda look about the same. I guess it'll come down to your material and visual appeal preferences, and perhaps the warranty and price as well.

If it were "me" ........I'd be looking for side load and front load combination.......depth of firebox (the deeper and wider the better, for building a good N/S - E/W fire combination).

Cosmetic appeal would be my final category, after these functional things, and then "reputation."



-Soupy1957
 
The Jotul is more of a radiant heater and would be better suited for an open floor plan. The PE is a convection heater and will give you a more even gentler heat and is better suited for a more chopped up floor plan and smaller stove rooms.
 
Both stoves are excellent choices. The F600 is more radiant, but we have the T6 in an open, 1st floor plan, with a large open staircase. The convective nature of the T6 is great in this setup. We continue to be amazed at the eveness of heating in the house. It is similar to a soapstone stove in behavior, but has the option of adding a blower if needed. However, the F600 has the advantage of being able to take longer wood splits if that is of importance. And it is available in high quality porcelain finishes if desired.

It would help to know what is the current stove that will be replaced and how many total square feet are being heated?
 
I'm interested in the answers because I'm also considering both of these stoves. I have 1800 square feet with an open floor plan and a ceiling fan. I'm replacing a Waterford Trinity cast-iron stove. I'm located in south central Washington at 2300 feet elevation. Lots of snow but it rarely dips into single digits here. I have no central heating in my home except my wood stove.
 
Go with the T6. At heart it is a steel stove, like God intended wood stoves to be, and you can load it N/S also as he intended. ;-)

Moses dropped the tablet with the wood stove stuff on it and broke it on the way down the mountain and never fessed up. The tablet was soapstone. :lol:
 
Ouch.. That hurt.. and my soapstone is hidden away on the inside of my beast. All those poor Heritage and Equinox users out there must be cut to the quick
 
bren582 said:
Ouch.. That hurt.. and my soapstone is hidden away on the inside of my beast. All those poor Heritage and Equinox users out there must be cut to the quick

I have to listen to you guys pee on my steel stove all year long. You'll all get over it. :lol:

Almost bought the Clydesdale myself in 2006. Money was in hand and the day before I discovered the 30-NC. Perfect fit for my fireplace and had always wanted to replace the old insert with a big steel freestander in there.
 
BrotherBart said:
I have to listen to you guys pee on my steel stove all year long. You'll all get over it. :lol:

Turn the volume up on the TV, or lock your doors. For the record, I would think smelling it would be worse than hearing it...

:cheese:

Still 90 degrees here..
 
elf,

As above, both are large and capable units. I have heard some double door stove owners complain about the double doors, ash entrainment into the living room etc , side loading takes care of this if you have the room to side load. Loading options, N/S and E/W seemed better with the T6 vs the E/W jot600.

There are serious clearance differences between these two units, we looked at both, and went with the T6 because of the clearances and some recommendations here. One nice thing, regarding the t6, you can be quite close to this stove and not get sunburnt from the radiant heat. And I could not tell by your drawing where the stove would be located, or the distances to furniture etc.

I still wonder how you burn a jot600 with the doors open and not overburn the stove?
 
Now I'm leaning toward the T6. Especially since I have a very nice leather sofa that is not too far from the stove. I would rather not fry it.

One more question, though...One of the reviewers on this website criticized the T6 for being a dirt magnet and also said that the swing-out warming surfaces rattle when you walk around in the same room as the stove. Anyone else had these issues? The reviewer said he wished he had bought the PE Summit instead. They're basically the same stove, right? Except the T6 has a cast iron shell and the Summit has a steel/porcelain enamel shell?

My house is rustic (hand-hewn logs in the main room), so the T6 seems a better fit than the more contemporary Summit. But I really hate dusting! It's bad enough having to dust the non-vertical walls, but now a dusty stove too?
 
We haven't had either issue with our T6. It actually looks pretty nice going on it's 3d year. We just vacuum the surfaces occasionally. No rattles at all in this stove. It's very solid. Sounds like that poster's trivet needs a little adjustment.
 
dstover said:
Now I'm leaning toward the T6. Especially since I have a very nice leather sofa that is not too far from the stove. I would rather not fry it.

One more question, though...One of the reviewers on this website criticized the T6 for being a dirt magnet and also said that the swing-out warming surfaces rattle when you walk around in the same room as the stove. Anyone else had these issues? The reviewer said he wished he had bought the PE Summit instead. They're basically the same stove, right? Except the T6 has a cast iron shell and the Summit has a steel/porcelain enamel shell?

My house is rustic (hand-hewn logs in the main room), so the T6 seems a better fit than the more contemporary Summit. But I really hate dusting! It's bad enough having to dust the non-vertical walls, but now a dusty stove too?

Any rattle is going to be caused by a poor subfloor, joist, support structure, period. Not the stove. Do your floors give or move when you walk across the room? if so a stove (or lamp, tv stand, computer desk..etc..) will rattle if it has moving parts.

The fact that any reviewer says they "wished they had bought another stove" means almost nothing, because EVERY install, and EVERY operator is/are different, so their experience, and expectations are not comparable, and, truthfully some people will never be satisfied anyways.

No stove is a "dust magnet", they are though, large dark appliances sitting in the corner of one of the most used rooms in the house. I doubt there is any evidence that any one stove attracts more dust than others.. but.. some stoves will be harder to keep/get dust free, because of the texture of finish, embelishments of casting detail, and nooks and crannies. I will agree that the T6 has a lot of space for the dust to land, with the grate design of the top. I will also say, space constraints are all that kept me from considering it. If we built a new house, with wood heat in mind, it would be a top runner for sure.
 
Just build a small fire, or wait 'til it's dying back a bit. You can't really do it with a full load, anyway, without making real use of your hearth protection.

I've found burning open-door really slows the fire. Used to do it all the time with the old Defiant. I don't see how you could overfire a stove like that even if you were trying.
 
Thanks for the feedback on the T6! I am going to check it out at a dealer's later this week.

Meanwhile, I am chuckling at the comment that anyone who hates dusting may not want a wood stove. So true! But who DOESN'T hate dusting? Anycase, I prefer it over freezing :)
 
elfsmachone said:
i am getting close to getting a new stove. i am soooo stuck between the pacific energy alderlea t6 and the jotul 600? please any info would be great.


So are you confused yet?
 
madison said:
I would still like to hear from any user or dealer how you keep from overfiring any of the stoves that are marketed for open door burning, like the jot600.

my GUESS is, that

a) you don't build a big "heat the house for 8 hours" fire, because you are using it in "fireplace mode" and

b) with the door WIDE open, the airflow is high enough to cool the gasses, and stove, for the very same reason that an open fireplace doesn't have near the chimney req. of a wood stove. The chimney I removed for my ZC wood burning FIREPLACE was very wimpy, yet looked fine after 15 years of burning, and some pretty big fires at that. I hate to contemplate the bTU's that we shot up that thing.

OPEN door is going to be very different from slightly cracked door..

either way, the way I see it, the manufacture not only approves it, they provide the parts to do it.. and they got engineers sitting around worrying about just this sort of thing. and are OK with it.
 
If your worried about dust and keeping the stove dust free you should seriously consider an enamel finish versus mat black..

I'm a clean freak around my health with damp towel and dustbuster at the ready to clean up after the reloads and ash removal and also to keep the stove looking nice and clean. My first stove was mat black and I regretted going that route within the first few days of using it.. My current stove has a blue/black enamel finish which looks great and is real easy to keep clean.. Well worth the upgrade cost..
 
I don't think enamel is an option on the Alderlea T6, only on the smaller T5 (which doesn't have the Extended Burn Technology feature).
 
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