Insert dilema...Hampton or PE Summit

Wife & I decided to put an insert in our upstairs masonry fireplace since we never use it after getting our Drolet stove in the basement one. The Drolet has been really good to us but when the temp gets below 15F the upstairs can get a little cool especially in the morning when the stove is down to coals. Its critical to reload at the right times to heat a third of a basement and 1600 sq ft upstairs of a ranch style home to 70 degrees plus below that 15 degree outside temp.

So after visiting all the local dealers and online dealers. We've narrowed it down to the Hampton HI300 in black or the PE Summit with brushed nickel door. Close in price with the PE being about $350 more with the brushed nickel door. My wife likes the Hamptons look and I gravitate towards the PE's large firebox size and design features: floating firebox, stainless baffle.

Anybody care to weigh in on their experience with either model-good or bad? Sometimes I get to locked in a one model and easily overlook details of another.

I have a question about the secondary burn of the PE models-how does it compare to a unit with tubes? Is the flame a lot different or???

This has been some good feedback-thanks to all that replied. Lets keep it coming!

I should state that the price difference did include the blower on the Hampton. The options chosen are the same between stoves other than we can't get a brushed nickel door on the Hampton, but my wife says the ornate design of the Hampton makes up for it. They had the Hampton insert with the brown enamel on display in the store, but we were not real fond of it because it wouldn't go well with the stonework in the fireplace. So if we go with that model it would be the black.

I've got another question about the cast iron Hampton-is their any difference in long term maintenance with a cast iron insert or other things I should know?

Be Green I was surprised to see your statement about the longer burn times on the mid size PE's stoves! I noticed this morning when going through the literature from the dealer that only the PE Summits have the "EBT" or extended burn time feature. Booklet doesn't go into great detail about it, but I found it surprising to read that the stoves that don't have it burn the longest burn time. Any body know what the EBT really does to the fire?

Thanks for all the input. You all will hate me now but today I put my order in on a stove-but its neither of the 2 listed above. After hatching out back and forth with my wife neither of us could agree on the two mentioned stoves. I ended going back through my older choices which included the Clydesdale and BK Princess insert. I called the BK dealer and found out we could get a brushed nickel door on the Princess Insert. Looking through the literature a few months prior my wife said no way to the gold door and she thought the black was to plain on that stove.

So by next week I'll have the Drolet non catalytic in the basement still and future catalytic upstairs to install. The Summit and Clydesdale were really nice stoves but each had features I liked and didn't like, she liked Hampton the most out of all of them just purely because of its look.

Now its time to get my liner kit ordered!