The info on how the current stove works for you allows us to understand if the current stove is meeting your needs and what you will expect from a new stove.
I find it disturbing that an 8 cu ft firebox is only able to heat for six or seven hours. But, I am also having a hard time understanding if you need all of that stove for heat. At 8 cu ft, and it looks like a very large steel stove, that stove should be blasting you out of you 1,300 sq ft home. When run hot, that stove should easily get the main room to 90+ degrees on a full load.
If it does not offer that much heat, that either means there is something very wrong with the stove, or your house is far more drafty than we all understand.
If your house is incredibly drafty and it takes a stove that large to heat 1,300 sq ft, than you WILL have a hard time heating your house with a 3 cu ft stove.
Okay, I understand why you need the info, and I appreciate the help immensely.
To tell you the truth I'm not sure I remember how long a full load will burn, so far this year I've only burned small fires, last year I didn't burn at all, the year before that, I only had a couple of fires, and the year before that, I didn't burn at all, now I am retired and I have more time, and I need the exercise. Last year, I kept The Furnace heat low and put on a bunch of clothes, and that's a bunch of bull crap. Now I would like to, NOT use my gas furnace at all.
As far as the stove heating the house adequately, there's no problem with that, that big sucker will cook me out if I'm not careful, how much, and what size wood I put in it.
The stove was here when I bought the house, and yes, it may be bigger than necessary, especially when I shut the doors to two-bedrooms that are no longer used.
The house is drafty but it is insulated.
The chimney pulls a good draft, I have no problem starting up a fire even at 50°.
When I found out on here that the efficiency of the new stoves was 80% compared to 30% for smoke Dragon. I got excited, because that translates into a lot less wood and less screwing around with the stove.
So there is definitely a new stove in my future.
I want to be sure and not, end up with an under sized stove, for sure