Blaze King? QuadraFire? Other? Keep old stove?

[Nimrod1911]

I have a huge Fire King stove in my basement heating a 2200 sq ft ramber with full basement. (2200 on each). Not our primary heating source. Stove heats well but no blower to push hot air and eats wood rapidly. It is 36" wide and has a large fire box. I need to replace the heat rope. When I crank it down it will continue to burn but provide very little heat. (ie: efficiency drops off a cliff during really slow burns) I burn mainly on weekends but would love to burn more often but given low burn times, I often don't hassle during the week. 1) Will a new modern stove make that much of a difference? 2) Blaze Kings (Princess) receive rave reviews but I'm nervous about the Cat combuster. Can you burn the Blaze King's without the Cat installed? What will happen? Not that I plan to but I'm just thinking about emergencies, etc or if I want to burn some crappy wood... 3) What type of burn times are you getting out of your Quadra-Fires (4300, 5700 ), PE's and Lopi Endeavor stoves? 4) I've read about PE stoves having baffle issues. True? Would you go with Quadrafire over PE? 5) Going with a bigger box is nice because I don't have to split smaller pieces, BUT do larger boxes lend themselves to the law of diminishing returns (ie: they start to eat too much wood....less efficient)
PS: I usually burn lodgpole pine. Live in northern Utah.

 

[ohlongarm]

I had a Quad 5700 actually 2 ,the old style before they put all the worthless gadjetry on them. The first one bought in 2004 was a good heater but consumed a lot of wood,burn times were 8 hours honest at best,but alas it cracked both sides.The replacement 5700 at no expense to me was all but worthless 6 hours at best burn times little heat.Got rid of it in a month ,got suckered into buying a Buck 94nc,it turned out to be the worst of its 2 predecessors,got caught up in the Blaze King fever got a King been 2 years now and never looked back it heats the best and consumes at least a third less wood than the others. Not hard to learn how to use,it likes good seasoned wood,burn times with honest heat output range from 12 minimum to 30 hours with real heat output for me ,I'm not into marathons of anything longer 12 hours is really all I require and it does that easily. Couldn't honestly answer your question as to burning it without a cat,but I'm sure someone will. Good luck.

 

[jeff_t]

What's your chimney like? Is the basement finished/insulated? Uninsulated basement will suck up a lot of heat.

Whatever you burn, it works best with good, dry wood, even your old stove. Removing the cat to burn junk is pretty impractical, and requires a gasket replacement, at least with a Blaze King. The cat is what makes cat stoves efficient. Treat it well and it won't just fail at some inopportune moment.

That is a lot of space to heat with a stove. Have you considered a stove on the main level? Perhaps a wood burning furnace?

 

[eclecticcottage]

I have the sister stove to the Endeavor, the less expensive version (Republic 1750). Best burn time was 12-14 hours (still had some usable heat/coals left)-I know I should have a better time range but I can't recall. Hardwood with ecobricks mixed and no wind. I haven't tried a well packed day long burn on pine yet this season. I'm thinking 8 to 10 hours, more likely 8, based on the box elder we've been burning.

For a basement install with your sq ft and fuel, I'd vote for a blaze king. *disclaimer-I'm basing that from posts here, not personal experiance. I have no personal experiance with a BK nor a cat stove.

 

[Todd]

Don't worry about the cat, if you have to burn crappy wet wood it can be done but you have to burn in the bypass mode a little longer til the moisture is gone. It won't give you the heat that good dry wood will give but sometimes you gots to do what you gots to do before you get ahead on your wood supply. Blaze King also has a 10 year pro rated warranty on their cats.

As far as Your non cats go I'd go with the PE. I like their floating stainless baffle and they also have decent burn times.

 

[Nimrod1911]

BTW: My basement is finished. Fully insulated. I supplement with the stove. Furnace is primary heat but i do have access to a lot of wood. Just don't like burning it up so fast. Pipe is single wall, then insulated. As it goes through wall and attic.

 

[Sprinter]

I have the sister stove to the Endeavor, the less expensive version (Republic 1750). Best burn time was 12-14 hours (still had some usable heat/coals left)-I know I should have a better time range but I can't recall. Hardwood with ecobricks mixed and no wind. I haven't tried a well packed day long burn on pine yet this season. I'm thinking 8 to 10 hours, more likely 8, based on the box elder we've been burning.

For a basement install with your sq ft and fuel, I'd vote for a blaze king. *disclaimer-I'm basing that from posts here, not personal experiance. I have no personal experiance with a BK nor a cat stove.

I'm curious. What is a typical good burn time for you, say, overnight?

 

[Nimrod1911]

I can get about 7 hours with very few coals left if I have a big round log in it. Usually I put a big log on very late (11:00 or later) and before I head for work I head down to be disappointed with warm ash....no coals (7:30).