buying either a st croix Lancaster or Kozi 100 have a few questions

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iroctt

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Sep 17, 2008
2
PA
I have narrowed it down to a st croix lancaster or Kozi 100. I have done searches and can't find much on the kozi. I will be heating my 2 story home 1400sq feet well insulated and shaped well for distrubution of heat. The dealer that sells the kozi has had great reviews in the last 2 years. They also sell amaizblaze and cumberland. The other dealer sells St croix and a few other smaller name brands. Any thoughts I'm new to these but I do have some common sense and can due the maintenace etc. Both stoves can use corn or pellet. I do like the fact the kozi if on pellets will turn itself off and then reignite when thermostat drops below setting to help in fuel savings. The lancaster with turn to its lowest setting to conserve fuel but will not shut off completely.
 
I have the Afton bay by st Croix and its been a trouble free stove for the last 1.5 years. St Croix's have a 2 stage thermostat setting that allows you to use smartstat for the cooler months shuts off after 1 hour if it does not demand heat and the thermostat setting which goes to a low setting during the coldest months and remains at the lowest setting until it calls for heat using the thermostat supplied with the unit. I have mine on a programmable thermostat and it works well. I burned 4 tons all last winter.
 
Woodsmen 23...what brand of thermostat are you using as I have a St Croix Prescott and am in the market for a thermostat as I type this..Thanks
 
I don't recall what the kozi 100 looks like, but I have the kozi 120 ( shop heater) and I would never buy a kozi again no matter what. That's my opinion.
 
well lets see..
I think my first mistake was buying a showcase one instead of a brand new one..
My burn pot is bent, I have a hard time controlling the right amount of air, grant it, my house is old and not well insulated, but I went through 1 ton of pellets a month last year. To me it is very hard to clean thoroughly. I can't seem to take the side panels off and get to the fan to clean. In my situation I had very poor service etc.. I finally found a good pellet at winters end last year. So hopefully I may not go through as many pellets this year..
 
Catfishjack said:
Woodsmen 23...what brand of thermostat are you using as I have a St Croix Prescott and am in the market for a thermostat as I type this..Thanks

I believe it's a ritetemp 8022c from home depot, was about 30 bucks and is 7 day programmable with 4 daily settings. It works very well.


EDIT: It's a 8022c ritetemp. They have an excellent website for any help you need with setup but its really easy to do. www.temprite.com click on this model number.
 
I burned a Lancaster for the last three years in a home the same size as yours (except mines a ranch) and it heated the house very well. I'm not familiar with Kozi, but if you burn corn you will need to drop the clinker once every 24 hours...maybe a bit less if you mix pellets and corn. I burned corn exclusively for the first year, then a mix of corn and pellets, then exclusively pellets. It did a good job heating but does require some daily maintenance (dropping the clinker/ash in the pot).
 
I'm a new user of the St Croix EXP and I also can't tell if the versa grate is working or not. If the shaker grate thats connected to that rod moves back and forth why don't the pellets just fall in the ash pan? The way I see it, the pellets sit on this, and its the bottom of the grate weldmount. I'm confused as how it works. As far as noise goes it does have a rattle to it. So far I love the stove I'm trying out the smart stat mode right now waiting to see if the stove will actually shut off.
 
The smart stat is a neat feature this early in the season. I come home to a warm house with only a handful of pellets burned and a stove that is shut down completely waiting on the next call to duty.

I asked my dealer about the versa grate as I was confused also. It moves very little forward and aft, you can't see it doing its thing so to speak due to the fact that it is at the bottom of the burn pot and is a very subtle movement. If you take out your pot, you will see the versa grate is essentially the floor to your pot, this moves back and forth just a enough to keep the ash from building up in the pot. Mine seems to work well, it doesn't move enough to leave any openings for pellets or anything large to get out it just sifts the ash so to speak to keep it moving through.

Hope this doesn't confuse anybody because it makes sense to me but I don't thinks I am really explaining it all too well. Oh yeah and so far I love my St. Croix, however saying that I really don't have anything to compare it to!
 
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