Has anyone tried cast iron and steel

[AZ23]

Does anyone have experience with both and which way would you go

 

[BrotherBart]

I have two cast and one steel stove. I love steel stoves. Big honkin steel stoves.

BTW: Are you talking about pellet or wood stoves?

 

[AZ23]

Pellet

 

[BrotherBart]

Be interesting to see the replies. For the life of me I can't think of one reason except looks that it would make a difference with a pellet stove.

 

[AZ23]

That's what I'm guessing too

 

[stovelark]

I have both, got the EF3 downstairs in fin basement heating like hell when called for, wife liked the cast enameled Empress not a huge heater, but adequate, quiet and of course I liked it when she did.....

 

[nailed_nailer]

I replaced an Enviro EF-2 (Steel) with a Enviro M55-C (Cast)
The M55 does radiate heat from the casting when I run it long and hot.
Not sure what the total (convection and radiant) BTU difference between the Cast and Steel versions of the M55 are.

Liked the look of the Cast M55 better.
---Nailer---

 

[Mt Bob]

I agree,looks only,has no other pluses,but has drawbacks.

 

[AZ23]

What drawbacks

 

[Mt Bob]

Brittle.That is why a comparable steel piece is/can be thinner.

 

[toddnic]

My experience was with an old cast iron smokedragon 20 years ago and this year with our Progress Hybrid. My friend has both a cast iron and a steel woodstove. I think he prefers the steel over the cast iron.

 

[tjnamtiw]

Cast iron on most pellet stoves is just for looks IMHO. My Castile front door WILL get hot but only because the stupid design puts the door right in the way of the air outlet! That's why I usually run the stove with the door open.

 

[BGStG1aholic]

My old steel ps put out so much radiant heat off the sides I had to put a piece of tin between it and my TV for a heat shield/disipator as the TV was getting too hot from the stove

My new cast ps(xxv) puts off pretty much no radiant heat worth mentioning from the sides - it gets warm/hot to the touch after running it hot for a long time but nothing like the blister hot skin burning steel stoves do

I guess that's one advantage of cast is if you have limited room you can have it a bit closer to surrounding things than the steel one can be placed

If yer not concerned about having a downright beautiful shiny stove to look cool and awesome in your house I'd stick with the P series like you have, maybe jump up to something a bit larger if you need more heat. The steel stoves look cool in their own way, more of a less frills down to business look and more bang for the buck from what I've heard. .

I kinda like the old steel ps I have cause it gives off more radiant heat and feels more like my old wood stove did.

 

[whlago]

My "cast iron" Enviro M55 is basically a steel stove with 2 cast iron sides and a cast iron top. Looks good and might radiate some heat, but I believe the purpose is for looks only. Sure is heavy!!

 

[tjnamtiw]

My steel Sante Fe and my cast Castile both radiate almost no heat. It's all convection.

 

[AZ23]

Ya I noticed on the p43 that my tv is so hot, it's about 5 feet from it

 

[tjnamtiw]

Is that from radiant heat or the fan blowing the air that way?