Help Comparing a Harman TL300 and a BlazeKing

For me I don't own the fireplace feature or the roasting basket, I only use the drop in grill, which works quite well as long as your down to coals, if you still have allot of wood the food has a tendency to become a little over done.

Thats what i was referring to, the grill.

I though you were referring to rotisery option.

After 5 year using this stove i have both and have used neither,but plan to use both as soon as it gets cold here. With solar assist here im well into november before i need serious heat. Then only sporadically.

No, don't have either one. Wanted the fireplace screen but have some smoke allergies in the house so decided not to go with it.

Of course you use the fireplace screen with the bypass door open so your not in the efficient mode,but for the few times you use it, its the ambiance of an open fire.

You guys have me considered the TL-300 for my upstairs fireplace now.

The TL-300 certainly has my attention! http://www.harmanstoves.com/Products/TL300-Wood-Stove.aspx They claim up to 18 hr. burn time and large firebox with a reasonable MSRP as well..

BTW heavy thunderstorms here right now!
Ray

If you can see one in operation somewhere ,that would help with your decision. There are a lot of good stoves out there,when i was gettin started woodburning in 2008 i bought a cheap $500 non epa stove from TSC store. That almost poisoned me against wood stoves with its 3 hour burn times . I thought geez this is like a second job and what do you do overnight. But because i have wood coming out my ears and need to dispose of it i pressed on and decided to go to the top of the line with one more try.
What a difference a hi-tech well built stove can make. Turned me into a wood burner for life.

I don't know, I love the options for the TL300 but that combustion chamber still scares me.

I did the samething when I started wood burning, I bought a small Drolet stove (rated at 1K sq ft) that had max 3 hour burn times, I had to run it around 700 to even get the basement into the 60's. When I ran it at 500 it plugged the chimney in about a month. (See some of my original posts where I discuss my headaches). That year I have to admit I did lose weight constantly running up and down the stairs to add wood and keep it above 600. Overnight burns were a pipe dream, I had to get up every three hours to re-load it then spend 1/2-1 hour gettting it going. Last night the stove was running at 425 on setting one and the basement was 77 and the upstairs was 75. 9 hours later the stove was at 375, the basement was at 75 and the upstairs was at 73, outside temps was 22. Still had plenty of coals left, could have easily went another 5 hours.

One of the things to understand with this stove is that a higher air setting doesn't mean you are going to get more heat. After I get the stove/pipe heated up to maintain the afterburn I run it on setting one and get more heat doing that then it does on setting 3.

Nothing to be scared of,it works better than the design with all the tubes with the holes IMO. Its designed to give as even heat output as a cat stove WITHOUT the cat. Other types of stoves (non cat) do not throw heat as evenly throughout the burn.

Exactly what does this firedome do? Is it expensive and/or difficult to replace and how long should it last? Couldn't find much info on the firedome..

Ray

The firedome is a ceramic structure in the bottom -back of the stove When the bypass door is closed it forces the flue gas previously exiting the top of the firebox down and into the firedome where super heated fresh air is introduced into it. If internal stove temp is 1100 or above it ignites the gas and with the aid of some hi-temp refractory material inside the firedome burns extremely hot consuming virtually all the remaining wood gas. This fragile refractory material is up inside so its well protected,if you take the flue pipe off and look down you can see it.

Just hope it holds up unlike the VC's that were expensive and difficult to replace and didn't seem to last too long.. Too bad because they do make a beautiful stove. Supposedly the new ones are much better and only time will tell..

Ray

I have mine 5 years and it still works like new,i checked it and its not dirty either, SO im hoping to go at least 10 years before i even check it again, I understand a replacement kit is about $300 so if it goes 10 years thats $30 a year.