BeGreen said:
Given the parameters, I would be looking into a cat stove. The suggestion for a Woodstock Keystone is a good one. In the BK line, have you looked at the Chinook?
I looked at that one as well. My wife doesn't like the design. Surprisingly she actually like the look of the BKK. My father-in-law has an old 1980's BKK so I'm basing my decisions off the look of that; I'm assuming not much has changed.
I might end up going with the BKK just because I need long burn times with not the greatest wood. I figure the 40 hour burn time for the BKK is with the best wood (40 MBTU per cord) and ideal conditions. Lodgepole Pine is more like 20MBTU per cord. So I figure I can get 20 hours of burn time if i'm lucky, maybe more like 15 stuffed full. 15 hours burn time seems ideal for me. That gives me enough time to sleep in on weekends and still not have to load the fire first thing in the morning.
Either way I'm holding out this winter with my Efel Oil stove, so hopefully by the time I buy next year Blaze King will have their new line of stoves out and I might like those better.
I really do like the looks of the Hearthstone soapstone stoves and the VC Defiant. They just don't seem to have the burn times I need.
Again, thanks for all the great input!