Now this is a stove

This may not be pretty but it would be great for heating a big farm house. Claims 200,000 BTUs and really long burn times. Given the size of that firebox, I have no doubt a big custom woodstove would blow the doors off any conventionally manufactured non-cat stove. If I had $$$ and a big property with outbuildings and such, I would be by-passing the traditional stove makers and looking for custom designers to build huge stoves that could take equally big splits.

http://www.jimbonham.com/Stove/

His point does make sense though. By taking a 36" log length, you are basically doing half the work. My little Heritage is good, but I do wish I have a 4 cubic firebox at times when it's 10 degrees outside and blowing.

I cannot completely disagree that one size greater would have been better. Such is life. Trial and error.

I may add another stove. Seems like I can get it done for the cost of a Mansfield. I could add an Englander for $2k with install given the location and the fact that the first install needed 24 feet of pipe and the next one would need only 14 feet with about 10 feet less of class A. We'll see. Could always just run the furnace on the really cold days as my wife has pointed out. 92% high efficient natural gas. That's logical, but it feels like defeat all the same. Logic is not always what a man wants to hear.

One issue with 36" long logs is finding a spliter that will split something that long. It would be hard to split somthing that long by hand unless it is very straigt grain. My boiler will take 30" long piecies and that's plenty long IMHO. Most spliters I've seen only go to 26"

good point

When I was up in Maine visiting my sister I saw an ad from a guy up there doing something similar, building a big ass stove, I remember wondering how many cords the beast would eat in a year.

I am sure he will also tell you to burn a soda can in it every week to keep down the creosote. Some people just can't understand why stove manufacturers do things like put in firebrick to keep the heat in the firebox for better combustion. At least he was smart enough to put a basic baffle in that thing.