So, I'm Waiting At The Stove Shop With A 17" Split In My Hand...

[begreen]

Actually I like both options. I always start a fire N/S, but there are times when I load E/W for a slower burn.

 

[Grisu]

I don't understand why someone would want to load a stove e/w? I tried it a few times when I first got my Blaze King and it was a pain to get wood in there without getting your hands or arms cooked!

My guess is you can make the viewing window wider without increasing the firebox size. When I recently looked at small stoves I found very few N/S probably for that reason.

 

[Highbeam]

Some manufacturers realize the difficulty with properly loading these goofy E/W fireboxes so they either add side doors (like my heritage) or completely eliminate the front door (like woosdstock). My heritage is only 1.5 CF but takes a 21 inch log E/W. I only use the side door. Really, have only ever opened the front door for cleaning.

The North American market demands a large viewing window and long splits. E/W fireboxes maximize the window size and allow long splits of wood.

Also, the stoves overall footprint is smaller since it doesn't stick out into the room so much if it is built like a dresser.

 

[BKVP]

Lots of manufacturers design wood fireplace inserts to now fit into the better selling zero clearance fireplaces. Older wood fireplace inserts went nearly always into masonry fireplaces, which had a different build design.

We make one of each. The Briarwood with 22" wide wood loading E/W and the Princess Insert with 16" N/S.

My two bits......

Chris

 

[BrowningBAR]

Some manufacturers realize the difficulty with properly loading these goofy E/W fireboxes so they either add side doors (like my heritage) or completely eliminate the front door (like woosdstock). My heritage is only 1.5 CF but takes a 21 inch log E/W. I only use the side door. Really, have only ever opened the front door for cleaning.

The North American market demands a large viewing window and long splits. E/W fireboxes maximize the window size and allow long splits of wood.

Also, the stoves overall footprint is smaller since it doesn't stick out into the room so much if it is built like a dresser.

I didn't enjoy side loading that much. I'd rather top load than side load. Never front loaded before. We'll see how that works.

 

[velvetfoot]

I just measured my HI300 firebox and came up with 19.25l x 18.25w x an average of 10.75h.

Shy of the claimed 2.3 ft3, but I guess I could've tweaked my measurements a little more.