neumsky said:
@ VCBurner...It is difficult to see how to pick a stove out...particularily when ya'll keep buying other stoves...you'd think besides the fact something is cheap is the reason why something is bought...you'd think we could figure out today which is the number one stove purchased...or at least one of the top 5 or something. So you miss the Dutchwest cat???
Yes, I miss my Dutchwest, dearly! Even though my Windsor could have tons of heat pumping out of it with the touch of a button! Crazy,right?
My first stove was the Box#27, non airtight, nothing to control but the ash pan lid, which served as an air intake of sorts. A friend of mine gave me that one. After a 6 day power outage I decided to get something a little more efficient that could heat the entire house. I bought Surdiac Gotha 513 for $80 on craigslist, it heated my house for the better part of two heating seasons. It was thermostatically controlled and was a huge seller in the 70's and 80's. You coud just fill it and set the thermostat, which would control the air intake, so operation was easy, but fires were short. It was also a coal stove, so if we ever ran out of wood, we could grab some bags of coal and run it for up to 24 hours on one load. Coal was not my cup of tea though.
I started heating the house strickly with wood after seeing how much money I could save. The oil man would come to the neighbor's house and I'd smile knowing how expensive those monthly visits were! I even convinced the next door neighbor to supplement his heat after he came into my house and saw how warm he could be in the winter! He ended up with a pellet burner insert in his fireplace and his furnace was pretty much off after that day! My journey was a bit more complicated. I had started to look for a used modern EPA rated stove that was capable of an overnight burn and was a wood saver that could heat my house in the coldest of nights by itself. I had two stoves at that point, one in the basement and the other in the livingroom fireplace. I went through 6.5-7 cords the year before I bought my Dutchwest. That was cut in half the following season. I found it used, newly reconditioned for$600. It was just like new, every seam recemented, new paint and gaskets, looked just like the ones at the stoveshop. The cat was used but had a couple seasons left on it. The thing was heavy, 436 pounds of double walled cast iron, built like a tank. No briddle refractory or ceramic baffles that could break while loading. The only refractory part is housed inside the secondary burn chaimber where no log could reach it on top of the fire box, hidden by a cast iron baffle that is a very unique design. A time tested design that has remained the same since 1993. It has had one of the lowest emmission ratings on the market. Still today.
I agree it is difficult choosing a stove. I had a hard time selecting one, or four...
The truth is I fell in love with wood stoves...LOL...my wife thinks I'm crazy...obsessed with stoves...like many of us here are. But when we moved, we ended up with hundreds of dollars and a brand new washer/dryer set wort $2000 in the new house, as a result of my stove sales. I spent a fraction of the money that we made on the stoves. It is always fun testing out a new stove, my best one was the Dutchwest. True there are others that would do the same. Some may even be better. But Dutchwest cat stoves are still some of the best bang for your buck in cast iron EPA rated. Low emmissions, low maintenance cost, low wood consumption, controlable heat and low burn capability.
