Who makes the highest btu output FS pellet and multifuel stove

[Snowy Rivers]

I have seen a few 70K BTU stoves but without going to a furnace, heating 3500 feet is a chore.

We are heating 2400 feet in a Ranch style house and use 3 stoves. We choose which one will be pulling duty based on the outside temp,wind, cloud cover etc.

During very windy and cold weather, at least two stoves will be online.

Now another plus to having more than one unit is this, what do you do on a cold nasty and dark night when your ONE (1) stove decides to quit ??? ( its midnight and blistering arsed cold out)

With mutiple units its a simple "turn the feed rate up a notch and go back to bed"

Had the Quad go down one night a few years back and it was 5F outside.

Both stoves were needed and the igniter decided the leave for parts unknown.

Now with a third stove in the house I simply have no issues. A failure is a minor anoyance rather than a serious problem.


Lots of choices

Good luck

Snowy

 

[jtakeman]

I keep forgeting about the Bixby UBB, Its a 70,000 BTU monster and multifuel unit. But I have heard mixed reviews about them. The other forum seems more receptive to these stoves and the users seem happy with them. One neat thing is the control is totally programmable by the operator. Many features can be tweaked to user specs. I think rona(a member here) Has a bixby maxfire, Which is very simular just not as much heat output. Maybe he can chime in and give us his thoughts on them. As they do seem to be a bit over built or Almost too technical with there design on the feed system.

I wish more stoves were like that though. So many stoves lock you into there proprietary fuel curves and are not user adjustable. Same with other features of there program. Like my Omega's multifuel mode has a clean cycle(or fuel burn up-cleanup-Burns up the fuel in the burn pot or whatever they call it). It puts the stove in low fire mode for more than a bit and lowers the heat output. Kind of inoying when you need the extra heat on a cold day. Most of the time its not needed as there isn't an excess of unburned fuel in the burnpot. So you are stuck on low heat until it times out of it. It would be nice to adjust this feature in intervals and length of time of the cycle. Another reason I dont burn straight corn in my Omega. Maybe I will swap out this proprietary control for one of Bixbys controls and adapt it to my Omega? (Yes I am serious here!)

Maybe they will make a furnace or add on one of these days. Just hope it has a drop chute instead of the funny feed wheel system.

 

[rona]

I have had a Bixby 115 for 3 years and also have a UBB that is on its second season.
Bixby stoves seem to generate a love-hate ownership. Meaning that yeah they are a little more complicated then a manual start and manual dump of the clinker but once the owner gets used to how they work they are a top of the line stove.
The 115 puts out 50,000 btu and the UBB puts out 70,000 btu. The UBB is slightly more complicated as it lets you control the ash dum intervals , the convection fan speed via additional knobs rather then just the exh fan speed and the feed rate speed knobs found on the 115.
The owner can purchase a cable to connect both the UBB and the 115 to their computer and using free upgrades can fine tune how their stove operates. This cable also allows the owner to use Bixcheck which does a self diagnosis of 47 different functions of either models. It also allows you to adjust the convection fan slightly so the stove will be a little quieter at lower settings.
Basically either one can be a simple as you want or if you like to tinker you can have fun doing that. either can be run via thermostat. You can program the 115 to shut down and restart automatically if you like or it can idle along like its big brother the UBB.
I have helped a lot of people via e-mail with problems with these stoves and most of the time they weren't given proper help via the dealer who sold it to them.
Any stove can and will have problems at some point and when a company offers auto ignition and auto dumping of the clinker there is two additional problems that a simpler stove won't have.
The UBB had two software upgrades that I know of and after that they run with no problems. The software is free so if a owner wants to update it isn't a big deal.
I forgot to mention either stove will burn pellets or corn with a twist of a knob.

 

[jtakeman]

Thanks rona,

I may need to pick your brain one of these days on the UBB. As in will it do the idle and restart on thermostat? I don't care so much about the time controlled start as much as the Auto restrart with thermostat. As I always use my programable stat to do my timing of when I need heat.

Thanks again
jay

 

[rona]

The UBB with a thermostat will just idle with a pilot light or low flame until the thermostat calls for heat. Then it will ramp up until the room reaches your desired temp setting then it will idle again. Remember it is designed more as a furnace rather then a stand alone stove such as the 115 that will start and stop via the thermostat.

 

[andyc]

rona & jay, thanks for the info on the UBB. I have heard of Bixby, never seen one will look into that. I have never used a T stat and have always run in manual.
Thanks again.
Andy

 

[jtakeman]

Andy,

I was checking the Eviro site today and noticed a few new stoves they released. They have a cast iron M55 version and a monster called the Maxx M. Not much info on the maxx m, But I assume its a maxx in multi fuel clothing. SO its total max BTU's will be higher than the Omega.

Hope they release more info soon!
jay

 

[andyc]

Jay, Thanks for the update. I will look into them. I have not found alot about the UBB with burning pellets...some corn info but few are using pellets. I like the idea of it with being able to change parameters for fine tuning and such. I'll keep looking around.
Thanks again.
Andy