Blaze King Ashford Or Hearthstone Manchester

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fagan2425

New Member
Mar 31, 2022
14
Rochester NY
I am just about to pull the trigger and make a final choice. I am new here but I though I would see what kind of feedback I might get.... I understand there's pluses / minuses, and personal preferences, etc. BUT was wondering what some folks might recommend - Blaze King Ashford or Hearthstone Manchester ? We are definitely going with the brown enamel on either, and like the looks of both - which is important. Looking to heat 2200 sq ft, ease of use is important for wife, pretty sold on a cat stove, like clean glass and nice fire view, house is older not insulated great.
Any recommendations / info / experiences would be much appreciated. I guess I am seeing more negative reviews on the hearthstone and more positive on Blaze King..... Just seeing if I might be persuade. thanks,
 
I am just about to pull the trigger and make a final choice. I am new here but I though I would see what kind of feedback I might get.... I understand there's pluses / minuses, and personal preferences, etc. BUT was wondering what some folks might recommend - Blaze King Ashford or Hearthstone Manchester ? We are definitely going with the brown enamel on either, and like the looks of both - which is important. Looking to heat 2200 sq ft, ease of use is important for wife, pretty sold on a cat stove, like clean glass and nice fire view, house is older not insulated great.
Any recommendations / info / experiences would be much appreciated. I guess I am seeing more negative reviews on the hearthstone and more positive on Blaze King..... Just seeing if I might be persuade. thanks,
With 2200 squ ft not well insulated and liking clean glass with fire view I am curious why you are sold on a cat stove?
 
If you have a 2200 sqft home that needs quite a bit of heat, you will see flames in the BK. But note that you won't always see flames, depending on your need for heat. The BK does have an extended range of heat outputs, extended at the bottom end that is. (I don't know how the top end outputs compare here.) However, that bottom end will be no flame, and possibly more dirt on the windows (though the newer models have better airwash, I read).

What is your floor plan? 2200 is a big space, but if it's all segmented up, your stove room will be hot and the rest not. I assume you're talking about the 30.2, not the 20 firebox for the Ashford (to compare with the Manchester)?

What is your chimney set up? How tall from the top of the stove to the cap? Insulated?

Do you have a current stove? If so, how is that working out regarding output (and spreading the heat into the home)?

I like my BK, it puts out enough heat to heat my 1700 sqft home from the (additional 825 sqft) basement. That's why I got it. However, if you want to sit and stare into the fire, other stoves may be better suited.
 
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With 2200 squ ft not well insulated and liking clean glass with fire view I am curious why you are sold on a cat stove?
I guess just based on my researching it seems to be the way to go - with longer burn times more efficiency / use less wood? , and yes - the 26% tax credit. I'd consider the Pacific Energy Alderea t5 I guess - just not thrilled about the dealer that sells them here, and trying to avoid constant wood feeding.
 
If you have a 2200 sqft home that needs quite a bit of heat, you will see flames in the BK. But note that you won't always see flames, depending on your need for heat. The BK does have an extended range of heat outputs, extended at the bottom end that is. (I don't know how the top end outputs compare here.) However, that bottom end will be no flame, and possibly more dirt on the windows (though the newer models have better airwash, I read).

What is your floor plan? 2200 is a big space, but if it's all segmented up, your stove room will be hot and the rest not. I assume you're talking about the 30.2, not the 20 firebox for the Ashford (to compare with the Manchester)?

What is your chimney set up? How tall from the top of the stove to the cap? Insulated?

Do you have a current stove? If so, how is that working out regarding output (and spreading the heat into the home)?

I like my BK, it puts out enough heat to heat my 1700 sqft home from the (additional 825 sqft) basement. That's why I got it. However, if you want to sit and stare into the fire, other stoves may be better suited.
You guys a great - appreciate the quick response.
The house is a two story - mostly open floor plan , except one living area I know might not get heated well, plus a far away bedroom. I have a new high efficiency furnace that I wont freak out if it still is used minimally, My old house we had 24/7 wood heat but it was half the size of current home. It was a small Lopi, had to be fed wood often and went out a lot.
This would be a new install chimney too. Going through wall ( w/ 2 45's of course ) then straight up 15 - 20 ft. estimate was for double wall pipe.
 
I guess just based on my researching it seems to be the way to go - with longer burn times more efficiency / use less wood? , and yes - the 26% tax credit. I'd consider the Pacific Energy Alderea t5 I guess - just not thrilled about the dealer that sells them here, and trying to avoid constant wood feeding.
Longer burn times yes if your BTU load is low.

More efficency yes at the lower burn rates.

Less wood used yes as long as you are burning at lower burn rates.

The tax credit yeah almost all that qualify are cat stoves.
 
Both stoves will give you longer burn times, but as bholler said, that's only when you ask for less heat. If you go full blast, you'll be emptying the stove quicker.

With a horizontal section and two elbows, 15 ft won't be enough for the BK. Minimum is 15' if straight up, and the minimum increases with the elbows and horizontal section.
 
If you’re the type who will run the stove in spring and fall, when it’s not blistering cold outside, then a cat stove could serve you well, and the BK could have an advantage there. But if you’re only running it when it’s very cold outside, then you’ll likely not see much advantage in a cat stove, and might prefer the more lively fire view of a non-cat.

47F and rainy here, today. Two cat stoves running (BK Ashford 30’s) on 24+hour burn cycles, and thanking myself for not buying a non-cat.

BK 30’s do have a nice fire view, when run medium or high, but it goes away when you turn down low for very long burns. A few of us do 30+ hour burns in BK 30’s, and the wood is basically just shouldering at that rate.

As to the original question, BK vs Hearthstone, is your place framed or masonry? If masonry, is it insulated?
 
Regarding the efficiency: the efficiencies of the most modern stoves do not deviate in a way that the user can measure easily in wood consumption. If 74% of your wood gets to be heat in your home or 78% of your wood, and thus you'd have a slightly longer burn time in the 78% - you won't know, because of the variability of wood packing in your stove is much larger than that from load to load.

Also, cat stoves, as Ashful said, are good at the low end of BTU output. I don't think at the high end, there is much difference (and it's conceivable that tube stoves might be more efficient at that range than cat stoves).

So, I concur with Ashful: if you plan to burn also when you don't really need it a lot (and I note your, quite appropriate "ok to have the furnace on for a bit here and there" which seems to go against that), the advantages of a cat stove may not be measurable as compared to a tube stove. If, however, you are going to heat with wood mostly/"no matter what", and that means you need to also run the stove *a bit* when it's 50 outside, then a cat stove is ideal. Though possibly not all cat stoves - the BK is unique because of its thermostat allowing a very even heat output also when running low (where fluctuations in heat output e.g. due to falling half-burnt splits in your firebox will normally create fluctuations in heat output).

This is again a rewording of the "BK extended its usability range to lower BTU outputs", i.e. it's an "*also* at lower BTU outputs" statement.

Again, I like my BK, but you have to be aware that for many hours that you burn you may not have flames, in particular when you burn also in shoulder seasons. And in my personal experience, when burning medium, you have only a few flames. Fascinating to watch (little explosions of secondary "northern light" flames etc), but not the classical "fireplace look".

To me, if ambiance is a fair decision factor in your case, and you don't live in Alaska where you'd be running full bore a LOT of the time, you need to be aware that a BK will not give you that ambiance a significant fraction of your burning hours (but will give you great, even, controllable heat - always).
 
If you’re the type who will run the stove in spring and fall, when it’s not blistering cold outside, then a cat stove could serve you well, and the BK could have an advantage there. But if you’re only running it when it’s very cold outside, then you’ll likely not see much advantage in a cat stove, and might prefer the more lively fire view of a non-cat.

47F and rainy here, today. Two cat stoves running (BK Ashford 30’s) on 24+hour burn cycles, and thanking myself for not buying a non-cat.

BK 30’s do have a nice fire view, when run medium or high, but it goes away when you turn down low for very long burns. A few of us do 30+ hour burns in BK 30’s, and the wood is basically just shouldering at that rate.

As to the original question, BK vs Hearthstone, is your place framed or masonry? If masonry, is it insulated?
Framed. I would be purchasing new chimney going through a wall (first floor) and up 15 + feet to whatever height I need above the roof / second story. its just estimated at 15 ft of chimney once outside - straight shot after that.
I would definitely be running Sept - April, perhaps just maybe not at the lowest temp - I don't necessarily need 30 hr burn times, just something better than 4 - 6 hours like my old stove. So maybe running it at medium.
 
Superfluous, but better to repeat: framed = no insert (but a freestanding stove). Inserts need to be in a masonry fireplace.

You'll get better burn times than 4-6 hours with both (or any EPA approved modern stove - edit: see bholler below, a small one may not...). So don't feel limited by the "30 hrs" that both BK and Hearthstone advertise. 8-10 hrs is very standard these days.

(And again, the 30 hr for BK is real. I recently did a 32-35 hr run of usable heat (relighting from coals would have been closer to 40 hrs); my wife did not check each hour in the basement... I don't know the Manchester, and how reliable their claim is. I can only vouch for the BK in this respect - at very low heat output. I.e. I kept my basement at 72 F for that long, and 68 in the floor above when it was around 40 outside.)
 
Framed. I would be purchasing new chimney going through a wall (first floor) and up 15 + feet to whatever height I need above the roof / second story. its just estimated at 15 ft of chimney once outside - straight shot after that.
I would definitely be running Sept - April, perhaps just maybe not at the lowest temp - I don't necessarily need 30 hr burn times, just something better than 4 - 6 hours like my old stove. So maybe running it at medium.
Any medium to large modern stove is going to get you more than 4 to 6 hours of burn time if run properly with good fuel.
 
Hearthstone make beautiful stoves. I have to say, no bias, the AF30.2 in chestnut enamel is beautiful. As everyone here knows, I have a King because I like the huge firebox. Regardless of model, they all have the even heat output due to the thermostat. I think the even heat output is agreed to by owners. (Including me!) But I do work for the company in the event you are not aware of it.

Hearthstone stoves are very nice, operating wood stoves. I think you'll find most catalytic stoves do require increased chimney length. It's unavoidable as you drive up thermal efficiency. Regardless of whichever stove you decide to purchase, you will be happy with your purchase. Get all your wood in storage early for next winter and the one after that!

Ashful has two Ashford stoves (both 30's as I recall) and can provide input on the performance/likes and dislikes.
 
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Agreed with everything said here. Both stoves are beautiful, both cats, I'm partial to the BK (otherwise I'd own two Hearthstones), but I can see the appeal in both. I can't speak good or bad about the Hearthstone, so I'll just give you the reasons I bought the Ashford 30's, and tell you how I run them:

1. I wanted a cat stove for the ability to turn down further and get more even heat. The non-cats follow more of a "pump and glide" heating profile, more BTU's in the first 2 hours, and then tapering off. This can work fine when you're not sitting directly next to it, as the mass of your house and every object in it acts as a big capacitor, to level off the effect. But one of my stoves is located a mere 10 feet from my desk chair, where I sit and work all day and night, and I was looking for tech that would give the most even possible heat.

2. I wanted a stove that had the widest possible range of outputs and burn times, so it would suit my schedule as best as possible, over the widest range of months. When I bought these stoves (pre-COVID), my wife and I were both gone from the house for most of 12 hours per day. I wanted a stove I could load at 6am, and arrive home to a warm house at 6pm. In the dead of winter, this is possible with either a cat or a non-cat, just load the firebox full and set for a 12 hour cycle. But as most describe managing their non-cats on lower heat load days by just having shorter fires with fewer splits of wood, I knew that would not work for my scenario of needing heat 12 hours later, not just for a few hours in the morning when I wasn't home.

3. One of my stoves is installed in a small 200 sq.ft. room, the 1770's kitchen of this house, now used as my home office. Knowing I'd need a LARGE non-cat to make my target 12-hour burns, I feared it would roast us out of this tiny room when we were home.

4. Because my stoves are jammed back into old cooking fireplaces (one shown in my avatar), any heat radiated off sides/back/top is simply soaked up by the stone, and much of it radiated outside. So, I was looking for a stove that had a full double-wall convective jacket on ALL sides. This is why I had asked about your house construction, as it looked to me like the Manchester has a convection deck on top, but the sides are radiant. The Ashford 30 (all of the BK 20's and 30's) are a welded steel box lined with firebrick, with cast panels (or sheetmetal for Chinook?) hung on the outside, forming an air gap between the firebox and the outside of the stove, thru which air is moved by either natural convections or your fan kit. When running the fans, the outer plates stay so cool you can touch them without serious concern for burns (nice feature, if you have little'uns), and very little heat is radiated from them into my exterior stonework.

So, that was my thinking going in. Now that I've put 60-70 cords thru them, I can tell you a little about how I operate them.

1. I run the stove in the older part of the house (aforementioned 1770's kitchen, which is actually the 1734 bedroom :eek:) on mostly 12 - 16 hour cycles. In other words, I start and end each heating season loading this thing around dusk, and setting the dial to the marked spot where I get about 16 hours active cat. This is the mode for all of October, much of November, end of March, all of April, an often into May. When it gets colder, namely late November thru mid-March, I shift to 12 hour burns and loading twice per day. I don't worry about truly generating enough heat to keep the entire house warm (I'd need 20+ cords per year for that), I just keep that stove going, and let the oil-fired boiler top things off to our desired temperature.

2. I run the second stove in one of the newer additions on 24-hour cycles thru the coldest months, loading it every day around dinner time. In warmer months, like right now, I'll just put half loads into it at dinner time, and let it go out mid-morning, since that part of the house has too much solar gain to keep a stove going on a sunny day above 35F.

3. Occasionally, I'll fill the stove in the newer addition full, and then realize the next day is going to be warmer than I had assumed. That's when I turn the thing way down, and get the 30 - 36 hour burn times (measured as active cat time) that several of us have reported for the BK 30's. Yes, they can do it.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the bad, with the good:

1. BK shipped me two "transitional" stoves, right between the original "30" design, and the "30.1". My stoves have a mix of features from each, I even got one "swoosh" dial and one "numbers" dial. All good, it's more conversational curio than anything else, with one exception: the stoves had the new ash-dump hole location over the old ash pan. Total screw up, as the ash would dump over the rear of the pan, and a large portion of hot coals and ash would land on my floor. However, BK did the right thing here, and made a special retrofit series of ash pans for me (and likely one or two other customers in the same boat), so that we could swap our pan assemblies to one centered under the new ash hole. I'm sure this ruined their profit on these few stoves, but they always seem to do the right thing, by their customers. The fix works perfectly.

2. Some have reported smoke smell issues with their Ashford 30's, in past years. I believe BK resolved each of these cases, with the exception of two customers who just wanted to trade in. In fact, I had heard thru this forum that one of the "trade-in" stoves is now in another member's house, and working fine with no smell, but that's beside the point. The "bad" is that they had this problem, and I believe there have even been one or two more in recent years, but the "good" is that BK has worked with the customer to either resolve the issue or work out a trade in every case. Personally, I never have any smell from either of mine when burning "normally", but I have caught a whiff of something acrid on a few occasions, only when I'm cranked way down for a 30+ hour burn in warm weather on the stove in the newer wing. In my case, I think it's due to some combination of a very short pipe (something like 13 - 15 feet), warm outside weather, and the very low burn rate, as it has NEVER happened on the stove with the taller pipe, and it never happens under normal weather or burning conditions. The two or three times it has happened in 7 years, it went away as soon as I turned up the dial to increase burn rate a little.

3. A few of us with very tall (eg. 30 feet) chimneys will have some issues with fly ash clogging the combustor, when the stove is run on maximum setting. It appears BK was trying to improve on their "dirty glass" image, earned on the King and Princess, and designed a more aggressive air wash system on the newer 30's and 20's. In most cases, reports here would indicate this works as it should, keeping the glass cleaner with no ill-effects. But with a too-tall pipe (mine generated 3.5x the maximum allowable draft spec), and when running extended periods on high (as I'll sometimes do on weekends), it can stir up enough fly ash that it begins to coat the combustor over time. This was not a huge deal, the dust can be vacuumed out with very little effort, but it did mean letting the stove go cool to do it, and preferably removing the combustor to do a good job of it. I resolved the issue by installing a key damper on the pipe above the stove, to dial my draft down from 0.21" WC to the recommended optimum 0.05" WC, and have had no ash clogging issues since then.

When I read your comment about letting your furnace still carry part of the load, my assumption was you were thinking like me, that you'll just keep a stove going to carry the majority base load, and let the furnace modulate final temperature atop that.
 
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Although if one modulates the top with a furnace, an even output of the stove is not that needed.

Instead if one buys a stove that can give output at low rates, one could top up at the 5 coldest days with the furnace.

I want to reiterate that the long burn times are associated with a lower output; put an x amount of BTUs in the stove, get them out in 8 hrs or 30 hrs, but it's the same total amount of BTUs.

So "keeping the home warm" for long times depends on the need for heat during that time.
 
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I'd consider the Pacific Energy Alderea t5 I guess
Consider the Alderlea T6 instead. This size house will need a 3 cu ft stove unless the intent is to only heat a portion of it. We are heating a 2000 sq ft. old farmhouse with the T6 and it definitely is not oversized.
 
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Agreed with everything said here. Both stoves are beautiful, both cats, I'm partial to the BK (otherwise I'd own two Hearthstones), but I can see the appeal in both. I can't speak good or bad about the Hearthstone, so I'll just give you the reasons I bought the Ashford 30's, and tell you how I run them:

1. I wanted a cat stove for the ability to turn down further and get more even heat. The non-cats follow more of a "pump and glide" heating profile, more BTU's in the first 2 hours, and then tapering off. This can work fine when you're not sitting directly next to it, as the mass of your house and every object in it acts as a big capacitor, to level off the effect. But one of my stoves is located a mere 10 feet from my desk chair, where I sit and work all day and night, and I was looking for tech that would give the most even possible heat.

2. I wanted a stove that had the widest possible range of outputs and burn times, so it would suit my schedule as best as possible, over the widest range of months. When I bought these stoves (pre-COVID), my wife and I were both gone from the house for most of 12 hours per day. I wanted a stove I could load at 6am, and arrive home to a warm house at 6pm. In the dead of winter, this is possible with either a cat or a non-cat, just load the firebox full and set for a 12 hour cycle. But as most describe managing their non-cats on lower heat load days by just having shorter fires with fewer splits of wood, I knew that would not work for my scenario of needing heat 12 hours later, not just for a few hours in the morning when I wasn't home.

3. One of my stoves is installed in a small 200 sq.ft. room, the 1770's kitchen of this house, now used as my home office. Knowing I'd need a LARGE non-cat to make my target 12-hour burns, I feared it would roast us out of this tiny room when we were home.

4. Because my stoves are jammed back into old cooking fireplaces (one shown in my avatar), any heat radiated off sides/back/top is simply soaked up by the stone, and much of it radiated outside. So, I was looking for a stove that had a full double-wall convective jacket on ALL sides. This is why I had asked about your house construction, as it looked to me like the Manchester has a convection deck on top, but the sides are radiant. The Ashford 30 (all of the BK 20's and 30's) are a welded steel box lined with firebrick, with cast panels (or sheetmetal for Chinook?) hung on the outside, forming an air gap between the firebox and the outside of the stove, thru which air is moved by either natural convections or your fan kit. When running the fans, the outer plates stay so cool you can touch them without serious concern for burns (nice feature, if you have little'uns), and very little heat is radiated from them into my exterior stonework.

So, that was my thinking going in. Now that I've put 60-70 cords thru them, I can tell you a little about how I operate them.

1. I run the stove in the older part of the house (aforementioned 1770's kitchen, which is actually the 1734 bedroom :eek:) on mostly 12 - 16 hour cycles. In other words, I start and end each heating season loading this thing around dusk, and setting the dial to the marked spot where I get about 16 hours active cat. This is the mode for all of October, much of November, end of March, all of April, an often into May. When it gets colder, namely late November thru mid-March, I shift to 12 hour burns and loading twice per day. I don't worry about truly generating enough heat to keep the entire house warm (I'd need 20+ cords per year for that), I just keep that stove going, and let the oil-fired boiler top things off to our desired temperature.

2. I run the second stove in one of the newer additions on 24-hour cycles thru the coldest months, loading it every day around dinner time. In warmer months, like right now, I'll just put half loads into it at dinner time, and let it go out mid-morning, since that part of the house has too much solar gain to keep a stove going on a sunny day above 35F.

3. Occasionally, I'll fill the stove in the newer addition full, and then realize the next day is going to be warmer than I had assumed. That's when I turn the thing way down, and get the 30 - 36 hour burn times (measured as active cat time) that several of us have reported for the BK 30's. Yes, they can do it.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the bad, with the good:

1. BK shipped me two "transitional" stoves, right between the original "30" design, and the "30.1". My stoves have a mix of features from each, I even got one "swoosh" dial and one "numbers" dial. All good, it's more conversational curio than anything else, with one exception: the stoves had the new ash-dump hole location over the old ash pan. Total screw up, as the ash would dump over the rear of the pan, and a large portion of hot coals and ash would land on my floor. However, BK did the right thing here, and made a special retrofit series of ash pans for me (and likely one or two other customers in the same boat), so that we could swap our pan assemblies to one centered under the new ash hole. I'm sure this ruined their profit on these few stoves, but they always seem to do the right thing, by their customers. The fix works perfectly.

2. Some have reported smoke smell issues with their Ashford 30's, in past years. I believe BK resolved each of these cases, with the exception of two customers who just wanted to trade in. In fact, I had heard thru this forum that one of the "trade-in" stoves is now in another member's house, and working fine with no smell, but that's beside the point. The "bad" is that they had this problem, and I believe there have even been one or two more in recent years, but the "good" is that BK has worked with the customer to either resolve the issue or work out a trade in every case. Personally, I never have any smell from either of mine when burning "normally", but I have caught a whiff of something acrid on a few occasions, only when I'm cranked way down for a 30+ hour burn in warm weather on the stove in the newer wing. In my case, I think it's due to some combination of a very short pipe (something like 13 - 15 feet), warm outside weather, and the very low burn rate, as it has NEVER happened on the stove with the taller pipe, and it never happens under normal weather or burning conditions. The two or three times it has happened in 7 years, it went away as soon as I turned up the dial to increase burn rate a little.

3. A few of us with very tall (eg. 30 feet) chimneys will have some issues with fly ash clogging the combustor, when the stove is run on maximum setting. It appears BK was trying to improve on their "dirty glass" image, earned on the King and Princess, and designed a more aggressive air wash system on the newer 30's and 20's. In most cases, reports here would indicate this works as it should, keeping the glass cleaner with no ill-effects. But with a too-tall pipe (mine generated 3.5x the maximum allowable draft spec), and when running extended periods on high (as I'll sometimes do on weekends), it can stir up enough fly ash that it begins to coat the combustor over time. This was not a huge deal, the dust can be vacuumed out with very little effort, but it did mean letting the stove go cool to do it, and preferably removing the combustor to do a good job of it. I resolved the issue by installing a key damper on the pipe above the stove, to dial my draft down from 0.21" WC to the recommended optimum 0.05" WC, and have had no ash clogging issues since then.

When I read your comment about letting your furnace still carry part of the load, my assumption was you were thinking like me, that you'll just keep a stove going to carry the majority base load, and let the furnace modulate final temperature atop that.
Thank you!
This is extremely helpful. As mentioned, I'm new to any forum. I joined to gather as much information I could, so I could make the best choice - particularly with the current pricing out there now, this is critical. I'm feeling learned :)
 
Although if one modulates the top with a furnace, an even output of the stove is not that needed.

Instead if one buys a stove that can give output at low rates, one could top up at the 5 coldest days with the furnace.

I want to reiterate that the long burn times are associated with a lower output; put an x amount of BTUs in the stove, get them out in 8 hrs or 30 hrs, but it's the same total amount of BTUs.

So "keeping the home warm" for long times depends on the need for heat during that time.
Its all making sense - thanks for all your input.
 
Consider the Alderlea T6. This size house will need a 3 cu ft stove unless the intent is to only heat a portion of it. We are heating a 2000 sq ft. old farmhouse with the T6 and it definitely is not oversized.
as I think others on here have said... wish the T6 came in enamel color choices..... the happy wife thing (also mentioned here)
 
Thank you!
This is extremely helpful. As mentioned, I'm new to any forum. I joined to gather as much information I could, so I could make the best choice - particularly with the current pricing out there now, this is critical. I'm feeling learned :)
Not all non-cat stoves heat by the pump and glide method. Stoves with more thermal buffering tend to provide a much more even heat over a long period of time. We have had both in the same location. The very radiant Jotul Castine was a pump and glide heater and with it we had a fair amount of room temp swing. Nothing horrible, but noticeable. The T6 has been very much the opposite. It keeps the house evenly heated for many hours. The same can be said for a large soapstone stove, though sometimes they are less efficient, sending more heat up the flue.
 
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as I think others on here have said... wish the T6 came in enamel color choices..... the happy wife thing (also mentioned here)
I had the same issue here. The Castine was a gorgeous enameled stove. But in the end, the T6 was simply a better solution for our house and over time my wife has grown fond of it, especially for the cooking versatility.
 
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Not all non-cat stoves heat by the pump and glide method. Stoves with more thermal buffering tend to provide a much more even heat over a long period of time. We have had both in the same location. The very radiant Jotul Castine was a pump and glide heater and with it we had a fair amount of room temp swing. Nothing horrible, but noticeable. The T6 has been very much the opposite. It keeps the house evenly heated for many hours. The same can be said for a large soapstone stove, though sometimes they are less efficient, sending more heat up the flue.
Can you elaborate on which non-cat stoves heat by the “pump and glide” and and which ones do not? More interested in those that do not...

Never heard it said quite that way before. Just assumed all non-cats tend to burn really hot all the time with not much turn down compared to each other. (Wondering where Lopi Liberty/Endeavor fit in, as well as Regency, PE, and SBI stoves fall, others as well.)
 
A steel stove without any cladding will be highly radiant. Take the PE Super 27 or Summit for example. Take that same stove and add cast iron cladding around it like the T5 or T6. It suddenly has a lot more thermal mass and operates more through convection. If you stand beside the T5 with the stove top 700F, your skin doesn't melt off from radiant heat. Walk around to the front, where that extrashielding doesn't exist, and you feel the burn.
 
A steel stove without any cladding will be highly radiant. Take the PE Super 27 or Summit for example. Take that same stove and add cast iron cladding around it like the T5 or T6. It suddenly has a lot more thermal mass and operates more through convection. If you stand beside the T5 with the stove top 700F, your skin doesn't melt off from radiant heat. Walk around to the front, where that extrashielding doesn't exist, and you feel the burn.
I didn't put any calculations or anything into this, but I don't think it's a matter of mass. Compared to the BTU's packed into the box, any difference of ±100 lb. of iron is not really going to make an enormous difference. I think the perceived difference is almost entirely due to the reduced surface temperature and radiation created by the cladding / convective jacket.