J.a. roby ultimate stove review

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
brad wilton

brad wilton

Feeling the Heat
Oct 13, 2014
472
quebec
Hi everybody,here's my stove story.i have a 2500 sqft 1730's stone house 2 ft thick walls lived here for about 7 yrs no insulation single payne windows.bought my 460lbs of heating bliss so we woudn't have to walk around with a tuque and winter coat in the house.the stove is huge will not fit comfortably in most peoples living room 27" wide 35" high 37" deep.can fit 20"splits n/s no problem e/w also works but have harder time getting fire going strong enough to start turning down once burns fine.burn times are very good actual fire time4 to 5 hours that with a 32ft chimney someone with a regular sized one 15 to 20 should actually be able to pull of longer burns,a wee bit of draft at 32ft .throwing off heat 10 to 12hrs but my house will make a bowling hot tea tepid in about 4 mins so it can make good heat.took a while to figure out how to get max out of stove.you need to have rolling flames i mean burning then you start to turn down air 25% each time ,found if you close it all the way and then open up a 1/4"you hit the sweet spot.it also has an option on the stove to run two heating pipes up from sto to help dump heat to another room,have not used it so can't comment,but seems like a good thin to have if you need to feed heat somewhere else in the house.paid roughly $1700 canadian for it really some of the best money i ever spent. In a well insulated house you could heat it with this stove alone sure of it. the window is nice and large for a nice view of fire.well thats it thanks for listening:rolleyes:
 
Looks like the cold is about to come back to the east so enjoy the beast!
 
brad wilton said:
Hi everybody,here's my stove story.i have a 2500 sqft 1730's stone house 2 ft thick walls lived here for about 7 yrs no insulation single payne windows.bought my 460lbs of heating bliss so we woudn't have to walk around with a tuque and winter coat in the house.the stove is huge will not fit comfortably in most peoples living room 27" wide 35" high 37" deep.can fit 20"splits n/s no problem e/w also works but have harder time getting fire going strong enough to start turning down once burns fine.burn times are very good actual fire time4 to 5 hours that with a 32ft chimney someone with a regular sized one 15 to 20 should actually be able to pull of longer burns,a wee bit of draft at 32ft .throwing off heat 10 to 12hrs but my house will make a bowling hot tea tepid in about 4 mins so it can make good heat.took a while to figure out how to get max out of stove.you need to have rolling flames i mean burning then you start to turn down air 25% each time ,found if you close it all the way and then open up a 1/4"you hit the sweet spot.it also has an option on the stove to run two heating pipes up from sto to help dump heat to another room,have not used it so can't comment,but seems like a good thin to have if you need to feed heat somewhere else in the house.paid roughly $1700 canadian for it really some of the best money i ever spent. In a well insulated house you could heat it with this stove alone sure of it. the window is nice and large for a nice view of fire.well thats it thanks for listening:rolleyes:
Click to expand...


Hi Brad, interesting about the two heating pipes. Do you have a picture of it? Does not sound like the Ultimate Woodstove I'm familiar with. Thanks
 
No insulation but a ton of thermal mass in that house. I imagine that stone acts as a heat sink, not releasing much heat after the stove dies down. On the plus side it probably stays very cool in the summer. With that big wood stove you probably are just fine with it. My Sedore is comparable in size, unfortunately it does not get cold enough here to really ride it hard. But man that thing throws some heat! Hail to the big stoves!!
 
Good review, Brad. Your house sounds a lot like mine (which was built 1770’s on top of an earlier 1738 structure), with the original windows and uninsulated stone walls. I previously tried heating this place several years, with a few large Jotul Firelights, without any success. I’ve since switched to two smaller stoves, which do a much better job of it, the primary difference being the convective design.

What I seem to have proven out is that uninsulated masonry has a near-infinite ability to soak up and expel to the outdoors any amount of radiant heat. The Jotuls were almost entirely radiant heaters, whereas my newer stoves are steel boxes with a convection jacket surrounding five sides (well, six sides, if you count the ash drawer). Moving the heat off the stove into air and heating via convection, rather than trying to radiate it to line-of sign objects in the room, seems to be the secret to effectively heating an uninsulated stone house.

I see the Ultimate has a convection deck on top, but how are the sides constructed? It’s likely you could heat with much less wood usage, with the right stove design, or at least that is what I have found. I have simultaneously reduced my oil usage, while cutting my wood consumption from 10+ cords per year down to less than 7 cords, by switching stove types.

My house is much larger, but I would say the amount of space I’m heating from just one stove must be pretty darn close to your 2500 sq.ft.
 
Last edited:
I know its been a while but I was about to buy this stove..and wondering if you still have it and still like it? I've seen some good comments but also bad ones saying it lasted 3 winters no more...so it kind of worry me.

I have a napoleon 1450 right now but its too small, to little burn time..

So is yours still fine?

Thanks
 
Ok..so just noticed brad was last seen in 2016 on this forum..

Anyone else have the JA robby ultimate? Now called the ultimate thor.
 
A quick forum search on “Roby Ultimate”, which I assume you probably already did as well, didn’t turn up any hits newer than this thread. I hadn’t realized it had been this long, I remember this thread, but here we are.

If you “start a conversation” with brad, it’s likely he’ll get an email notification, which may prompt him to come respond to this thread.
 
Ashful said:
A quick forum search on “Roby Ultimate”, which I assume you probably already did as well, didn’t turn up any hits newer than this thread. I hadn’t realized it had been this long, I remember this thread, but here we are.

If you “start a conversation” with brad, it’s likely he’ll get an email notification, which may prompt him to come respond to this thread.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I just created a new thread..about ja roby, hoping to get some good feedback.
 
sicaire said:
Thanks, I just created a new thread..about ja roby, hoping to get some good feedback.
Click to expand...

Like I said, PM Brad a link to your new thread, it’s the only way he will get an email notification. You might also try a few others who posted past posts about this stove.
 
just to update 20yrs later ;lol ;lol ;lol ;lol ;lol have not even changed door gasket yet.whoever says they only last a few years must be treating it like crap these stoves are tanks 24/7 burning for 2 and a half years then just regularly to make it comfy no complaints at all
 
".bought my 460lbs of heating bliss so we woudn't have to walk around with a tuque and winter coat in the house."

What is a tuque? I'm picturing you walking around with a turkey in the house, and I know the real answer will not bring me half of the satisfaction that my mental picture is bringing me.
 
EatenByLimestone said:
".bought my 460lbs of heating bliss so we woudn't have to walk around with a tuque and winter coat in the house."

What is a tuque? I'm picturing you walking around with a turkey in the house, and I know the real answer will not bring me half of the satisfaction that my mental picture is bringing me.
Click to expand...
Tuque is a winter hat in Canuck lingo. Here you go:

“In Canada, a tuque (sometimes spelled toque or touque) refers to a warm knitted cap, traditionally made of wool and usually worn in winter.”

These guys are wearing toques.

CE8EE2E0-4E66-4E2B-AB62-C5888A8EDE8D.jpeg
 
I was afraid that would be the answer, lol. I held out hope that it was a French phonetic thing.
 
joop said:
just to update 20yrs later ;lol ;lol ;lol ;lol ;lol have not even changed door gasket yet.whoever says they only last a few years must be treating it like crap these stoves are tanks 24/7 burning for 2 and a half years then just regularly to make it comfy no complaints at all
Click to expand...
It depends on the stove. I'm still on my original BK Ashford gaskets, since 2015, and probably close to 50 cords thru one of them. It's a fat (3/4"?) gasket in a channel, which interfaces with a knife edge on the firebox. Pretty darn durable and forgiving.

But my Jotul Firelights (old and new are the same) required constant attention to their double-door gaskets. They have a very shallow channel into which you'd try to cement 7mm gasket rope, and it only sealed against a flat face on the stove body. You had to be pretty sparing with the cement, to avoid it wicking into and making the gasket hard, during application. They topped that stupid cake with a wimpy 3/16" (4mm) gasket on the lip between double doors. Four doors per stove, times two stoves... too much!
 
the j.a cookstoves seem to be popular in the states.they still sell mine but under different name.are cookstoves rated differently than regular woodstove ?i see that some have epa rating and some don't .basically same stove
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
Does anyone have a J.A. Roby Ultimate Stove with the VENTULT kit?
Replies
7
Views
1K
All others
joop
J
Top Bottom
Back