I need new efficient wood burning insert ASAP

I'd pick out a stove you like and get the liner to match. Most likely will be 6 unless you go with a big Kuma. Split the wood soon and it may be dry enough for next year, stack in an exposed area.

It might be worth buying a few cords of "seasoned" (prob 1 yr) wood now, just to hedge your bets. If you stick with the maple and find that it just doesn't burn easily in whatever stove you buy, you could be in for a long winter, especially since wood is your only heat source.

The Kuma Sequoia takes an 8" liner and seems to be very well liked by its owners. It looks like a great stove and shouldn't have any trouble being the only heater if your insulation/windows/doors are reasonable.

Scottcord said:

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What are your thoughts on this kit

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Never heard of the stove. Seems really cheap. Price wise...no comment on quality of the stove and/or liner.

I can definitively tell you that I can not buy, at my cost (read-"wholesale"), a full liner with insulation and a quality Regency insert for anywhere close to that price let alone make any money on it. Like I said, never heard of the stove but I'd be really really leery of it.

Scottcord said:

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Not in my house!

It does have a reasonable firebox size, and a somewhat adjustable burn rate, which is good.

It also has a rotten efficiency and a tiny burn time- and those are the optimistic numbers that they are advertising.

I guess if someone was home all day I could make that work, but that's not the situation at my house.

And while that is a very cheap price, try to get an insulated liner.

Your first step should be to see how much room your chimney has for a liner. A 6" insulated liner might require 7.5-8" to pull through, an 8" liner might need 9.5-10".

First, get your chimney cleaned then measure your fireplace AND flu dimensions to see what will fit.

SBI is a large Canadian stove company with several brands and models. ie Century, Drolet, Osburn. Anyone that sales stoves should at least know the Osburn brand. Keep in mind, some on this site sell stoves and the Century and Drolet brand are big box stove brands. Lowes, Home Depot, Menards, Northern Tool... Osburn is a Stove Dealer brand.

As I mentioned, Century CW2900 or Drolet 1800i are both made by SBI, as is the more expensive Osburn brand, and the two are very close to being the same. Their is definitely some cross pollination between ALL these stoves. For instance, my Century stove uses the same stainless steel secondary tubes a more expensive Osburn stove uses. All these stoves draft easily with only a 12' min chimney height, are reliable and not complicated to use. And SBI support is very good.

If your budget is larger, then too many choices to list. BK, Kuma, Buck... Personally, I would love to have any one of those stoves but could not justify a 2-4 times price increase. That being said, I get wood for free. Spending more on a stove may save you money in the long run. If the efficiency ratings are to be believed.

77% Optimum efficiency rating is good. And many more expensive stoves are about the same, some even less.

And yes, some more expensive stoves "claim" better efficiency. But is that really true in your house.

Here, read Wildhogz posts. Very good info to help differentiate reality from marketing:

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...-not-really-helping-please-help.174273/page-2

I think the first thing I would do is get another source of heat in there.

begreen said:

Most modern inserts take a 6" liner, except for a few. Take a look at the Pacific Energy Summit, Osburn 2400, Regency i3100 for starters.

If you split the maple asap and get it stacked E/W in a sunny location so that the north and south winds can blow thru the stacks then it might be dry enough, but I like to give maple 2 yrs. If you got some doug fir and stacked it now it stands a good chance of being dry enough by late October.

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The Summit is probably too large for his house. I'm heating 2100 sq ft with a Super.

If budget is a driving factor, I'd jump on the Costco deal based on Drolet's reputation here. 2.4cf ain't bad at all for your house size in the NW. Get your wood split and stacked in single rows soon and you'll be fine.

With those fruitwoods, just where in Washington? How old (insulated) is your home? Electricity is very cheap in eastern Washington so I would start with wall cadet style wall heaters first. Then beef up your wood system.

Country is s decent brand. They were bought out by Lennox several years back but a lot of western Washington homes still run country products. Similar to a lopi. But if it’s dead, it’s dead.

Drolet is a fine/acceptable brand. Much better than some others.

Scottcord said:

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It's a Drolet. I bought the same kit. Terrific bargain, and works great. I only needed to buy the insulation for the liner ($250), and would have been better off having a 15° offset appliance connector ($50).

Really nice little budget stove. Definitely needs dry wood.

I cut my wood to 16" for first three years, goes in n-s just fine, but now I cut to 15.5" to have a little margin for error in the event that the cut is at an angle or a nub is left on.

Also, good customer support.

I would still not want to live in a place that had wood as the only heat source. But good luck with the project.

begreen said:

That's an old dogger. Looks like just a simple baffle in it. Not too efficient. Moving this thread to the pre-EPA stove forum.

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I don't see a baffle in the pictures.

Scott- is there a baffle in the stove that you removed for the pictures? I see the firebricks right through the socket.