6 Year Old Drolet Austral Still Going Strong

[Chuck the Canuck]

I love this beast of a stove, and I run it pretty hard sometimes (heating the house from the basement). I keep the heat pump set at 20°C, and naturally it will be running on and off during the day to maintain that temp. I don't bother running the stove when I'm at work anymore, as the thermal gain from the windows means that I end up over heating the house quite often. So I just let the heat pump do its job now. However, I hate hearing, or seeing it run when I'm home, so the first thing I do when I get home from work (around 5:30 - 6:00) is build a small hot fire, usually with with 9 (or sometimes 12) small to medium sized sticks, stacked log cabin style to give it lots of air, and let 'er rip. That generally takes care of the heat pump for the rest of the night. And like I say, I burn it good and hot, because I want to have it burned down enough so that I can pack the stove full and tight, north/south, at around 10:00, for a good long overnight burn. And the thing I love the most is when I get home from work and stir up the ashes to wake up a bunch of nice hot coals. That makes that first hot little fire take off like a bat outta hades, and that makes the doggoes happy too, because they know they're going to get their treats a lot sooner than they would if I had to be farting around waiting for the blasted fire to take off. So I think it would be safe to say that they love the Austral almost as much as I do