Blaze King vs Lopi - Advice Appreciated

[ro_arch]

I've read through many posts here and believe I can get some sound advice..

I am looking at purchasing our first wood stove and am down to the Lopi Liberty (2,800) vs the Blaze King Princess Ultra (2,500)..

I believe these are both good stoves and my brother is currently burning a Blaze King and likes it..

The Liberty is a bit larger and my home is ~2,400 sf. The liberty is non-catalytic, the Blaze King is catalytic..

Feedback and suggestions will be appreciated..

I want to make a good decision since we will be spending a pretty penny.

 

[begreen]

This will depend a bit on the house and how much of it you want to heat. What area of NM is the house in? This may depend on the temperature swings you normally see in the day vs night and how well insulated the home is. Also, is the goal to heat 110% (bring the interior up to 80F regardless of outside temps). Or is it to heat the home 80% of the time and to use it in conjunction with supplemental heat for the unusually cold nights? The way I understand it, the Liberty will give you a bit more horsepower, but the Princess with the cat should give you steadier heating with less refills.

 

[ro_arch]

Thanks for the feedback..

Our home is Northern New Mexico.. We have cold nights and pretty warm days.. We initially would use the stove as a supplemental heat source, but if performs well, we would use it more and gas less.. Our home is pretty well insulated, it was built in the last 7 years.. We do have lot's of volume. A big part of the house has high 10' ceilings, with cathedral ceilings in two rooms..

thanks..

 

[Highbeam]

Are either of these stoves actually rated by the manufacturer to heat your space? Remember that the square footage ratings actually assume a standard height flat ceiling. In your space I would be looking at the big blaze king "king" model.

I don't think either stove is big enough. Given your warm days and cool nights your required heat output is not steady throughout the day which gives the nod to the non-cat Lopi since you won't be burning all day. The long steady output of the cat stove is more suited to the climate where it is cold all day every day until Spring.