Confused on picking a new stove

[kilowattkid]

I'm looking to replace an existing stove. I currently have a US stove King exempt model.

I'm trying to heat an 1,100 square foot ranch in an "L" shape with the stove being centered in the corner of the "L". hope that make sense. Main room is just under 450 square foot. hallway attached to main room to bedrooms and a large opening the other way (48" wide) towards kitchen and back room.

Not primary heat, but would like to use, say, 75% of the time.

My current stove is an exempt stove. Biggest problem is that I can't throttle the air intake back, the only adjustment is in the flue. Put more than 2 logs in this thing at it's off the runaway mode. One log an hour seems to be the standard procedure.

My old wonder warm out in the shop is an old smoke hog, but dang, load it and forget it for a few hours. That's what I'm looking for, but efficient.

With all that said, I've looked at PE Super 27's, quad fire Yosemite, lopi's, VC's, Avalons, Hearthstones, blah, blah, blah. Cat's, non cats, small, medium. The more I look the more confused I get. Blowers optional? Years ago that seemed to be a standard deal.

Bottom line - I want to use less wood, be able to spread the heat around and the biggest is to wake up and stoke it back up. Leaning towards the PE, but would like some better looks. Sticker shock has come upon me as well and the Napoleons and Drolets are looking good as well.

Final thought is I want to be able to choke it completely down in case of overfire, something I definitely do not have with this current stove.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[begreen]

Welcome. You are on the right track. Any of these stoves will be a nice improvement. A ~2 cu ft stove will probably serve your needs. The Super 27 is a good choice. How tall is the chimney on the current stove from stovetop to chimney cap?

For more even heat in the house put a table or box fan at the far end of the bedroom hallway, placed on the floor, pointing toward the woodstove. Run it on low speed. It will blow the cooler air down low, toward the woodstove. The denser cool air will be replaced with lighter warm air from the stove room. Running this way you should notice at least a 5F increase in the hallway temp after about 30 minutes running.

 

[kilowattkid]

Welcome. You are on the right track. Any of these stoves will be a nice improvement. A ~2 cu ft stove will probably serve your needs. The Super 27 is a good choice. How tall is the chimney on the current stove from stovetop to chimney cap?

For more even heat in the house put a table or box fan at the far end of the bedroom hallway, placed on the floor, pointing toward the woodstove. Run it on low speed. It will blow the cooler air down low, toward the woodstove. The denser cool air will be replaced with lighter warm air from the stove room. Running this way you should notice at least a 5F increase in the hallway temp after about 30 minutes running.

Thanks for the reply, I get the fan thing and I have currently tried this with current stove and it does work.

I guess my newest concern is cat or non cat. I get that a cat replacement is about every 5 years, but what about replacement of non cat burn tubes? Both my stoves currently are older exempt stoves. Not sure which way to go with cat / non cat. I was leaning towards non cat, but I guess at this point I'm open.

I really come to this because the Mrs. liked the DutchWest medium, but I seen some non favorable reviews on the non cat.

 

[aansorge]

Super 27 does look like a good choice.

 

[kilowattkid]

Forgot to reply, 12' chimney straight up. Single wall to ceiling box, double on up from there.

 

[begreen]

With a 12 ft chimney you are going to have to get an easy breathing stove. In cat the "large" Dutchwest cat would work. I would prefer the Woodstock Keystone or Fireview from a long term maintenance standpoint, but it would work. Burn tubes on non-cat these days are usually made of stainless steel and last a long time. They save money on baffle on some less expensive stove by using an insulation board. This works well, just don't bang it with a split or poker and definitely not when cleaning the chimney. The PE Super 27 has a stainless steel wrapped baffle box that has the secondary on the bottom. It pretty much eliminates all the fragility. It also has a unique coupled secondary air control that helps extend the burn time. It also is an easy breathing stove that should be ok with the short chimney. Some stoves will require adding 3 ft of chimney to meet their minimum requirement.

 

[kilowattkid]

With a 12 ft chimney you are going to have to get an easy breathing stove. In cat the "large" Dutchwest cat would work. I would prefer the Woodstock Keystone or Fireview from a long term maintenance standpoint, but it would work. Burn tubes on non-cat these days are usually made of stainless steel and last a long time. They save money on baffle on some less expensive stove by using an insulation board. This works well, just don't bang it with a split or poker and definitely not when cleaning the chimney. The PE Super 27 has a stainless steel wrapped baffle box that has the secondary on the bottom. It pretty much eliminates all the fragility. It also has a unique coupled secondary air control that helps extend the burn time. It also is an easy breathing stove that should be ok with the short chimney. Some stoves will require adding 3 ft of chimney to meet their minimum requirement.

Thanks a ton for the advice. After further discussions with the Mrs., we are going with the super. We would have preferred the "prettier" stove like the Jotul or Quad Yosemite, But the Super just seems to be more efficient and a bit more bulletproof. We'll find out in a couple weeks. Thanks again.

 

[Grisu]

Thanks a ton for the advice. After further discussions with the Mrs., we are going with the super. We would have preferred the "prettier" stove like the Jotul or Quad Yosemite, But the Super just seems to be more efficient and a bit more bulletproof. We'll find out in a couple weeks. Thanks again.

A "prettier" stove would be the PE T5 or the PE Spectrum. Both use the same firebox as the Super and just have a different outside shell.

 

[kilowattkid]

The stove arrived the other day. Finally got it uncrated today and did a first burn on the back patio with a 3' section of Flue. I'll probably burn one more time and then install this weekend.

Secondary burn was cool, albeit short. I'm pretty certain once installed, I'm going to have good unit.

Thanks fellas.