Drolet or BK?

[firefighterjake]

Never had the need to call Jotul headquarters since I owned the stove . . . and only have been to the local shops to pick up gasket and baffle material . . . and the experience was rather pleasant since they were selling product at a very comparable price to what I could have got on line.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

ED, have you owned a Jotul and had a problem? When I needed a new back for my F602 they were super helpful. They even found one in the matching enamel color.

FWIW, unfortunately there are bad dealers for every brand of stove.

Exactly the right question, and admittedly, I've never owned, nor tried to reach out to them over phone, e-mail, or mail. Which is why I asked a question, rather than making a statement.

Is asking a question now a damning offense? I was looking forward to hearing different experiences.

Clearly different folks have had different experiences.

I will only speak affirmatively to my own experience, and the opinions formed from those.

The stove retailers around me are creeps. I associate dealer-only stove companies with their selling agents. What else can I do? They give me no CHOICE.

That's on them. Dying business model in my opinion, but that's their right.

Again, apologies if I offended. Just trying to participate in the conversation with my viewpoint.

 

[Nigel459]

Woa, I just checked back in on this thread and it is spiralling off-rail fast!

Back to the question at hand. I have a relevant further thought.

First, I totally agree that any of the stoves mentioned will heat just fine! They all burn wood and produce heat after all

It's interesting to me that there are a distinct set, let's call them the BKers (full disclosure, I am one!), who swear by BKs after having tried other non-cats. I put forth that this does not necessarily indicate that any stove or brand is "better" than another. Rather, I think this speaks to the fact that each home layout is different.

My house has large solar gain, and my stove is in a south-facing great room. If I started a fire with my non-cat on cloudy day around freezing, and all of a sudden, pop, the sun came out, I would be opening windows pretty quickly. It was not my fault or the fault of the stove, just the combination of my stove and my house. Now, same situation with my BK, I just turn down the dial and the heat output drops right off. That's the control the BK offers.

Further, I've seen basement installs that produce a nice toasty basement heat that in turn provides a nice "even" heat to the upper living spaces.

So what? Well, to the OP @Stove? I do urge you to consider your cabin's layout. If the stove is in a south-facing room with good solar gain, consider my experience.

Also, one of the best pieces of advice I received on here (I believe from @Ashful) was, "don't forget, you are not marrying this stove..."

Good luck and have fun in the shopping around and decision process

 

[ratsrepus]

never had any problems with my jotul, its hard to control and eats woods. other than that, its fine

 

[bholler]

Exactly the right question, and admittedly, I've never owned, nor tried to reach out to them over phone, e-mail, or mail. Which is why I asked a question, rather than making a statement.

Is asking a question now a damning offense? I was looking forward to hearing different experiences.

Clearly different folks have had different experiences.

I will only speak affirmatively to my own experience, and the opinions formed from those.

The stove retailers around me are creeps. I associate dealer-only stove companies with their selling agents. What else can I do? They give me no CHOICE.

That's on them. Dying business model in my opinion, but that's their right.

Again, apologies if I offended. Just trying to participate in the conversation with my viewpoint.

Working in the feild i have seen way more problems from lack of support before the sale than lack after. And for the most part without a dealer you get zero support before the sale to know what stove fits your needs what chimney you need what fuel you need etc. If you look at the reveiws of englanders online this is obvious. There are many negative reveiws but most are from lack of knowledge on the part of the operator not a problem with the stove. Yes it happens when a dealer doesnt do their job before the sale but that is a problem with that dealer not the buisness model.