Envirofire Kodiak 1700 question on "Progressive Burn" and softwood

[CO2Neutral]

Hi Folks,

My first post... I'm an energy advisor and work for a small, ethical company to provide residential and corporate energy solutions. Needless to say, since I've been lurking on this site my knowledge on wood burning has increased vastly. I want to thank everyone for their genuine, usually objective, opinions and suggestions.

Pre-amble:
My wife and I bought our first home last year and we spent the $$ to move our little Century Heating FW 270029 stove with it's wee firebox (real small -- not sure, but around 1.1 and change c.f.) into the middle of the house (open concept, pretty much). In our 800 sq ft (per storey) 1.5 storey eave insulated home (9 years old) with R20 walls, R32 ceiling and uninsulated basement (with a large percentage of above grade exposed walls) we've been able to keep our home warm with 24/7 burning over the past two burning seasons. In most cases the temperature at the furthest rooms swings wildly from 56-68 degrees (74 degrees in the stove room) as our little firebox goes through it's routine of wild swings of combustion. Once we insulate the basement and ceiling more we will be much further off (I modelled our house in Hot2000 and discovered 35% of our heat loss was occuring through our uninsulated basement walls). So needless to say -- we have some work to do.

Now on to my question!

I want a new stove badly. Actually, I want a bigger firebox. Our property has 20 acres of softwood (white birch, poplar and a plethora (#@@! load) of spruce. We want a stove that can work with our softwood and I'm torn between the Blaze King princess, Enviro Kodiak, Oslo, and some Pacific Energy units. Buying wood on PEI is not functional as most (not all) wood providers supply green wood. So I was wondering if anyone has used softwood (with a bit of hardwood) in their Envirofire Kodiak? I've seen some posts suggesting decent burn times with the Kodiak. What do you consider softwood and does the progressive burn feature actually sustain softwood a bit longer?

Many thanks,

 

[Todd]

Welcome,
You may want to look into the Blaze King a little more. There are many people in far Northern climates that swear by them for the long softwood burns they provide, infact here is another post from a neighbor of yours that is burning a Blaze King.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/36132/

 

[CO2Neutral]

Thanks for the reply -- it seems all catalytic folks are really pleased with their units. We need about 11000 BTU's per hour to overcome our heating needs. So long and slow if our battle.

Agreed -- and the price is good too (around $1950 for stove and door -- no blower or ash tray). I would seriously consider the Woodstock as well but I called Woodstock and apparently it is not UL Canada listed. I can buy one -- and then not get insured. I wonder if anyone in Canada has breached this dilemma?

 

[Firestone]

Greetings: I installed the Enviro Kodiak 1200, Step Top in November and have been burning a combination of spruce, poplar, pine, and a bit of birch. I have found that without having access to hardwood, I am not able to keep a fire gong all night. The stove is the smallest one the dealer had , as I never intended to heat 24/7 with it. I have a side split level house, vintqge 1963, about 1100 sq feet. I am using a small fan to move cold air from the living room into the basement, thereby forcing warm air up the stairwell into the kitchen/living room, where it also rises up the second stairwell to the bedrooms. I have also installed a small bathroom fan in the ceiling about 3 feet in front of the stove, which pulls warm air into the upstairs hallway by the bedroom doors. We just love this little stove and the basement has now become our main living area. TV, computer, music, cats, books all down here.

 

[CO2Neutral]

Thanks! That helps me in my "Progressive burn" quest... Nice stove and setup to get air upstairs. I have a floor grate I need to cut to allow some heavy dense cool air to fall and draw up warm air on the other side of the house. I've been reluctant to cut holes until we get a bigger stove though.

 

[Todd]

That's wierd that Woodstock isn't UL Canada listed. Have you contacted your insurance and asked them if it would be ok?

 

[BrotherBart]

Two members that haven't been on for a while both have Kodiak 1700 inserts and dearly love them. One heats a large house with softwood on Vancouver Island and the other is here in the states and burns hardwood.

Well built stoves and I have never heard a bad word about them. In fact if the local dealer hadn't of been an idiot I would have bought one in 2005.

PS: Congratulations on working for an ethical company. :lol:

 

[trailblaster]

I burn with our Kodiak 1700 insert about 85-90% hardwood(oak, apple, maple, beech and birch but I do add softwood into the mix. We have 40acres and while making trails and rounding up firewood, hemlocks and some pines stand in the way. I feel its wasteful to let it rot so I burn it with the rest. If the nightly loadup is mostly hardwood, the coals are chunky and hot but if its mostly softwood, you can tell since there is less coals and they are usually very small and fine but will relite logs without adding a firestarter. This is after about 8 hours. With the hardwood, I have enough coals to relite with after 12 hours. Our house is 2400sqft heated, 9 years old, colonial box style with centrally located insert mounted in the fireplace. Upstairs hovers in the high 60's while its in the mid 70's downstairs and its 20degrees outside.

 

[CO2Neutral]

Interesting. Thanks for the feedback. I like the HUGE glass on them and with some gold or brushed nickle they actually look pretty decent. If the Progressive Burn does more than keep their marketing company busy then it could be a nice stove for us.

Cheers

 

[mbokie5]

I apologise for bumping this thread, but I have a good reason.

The Enviro 1700 insert is the stove I've pretty well settled on for my upgrade.

The specs fill my bill for my house and I have yet to find a bad review or any problems.

The store has offered it for $2105.00 Cdn taxes in.

Has anyone got any negative updates for this stove?

 

[rob bennett]

Interesting I had an inspector tell me over the phone not to buy a canadian stove because they were not certified here in the US. Its a PE Vista and its got the sticker right on the side...

 

[mbokie5]

Ask the inspector what cert he means. You can call them or look up whether or not it is.

If it's EPA, I don't know, but the manufacturers I've read anything on, mention EPA cert.

I have a sister in law in Bellingham. Been there a few times. Seems like a nice place. She was on Lake Whatcom.