Hearthstone Equinox, Could you guys look at my floor plan.

[bfitz3]

The biggest concern I see with your floor plan is the ceiling plan. Every arched doorway/hall opening will allow a heat pool to form on the ceiling, slowing convection from room to room. It looks like your baths will be the farthest from the stove with up to four arches to cross. My ceilings in the living space in a much smaller house are all flush from room to room. The one room with an arch is noticeably cooler (5-10 degrees).

By the size and layout of the house, I'm guessing you have a decent budget. I'd definitely be looking at some form of in floor radiant heat in those distant bathrooms. Personally, I prefer a cool bedroom, so I wouldn't worry as much there, but with narrow halls each feeding heat to multiple rooms across multiple arches... They could be chilly for some.

 

[webby3650]

So have they got those minor first-run Manchester issues ironed out? Have you got many in the field? One of our shops dropped Hearthstone and now has only Lopi. The other shop picked up the Hearthstones, and has an brown emamel Manchester in stock. Shore is purty! What's your take on the convection system, with those fins on top of the box to extract heat? Seems like it might do pretty well, even if you didn't get the blower. Is the blower pretty quiet?
Hey, no thread-jack here; Matt needs to weigh all the options. This is a choice he'll want to be happy with for many years.

We never had any trouble with the Manchester. Except an enamel issue, we replaced the side casting under warranty.
We probably have 12 or so out there, maybe more. Everyone has been happy, the heat exchanger on top does work very well. It's a solid heater, but it's firebox shape makes it hard to fill up. Like the cape cod, and so many other stoves that are oriented easy/west.

 

[Matt93eg]

Hey, no thread-jack here; Matt needs to weigh all the options. This is a choice he'll want to be happy with for many years.

No worries there, I appreciate all the talk on different things, never know when you will pick up on something you didn't already know!

 

[Matt93eg]

The biggest concern I see with your floor plan is the ceiling plan. Every arched doorway/hall opening will allow a heat pool to form on the ceiling, slowing convection from room to room. It looks like your baths will be the farthest from the stove with up to four arches to cross. My ceilings in the living space in a much smaller house are all flush from room to room. The one room with an arch is noticeably cooler (5-10 degrees).

By the size and layout of the house, I'm guessing you have a decent budget. I'd definitely be looking at some form of in floor radiant heat in those distant bathrooms. Personally, I prefer a cool bedroom, so I wouldn't worry as much there, but with narrow halls each feeding heat to multiple rooms across multiple arches... They could be chilly for some.

You know, I had not thought of the arched doorways as a "bad thing". However it might just very well be. The way I was looking at that is that in the house we are in now we just have normal door ways, so from the top of the frame to the top of the actual ceiling is 16 inches, this for sure allows for a heat pool so we have to use door way fans to help this. With the arches it looks to be about 8-10 inches from the peak of the arch to the ceiling, I guess I was thinking this would be ok. But now that you said that and I really think logically about it, you are going to be right most likely.

We can get the builder to square those openings off and run flush to the ceiling I am sure. We have made tons of changes to the plan as is so another won't be a big deal. I have attached a picture below of the archway that will enter the kitchen, this of course is a pic of a house like the one we are going to be building that was already built. The Wife likes the arches but if it comes at the cost of less effective heating I am sure she will be willing to let them go.

I really do appreciate all the feedback from you guys, It has given me a lot to ponder and many stoves to look at as I make a decision in the coming months. I really like that Kuma Sequoia, just don't like the smaller firebox over the bigger boxes on the BK, etc.

 

[heavy hammer]

What is a must to have out of the stove you want? Some stoves can give longer burn times than others. They will all put out great heat, and the big stoves should easily give you overnight burns. Some heat up faster than others, etc. Not many people on this site seem unhappy with what they use to heat with, some just have different heating requirements than others. What I'm getting at is I think you will be happy with what ever stove you pick. Just figure what kind of heating needs mean more than others. The convection on the sequoia is pretty awesome, especially without having a little blower motor to move the air. I hope this has been helpful.

 

[Woody Stover]

I had not thought of the arched doorways as a "bad thing"....arches it looks to be about 8-10 inches from the peak of the arch to the ceiling, I guess I was thinking this would be ok.

I don't think that will be a big deal. With a couple of small fans on the floor in areas that need more heat, pushing cool air back toward the stove, I would think you'll be able to move some heat back to those areas. I like the look of the arched doorways.
I was fighting 9.5' ceilings, with a couple of feet above the arched doorways out of the stove room. It helped that there were two doors...

 

[Matt93eg]

What is a must to have out of the stove you want? Some stoves can give longer burn times than others. They will all put out great heat, and the big stoves should easily give you overnight burns. Some heat up faster than others, etc. Not many people on this site seem unhappy with what they use to heat with, some just have different heating requirements than others. What I'm getting at is I think you will be happy with what ever stove you pick. Just figure what kind of heating needs mean more than others. The convection on the sequoia is pretty awesome, especially without having a little blower motor to move the air. I hope this has been helpful.

A must for the stove would be of course heating the home, over night burns. Over night burns is a big one. With the little insert we have now I have to get up at night to re feed it when the outside temps are down. I know it sounds comical but night after night of that starts making me feel the effects of "broken sleep". In fact last winter I ended up for a week or 2 of loading it at night, then purposely just not getting up at night so I could feel better rested, I would let the electric heat come on over in the night to keep the house from getting to cold. I would then light another fire the next evening after work. This got old pretty quick.

It would also be nice to be able to load the stove in the morning at say 6am and still have a nice bed of coals to restart a fire that evening around 6pm when home from work. I also do like the tendencies of a steel stove. I like the fact I can get them hot fast, in the shoulder season I can build a small hot fire and let it go out after the load is burned down and it brings the temp of the house up.

And yes the Kuma Sequoia has my eye, I saw a video on the natural convection and it seemed amazing, however I dont know how well the other stoves such as the BK do as far as convection, I would imagine very well. The only thing I don't like on the Kuma over the BK, etc is it has a 3.6 Cubic ft box instead of the bigger 4 plus cubic ft boxes. From what I read though it still seems it could provide me with what I am looking for.

 

[Matt93eg]

I don't think that will be a big deal. With a couple of small fans on the floor in areas that need more heat, pushing cool air back toward the stove, I would think you'll be able to move some heat back to those areas. I like the look of the arched doorways.
I was fighting 9.5' ceilings, with a couple of feet above the arched doorways out of the stove room. It helped that there were two doors...
View attachment 187911

Hopefully it won't be to big of a deal, I talked to the Wife about squaring off the door ways and making them flush with the ceilings and she does not want to do that, I agree the arches give a really nice look. She said she would rather use fans if neccessary to move heat during the winter than do away with the arches since we have a longer spring/summer window than winter each year anyway. I have to agree with her on that. Around here typically January, February, and March are the coldest months. And even then our cold is nothing close to what you North guys experience.

 

[Woody Stover]

As I would assume is true for any stove, they say in the Sequoia manual that having the blower installed will reduce natural convection somewhat, but it is still going to be pretty strong, is how I read it. I don't think @heavy hammer has the blower installed and is just using the natural convection so far. Not sure if he has plans to get the blower at some point, but he may not need it since he's also got a stove upstairs.
As far as fire box volume, you have to take those with a grain of salt. The Buck 91 claims 4+, but that must include the area above the cat shield because I measured the actual usable volume at closer to 3. Maybe heavy hammer could measure his sometime when it's cold and see if usable space is close to what is claimed. I think the BKs measure out pretty close to what is claimed, IIRC.

 

[webby3650]

As I would assume is true for any stove, they say in the Sequoia manual that having the blower installed will reduce natural convection somewhat, but it is still going to be pretty strong, is how I read it. I don't think @heavy hammer has the blower installed and is just using the natural convection so far. Not sure if he has plans to get the blower at some point, but he may not need it since he's also got a stove upstairs.
As far as fire box volume, you have to take those with a grain of salt. The Buck 91 claims 4+, but that must include the area above the cat shield because I measured the actual usable volume at closer to 3. Maybe heavy hammer could measure his sometime when it's cold and see if usable space is close to what is claimed. I think the BKs measure out pretty close to what is claimed, IIRC.

I'm guessing it's the same box as your buck.

 

[heavy hammer]

I do not have the fan blower on my sequoia. I haven't measured the firebox, but I believe it is very close to what is advertised. It is very big inside the stove. I went with the kuma over the blaze king because the stove shop guy recommended it for the heat output. He has had customers say that when temps get real cold their blaze king struggled to heat to what they wanted, and that they returned it for either a kuma or theses wood furnaces he sold. Now I don't know any of these peoples setups size of their house etc. my objective was getting a large stove that produces a lot of heat. I think the blaze king is a great stove and that was what I originally wanted. My wife like the kuma more, and I did as much research as I could and that is the stove we went with. The stove shop guy did say the blaze kings burn times are longer than the kuma. I currently am getting 12 plus hour burn times, with cherry and beech splits. I believe these would increase once I start burning larger rounds of locust and hickory, but I am not going to get 40 hour burn times with this stove, but that was not something I was looking for. There are a lot of blaze king owners on this site who are very happy with their stove, and I am not going to knock something that I have never used before. I'm just giving you my experience with the sequoia. I believe the sequoia will easily do what you want a stove to do for heat needs, but I also think the blaze king will do this to. If possible try and check out both stoves. The place I purchased my sequoia and summit insert had blaze king, jotul, pacific energy, kuma, lopi, a Pennsylvania company wood furnace, plus a few more. What I'm getting at is go and take a look see what you like or dislike with each one then decide. Their all good in some way shape or form, just need to see what you preference.

 

[Woody Stover]

I'm guessing it's the same box as your buck.

I don't know. Maybe @heavy hammer can say, but the Sequoia box looks more square to me, not the trapezoid shape of the 91 which is wider in the front, narrower in the back.

 

[heavy hammer]

The firebox is square, it's about 24 inches wide. Not sure on the depth, or height. I know I can fit a piece up of woof up to 12 inches through the door opening without hitting the cat housing area. I do believe the blaze kings firebox was bigger when comparing the two, but I never got inside the two of the with a tape measure to compare. I might be able to get you a measurement here in a few days it's supposed to get to seventy by the end of the week, so the stove should be cold.

 

[Matt93eg]

Hammer, thank you for insight on the Kuma Sequoia. I really am liking it from what I am seeing. If you get a chance, I hate to ask, do you think you could get some actual firebox measurements for me?

 

[heavy hammer]

The dimensions are 24 inches wide, by 12 inches tall, by 18 and a quarter inches deep.

 

[begreen]

The dimensions are 24 inches wide, by 12 inches tall, by 18 and a quarter inches deep.

Thanks for posting. This comes out to a 3.0 cu ft stove.

 

[heavy hammer]

I'm sure the manufacturer Doesn't subtract the area taken up by the cat housing but maybe I'm wrong.

 

[begreen]

Yes, same on some non-cat stoves. Many manufacturers count the entire firebox area and not just the loadable area. That makes comparisons difficult sometimes.

 

[webby3650]

I get a chance to look at almost all the stoves on the market. Not very many of them have a firebox that just looks big. Many claim big boxes, but in fact they are just big stoves. The firebox has to be reduced in size to meet EPA emission requirements. Honestly the only stoves that really look as big as claimed after 3.0 cubic feet are Blaze Kings. They use different technology and are able to pass the test with the firebox size that's as close to advertised as possible.

 

[begreen]

Osburn/SBI used to report pretty accurate specs on their firebox size. Then all of a sudden a few years back the firebox volumes grew a bit for the same stoves. For example, for years the 2400i was listed as a 3.2 cu ft stove. Now it's listed as a 3.4 cu ft.

 

[Matt93eg]

The dimensions are 24 inches wide, by 12 inches tall, by 18 and a quarter inches deep.

Thank you very much!! I went back up and looked at previous posts but didn't see it so forgive me if I missed it, how much sq/ft are you heating with your Sequoia?

 

[Woody Stover]

how much sq/ft are you heating with your Sequoia?

About 4000, but it hasn't been all that cold there yet. Looks like tonight may be a better test...around freezing, and wind gusts to almost 40 mph.

 

[begreen]

I think the question was directed at heavy hammer with the Sequoia.

 

[Woody Stover]

I think the question was directed at heavy hammer with the Sequoia.

Yes, I was basing my reply on post #13 where hh mentioned he's heating 4000 sq.ft. He's getting a stiff breeze off the lake tonight so it should put the Sequoia to the test.

 

[Matt93eg]

Yes, I was basing my reply on post #13 where hh mentioned he's heating 4000 sq.ft. He's getting a stiff breeze off the lake tonight so it should put the Sequoia to the test.

Thanks for getting me up to speed, I forgot to click back to page 1 . Well it will be interesting to hear how the Sequoia does. I hope it does well.