I stand to be corrected, but I am pretty sure the BX 24 is the same innards as the BK 25 fireplace inserts. IIRC once the firebox was through EPA certification they put one skin on it as the Ashford 25 fireplace insert, another as Sirocco 25 insert... any of the inserts with 25 in the model number..
Same firebox and combustor and fan kit and EPA certification, packaged as a freestander, presto, Boxer 24.
There are plenty of reviews of the Ashford 25 insert here. AFAIK no registered here user has a BX24 yet. I did ask the wife for a BX24 for Christmas last year. Sort of tongue in cheek, it's pretty high dollar for a Christmas gift. I didn't get one, but I did go look one over pretty hard at the store.
When I looked at the store the interior was the same brick pattern and combustor placement as a nearby size 25 insert.
No drain plug for ash removal. Can't fit them in fireplace inserts, would be a separate EPA test (another million dollars) to certify the firebox again.
Odd shaped (insert) firebox, sides go straight back a few inches and then taper towards the back, so the back wall isn't nearly as wide as the front.
I think these are the 2 biggest issues with the BX24.
On the plus side it should be a lot of stove for the price and run very efficiently. I still want one for my shop.
I am not too worried about the lack of a floor drain; the belly of the stove,(vertical distance from door lip to floor place) is fairly shallow, shoveling out ashes shouldn't be too horrible. It was after all designed with the knowledge ashes would have to be shoveled out.
I think dealing with the odd shaped firebox will have a little bit of learning curve to it, but not bad. For my first season I will learn to load it with 16" splits and only look for odd sized fuel if I couldn't make 16s work. I think I could make 16s work just fine.
I would be likely to cut a select few 16" splits in half, making two 8" splits sized to stand vertically in the wider parts of the front firebox right and left., but I don't anticipate needing to cram that much fuel in the box very often.
I think most of the time it would be fine to rake the hot coals to the front corners, load 16" splits in the middle of the box floor to ceiling with the end grain showing, maybe wrangle some hot coals towards the middle in front of the fresh fuel, then one or maybe two splits in front of the main load with edge grain showing, close the door and carry on.
I agree with
@bholler this may not be the best choice for an occasional use cabin. If you were living in the cabin full time with locale appropriate insulation and air sealing I think the BX 24 would be hard to beat.
In general cat stoves shine at cranking out steady heat for hours and hours and hours. If you want to rip through a firebox full quickly to bring a cold space up to a comfortable temp in a hurry a tube type or similar stove might better meet your needs. The Englander NC-30 for instance gets a lot of positive reviews here, I haven't read as much about the smaller NC-13.
The great big unknown elephant on the carpet in the stove room is how good the BX 24 does at getting radiant heat through all that glass into a cold cabin at cold start. We just don't know, here, because no one has posted up. Better than any other similar sized cat stove on the market, probably. As good a similar well made tube stove, probably not. Where in that gap the BX24 will plant a pole is still unknown.
I think I will put a BX 24 on my Christmas list again this year.
