Looking to upgrade from current woodstove Drolet Sahara

[Frost88]

Hi all and thanks for your time in advance.
I'm new on the forum but have been reading posts on here for years and have learned alot along the way.
We are currently looking for our next stove. We have a 15 yr old Drolet Sahara that has served us well, but it's time for something new.

We want something that we can make it through the night without having to reload, and something with enough output to heat during -30-40 Celsius but also not cook us out in the shoulder seasons. We heat about 80% of our needs with the Drolet, but we go through a ton of wood and the burn times are poor at best. We use our propane furnace to warm the house in the mornings or after a day away at work.
We live in northern British Columbia and have a cold dry climate. Typically winters -15to-25 degrees celsius.
We have a two story, 2400 sq ft chalet style log home and it does have full scribe logs, but not chinked, so it requires alot of heat output when it's cold or windy out. Chinking is on the long term to do list, but a new stove is first. Current stove is in our great room, 20ft cathedral ceiling and 24+- ft 6" pipe.
Any suggestions on type or size of stove to get would be appreciated!
I've been leaning towards a bigger stove, maybe as big as we can get without going to 8" flu.
Thank you,

Peter

 

[stoveliker]

The problem with this approach (first stove then chinking) is that you need one with a huuuuge range of outputs. High now but low later.

That may not be easy to find. Get one now that suits your current needs and you'll be cooking out of your home later.

It would be much better to swap the order if things. First get the home in order and then get the stove that works (for 20 years!!) with that.

My $0.02

 

[Trevor Tahclep]

You have one of the best and oldest stove companies located in your province, Pacific Energy Wood Stove Products are located in Duncan, BC have you taken a look at those, either the Super 27 HD or the Summit.

 

[kborndale]

Agreed with doing the chinking first, use the old stove till then.

 

[joop]

PE t-5 would look nice

 

[Trevor Tahclep]

PE t-5 would look nice

Yes PE's cast iron series are really beautiful stoves, unfortunately these were not available when I purchased my PE Spectrum Classic 25 years ago. My Spectrum is still a very beautiful stove 25 years later with its gold plating and black porcelain panels, in great shape as well after burning 7-10 face cords of wood per year. Hopefully I will get another 10-15 years of burning out of it.

 

[joop]

looks almost brand new

 

[ABMax24]

Contrary to other opinions, I believe you can easily go to a 3+ cuft stove and still be able to turn the stove down enough once you complete the chinking.

Log homes have a lot of thermal mass, it helps to even out the heat load.

In your case my top choice would be a Pacific Energy Summit, followed by an Osburn 3300 (you can get the same 3.3 cuft firebox cheaper in a similar Drolet model).

 

[kcmclellan]

Drolet Austral is a great stove!

 

[EbS-P]

How big (cu ft) is the Sahara?

2400 sq ft. Unchincked log home in a cold climate has a really large heat demand. I’m not sure you would even be satisfied with the largest 6” stove on the market. Does JA Robey still sell their huge 6” stove. I’d be looking into adding supplemental heat for the extra cold days.

 

[joop]

ya they still sell it ,but not the most attractive stove for a log home.bought mine for the heat not the looks

 

[joop]

maybe PE-t6

 

[Trevor Tahclep]

The T6 is the Summit encased in cast iron, both use the same firebox /system and can emit a whole lot of heat if called upon to do so in the worst cold weather. In my mind a T6 finished in porcelain certainly would look mighty beautiful inside a log home. So would the T5 as well.