Magnum or St. Croix

[tfohner]

Looking at the Magnum Baby Countryside or the St. Croix Prescott EXP. House is 2500 sq ft, 2 levels on a crawl space with a very open floor plan. Both stoves are 40,000 BTUs. Have not seen any comments on the magnum. Looking for supplemental heat, possibly not using propane at all. Also wondering if I would need something bigger Magnum Coutryside or Englander 25PDV, possibly going on sale.

Any comments would be much appreciated.

 

[webbie]

I have a baby - works well with corn as well as pellets, so if corn is a possibility that might be a good option. There are a lot of baby owners over at the iburncorn.com forums, and the reviews are pretty decent.

I know we have a lot of st. croix owners who are also happy.

Lots of Englander owners here - but that is not a corn or flex-fuel model...

You also have to consider service - for whichever stove you choose. I know there are some decent dealers down on the eastern shore. Unless you are extremely handy, you may need someone to adjust, fix and clean your stove. Pellets stoves tend to have "issues" at some point in their career...and it is important to plan for that.

 

[Xena]

I have the Prescott in a 1400 sq ft ranch. Love it. I'm heating about 80%
of the house with it. If you were just interested in heating the level that
the stove would reside on then I think the stove is a good choice.
It does a great job heating my house but if you're
looking to heat 2500 sq ft I think you should look at something
with a higher btu.


Imo you don't have to be "extremely handy" to maintain/troubleshoot/repair
your own pellet stove. If you can use basic hand tools and have any
mechanical ability and a little common sense then it's not a big deal.