Looks great , I guess at this point I'm down to a BK ( wife loves the Ashford) or the PE summit. Decisions , decisions. *Edit* Just noticed on the BK there is no way I could do a free standing stove
New here with a few questions
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Looks great , I guess at this point I'm down to a BK ( wife loves the Ashford) or the PE summit. Decisions , decisions. *Edit* Just noticed on the BK there is no way I could do a free standing stove
Also does anyone actually buy into the square footage numbers provided? I notice the sirocco and the ashford inserts are extremely similar in all aspects however the the scirocco claims up to 1800 while the Ashford is 1600. As I'm writing this I'm thinking to myself where I'm going to put my stove upstairs when that time comes.
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wizards8507
Member
I'm heating 3,000 square feet with a Hamption HI300 insert. It WAY outperforms its specifications. I load at 7am, 3pm, and 11pm. My hearth room is in the mid 80s and the upstairs is around 65, perfect for sleeping. We could balance that out a bit with fans but we like the bedrooms cool.
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SuperJ
Feeling the Heat
Ignore the differences in the BK square footage (but the numbers look the same to me). They Sirocco and Ashford insert are the same stove (same firebox) with cosmetic differences (in the freestanding models the Ashford is more convective due to the cast over steel design).
If you are considering PE, the Alderlea seems to be a better match than the Summit based on what you've said on your wife's approval of the Ashford.
It would be awesome to figure out how to make a BK happen though.
You hit the nail on the head with the Alderlea. I have shown it to her before but I was always drawn to the summit but I guess I'm down to my final 2 options being I can't fit most freestanding stoves in my fireplace and the fact I have to keep her somewhat happy. BK Ashford insert or Pacific Energy Alderlea T5 insert.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
PE makes good stoves, and if I were stuck buying a non-cat, it would probably be the Alderlea or another Jotul. But, thankfully we have cat stoves, and it’s hard to ignore the flexibility permitted by burn times that are more than 2x longer.
Translation: you’ll be able to load that BK full, and run 24 hour stints, on days where that PE would roast you out of the house on a full load. Non-cat guys make this work using a “pump and glide” technique, running small hot fires to heat up the house, and then hope the place retains some heat for the rest of the day. This requires a House with very low heat loss, no big old PA farm house.
Translation: you’ll be able to load that BK full, and run 24 hour stints, on days where that PE would roast you out of the house on a full load. Non-cat guys make this work using a “pump and glide” technique, running small hot fires to heat up the house, and then hope the place retains some heat for the rest of the day. This requires a House with very low heat loss, no big old PA farm house.
SuperJ
Feeling the Heat
At the risk of sounding like a crazed BK fanboy...
It's hard to overstate how radically better the burn times are on the Blaze King stoves versus anything else.
When I talk to my wood burning friends/neighbors, they usually respond that sometimes they can get a fire going in the morning from coals. There are a couple stoves (like woodstocks) that you can coax 20+hrs out of if you do everything right, but it seems like the exception (like getting more than 30mpg in a minivan).
Personally I commute 1.5hrs to work, which means my door to door time is often over 12hrs. With my BK Ashford can load up the stove when it's convenient for me later in the evening, go to bed, get up, go to work, return home, eat supper, play with the kids, put them to bed, then I start thinking about doing a reload. My wife and kids enjoy nice wood heat all day long even when I'm not around for half a day or more at a time.
It's hard to overstate how radically better the burn times are on the Blaze King stoves versus anything else.
When I talk to my wood burning friends/neighbors, they usually respond that sometimes they can get a fire going in the morning from coals. There are a couple stoves (like woodstocks) that you can coax 20+hrs out of if you do everything right, but it seems like the exception (like getting more than 30mpg in a minivan).
Personally I commute 1.5hrs to work, which means my door to door time is often over 12hrs. With my BK Ashford can load up the stove when it's convenient for me later in the evening, go to bed, get up, go to work, return home, eat supper, play with the kids, put them to bed, then I start thinking about doing a reload. My wife and kids enjoy nice wood heat all day long even when I'm not around for half a day or more at a time.
Easy Livin’ 3000
Minister of Fire
I guess you don't let the wife and kids touch your BK? I'm assuming the kids are old enough to do so.At the risk of sounding like a crazed BK fanboy...
It's hard to overstate how radically better the burn times are on the Blaze King stoves versus anything else.
When I talk to my wood burning friends/neighbors, they usually respond that sometimes they can get a fire going in the morning from coals. There are a couple stoves (like woodstocks) that you can coax 20+hrs out of if you do everything right, but it seems like the exception (like getting more than 30mpg in a minivan).
Personally I commute 1.5hrs to work, which means my door to door time is often over 12hrs. With my BK Ashford can load up the stove when it's convenient for me later in the evening, go to bed, get up, go to work, return home, eat supper, play with the kids, put them to bed, then I start thinking about doing a reload. My wife and kids enjoy nice wood heat all day long even when I'm not around for half a day or more at a time.
At the risk of sounding like a crazed BK fanboy...
It's hard to overstate how radically better the burn times are on the Blaze King stoves versus anything else.
When I talk to my wood burning friends/neighbors, they usually respond that sometimes they can get a fire going in the morning from coals. There are a couple stoves (like woodstocks) that you can coax 20+hrs out of if you do everything right, but it seems like the exception (like getting more than 30mpg in a minivan).
Personally I commute 1.5hrs to work, which means my door to door time is often over 12hrs. With my BK Ashford can load up the stove when it's convenient for me later in the evening, go to bed, get up, go to work, return home, eat supper, play with the kids, put them to bed, then I start thinking about doing a reload. My wife and kids enjoy nice wood heat all day long even when I'm not around for half a day or more at a time.
It would be nice to be able to let it burn for hours and not have to worry about it. My wife will never deal with the insert, and her main concern is the flames, so the ability to have long burns and a good flame show when we are in the living room seems to make the BK a great option. I've been trying to find pricing but they don't seem available online, guess I need to make some calls
Ashful
Minister of Fire
I hope I didn’t mislead you, Eclipse. I said you can have pretty flames OR ultra-long burn times from a BK, just turn the knob to select your desired mode. However, there is a trade-off between flame show and burn time. When you’re running in the super low-output modes that give us 20+ hour burn times, you will NOT have flames that whole time. Conversely, I can have pretty flame show at burn rates up to about 12 hours per load, and can rip thru a full load in probably 4 hours at the highest burn setting.
I turn mine up to non-cat burn rates to have flame show when we’re sitting by the stove watching a movie on a Friday evening, and then turn it down to “black box” for those long all-night-all-day 24 hour burns. It’s the flexibility to do either that I was highlighting, as some folks here like to imply that non-cats can ONLY run slow, which is completely wrong.
That photo I posted above, of my stove with nice flame show 12 hours after loading was when I came down for breakfast and turned it up to bump the room up real quick from 70F to 73F. Once my desired temperature was achieved, I turned it back down to black box mode, and it held the room at 73 - 75F all day. In the evening, when I came in for dinner, I turned it back up for a little flame show and to burn down the rest of the load. No reload required for more than 24 hours, in all of that going back and forth.
Nope , didn't mislead at all, I know that I will lose some hours on the burn by jacking it up but that's ok with me, it gives me the versatility to either conserve wood on a nice slow burn when no one is watching or have some nice flames when we want them. To be honest I haven't been looking at cat inserts because I thought we really wouldn't get any flames but that seems not to be the case. Now it's time to justify the cost difference to the wife
SuperJ
Feeling the Heat
My wife would rather I deal with it than her, more so than "I don't let her touch it." She enjoys the flame show and the wood heat comfort in our living room. My kids are too young at this point to do anything stove related on their own, but I'm teaching them (I've got 8/6/4 year olds).
Not to shake things up if you've already made your decision, but I personally am not convinced that cat stoves provide as good a flame show as noncat stoves. I'm a newbie, so what do I know, but while I was doing my stove research, I found that while there are plenty of cat owners on hearth.com that insist cat stoves provide as good a flame show, there are also plenty who insist that they do not. This was an important factor to my wife and I.
Some of the comments on this thread steered me away from cat stoves:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/who-says-cat-stoves-do-not-offer-a-fire-show.120124/
I'm not trying to start a debate or anything, but I just wanted to point out that there are cat owners who do not feel their stoves provide as good of a flame show.
Easy Livin’ 3000
Minister of Fire
I was pulling your string, in case you weren't sure.
My woman didn't want to at first, but I'm gone often enough that even the legendary BK foreverburn wouldn't suffice.
So, about a dozen lectures about how the house would burn down if her attention lapsed at the wrong time, with monthly reminders, and she's all over it. It is a relief to share the burden.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
There is a definite difference in fire view, in that cat stoves don’t display that gas grill look of blue secondary streamers emitting down from the top of the firebox. In a cat stove, the fire appears to be coming off the wood, like it would in an open fireplace. In a non-cat you get more of the ceiling secondary action, but some say this looks false, like a gas stove.
There are plenty of YouTube videos, if you want to explore the differences. Everyone has their own opinion on what looks good, and they need to make stoves to sell to folks with poor taste, too!
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I want a natural looking fire and if the cat can provide a nice natural looking fire for the few hours that we sit in front of it or for maybe the holidays when the family is over then that's perfect. I figure if I wanted a nice fire view I would pack it maybe half full and turn it up so I don't have a ton of heat pouring out. They must put a large viewing window on the inserts for some reason.
When I turn mine way down, I get black wood near the beginning of the burn , say an hour into it, with some orange red under the splits
If I come back later in the night I get a bed of glowing orange red coals with just a lick of flame now and then, say 4 hours into the burn. The difference is all the splits have fallen apart
This is a WPH in cat mode
If I open up the air, still in cat mode, I get flames in either case
If I come back later in the night I get a bed of glowing orange red coals with just a lick of flame now and then, say 4 hours into the burn. The difference is all the splits have fallen apart
This is a WPH in cat mode
If I open up the air, still in cat mode, I get flames in either case
So the wife surprised me and she actually liked the look of a stove over the insert because it fit the house better. HOWEVER , after doing measurements for combustibles, and trying to mount a TV over the fireplace we realized it was going to make the TV level go way to high ( I am not a fan of TV over the fireplace but we really have no where else to put it in living room). So long story long I guess I am joining the fanboy club of blaze King. Ashford insert here we come
SuperJ
Feeling the Heat
kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
I'll add that to our dictionary - Woody is probably gona get mad at us again
You’ll love it. Do you have any pics of the fireplace where the insert is goingQUOTE]
The top part was glass which I removed , we are also having a mantel and surround built and the brick will be refaced with a light gray stacked stone or a dressed stone due to the holes previous owners drilled into the brick to mount a flat surround to it. The fireplace opening is 30 high by 39 wide
You already know a tv over a heat source , never mind a wood stove,is a bad idea, so why are you setting yourself up for problems?
BKVP
Minister of Fire
You can use really large pieces of wood, like some cat Stove owners may for extended burns, or you can use 8-10 pieces with a heck more surface area and the fire can be intense for many, many hours. Cat Stoves “attract” Home heater types because they are looking for long burn times. So by default many burn big pieces, I know I do.
I think it’s more about piece size than technology.
Good tip @BKVP , can't wait to get the Ashford here and installed. I think everyone enjoys a nice fire every once in awhile
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