New Install: Pacific Alderlea T6 or Jotul F55

[Kodiak]

Looking for opinions or considerations with these 2 stoves.
Factors:
- want a non cat stove.
-2400sq ft 2 story house with open concept 9 foot ceilings with great room of 12 foot ceilings ( where stove will live )
- winters here are nov-April , 0 deg C to -20 but average is -5 to -8 deg C. Snow is normal.
- house is new build , modern and very well insulated.
- house has heat pump centrally located and I can run a circulating fan to entire house including unfinished basement with 7 foot ceilings. Very well insulate basement. Spray foamed and 4 inches of step foam insulation on top of that. ( overkill in my opinion. )
- looking to heat whole house if possible when we are home and combo of heat pump and wood stove when working days. ( would burn in evenings. )
- we have just moved into house from a townhouse where we heated with a Enviro Kodiak 1700 insert for about 8-9 years. I took my firewood with me so we have seasoned wood to burn.
- would be corner install with approx 18 feet of double wall ( including exterior section ). Our other chimney was very long at 30 feet so we had very good draft and Ben in mild temps for shoulder season. Is 18 feet enough?

That’s lots of info but let me know what you all have to say. I’m looking for opinions on those stoves and any things I haven’t considered. I want a clean pro and safe install with close to full time burning in mind. Budget conscious but willling to pay more for doing it once and done for a long time. Will retire in this in this house very likely. But am that’s still at least 12-15 years away.
Thanks All.

 

[begreen]

They each have their strengths, but I am partial toward the T6 for a few reasons. I like the firebox construction and the use of stainless steel throughout. It is easy to maintain and works well. We love the swing-away trivet top that is unique to the Alderleas. We cook on the stove several times in the winter, including holiday dinners. It is a brilliant solution. That said, I think the overall casting and detailing on the Jotul is better. The ash system may also be better. We don't use the ash collection system on our T6. The stove has a deep belly and as long as we burn doug fir, the ash cleanouts are infrequent, only 2-3 times in a season.

As far as heating, your setup is very similar to ours - 2000 sq ft with heat pump, installed in the corner of the living room in an open floorplan home. The difference is that our house is old, just moderate insulation and too much glass. That said, the T6 has been a good fit. The open floorplan and cast iron jacket work well together to provide surprisingly even heat with little temperature swing. The only maintenance costs for the past 11 yrs have been gaskets, though I will replace the baffle side kaowool insulation pads this year probably.

The bottom line is that either stove will be a good choice.

 

[bholler]

I agree with everything begreen said but will add your 18' will do perfectly fine

 

[Kodiak]

Thanks guys. Appreciate the feedback. I quite like the T6 personally. I have no need for an ash pan. Would prefer to not have one and eliminate the gaskets from the equation completely. So that’s a consideration too.

I would’ve considered an Oslo 500. I really like the looks of that stove. But the east west loading won’t work in corner install.

 

[begreen]

Yes, there are no gaskets for the ash dump system. The ash pan, if kept clean, makes a dandy bun warmer. We had the Castine prior to the T6 and had to skip the Oslo for the upgrade for the same reason, corner install. I'm happy with the decision. The Castine was a good heater, but we had a much greater room and house temperature swing with it. I remember the first morning I woke up and came down to a still warm living room. That was a delightful improvement. Now I am sold on cast iron jacketed steel stoves.

 

[Kodiak]

Oh nice. Bun warmer. I like that. We are definitely home bodies and wife loves to cook and bake so the trivet system is enticing. We don’t really travel at all. Our Kodiak insert got 8-10 hours burns with coals left ( not always ) with softwoods at 2.5 cu ft box. I’m hoping with a 3.0 cu ft box we can achieve the 10 hours with coals left behind. I was personally into a cat stove ( bk princess 32) but wife REALLY wants to watch the flames all the time and does like to shove the occasional piece of cardboard in there. ( I know , not recommended….).

I feel like the non cat is great as that’s what we are used too but can the cat stove ACTUALLY burn 20 hours or more? Or conversely if we sacrifice burn time for aesthetics can you make it flame beautifully?

I think I know the answers here but curious what you guys with real world experience think.

I may give to mandate NO cardboard burning with a new stove

 

[Kodiak]

If enviro still made wood stoves I would’ve just bought a Boston 1700. Done. But alas….

 

[moresnow]

can the cat stove ACTUALLY burn 20 hours or more

Yes

can you make it flame beautifully?

Yes

The advertised burn times from BK are accurate.

Burning with active flame is done by simply adding air. The reduction in burn time is considerable. Naturally.

 

[begreen]

If enviro still made wood stoves I would’ve just bought a Boston 1700. Done. But alas….

Enviros were good woodstoves. Sorry they stopped producing them. The Boston is a beautiful stove.

 

[bholler]

Oh nice. Bun warmer. I like that. We are definitely home bodies and wife loves to cook and bake so the trivet system is enticing. We don’t really travel at all. Our Kodiak insert got 8-10 hours burns with coals left ( not always ) with softwoods at 2.5 cu ft box. I’m hoping with a 3.0 cu ft box we can achieve the 10 hours with coals left behind. I was personally into a cat stove ( bk princess 32) but wife REALLY wants to watch the flames all the time and does like to shove the occasional piece of cardboard in there. ( I know , not recommended….).

I feel like the non cat is great as that’s what we are used too but can the cat stove ACTUALLY burn 20 hours or more? Or conversely if we sacrifice burn time for aesthetics can you make it flame beautifully?

I think I know the answers here but curious what you guys with real world experience think.

I may give to mandate NO cardboard burning with a new stove

Blaze kings absolutely can burn 20+ hours. But they do it at an extremely low btu output I only burn that long for a week or so out of the year

 

[begreen]

No need for the low and slow burn with the heat pump. It's cleaner and less expensive to run if buying the wood.

 

[Kodiak]

Thanks team. Good feedback. Good point on the heat pump begreen. I think I can safely say it’s gonna be a non cat stove. And leaning heavily towards the T6.

I do all the firewood myself. I’ve only ever bought firewood once. As you’d expect, I enjoy doing the firewood myself so no worries there. And now I’ve got space to store lots of wood.

Before I commit, are there any other 3.0 cu ft non cat stoves to consider? I checked out the osburn 3300 with legs, seems like a good stove too.

Any others worth a look?

 

[Kodiak]

I also scored this for free with 12 feet of double wall today. It’s going into a cabin build I’m doing. Picked up the pipe today. Will grab the stove in a couple weeks.

Got the wood stove bug again! Love it!

 

[begreen]

Thanks team. Good feedback. Good point on the heat pump begreen. I think I can safely say it’s gonna be a non cat stove. And leaning heavily towards the T6.

I do all the firewood myself. I’ve only ever bought firewood once. As you’d expect, I enjoy doing the firewood myself so no worries there. And now I’ve got space to store lots of wood.

Before I commit, are there any other 3.0 cu ft non cat stoves to consider? I checked out the osburn 3300 with legs, seems like a good stove too.

Any others worth a look?

The big Drolet HT3000 is a good heater and a great value.

The firewood may be homegrown, but there is still the cost of processing. When I was splitting my own I still had to include the cost of the saw, travel, gas, a splitter, PPE axe and maul, wedges, etc.

Nice score on the old Super.

 

[Whirled Peas]

Begreen-- just curious-- are you heating the same space with your T6 as you were with the Castine? If so, how'd you choose the T6 over the T5 given that it would have been more comparable in size to the Castine? Seems like you jumped a size.

Asking as a curious Castine owner. I've got an order placed for a WS Absolute Steel, but am also considering replacing a pellet stove in my detached apartment with a T5 (or a Super). The space is only ~800 sq-ft, but it's above an uninsulated garage (in Vermont).

 

[begreen]

Begreen-- just curious-- are you heating the same space with your T6 as you were with the Castine? If so, how'd you choose the T6 over the T5 given that it would have been more comparable in size to the Castine? Seems like you jumped a size.

Asking as a curious Castine owner. I've got an order placed for a WS Absolute Steel, but am also considering replacing a pellet stove in my detached apartment with a T5 (or a Super). The space is only ~800 sq-ft, but it's above an uninsulated garage (in Vermont).

Yes, same space, same stove location. We loved the Castine. In blue-black enamel, it is an exceptionally good-looking and well made stove. The F400 could heat the place fine until the temps got into the mid-20s. Then I was stoking the stove every 4 hrs to keep up with the house heat loss. This is in part because of the shallow, E/W loading firebox. It real-world capacity is more like 1.6 cu ft. One can not load it full to the gills without concern of wood falling against the glass. When the stove was pushed hard I was also seeing high wall temps behind the stove in spite of the stove having the rear heatshield and being several inches above the minimum corner clearance requirement. Tom Oyen saw my posts here as I started looking at larger stoves like the Isle Royale, F500 or F600, Defiant, Mansfield, etc. but was stuck on clearances. I had approached the local PE dealer about getting a T6 and he refused to sell it to me, stating that we would be mad at him for overheating our house. In retrospect, he was 100% wrong.

In Feb. Tom noted that he had a 4 mo. old floor model T6 that he was looking to sell. We discussed the T5 and the Super at length and Tom told me that although it would cover 80% of our heating easily in our mild climate, during those cold days it would be working hard like the Castine. He made me an offer for the T6 that was hard to refuse. I went up the next weekend to his shop in a little snowstorm, got the stove, and installed it that afternoon. After one day of running the T6 it was clearly a better solution for our old house. The soft heat is a better fit and it has the capacity to heat well on those very cold days. I knew this by the next morning and we have never overheated the house with it. The deep firebox allows us to load N/S. Another serendipitous benefit is that we can run the T6 in milder weather with little or no smoke spill due to the deeper firebox.

By the description of the space above the garage, the T5 or Super would work fine. Take a look at the Jotul F45 too.

 

[Whirled Peas]

Great, thanks. The space I'm considering the T5 (or Super) has only ever been heated by various combinations of hydronic baseboard heat (electric), pellet stove or ductless heat pump, so I doesn't have any sort of 'too big' or 'too small' wood stove comparison to base my expectations off of. I'm obviously very familiar with my familiar with my Castine, so I appreciate your direct comparison in that way.

 

[marty319]

Thanks team. Good feedback. Good point on the heat pump begreen. I think I can safely say it’s gonna be a non cat stove. And leaning heavily towards the T6.

I do all the firewood myself. I’ve only ever bought firewood once. As you’d expect, I enjoy doing the firewood myself so no worries there. And now I’ve got space to store lots of wood.

Before I commit, are there any other 3.0 cu ft non cat stoves to consider? I checked out the osburn 3300 with legs, seems like a good stove too.

Any others worth a look?

I just bought the osburn 3300.just waiting on delivery.i traded in my osburn 2300 as I keep forgetting to close the bypass damper.the 3300 firebox is just .1 cu ft smaller than the 2300 box @ 3.4.i burn mostly pine and have no problem getting a 8 to 10 hour burn

 

[Kodiak]

All good feedback, Thankyou. Marty, you say bypass damper, is the 2300 a cat stove? I’d love to hear your first impressions on the 3300 when it arrives. That may be a stove that is easier to get for me than a T6. Available products these days are hard to come by. I’m enticed by the the size of that firebox as I’m burning softwoods so volume is key when it’s proper cold out.

Any opinions on stove pipe, quality brands, long term durability? I’ll admit I certainly put more time into research on the stove than the pipe. I want a safe install that lasts a long time. I’m still not sure if it will be a straight shot thru the trusses to the exterior. But I’ll be able to clean it myself 2-3 times per winter in addition to having our local certified sweep do it annually. In our old place with the enviro 1700 it was built into a zero clearance system. A 6 inch stainless liner inside an 8 inch chimney and that was all inside a 10-12 inch ( can’t remember) to create air space and protection. Anyway, point being, I’d like something clean and simple and with potential for easy replacement. Is quality double wall pipe good for decades? Or do I put a liner in it too to make it last longer and replace liner at some point? I’ve always liked the idea of insulation too to keep gases rising in mild outside temps to avoid a plugged cap or end of stack build up but , with at most 18 feet vs the 30 I used to have, that might not be an issue. IE: I use a double wall pipe and line and insulate it….possible? Overkill? I tend to over do or overkill things but mostly bc I don’t want to have to deal with things if I don’t have too in the future. Too many projects between the house and the rural remote raw land build….. do it once and move on. But these are good problems to have.

Thanks all.

 

[begreen]

Excel is good quality Canadian-made chimney and stove pipe. Drolet stovepipe is also nice.

 

[marty319]

All good feedback, Thankyou. Marty, you say bypass damper, is the 2300 a cat stove? I’d love to hear your first impressions on the 3300 when it arrives. That may be a stove that is easier to get for me than a T6. Available products these days are hard to come by. I’m enticed by the the size of that firebox as I’m burning softwoods so volume is key when it’s proper cold out.

Any opinions are stove pipe, quality brands, long term durability? I’ll admit I certainly put more time into research on the stove than the pipe. I want a safe install that lasts a long time. I’m still not sure if it will be a straight shot thru the trusses to the exterior. But I’ll be able to clean it myself 2-3 times per winter in addition to having our local certified sweep do it annually. In our old place with the enviro 1700 it was built into I zero clearance system. A 6 inch stainless liner inside an 8 inch chimney and that was all inside a 10-12 inch ( can’t remember) to create air space and protection. Anyway, point being, I’d like something clean and simple and with potential for easy replacement. Is quality double wall pipe good for decades? Or do I put a liner in it too to make it last longer and replace liner at some point? I’ve always liked the idea of insulation too to keep gases rising in mild outside temps to avoid a plugged cap or end of stack build up but with at most 18 feet vs the 30 I used to have, that might not be an issue. IE: I use a double wall pipe and line and insulate it….possible? Overkill? I tend to over do or overkill things but mostly bc I don’t want to have to deal with things if I don’t have too.

Thanks all.

The 2300 is discontinued. The by pass was to reduce smoke rollout when reloading the stove and my old feeble mind keeps forgetting to close it.once left for hours with a full firebox and bypass left open.not good.i used to have a enviro kodiak 1700 stove that I loved but enviro not making stoves anymore and me heating entirely with wood it was time to part ways with enviro.sadly.my 3300 should be here next week and if it burns anywhere as good as the 2300 it will be awesome.will post pictures when it comes in

 

[nortcan]

Just curiosity, does the PE T4 or T5 Extended Burn Technology is like the tech. found in the B.King stoves?
Anyway these PE stoves are very nice and the cast iron cook top is a very nice and practical option to have, it remember the PH one.

 

[begreen]

Just curiosity, does the PE T4 or T5 Extended Burn Technology is like the tech. found in the B.King stoves?
Anyway these PE stoves are very nice and the cast iron cook top is a very nice and practical option to have, it remember the PH one.

No, completely different. The PE EBT is a unique, barometric damper system on the secondary air supply.

 

[nortcan]

Does the PE EBT system make some difference for the burn time and/or for the burn regulation (peak and valley) compared to regular stoves having only air damper lever?

 

[begreen]

It is to extend the burn time. EBT stands for extended burn time.

Sweep's Library - Pacific Energy's Extended Burn Technology

Here's a look at Pacific Energy's EBT technology, as used on several Summit, Neo and Alderlea wood stoves

hearth.com