Welcome! I just finished my first season as a wood-burner - wish I found these forums before I had mine installed! Nontheless, we ended up with a nice installation and my experience with our first wood stove has been, I would say, an eye-opening experience. With regards to your inquiry, we have a Regency CI2600 flush-mount insert. We knew that we wanted an insert, as opposed to a free-standing stove, when we started looking. This was partially for looks and we also reasoned it may somehow be safer with small children (less hot surface area exposed). I understood that a flush mount insert may not offer quite as much performance - it's a compromise and I was OK with it. We also did not want an insert that sticks out onto the hearth, so we accepted that whatever unit we aquired would have a blower. Another priority was to minimize the amount of particulates in the exhaust because we live in a relatively densely packed suburban area north of New York City. Lastly, I wanted as long a burn time as possible (doesn't everyone want that??) because no one is home continuously during the week to run the stove. We knew of a couple of disadvantages in our setup going in. First our brick fireplace is external and second it's positioned at the far end of the house opposite to the bedrooms. The advantages we had included a big existing masonry fireplace opening so we could get a large-size insert and although the insert would be at the extreme end of the house, it is a straight shot from the fireplace clear to the other end of the house so at least the warm air can flow freely from one end to the other. Also we are within driving distance to several dealers so we could look at a variety of brands. We looked at Lopi, Blaze King, Pacific Energy, Regency, Hampton, and Vermont Castings. The Regency offered the most contemporary flush-mount look, a large firebox, and was among the most clean-buring. It is a hybrid type stove with a cat and secondary air tubes. I did the prep-work of a new tile surround and mantle (which I haven't gotten around to building yet!), while the dealer installed the insert and liner. If could do it again, knowing what I know now, I would have demanded an insulated liner and I would have paid extra for a proper block-off plate in the damper area.
I say this has been an eye-opening experience because I didn't really appreciate the amount of warmth these things are capable of with such an efficient use of wood and so little smoke produced. Our house is 2000 sqft all one level. We were used to keeping the house at 65-67 degrees with our natural gas furnace. With, say, 3 loads a day on weekends we could easily keep the mid-section of the house at 75+, while outside temps were in the teens on average. Couple degrees cooler in the bedrooms (favorable for sleeping, as it turns out) and 78-80 in the 3 rooms closest to the unit (kitchen, dining, living rooms). We really enjoyed walking around the house with bare feet, shorts, and t-shirts in mid-winter. Once the house is up to a comfortable temp I can maintain that with the blower on low, which is barely audible. I only used the high setting if the house was cold and starting up the stove, when it had been off for a couple of days.
In April, when we had lows in the 40's and highs in the 50's I was able to keep the house comfortable using only radiative heating from the stove, that is with the blower off.
Using a trigger-activated surface thermometer, typical temps of the stove when it's running low-to-medium damper settings and blower on low are: glass 700-800; cast iron door (around the glass) 350-400; steel surround, 150-200; ceramic tile hearth 6-8" in front of stove (hottest part) 120-150, ceramic tile just above center section of the steel surround, 200; temp of wood floor just beyond the hearth (about 22" in front of stove), 90; dry wall about 36-42" above the stove just beyond the end of the tile surround, 90; air coming out of the blower 300-350 measured right at the exit point before mixing with room air; temp of glowing cat 1000+.
As noted above, the performance of the Regency has been more than adequate for our needs. I can definitely get 10-12 hours of continuous heat on one load if the unit is up to operating temperature when I load it for an all-nighter and I cram every cubic inch of space with good dry wood and crank the damper all the way down. The glass stays quite clean on medium-to-high damper settings with lots of active primary and secondary flames - just a little soot in the lower corners. However after a minimum damper setting all-night burn, there is prominent soot deposits in the the lower corners covering about 25-30% of the glass. I have no doubt that without the airwash, the entire glass would be black under those circumstances. During the week I load the stove fully at around 5AM, on top of the bed of red-hot coals left over from the previous night's burn. Within 10-20 minutes the new load is lit off the the cat is engaged and that is the load for the day. Then about 6-7pm I'll though in a few logs, enough to last 2-3 hours on a medium-high setting. Then I re-load for the next all-night burn about 10pm. I found cycling the stove in this manner keeps the house 68-72 degrees and the central furnace never goes on during the week. On weekends I'll do 2-3 loads during the day as conditions require; we tend to keep it much warmer when everyone is home. I can routinely get another fire going based on coals left over after 20+ hours from a previous burn, although after 12-14 hours the stove isn't putting out much heat.
The only other longer-running stove insert that I know of would be something like the Blaze King, which is a pure cat stove. But that stove failed our "flush mount" criteria...
On a side note I did not have a seasoned wood stockpile this past winter. I purchased a cord of kiln-dried wood instead. As of now I have 1.5 cords of mixed nearly-seasoned wood (average MC 20-25% right now) from our own property, supplemented by gracious "gifts" of neighbor's dead trees, which will be ready for this winter.
Good luck and keep us posted.
