Osburn 2400 Compared to PE Summit

[Xanabri]

This is a follow-up post that replies directly to a PM regarding the PE Summit and the Osburn 2400. I have both, one in my great room, the other in my porch addition. They are both good stoves with sufficiently large fireboxes for overnight burns. Aside from general appearance, they are quite different in operation. Both start easily and develop nicely; however the Osburn produces more heat sooner. We keep the addition at a relatively low temperature and rely on the Osburn to quickly bring it up to a habitable state and keep it there. I feel perfectly comfortable heating with it. It is a radiant heat producing beast. Load it up, develop the fire, and it acts like a small sun able to heat the entire multi room addition. The Summit looks more refined, especially since we put on the gold door and legs. It develops a fire more slowly, and produces a more even heat over a longer period of time. The PE stove is more controllable, gentler, more convective, and burns more evenly through the cycle. It heats our great room and most of the open area in our house, except the back bedrooms. I would select the same stoves a second time for the same applications.

 

[summit]

when comparing a PE to a radiant heater, you've gotta take into consideration that the warm up time is a little longer to get the cycle of convection going... In that respect, its a "sneaky" heater: you get it blazing, and start to wonder where all the heat is... then about 1/2 hr later, its 80 degrees in the house once the airflow starts going... the other result (as you have found) is the heat output stays at more of a constant over the duration of the heating cycle, rather than the ups and downs depending on fuel load you get with a radiant heater.

 

[Xanabri]

Summit - your observation seems spot on. I was worried the installer forgot to correctly remove the oak knock outs, but it seems to work just as advertised. I haven't been running the PE that long, so I'm still working the kinks out, including overnight burns. My one concern remains chimney performance in very cold weather. We are right around 34 feet. When it develops it runs fine, but it takes a bit to get the air moving. We'll see next year in sub-zero.

 

[begreen]

Nice review and comparison Xan. Thanks for posting.

 

[wendell]

Summit - your observation seems spot on. I was worried the installer forgot to correctly remove the oak knock outs, but it seems to work just as advertised. I haven't been running the PE that long, so I'm still working the kinks out, including overnight burns. My one concern remains chimney performance in very cold weather. We are right around 34 feet. When it develops it runs fine, but it takes a bit to get the air moving. We'll see next year in sub-zero.

With 34 ft you should have amazing draft and even more when it gets cold out. I would think you would need a damper to slow it down, not be worried about not having enough.

 

[Xanabri]

Thanks for the inputs. We put in a damper, more because the installer forgot the normal connector at the shop than for better performance. I hope it doesn't impair the stove's EBT function, if it is more than a gimmick. So far, so good. We'll see next season.