I'm thinking of installing either the Pacific Energy Vista or Super (formerly Pacific) Insert. I just would like advice on which would be the more appropriate for my house, or at least on the pros and cons of installing each size. It will go in a 231 sq. ft. room on the lower level of a 1,388 sq. ft. split foyer house. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
PE Vista Insert vs. PE Super Insert
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If all you want to heat is the room, the vista should do fine. If you want longer burns and want to heat more of your house, go with the larger insert. The Vista is pretty small but puts out lots of heat. Because it is small, you are down to coals in 3 hours for most wood. Good dry oak will last up to 6 hours. I can usually restart my fire in the morning from the coals but there is no signficant heat after about 6 hours.
The size of the room really doesn't matter. The heated area does and the stoves are rated as follows:
Vista 600-1400SF firebox size of 1.4CF and burns 18" logs
Super 1000-2000SF firebox is 1.97 CF and burns 18" logs
The "area heated" assumes such things as a well insulated house with 8' ceilings, thermopane or storm windows and an open floor plan in a climate where Winter temperatures average between 20 - 40 degrees F.
I wouldn't want the tiny vista. You can always burn a smaller fire in the super and the air control mechanism allows for very long burns in the super. The super insert also looks completely different and better too.
Vista 600-1400SF firebox size of 1.4CF and burns 18" logs
Super 1000-2000SF firebox is 1.97 CF and burns 18" logs
The "area heated" assumes such things as a well insulated house with 8' ceilings, thermopane or storm windows and an open floor plan in a climate where Winter temperatures average between 20 - 40 degrees F.
I wouldn't want the tiny vista. You can always burn a smaller fire in the super and the air control mechanism allows for very long burns in the super. The super insert also looks completely different and better too.
My first insert was a small one - 1.7CF firebox. Replaced it after 2 years with a bigger one because it just didn't keep up on cold days - below 30*- and I was shoveling a lot of coals out in order to add more wood to keep heat up......
I heat about 800 SF of an 1800SF ranch house - don't have an open floor plan for the heat to flow to back of the house. Insert I have now is more than adequate and holds heat a long time and I no longer have a coal build up problem to contend with.
My vote would be to go with the Super for the same reasons 'Highbeam' stated. You may spend a bit more money now but it will save you in the long run.
I heat about 800 SF of an 1800SF ranch house - don't have an open floor plan for the heat to flow to back of the house. Insert I have now is more than adequate and holds heat a long time and I no longer have a coal build up problem to contend with.
My vote would be to go with the Super for the same reasons 'Highbeam' stated. You may spend a bit more money now but it will save you in the long run.
I was already leaning towards the Super Insert and these excellent comments have cinched it. The idea of a mere 3 hour burn time is not appealing. And I do not have an open floor plan, or especially good insulation, although I do have new triple-pane windows which make a difference. I guess the only question now is should I consider the even larger Summit? We spend a lot of time in that room (the family room) which is not very open, having a standard bedroom-type doorway, and my fear is that with a roaring fire we wouldn't even be able to sit in the room. Could the Summit be overkill or is bigger always better? The installer said my fireplace could accommodate all sizes.
I'm heating a 2000 SF ranch, mostly open floor plan (FP in the middle of the house), with the Pacific/Super. Overnight burns, lotsa coals in the AM for quick restart.
The part that really impresses me is the 550 SF of the house is an accessory apartment, with the apt. bedroom directly behind one of the walls that the FP is in. Unless it gets below 20 outside, the Pacific heats the apt, as well. Even then, the burner rarely kicks on for the seperate zone the apartment is on. When we had a cold snap of zero last January, the house maintained a toasty 75-77, with the apatrment usually at 70.
The Summit will keep you warm & toasty, but the Pacific/Super should be more than adequate.
Good luck which ever you decide, and welcome to the forums !
The part that really impresses me is the 550 SF of the house is an accessory apartment, with the apt. bedroom directly behind one of the walls that the FP is in. Unless it gets below 20 outside, the Pacific heats the apt, as well. Even then, the burner rarely kicks on for the seperate zone the apartment is on. When we had a cold snap of zero last January, the house maintained a toasty 75-77, with the apatrment usually at 70.
The Summit will keep you warm & toasty, but the Pacific/Super should be more than adequate.
Good luck which ever you decide, and welcome to the forums !
Most inserts come with blowers which allow you to adjust how much heat you want blown into the room. When it's cold my blowers run full blast. When it gets too hot in the room I just turn them down or off and still get radiant heat from the surround.
You can always use floor fans to blow heat into the rest of the house.
Keep reading here on how the different inserts heat. THe more you learn now the better choice you will make when you decide to buy. A lot of this is trial and error and just takes time and experience burning in your particular situation but you can always build smaller fires in a bigger fire box as Highbeam said....
Hopefully someone will chime in who has a similar set up. Your room is a lot smaller than mine is so I really can't gage what size would go into overkill.
You can always use floor fans to blow heat into the rest of the house.
Keep reading here on how the different inserts heat. THe more you learn now the better choice you will make when you decide to buy. A lot of this is trial and error and just takes time and experience burning in your particular situation but you can always build smaller fires in a bigger fire box as Highbeam said....
Hopefully someone will chime in who has a similar set up. Your room is a lot smaller than mine is so I really can't gage what size would go into overkill.
That Super Series firebox is somewhat legendary for long burn times for non-cat stoves. Go for it. Of course it is like any stove, it depends on what ya feed it.
Where in NOVA are you?
Where in NOVA are you?
I was looking at PE inserts last summer. The Super has more parts made of stainless steel and the fan blows twice as much. I went with the Vista since it is flush and has much lower clearance requirements which do not interfere with the wooden mantel.
If you are looking at them make sure they have all the firebricks in and the baffle otherwise they look much larger inside. Bring a log with you as well. The Super loads NS and the Vista EW, the Summit is big enough for either (or both).
The one problem I ran into during installation was that the flue connector is so far forward that I needed to add an elbow since I couldn't get the liner to connect directly due to the sloping ceiling of the smoke chamber and location of the damper. Even with the elbow there is only one inch of clearance.
We went with all black except for the nickel door. I don't think the brochure pictures do a good job of showing the differences in the door finish.
Hope this helps,
Kevin.
If you are looking at them make sure they have all the firebricks in and the baffle otherwise they look much larger inside. Bring a log with you as well. The Super loads NS and the Vista EW, the Summit is big enough for either (or both).
The one problem I ran into during installation was that the flue connector is so far forward that I needed to add an elbow since I couldn't get the liner to connect directly due to the sloping ceiling of the smoke chamber and location of the damper. Even with the elbow there is only one inch of clearance.
We went with all black except for the nickel door. I don't think the brochure pictures do a good job of showing the differences in the door finish.
Hope this helps,
Kevin.
we sell alot of pe stove.. last year we went thru 150 of them... we hardly sell any vistas, however, because the super series is not terribly much bigger, and is controlable enough to do a whole house or a few rooms. the spilt on our stove / imsert sales in the pe's (which is easy 'cause its basically 3 stoves) are: vistas 2%, supers 53%, and summits 45%. the vista is nice, but read the fine print; the baffle does not carry the same wtty, and you have the smaller capacity. go with the super; just don't put as much wood in her if you don't need as much heat, but it is better to have more capacity and not have to use it, than it is to have less and need more.
I can load the Pacific E/W, just cut some 14-16" splits, and away you go ;-)
East/West rounds last over night in mine, as well. Load that puppy up with splits on the bottom N/S, rounds on the top E/W, a few splits on top N/S, and you're toasty from 10 PM tp 7 Pm, atleast I am !
I keep the fan on "manual" / "medium", left it there all winter. The fan stopped blowing when the stove temp dropped, wasn't wasting electricity, and the house was till warm when I got home from work.
My only caveat is that if I had had a FP on an outside wall, I would have gone with a stove. But in your set up (if I'm picturing it in my mind correctly) you should be golden.
Pics would probably help. We love pics :coolsmile:
East/West rounds last over night in mine, as well. Load that puppy up with splits on the bottom N/S, rounds on the top E/W, a few splits on top N/S, and you're toasty from 10 PM tp 7 Pm, atleast I am !
I keep the fan on "manual" / "medium", left it there all winter. The fan stopped blowing when the stove temp dropped, wasn't wasting electricity, and the house was till warm when I got home from work.
My only caveat is that if I had had a FP on an outside wall, I would have gone with a stove. But in your set up (if I'm picturing it in my mind correctly) you should be golden.
Pics would probably help. We love pics :coolsmile:
It depends how cold its get where you are, how well insulated your house is, and how often you want to load the stove.
I'm in West Virginia, with a 2400 square foot ranch, and fair insulation. I have the Summit Insert, and I have woken up to some pretty chilly mornings in the house. I would look into getting a Summit, even though your house is small. You can burn small fires during the day, or just let the thing coast on coals for hours and hours. Then at night load it up when your not in the room and let the heat pour out of it.
With it being an insert and having a fan on it, you won't get uncontrollable heat out of it. You might waste a little wood having the fan set on low, but the extra size will come in handy. It's only what a cubic foot bigger anyway.
Another thing to consider is log length. The Summit is advertised as taken a 20" in log, the Super is 18", and the Vista is 18". You can knock two inches off those numbers for real world use. I can fit a 20" log in the Summit but it's almost touching the glass( and smokes it up more), and the bottom of the stove only takes an 18". So 18" is what I use. If you're going to buy wood, you're going to have a hard time finding someone who cuts it to 16".
I'm in West Virginia, with a 2400 square foot ranch, and fair insulation. I have the Summit Insert, and I have woken up to some pretty chilly mornings in the house. I would look into getting a Summit, even though your house is small. You can burn small fires during the day, or just let the thing coast on coals for hours and hours. Then at night load it up when your not in the room and let the heat pour out of it.
With it being an insert and having a fan on it, you won't get uncontrollable heat out of it. You might waste a little wood having the fan set on low, but the extra size will come in handy. It's only what a cubic foot bigger anyway.
Another thing to consider is log length. The Summit is advertised as taken a 20" in log, the Super is 18", and the Vista is 18". You can knock two inches off those numbers for real world use. I can fit a 20" log in the Summit but it's almost touching the glass( and smokes it up more), and the bottom of the stove only takes an 18". So 18" is what I use. If you're going to buy wood, you're going to have a hard time finding someone who cuts it to 16".
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