Please help me decide - ready to place the order

[bigbluebus]

Coin toss. Same sized stoves that should both give great performance. Excellent customer service from both companies. I'd buy the Englander cause it has legs. If I was going to do pedestal or OAK, then I'd buy the Drolet because it's cheaper.

Oak? You mean if you were going to burn strictly oak? And why would that matter? Does the drolet only perform well with oak and not so much on other types of wood?

 

[Treacherous]

Coin toss. Same sized stoves that should both give great performance. Excellent customer service from both companies. I'd buy the Englander cause it has legs. If I was going to do pedestal or OAK, then I'd buy the Drolet because it's cheaper.

Oak? You mean if you were going to burn strictly oak? And why would that matter? Does the drolet only perform well with oak and not so much on other types of wood?

OAK: Outside Air Kit

 

[bigbluebus]

Coin toss. Same sized stoves that should both give great performance. Excellent customer service from both companies. I'd buy the Englander cause it has legs. If I was going to do pedestal or OAK, then I'd buy the Drolet because it's cheaper.

Oak? You mean if you were going to burn strictly oak? And why would that matter? Does the drolet only perform well with oak and not so much on other types of wood?

OAK: Outside Air Kit

Hey thanks alot for the explanation! Boy... do I feel stupid

Actually, I think you just made my decision a whole lot easier. My house is fairly new and very tight. I noticed that with the last stove last season, I would have to crack a window open after a couple hours of burning or the fire would smolder, even though it's a larger house. I had already planned on using an "OAK" with the new stove (in fact, I just finished plumbing the vent in the outside wall). Is the Englander not avail. with OAK?

 

[begreen]

The Englander has an OAK option, but for the pedestal base only. If you don't have a good local dealer, get it from the source. Shipping to the nearest loading dock included:

http://www.overstockstoves.com/50nowomo2sqf.html

 

[Caelidh]

Englander customer support

I am currently shopping for my first wood stove for a 2,128 sqft single level house.

It was between the Drolet Myriad from Northern Tool.. 850 dollars plus shipping

and then here I heard about the Englander 30 NC...

however today when I called the ENgland stove company I was very disappointed with thier customer service. I was on hold for a long time.. bounced around lots of menues, then handed off to tech support who didn't sound very knowledgeable... it made me nervous... especially since I was just trying to be a potential customer... It COULD be just the season.. granted.. but still.

On the other hand.. Northern tool was right there and said they were support for the product.. and Drolet has a lifetime warranty vs the Englander which only has a 5 year.

I am confused about the customer service.

I would probably end up buying the Englander through Home Depot.. but they don't seem to know the product they are selling.. .. All these home depot stores are listed.. but then they don't actually carry them.. and i can't find much else on the Englander except on this forum.?

thanks

 

[bigbluebus]

Englander customer support

I am currently shopping for my first wood stove for a 2,128 sqft single level house.

It was between the Drolet Myriad from Northern Tool.. 850 dollars plus shipping

and then here I heard about the Englander 30 NC...

however today when I called the ENgland stove company I was very disappointed with thier customer service. I was on hold for a long time.. bounced around lots of menues, then handed off to tech support who didn't sound very knowledgeable... it made me nervous... especially since I was just trying to be a potential customer... It COULD be just the season.. granted.. but still.

On the other hand.. Northern tool was right there and said they were support for the product.. and Drolet has a lifetime warranty vs the Englander which only has a 5 year.

I am confused about the customer service.

I would probably end up buying the Englander through Home Depot.. but they don't seem to know the product they are selling.. .. All these home depot stores are listed.. but then they don't actually carry them.. and i can't find much else on the Englander except on this forum.?

thanks

Well... after all the research, all the back and forth, and all the visits to several stores, I went with the Drolet HT2000. And I am very satisfied with this unit. It's a monster of a stove and it puts out some serious heat My house is 3,800 sq.ft. and I have yet to turn on the gas furnace since Nov. 2 when I installed and first fired the stove. My kids who sleep on the second floor now complain that the house is too warm! This thing is built like a tank, very well put together. I bought a fan on Ebay and it blows out even more heat. I burn a load of wood in late afternoon, about 6 hours later and right before I go to bed (about 10pm), I load it about half full with dry white oak, wait about 30 minutes to get it up to temperature (700 stove top), and then turn the air control all the way closed. Sometimes I stay up for an hour or two, mesmerized by the secondary burns. When I get up at 7AM, there are still red hot coals in the stove, stove top temp is still at around 500, the house is at 74 degrees, and I don't have to load the stove again until late afternoon again, because the house stays warm all day, from the radiant heat.
You will not be dissapointed with the Myriad, but you should probably go with the larger HT2000 since it can devour logs up to 22" long. My previous stove had only a 1.8 cu.ft. firebox and it was a constant battle getting just a few logs to fit in for an overnite burn, when there was some ash and coals already in it. Also, the HT2000 likes to burn very hot (700-800) stove top so there is very little ash. I only take out about a quart container full of ash every two weeks. With the small stove, I had to clean it out EVERY DAY, which got very tiring very early into the burning season.

Menards had a sale on the HT2000 for $999, but then I found a promotion code online for another 10% off and free shipping to my local store. The entire purchase was under $900 out the door.

I'm sure the Englander is a very good stove as well, but I'm definitely keeping the Drolet.

 

[Geppetto83]

Hi Bigbluebus,

Wow, what a great description of the Drolet HT2000. You’re certainly very happy with this unit. Specially at the prices you found, certainly the best value and “bang for your buck†available on the market. You’re right about suggesting the HT2000 instead of the Myriad to Caelidh since it will certainly give him a bit more heat (it may actually give him heat to spare) for his 2,100 sq.ft. house. Giving the price difference (almost none) he’ll be certainly making the most out of every penny on this one!

 

[FyreBug]

I wouldn't hesitate to heat my house with either stove. Drolet has been making stoves for a long time and makes a nice steel stove. I don't know about their customer service, which is probably a good thing since it means we don't see people here having problems with it. Some people mistakenly think Drolet is constructed of all 5/16" steel. That is only the top plate. The rest of the stove is 3/16" just like the 30-NC. The top plate on the 30 is 1/4".

Were I to be considering a Drolet I would cook up a couple of questions and call their customer support number to get a feel for how you feel they would support you. They responded quickly to my inquiry about steel thickness a couple of years ago. There is no question that the Englander would have rock solid support. Witnessed time after time in posts here.

I don't think you will go wrong either way.

I'm glad that our brand is quoted alongside Englander's since it gets such good review and love from users. If it matters to anyone there are very few big box brands left that are not made in China anymore. So it's good to see a company such as Englander survive and thrive making stuff in the USA. Drolet is made in Canada and we refuse to get anything from oversea.

The question of tech support came on quite often, so dont mind if I answer. We are one of the largest MFG of biomass appliances in North America. On average during season we get 150 tech support calls and about 50 tech emails a day. However this can peak to over 300 calls a day. Therefore we have 4 full time phone tech support. All the outside reps including yours truly have to put in 3 full weeks a season on tech support to help out. Emails are mandated to be answered in 24 hours. For the month of November our immediate response rate was 80% (which is below our target) but our completion rate was over 95%. Since all the employees are comp'd on meeting customer satisfaction targets we try very hard to hit those indeed.

If you are trying to compare the NC30 to the HT-2000 here are some of the difference. From the posts I read here, the NC-30 is more of a 'radiant' wood stove whereas the HT-2000 is more 'convective' stove. What this means is the HT-2000 has more shielding to reduce your clearances and will perform better with a blower. The HT-2000 also has an Heat Exchanger built in so if you do use a blower you should get more heat extraction. Drolet also uses a cam & roller door latch mechanism for smoother operation.

Some of our best dealers for this models are Amish and they seem to like how it works. However, they are not prone to rate stoves on the Internet

 

[Heater Helper]

The HT2000 is a workhorse...built for serious woodburners with large areas.

 

[Stove Geek]

The HT2000 is certainly one of the best work horse out there! Got to love it!

 

[bigbluebus]

Not only is it a workhorse. The top plate is a two step top. The larger top surface is directly over the fire so it stays at around 700-800 degrees when in normal operation. The upper or back surface, stays at around 200-275 degrees when the fan is blowing over the main top plate. This is a perfect setup for us because if we want to cook or boil water, it takes just a few minutes to boil a pot of water or tea on the front surface, then after just a few minutes, I put the teapot or a pot of water with Cinnamon or lemon wedges (for whole house air freshener) and it will stay hot all day but it will not boil over.