I'm new to the forum (lurked for a year or so) and am considering a new stove purchase. Situation is that I have a circa 3600 square foot house (400 sq ft. or so is irrelevant as it's finished basement with a closed solid door that has its own central heat zone). I have a 750 square foot great room that's a challenge to heat -- high cathedral ceilings, skylights, etc. It lags the rest of the house by circa 5 degrees and is uncomfortably cold with the rest of the house at a normal (68 or so) temp. Relatively open floor plan with a large central staircase connecting the basement level and two main floors, so heat moves upstairs readily (not necessarily a good thing, since there's a central skylight another half story up from the second floor ceiling that likes to collect my heat and disperse it to the outdoors). My house is somewhat drafty and not super well-insulated (and lots of heat loss through windows and skylights).
I have a Lennox Montecito zero-clearance fireplace in the living room (adjacent to the great room), and an older BIS unit with gravity air/convection in the upstairs master bedroom. Both of these are circa 2 cubic foot fireboxes (Montecito seems a little bigger than the BIS). The Montecito does a good job moving heat to adjacent rooms and upstairs w/ the blower (and has been a great unit so far), but just doesn't have enough capacity --running both fireplaces with temps in the mid-20s, I can hold the temperature drop to something like half a degree or a degree per hour, but I can't keep it above 60 or so without running the furnace intermittently. In retrospect, I went too small with the Montecito and should have gotten the larger model, the Estate.
I want something that will (i) provide a point heat source to warm up the great room; (ii) make it feasible running not more than two units simultaneously (I'd go crazy feeding three) for the furnace to never kick on when I'm home, and (iii) provide 12 hour or so burn times where I can do a hot start from decent coals when I get home from work.
My wife doesn't like the looks of soapstone, so Woodstock/Hearthstone are out, but she likes the looks of the VC Encore and Defiant units (the new 2-in-1s got some decent partial season reviews here last year, what came before seems to have had more of a checkered reception). I might be able to sell her on a Jotul or Alderlea. My inclination is to buy a Defiant because I've dealt with the dealer before and trust him and people seem happy with 2-in-1 (the cat should handle low overnight and workday burns better, and superlow emissions make me feel better about creosote), and my second choice would be a Jotul F600. Have also thought about putting something really big (like a Blaze King) in the basement level where I could get away with the aesthetics, but I suspect this is very inefficient (and I'd have to run almost three stories' worth of Class A chimney, a major cost factor). Questions are: (i) what would you recommend overall, and (ii) would something in the Defiant/F600 class be too big/make the great room uncomfortable, such that you'd recommend moving down a size notch, e.g. Encore/Oslo/Castine? Any guidance is appreciated.
I have a Lennox Montecito zero-clearance fireplace in the living room (adjacent to the great room), and an older BIS unit with gravity air/convection in the upstairs master bedroom. Both of these are circa 2 cubic foot fireboxes (Montecito seems a little bigger than the BIS). The Montecito does a good job moving heat to adjacent rooms and upstairs w/ the blower (and has been a great unit so far), but just doesn't have enough capacity --running both fireplaces with temps in the mid-20s, I can hold the temperature drop to something like half a degree or a degree per hour, but I can't keep it above 60 or so without running the furnace intermittently. In retrospect, I went too small with the Montecito and should have gotten the larger model, the Estate.
I want something that will (i) provide a point heat source to warm up the great room; (ii) make it feasible running not more than two units simultaneously (I'd go crazy feeding three) for the furnace to never kick on when I'm home, and (iii) provide 12 hour or so burn times where I can do a hot start from decent coals when I get home from work.
My wife doesn't like the looks of soapstone, so Woodstock/Hearthstone are out, but she likes the looks of the VC Encore and Defiant units (the new 2-in-1s got some decent partial season reviews here last year, what came before seems to have had more of a checkered reception). I might be able to sell her on a Jotul or Alderlea. My inclination is to buy a Defiant because I've dealt with the dealer before and trust him and people seem happy with 2-in-1 (the cat should handle low overnight and workday burns better, and superlow emissions make me feel better about creosote), and my second choice would be a Jotul F600. Have also thought about putting something really big (like a Blaze King) in the basement level where I could get away with the aesthetics, but I suspect this is very inefficient (and I'd have to run almost three stories' worth of Class A chimney, a major cost factor). Questions are: (i) what would you recommend overall, and (ii) would something in the Defiant/F600 class be too big/make the great room uncomfortable, such that you'd recommend moving down a size notch, e.g. Encore/Oslo/Castine? Any guidance is appreciated.