Recommendations for a smallish wood stove?

[rScotty]

Hello Everyone; I'm a new member here but have been heating with wood for the past half century. In that time we've gone through half a dozen or more wood stoves. Most of them good, and all different.

We live high in the Rocky Mountains in a house designed well enough for our climate that it doesn't need much additional heat. In fact, sI made a mistake by buying way too large of a stove back when we built the house. The stove I bought - and still use - is a Lopi "Leyden" with a mahogany colored ceramic coat. It's a particularly beautiful & well built stove with a traditional top-loading, non-cat, and around 75,000 BTU/hr. Super nice stove and burns well - but the heat BTU output at when it is running normally is just too much. The result being that we end up running at idle most of the time causing lots of smoke, soot, and creosote.

What I'd like to try next is a much smaller catalytic stove in the 10K to 20,000 BTU/hr size.....something at the small stove end of the stove market. In a perfect world it would have a small fire box, enough glass to watch the fire, and a thermostatic air control all in a fairly heavy body. Construction could be cast iron, steel, stone, or a combo. Top loading would be a plumb - although that didn't use to be possible with catalytic types.
Hopefully someone makes a small stove that has those kinds of big stove features.
Does anyone know of a stove like that or have a recommendation?
Thanks,
rScotty

 

[begreen]

Welcome. You've just described the Blaze King Ashford or Sirocco stoves. These are cat stoves that can burn at a low rate.

 

[drz1050]

Blaze King Ashford/ Chinook/ Sirocco, or Woodstock Fireview/ Absolute Steel is what I'd be looking at

 

[rScotty]

Welcome. You've just described the Blaze King Ashford or Sirocco stoves. These are cat stoves that can burn at a low rate.

Thanks! I read back through my notes from years ago and realized that the Blaze King was indeed on my original short list.....maybe I should have gone that way. Their small 20 series does seem just right. Fom my old notes I see that I did consider Blaze King originally (model CK24C) but something about the way that the thermostat worked confused me on the local display model - it just didn't seem to work right and my notes say that's why I didn't pursue that brand. At the time I was busy building the house and maybe didn't give the Blaze King's operation a fair shake.

Say, how many other makers of free-standing wood stoves have thermostats today? How about the Vermont Castings? I had one of those for awhile and thermostat worked very nicely. Simple and reliable. A beautiful stove, too. Although I will say that the VC was the only stove I've ever had that just flat wore out. After a few years mine started leaking from so many joints that I got nervous about leaving it home alone. It's a stove sculpture now....

Who has the best thermostat? What about the way the modern catalytic elements work? Are they all roughly the same or do some stand out?

Thank you for taking the time to help.
rScotty

 

[begreen]

The new VC stoves are not like those of yesteryear, but the small Intrepid II cat stove is still sold today and is a thermostatic cat also. The design depends on a refractory housing which is more vulnerable to aging than the BK design. The BK stove will also burn longer and at a lower continuous output.

 

[rScotty]

The new VC stoves are not like those of yesteryear, but the small Intrepid II cat stove is still sold today and is a thermostatic cat also. The design depends on a refractory housing which is more vulnerable to aging than the BK design. The BK stove will also burn longer and at a lower continuous output.

Yes, thanks for the reminder. I hear you on the difference in the construction types. I was a welder and metal-worker for a couple of decades before going to college. As much as I love the aesthetics of cast iron assemblies, they don't even approach the durability & strength of welded plate steel.
Of course another way to look at cast assembly is to say, "Is it strong enough?" And IMHO, that answer is going to depend on the quality of the cast and the assembly both. Neither our old "Great Majestic" cast iron cook stove or "Live Oak" cast iron free standing stove came close to the quality of metal in the the old Jotul languishing in our barn. But all were adequate stoves.
rScotty