Replace our 1985 Dutchwest Federal AirTight with an Alderlea T4?

[Greta]

We think we want a new wood stove. The Dutchwest puffs if we don't keep the combustor clean. But the combustor is easy to get to and if we clean it regularly, the stove works well to heat (and sometimes overheat) our 1080 sq ft one and a half story house. We have narrowed our choices to the Alderlea T4 or the Hearthstone Craftsbury and are leaning toward the T4. We know the T4 will look better and the new double wall stove pipe will bring us up to code. But will the new stove be easier to use and last as long? Will it use the same amount of wood? On the Dutchwest we use only the side door for loading. The ash pan is easy to get to and there is a shaker to shake the ash into the pan when the stove is burning. Guess we are having some separation anxiety.

 

[begreen]

The T4 is a good choice. It will be a simpler, less fussy and lower maintenance stove. It is a very durable steel stove at heart and it should use about the same amount of wood more or less. The one caveat is that the Dutchwest has a better ash grate system. We no longer use the T6 ash system or pan. We simply shovel out the stove as needed.

If you like having a catalytic stove another nice new catalytic stove would be the Woodstock Keystone.

 

[Greta]

The T4 is a good choice. It will be a simpler, less fussy and lower maintenance stove. It is a very durable steel stove at heart and it should use about the same amount of wood more or less. The one caveat is that the Dutchwest has a better ash grate system. We no longer use the T6 ash system or pan. We simply shovel out the stove as needed.

If you like having a catalytic stove another nice new catalytic stove would be the Woodstock Keystone.

Thank you for the quick reply. We like the low emissions of the catalytic stoves. However, the Keystone, like all of the other new cat stoves we have looked at, requires some effort to get to the combustor. With our old Dutchwest, we just lift up a small steel plate to get to the combustor. Having experience with the need to regularly clean the combustor, we don't want to go to something that is more difficult.

While looking at the Keystone online, I saw that there is a Progress Hybrid stove that uses both cat and non-cat technologies. That stove is too big for us. Will there be more hybrid stoves available soon? Should we wait a year to get a better design?

 

[begreen]

There may be more hybrids, but I would expect them to show up more in the 3-5 yr time frame. Another cat stove on the market that wold work is the Blaze King Ashford 20.

 

[rideau]

The Woodstock cats are extremely easy to access and remove and clean. May take 5 minutes to clean the cat.

In the Keystone and Fireview, I would expect you to only need to clean the cat once a year at the end of the burning season (if then). My Fireview cat never needed cleaning.

 

[Cynnergy]

I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with the Dutchwest. Do you want an overnight burn? The T4 only has a burn time of about 6 hours at most I believe.

We went with the Super 27 (the plainer sister of the T5) for our 900 sq ft drafty cabin because it's the only heat source and we wanted an overnight burn. It does get really toasty sometimes, but great for heating the cabin up from cold.

There is a learning curve with any stove, but the stove is very responsive and there is only one lever, so it's pretty simple really. We have struggled a bit with damp wood this year - hopefully next year will be better.

 

[Greta]

I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with the Dutchwest. Do you want an overnight burn? The T4 only has a burn time of about 6 hours at most I believe."

We don't get an overnight burn with the Dutchwest. We take turns getting up when it is really cold. Fortunately, in central North Carolina that is not that often. We have a new mini-split heat pump as well but that is not effective below 17 F.

We are really limited by size and clearance. The T4 has low clearances and will actually occupy less space than our smaller Dutchwest. Our house is fairly tight. This brings up another concern that the dealer mentioned. With the Dutchwest, and I guess most cat stoves, there is a bypass so when the door is opened for loading, no smoke goes into the house. He said a stronger draft is needed to prevent smoke when loading (some?) of the newer non-cat stoves. Is this a problem with the T4? Also does it ever puff smoke out during operation?

Do the firebricks stay in place and are they fragile? We are used to shoving logs in and not worrying about the sturdy cast iron sides of the DW.

For the catalyst, when new, the catalyst seems to need cleaning less. I think there may also be a difference in design with the newer ones having larger holes.

 

[Cynnergy]

My stove never puffs smoke out during operation - I believe that is probably a backpuff and it is solved by opening up the air a bit more. Possibly more common in cat stoves?

We don't have fabulous draft (our chimney is 2-45's off the stove, 6 ft double wall to support box, then 10 ft class A - most of which is outside) but it works fine. We just have to be careful when we open the door to open it really slowly to avoid getting smoke in the house. The advice on here from other members is that the PE stoves are 'easy-breathers' so less picky about draft.

The firebricks definitely stay in place - the side rails hold them in well at the top. They are the pumice bricks, which apparently are a bit more fragile than the regular bricks, but I've banged them accidentally a few times with the poker and no damage yet. We are careful when loading, but not overly so. We're still learning, so I'm sure we're being a bit more cautious than we need to be.

 

[dyerkutn]

We think we want a new wood stove. The Dutchwest puffs if we don't keep the combustor clean. But the combustor is easy to get to and if we clean it regularly, the stove works well to heat (and sometimes overheat) our 1080 sq ft one and a half story house. We have narrowed our choices to the Alderlea T4 or the Hearthstone Craftsbury and are leaning toward the T4. We know the T4 will look better and the new double wall stove pipe will bring us up to code. But will the new stove be easier to use and last as long? Will it use the same amount of wood? On the Dutchwest we use only the side door for loading. The ash pan is easy to get to and there is a shaker to shake the ash into the pan when the stove is burning. Guess we are having some separation anxiety.

For what it is worth. I was going through the exact same dilemma you are just a year ago. I had a 1985 Federal Airtight--the small size and ended up buying a T-5. Here is the story. I loved my little DW--It was easy to start with firestarters and I loved the look of it and I felt I know it well and as you say the cat was a snap to get to plus hardly ever needed replacing. But the grate started to crumble. After a lot of angst about the idea of giving up the stove, what convinced me to get a new stove was that there was a great rebate on trade-in of an EPA approved stove for a pre-EPA stove. I too have a small space and though I wanted to get a cat I didn't have enough space to put in a hearth pad and so had to go with one that didn't need one (couldn't find a cat that didn't need one). So started with the whole search of what to get. From this forum, I got convinced to get the Alderlea T-5.

I cannot tell you how happy I am with it and once I got it I realized how many negative things there were about the DW that I never noticed---like how the cat took up valuable space in the box, how much easier it is to load in the front, how little lip there was to prevent ashes from falling out, how often I had to feed the fire and how short the total burn times were--not to mention since I knew nothing about clean burns I was probably sending all kinds of smoke into the neighborhood. I was worried about overheating, but I am really glad I went with the T5--you do have to build smaller fires when it is not so cold out, but the trade off is that when it is cold I can load it up more, then sleep for 8 hours or be away from work for 10 hours and there are enough coals to start up the reload and the house is not freezing--means burning less wood with better results. Since I made the decision to heat the main part of my house with wood--this was very important to me. It is really. really simple to use and the learning curve on getting to know it has been easy. Of course it helps that there was good dealer in my area.

Don't know if this info helps but I was struck with how similar your situation was to mine.

By the way--have never used the ashpan---just clean it out of the box when it gets too thick.

 

[Greta]

Thank you so much to all of you who replied. We feel much better about getting a new stove.

When I looked up the PE Super 27, there was this new stove, Neo 1.6 on the same Pacific Energy website. Bigger firebox than the T4, taller so easier to load and a rear clearance of only 5 inches. It would be a real space saver. Does anyone have any experience with it?

 

[begreen]

It's a new design. I can't recall any reports on it yet, but it looks great.