Should I replace my dutchwest?

[yaboinic]

I was given a dutchwest 2477 last year and I heated with it for most of last winter. My wife and I are in a larger tiny house, its about 800sqft.

This was our first year using a stove and it is our primary heat source. We burned mostly lodgepole pine and that worked well to keep our place toasty. I thought the stove was OK but when I look up information on it I hear a lot about how it's a trouble stove with a list of issues. It worked for us but im not that picky. I dont think I could ever get the everburn to stay going for any extended period of time, and it smokes a little out the top until it gets a really good draft going. But overall works. I haven't taken it apart to look for cracks and broken parts yet though. It just got me wondering, maybe I'm missing out on a more efficient easier burn. I started browsing the market place looking for a newer-ish epa stove for a good price.

I found a great condition Avalon pendleton ($450) that looks just slightly smaller than our dutchwest and a ok unknown model enviro($650). It looks like maybe a Kodiak.

Winter is coming up, is it worth switching?

 

[ratsrepus]

The first stove I bought for my shop was a medium DW . I what was referred to as downdraft stove. Sorry to say it was a finicky POS.

 

[bholler]

Those Vermont castings designed dutch wests really were not good stoves at all. The original ones designed designed by Dutch West were great stoves for their day

 

[yaboinic]

The first stove I bought for my shop was a medium DW . I what was referred to as downdraft stove. Sorry to say it was a finicky POS.

That seems to be the usual opinion. I'm happy to have had a free stove to get by with but I think an upgrade sounds nice.

Those Vermont castings designed dutch wests really were not good stoves at all. The original ones designed designed by Dutch West were great stoves for their day

I'm not sure of the year mine is so I'm not sure who was in control when it was made.

 

[bholler]

That seems to be the usual opinion. I'm happy to have had a free stove to get by with but I think an upgrade sounds nice.


I'm not sure of the year mine is so I'm not sure who was in control when it was made.

That is a Vermont castings design.

 

[yaboinic]

That is a Vermont castings design.

Make sense.

 

[Crummy]

We bought a house last spring that had a DutchWest and it took me three fires to quit using it. It filled the house with smoke twice and that was enough for me. Replaced it with a BK a month ago. The DutchWest literally fell apart when it was hauled outside. I would agree with the comments above that they are a POS.