Stove Efficiency vs Cost

[js14]

Hi All,

I am new here - but have been trolling a while. I have been on the market for a new stove for the last several months (I am waiting for some spring sales now). I am wondering if anyone can tell me the benefit of some of the higher cost stoves out there vs the more economical cost stoves (US Stove) in terms of efficiency and overall product benefits.

Right now I heat with a very old wood coal circulator (came with our house when we bought it last fall) and am burning through wood at pretty fast rate. I am looking to move to the US Stove 3200, but wanted to get some opinions.

Looking forward to your input,
Jake

 

[bholler]

Hi All,

I am new here - but have been trolling a while. I have been on the market for a new stove for the last several months (I am waiting for some spring sales now). I am wondering if anyone can tell me the benefit of some of the higher cost stoves out there vs the more economical cost stoves (US Stove) in terms of efficiency and overall product benefits.

Right now I heat with a very old wood coal circulator (came with our house when we bought it last fall) and am burning through wood at pretty fast rate. I am looking to move to the US Stove 3200, but wanted to get some opinions.

Looking forward to your input,
Jake

There are some very good budget stoves available on the market. But us stove co is not one of them. Look at drolet by sbi and new England stove works

 

[Gearhead660]

If you find a stove that catches your interest, search this site for comments/issues from actual users.

Second the USSC comment. Made Overseas, not the best quality, price reflects that.

I have 3 SBI stoves, Good quality, budget prices.

 

[js14]

Thanks for the responses. I will stay clear from US Stoves. I was also looking at Drolet HT3000 - it seems to have some pretty solid reviews and isn't terribly priced (from what I can tell). The Myriad III also looks like a good option and since it comes with a blower and has a slightly deeper firebox, I am a little torn between these two right now.

I will keep an eye out for others though.

 

[Highbeam]

The entire spread of efficiency across all current stoves is very small, around 10%. Your skills as an operator can easily result in that much variation so don’t let efficiency be a deciding factor.

Among basic plate steel noncat stoves I have a hard time finding a reason why one costs so much more than the other. Sure, you can spend more for soapstone or catalytic heaters.

Perhaps tell us what you want out of this stove and we can recommend some options. The current favorite low buck plate steel basic stove is the drolet. It used to be the Englander and I’m quite happy with mine.

 

[js14]

I am just looking for something that will burn less than I currently burn (which I think is most anything out there now), I would like a glass front door for nice ambiance and I would like to load as large a log as possible. The circulator I have can take large logs, but is really ugly and inefficient (I am lucky to get a 8 hr burn with a small coal bed, usually getting 6-7).

A decent ash removal system would be great as well - the circulator has a fantastic ash removal system. Obviously I am asking a bit much - you can't have your cake and eat it too right?

I am leaning towards the HT3000 and the Myriad iii - given the cost, they seem like great options.

 

[BigJ273]

I will say, my first wood stove was a US stove. Granted, I had never burned wood before so I was pretty nieve. In saying that, I never had any issues with it. But the firebox was quite small. It put out the heat I needed. Fast forward (5) years later, I took all the money I saved on heating bills, and upgraded to a Regency stove. What a difference! If I had it to do all over again, I would definitely upgrade to the better quality stove, even if I had to wait a year and save more for it. It’s night and day.