I'm looking for suggestions on a new wood stove for our small home (~650 sq. ft.). I have a 15' Ventis Class A chimney, through the wall outlet, 3 ft rise above stove -- not amazing draft, but rarely have issues unless temps are really mild. We have a heat pump for mild weather, and use the wood stove mainly when 40F and under.
Current stove was from Tractor Supply -- my first "EPA" stove with non-cat secondary combustion. It was $500 and intended to be a learning experience with the new style stove. The stove has a 2.0 cu. ft. firebox, but it's oddly shaped limiting it's loading capacity. My main issues are: 1) limited burn time - we can only get 4 hours without reloading the stove, when running as low as possible. I'd really like to be able to get 7-8 hours so I can sleep through the night. 2) lowest-possible turn down - the current stove seems to be challenging to control heat output. It was rated to adjust between 12K and 40K BTU, which would be a perfect fit for our heating loads -- but I don't think I can really run it that low, and keep burning cleaning, secondary combustion, etc.
My local dealer sells Osburn, Jotul, and BlazeKing. I would consider the cat BlazeKing, but I've read the horror stories about buildup on double-wall pipe in through-the-wall and lower-draft applications. I also need something that's simple to operate because my elderly mother lives with me, and helps to service the stove. She's burned wood for years, but used old-fashioned woodstoves.
Any suggestions would be welcome.
Current stove was from Tractor Supply -- my first "EPA" stove with non-cat secondary combustion. It was $500 and intended to be a learning experience with the new style stove. The stove has a 2.0 cu. ft. firebox, but it's oddly shaped limiting it's loading capacity. My main issues are: 1) limited burn time - we can only get 4 hours without reloading the stove, when running as low as possible. I'd really like to be able to get 7-8 hours so I can sleep through the night. 2) lowest-possible turn down - the current stove seems to be challenging to control heat output. It was rated to adjust between 12K and 40K BTU, which would be a perfect fit for our heating loads -- but I don't think I can really run it that low, and keep burning cleaning, secondary combustion, etc.
My local dealer sells Osburn, Jotul, and BlazeKing. I would consider the cat BlazeKing, but I've read the horror stories about buildup on double-wall pipe in through-the-wall and lower-draft applications. I also need something that's simple to operate because my elderly mother lives with me, and helps to service the stove. She's burned wood for years, but used old-fashioned woodstoves.
Any suggestions would be welcome.