Got the Arrow 1800a re-installed and used it over the past several months. It was my only heat source this winter. Won't use it again until next winter. So these are my findings after using this stove. I live in a mild climate in Paso Robles, California.
The stove has an interesting design. It is basically a steel box within another steel box. There is a fan underneath the stove that blows air through the space between the inner and outer boxes which then goes out into the room through openings along the sides of the stove. Without the fan running the stove puts out very little heat. Nothing like the Fischer stove in my previous home. With the fan running there is a gentle flow of warm air from the stove into the room. It was adequate to heat my small house in the mild climate where I live. Don't know how it would do in a colder climate.
Combustion air flows in through a bunch of holes in the bottom of the stove. When these holes get covered with ash the air flow gets cut off and wood doesn't burn. So you have to keep at least some of these holes open for the stove to work. I would push the ash to one side of the stove when starting a fire in the stove and periodically when using the stove. At least once a week you have to get the ash to drop through the holes into the ash tray and empty the tray. This is not a problem. The ash seems to drop easily through the holes into the ash tray.
Does not seem to use a lot of wood. The fire box is small with a small door opening. 12" long by 3" diameter pieces of wood seems to work best for me. You can use shorter bigger pieces of wood once you have a fire going. Trying to get 18" long pieces of wood in the stove like it says in the stove's manual is optimistic. In use I would set a piece of wood along one side of the fire box. Put some paper to start the fire on the bottom with a couple of pieces of kindling over the paper with one end resting on wood along the side. Topped off with two or three 12" x 3" pieces of wood on top of the kindling. This would pretty much fill up the small box. Start the fire. I would have to keep the door open for a couple of minutes to get the fire going. Once it was burning nicely I would close the door. Because the box doesn't hold much wood I would set a timer for 30 minutes to remind me to check on the status of the fire. I would need to add another piece of wood every 30 to 45 minutes after the first hour or so. The stove would keep the living room/kitchen (330 sq ft) in the low 70's and the bedrooms in the 60's. Evening outside temps would typically fall into the 30's. Temp's at dawn were often in the mid to high 20's. House temps rarely went below 50. Some mornings I might restart the fire to take the chill off. I doubt that I will use over a cord of wood each year.
All in all I don't know if I would recommend this stove. The fan puts out a fair amount noise. You get used to it because you have to. Without the fan running the stove puts out very little heat. My house is 750 sq ft. It is barely adequate for my house in a mild climate. I would look for a different stove if I lived in a colder climate or had a larger house over 1000 sq ft.
The stove has an interesting design. It is basically a steel box within another steel box. There is a fan underneath the stove that blows air through the space between the inner and outer boxes which then goes out into the room through openings along the sides of the stove. Without the fan running the stove puts out very little heat. Nothing like the Fischer stove in my previous home. With the fan running there is a gentle flow of warm air from the stove into the room. It was adequate to heat my small house in the mild climate where I live. Don't know how it would do in a colder climate.
Combustion air flows in through a bunch of holes in the bottom of the stove. When these holes get covered with ash the air flow gets cut off and wood doesn't burn. So you have to keep at least some of these holes open for the stove to work. I would push the ash to one side of the stove when starting a fire in the stove and periodically when using the stove. At least once a week you have to get the ash to drop through the holes into the ash tray and empty the tray. This is not a problem. The ash seems to drop easily through the holes into the ash tray.
Does not seem to use a lot of wood. The fire box is small with a small door opening. 12" long by 3" diameter pieces of wood seems to work best for me. You can use shorter bigger pieces of wood once you have a fire going. Trying to get 18" long pieces of wood in the stove like it says in the stove's manual is optimistic. In use I would set a piece of wood along one side of the fire box. Put some paper to start the fire on the bottom with a couple of pieces of kindling over the paper with one end resting on wood along the side. Topped off with two or three 12" x 3" pieces of wood on top of the kindling. This would pretty much fill up the small box. Start the fire. I would have to keep the door open for a couple of minutes to get the fire going. Once it was burning nicely I would close the door. Because the box doesn't hold much wood I would set a timer for 30 minutes to remind me to check on the status of the fire. I would need to add another piece of wood every 30 to 45 minutes after the first hour or so. The stove would keep the living room/kitchen (330 sq ft) in the low 70's and the bedrooms in the 60's. Evening outside temps would typically fall into the 30's. Temp's at dawn were often in the mid to high 20's. House temps rarely went below 50. Some mornings I might restart the fire to take the chill off. I doubt that I will use over a cord of wood each year.
All in all I don't know if I would recommend this stove. The fan puts out a fair amount noise. You get used to it because you have to. Without the fan running the stove puts out very little heat. My house is 750 sq ft. It is barely adequate for my house in a mild climate. I would look for a different stove if I lived in a colder climate or had a larger house over 1000 sq ft.
