I realize that is a vague question, and many favor their brand and only have experience with that brand while others are life long burners with various stoves. Some favor steel over cast iron, and vice versa. But let's talk about BRANDS.
So qualify 'good brand' with the following:
-How well their stoves perform.
-How easy it is to get it to perform. By easy, I mean you dont need to fiddle with it every 15 minutes or for that matter every hour. You can run it all day or all night without intervention for the most part.
-How safe their stoves perform. Not safe would be a stove that just doesnt hold the temperatures, smolders down, creates a ton of creosote in your chimney or conversely suddenly goes into a box full of flames and overheats and without human intervention would create a potential problem.
-SUPPORT! A company that will actually help you without having to call 900 times, send 900 emails, file a complaint with the BBB etc etc.
I see Blaze King, Pacific Energy, Jotul and other brands mentioned in here alot.
Most know I currently own a VC Dauntless, and have recently consider switching over to a Jotul after watching one in action at a store, and it was my original pick but I just couldn't get one soon enough. To avoid making the same mistake twice, to ensure a Jotul F45 was for me, I read a few threads in here and realized a continual theme: The jotul seems to have too much air coming in, making it hard to control the fire. That concerns me a bit because the reason for me swapping stoves is to allow my family to easily and safely operate the stove.
So I really want to do this right, and consider every stove for my space - but Id love to hear from everyone how they stack rank stove brands.
So qualify 'good brand' with the following:
-How well their stoves perform.
-How easy it is to get it to perform. By easy, I mean you dont need to fiddle with it every 15 minutes or for that matter every hour. You can run it all day or all night without intervention for the most part.
-How safe their stoves perform. Not safe would be a stove that just doesnt hold the temperatures, smolders down, creates a ton of creosote in your chimney or conversely suddenly goes into a box full of flames and overheats and without human intervention would create a potential problem.
-SUPPORT! A company that will actually help you without having to call 900 times, send 900 emails, file a complaint with the BBB etc etc.
I see Blaze King, Pacific Energy, Jotul and other brands mentioned in here alot.
Most know I currently own a VC Dauntless, and have recently consider switching over to a Jotul after watching one in action at a store, and it was my original pick but I just couldn't get one soon enough. To avoid making the same mistake twice, to ensure a Jotul F45 was for me, I read a few threads in here and realized a continual theme: The jotul seems to have too much air coming in, making it hard to control the fire. That concerns me a bit because the reason for me swapping stoves is to allow my family to easily and safely operate the stove.
So I really want to do this right, and consider every stove for my space - but Id love to hear from everyone how they stack rank stove brands.
