What new stove to buy?

[drhiii]

Age old question of what new wood stove to acquire. I hope the moderators will move this post to a more appropriate location if not meant for here..

Had a Naploeon 1400 for many years, and two prior stoves before that. All stoves worked A-ok in this space. Never had draft issues hence flue configuration and OAK are fine. Heating 1500sf of a two level home… pretty easy home to heat.

I tried to run a new Blaze King Princess at the start of this season and had too many significant problems from the start. Had to pull the trigger and am removing it. Figure since am changing, why not root around for ideas. My wife loves the smaller footprint and overall size of the BK, so am poking around for a smaller replacement tho am putting the Napoleon back in since it worked with no issues.

Negatives with the Napoleon were, well, none really. Other than wanting a smaller footprint, it never had any issues. Yes, it liked wood but not unreasonably so as I could easily manage 10 to 16+ish hour burns… more than reasonable for this stove. In comparison, in trying to overcome the issues with the BK I actually got similar to shorter burn times at similar temps, consumed similar if not more wood in the BK, and spent more time overall fussing with the BK than I did with the Nap. Anyway, point being other than wanting to shrink the footprint, no issues with the Nap. It is quite functional for what it is supposed to do.

So poking around for the smaller footprint, pedestal or free standing, front loading, 6” flue, 2.5 cu firebox capacity give or take. Up to $3K is A-ok. We have pretty moderate temps, front range Rocky Mtns, 20s-30s typical, into the teens and lower sure, rarely but occasionally below 0. As said, easy home to heat.

Have managed catalytic stoves with no problem so considering cat v. non cat stoves, sure. Admit the problems with the BKP now have me hesitant, but not enough to not re-consider a cat stove in this. Also, wood is not a problem. Have excellent well seasoned and various wood types, favs being oak, silver maple and my fav fav… pinon pine.

Am poking through reviews, buying guides… but thought to post here and ask for personal experiences. Am not rushing since Nap is going back in and it works well, but hey, my missus is sad about the current travails hence reverting so a new something in this space would be a happy thing.

Thoughts?

 

[EatenByLimestone]

What issues were you having with the BK?

I'm partial to the T5. It should handle your 1500sq ft without a problem. If that's too small, there's always the T6.

 

[Propane_Poor]

Not exactly helpful to your question, but may I ask how you were able to get 16 hour burns in a non-catalytic stove? If I could get a solid 6 to 8 that would help matters considerably.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Everybody counts burn time differently. But things affect help burn time are species burned and its moisture content, physical arrangement of the wood in the stove, chimney height, temp outside vs inside, and the stove itself. Skill in restarting the fire makes a difference too.

16 hours is a long time, but everybody counts burn time differently.

 

[begreen]

10-16hr burn times with the 2 cu ft Napoleon are definitely extraordinary. That is typically an 8-10 hr stove. Is there an Enviro dealer in your area? If so, take a look at the Kodiak 1700.

 

[drhiii]

What issues were you having with the BK?

I'm partial to the T5. It should handle your 1500sq ft without a problem. If that's too small, there's always the T6.

T5, got it, thankx. That keeps popping up in my new studies. Much appreciated.

Re: The BK issues, rather not address it. Too many problems and am moving on.

 

[drhiii]

10-16hr burn times with the 2 cu ft Napoleon are definitely extraordinary. That is typically an 8-10 hr stove. Is there an Enviro dealer in your area? If so, take a look at the Kodiak 1700.

Tx. Your reputation precedes you so will look into Enviro regionally yes.

Answering the long burn times for the Napoleon... yes.. have been able to attain long burn times... based on conditions of course. Below 20 degrees, of course no. Below 30 degree, better but still not that long. 40 degrees up, becomes doable, and where I live consider it it's fairly moderate.. front range Colorado Rocky Mountains. I've just over many years come up with tweaks involving wood types... and I harvest several type for just this reason, of performance based on weather conditions... wood size, and equally important... load configuration which includes layering different types of wood, particular sizes of splits... all based on weather and temp conditions. Yeah, geeked out. But I am able to get a lengthier burn times then expected.

 

[Woody Stover]

Negatives with the Napoleon were, well, none really. Other than wanting a smaller footprint, it never had any issues...point being other than wanting to shrink the footprint, no issues with the Nap. It is quite functional for what it is supposed to do.

From the specs I'm seeing, the Princess has a bigger footprint than the Napoleon 1400..??

 

[drhiii]

From the specs I'm seeing, the Princess has a bigger footprint than the Napoleon 1400..??

Let me change the word footprint to 'overall'. The Nap is a pedestal and it fills the hearth area, whereas the Princess did not consume as much space overall. Is a drag because my wife far preferred the Princess size appearance, but the problems were too varied and wide ranging. In search of a smaller stove as this place is easy to heat.