Hearthstone Manchester vs Progressive Hybrid Woodstock

[Three stove operator]

I am considering replacing my current stove that came with the house we bought two years ago. The current stove is a Dutch West Cat. I think it's the medium sized one. I replaced the cat and it works much better. This is for a second home in the White Mountains. It gets cold there- low teens regularly. I am not sure the square footage but I think around 1500-1700. It's a post and beam and well insulated but lots of glass and open floor plan.

We have a propane heater that keeps the place at 54 when we're not there. The three issues with the current stove are:

1:Not easy to use. We have it down but we have lots of guest and we rent.

2: no fire view. This is an old Dutch west with two small pieces of glass that completely turn black and stay black.

3: it takes a long time for the stove to heat the place up and unless we keep after it, the house gets chilly. I want the place really warm as its a winter activity house- ski, hike.

I have a hearthstone heritage in our primary house and am happy with it. I am on its fourth or fifth season and it does the job and my wife loves the look. I would buy one again but would maybe go with the mans field for more heat and longer burn, but I loce the side load of the heritage.

So I have narrowed it down to two stoves: the Manchester and the progressive.

I like the look of the Manchester more but the progressive seems to have longer burn times and everything I read about Woodstock makes them sound like a great company to deal with if there are any issues.

Both are rated at 80.000 BTU and both have the same size fire box. The Manchester is cast iron but has a lot of soap stone inside.

Any comments, thoughts?

 

[weatherguy]

The only concern I would have is other people staying at your place and not running the stove properly, with the PH they could wreck the cat

 

[aansorge]

agreed, go with a non-cat if guests are involved.

 

[toddnic]

Don't do a cat stove if you have renters / guests! It takes time to learn the PH and I definitely would not recommend it if others are going to use it.

 

[jeff_t]

We don't let anyone else burn the stove at our place.

It's a Progress Hybrid, btw. It would be my choice, between the two. I have nothing to base that on, just like the stone better.

 

[Highbeam]

In a cabin like this you need to be able to show up and heat the place up fast. Skip stone stoves, they are much slower to heat. Skip cat stoves since the misinformed could damage them. I would suggest a plate steel non-cat. Can't hardly hurt it, fast to warm up.

 

[begreen]

I'd be looking at a Jotul F55 or a PE Summit or Alderlea T6 and an Enviro Boston 1700.

 

[Tenn Dave]

I would never let renters or occasional visitors mess with my progress hybrid. I find the stove very easy to operate, but you do need to understand the correct procedures for using it. And the uninformed could do some serious damage to this beautiful piece of heating equipment. Go with something simple and as bullet proof as possible.