DS Energy Max 160 first impressions.

[DS160]

I recently had a DS 160 installed in my home in the basement. I just recently installed the hood they make to go along with it and all I can say is wow does this baby make some serious heat. My home is a conventional two story with each floor being 1330 sqft. The hood has made a night and day difference. My basement is roughly 1800 sqft and I was asking a lot of the 160 to heat the basement and two above floors. With the hood installed this stove will cook us out with temperatures 35 and above. Looking forward to the temps dropping to see what this unit can really do but so far more than pleased.

Can’t really comment on burn time as I have been burning small pieces of firewood blocking in this shoulder season. I will update when temps drop and I start to burn good seasoned cordwood. So far I have mostly been burning the stove with the air shut down as tight as it goes so will have to keep an eye on creasote deposits. Overall super pleased so far with my limited use.

 

[Micdrew]

What are you burning wood or coal?

 

[Micdrew]

What are you burning wood or coal?

Sorry didn’t see the second part, I had a kozy king for about 2 weeks but couldn’t get any kind of burn time out of it, I probably needed to install a barometric damper due to my tall chimney, needless to say DS refunded my money so I can’t fault them there.

 

[DS160]

After many burning hours I am extremely pleased with the DS Energy Max 160. This stove really shines when temps fall. I am in Western Pa and last night temps got down to around 0 degrees Fahrenheit and I woke up to a house temp of 74 inside and that’s without firing the stove in the middle of the night.

As far as burn times I get anywhere between 12-15 hours to where I still have enough hot coals to be able to throw in wood and restart the fire with little effort. I have found that splitting wood into bigger pieces really makes a difference on how long burns can be achieved.

Creosote hasn’t been an issue at all with this stove. I feel that as long as you burn good seasoned wood you won’t have a creosote problem unless you are idling the stove the majority of the time. Although I do clean my chimney a few times throughout the winter just to give myself the piece of mind knowing everything is good and safe.

I will say one of my concerns about this stove will be longevity. There’s seems to be limited info on the forums about the Energy Max 160 but I have seen a few people say that these stoves don’t seem to hold up long term. I surely hope this isn’t the case but if there are any fellow DS 160 Energy Max burners that have any long term reviews good or bad i would love to hear what you have to say.

Happy burning, stay warm.