netmouse said:As to if I'll buy DW, I'm uncertain. My needs are winter months (day temp below 40 degrees) from Dec to March. I don't do Fall or Spring, and am fine keeping oil low. I start stove at 4 pm and stop loading wood at 9 pm. Stove still warm enough in morning so oil does not kick on.
From what I've read, this is not good usage for a cat as too short a duration to really get a cat going and take advantage of it's long, low burn. And non-cat DW everyburn seems unpopular here. Seeing what else is sold in my area (north NJ), I am leaning towards the Jotul 500 Oslo - a bit pricey but has what I'm used to with how it works and it has a left side door (I am replacing a 25-year old warped non-cat Vermont Casting Defiant). I am steering away from the Regency as there is front door only (no side or top door). I was wondering about Regency's stack of bricks lining the steel body inside, and not sure if that is good or not good.
Any thoughts or advice is welcome.
netmouse said:Glad I found this thread. I just priced a DutchWest today that would replace my big old Defiant. I am also researching the Jotul Oslo 500. I noticed the disappearance of the website for DutchWest and that makes me very nervous and less likely to buy it.
What is the feeling here on the DW cat versus non-cat? I use my Defiant in winter (usually just Dec, Jan, and Feb, other cold days) starting about 4 p.m., and stop feeding wood about 10 p.m. Stove is still warm (oil furnace does not kick on) when I get up about 5 or 6 a.m. The Defiant without cat has been fine, and I don't think I want fussing with a cat and replacing it in a few years if a non-cat is "good enough".
VCBurner said:It sounds to me like you might need a larger stove than the Jotul Oslo. If you had to replace a Defiant a more comparable size would be the Jotul 600 Firelight. As far as the lighting of the stove at 4pm and reloading at 10pm, you'd be better off starting the stove in the morning and getting it to keep ashes for an evening reload, regardless of the stove you chose. This way you'd still be filling twice a day and getting more even heat throughout the day and using less oil during YOUR burn season and possibly still using the same amount of wood. It takes a lot more wood to get a cold stove up to temp than to refill a warm stove and get a nice even burn without all the peaks and valleys.
This may be true, but you still won't get the same amount of heat you used to get with the Defiant though!netmouse said:Thanks everyone for input. I've had Jotul installer at my house. Said Jotul Oslo 500, and house size is about 1700 sf and falls within Oslo's range in specs.
VCBurner said:This may be true, but you still won't get the same amount of heat you used to get with the Defiant though!netmouse said:Thanks everyone for input. I've had Jotul installer at my house. Said Jotul Oslo 500, and house size is about 1700 sf and falls within Oslo's range in specs.
VCBurner said:This may be true, but you still won't get the same amount of heat you used to get with the Defiant though!netmouse said:Thanks everyone for input. I've had Jotul installer at my house. Said Jotul Oslo 500, and house size is about 1700 sf and falls within Oslo's range in specs.
netmouse said:VCBurner said:This may be true, but you still won't get the same amount of heat you used to get with the Defiant though!netmouse said:Thanks everyone for input. I've had Jotul installer at my house. Said Jotul Oslo 500, and house size is about 1700 sf and falls within Oslo's range in specs.
Right, but per next post I cruise the Defiant at a lower temp anyway. It may be too big. It was put in by prior house owner 25 years ago.
netmouse said:What puzzles me on the DW cat, is that while the emissions are lower than other brands (1.3 compared to Jotul 3.2), the BTU is so much lower. Can someone explain the lower dw BTU at 55000, while Jotul is 70000 and Regency is 75000 ? The efficiencies are similar around 75%.
Also, on creosote build-up. With my current VC Defiant stove, once the fire gets burning really well leaving the side door open, I then shut the door and the damper. It then cruises nicely settling at a lower temp (the temperature on the pipe a couple of feet above the stove is about 300, not higher). After a recent cleaning the sweep said the stove inside had more creosote than usual. Can you explain how to prevent that - does a start-up need really high heat for a set amount of time like a half hour, before putting it into cruise mode at a lower temp?
Chettt said:Dutchwest/Vermont Castings doesn't have a good reputation in wood stoves anymore. They are probably trying to use a different name.
They still call it Dutchwest though, so it wouldn't make much of a difference just changing the "by Vermont Castings" portion of the name. I think it's probably more like coorporate tactics of shuffling product around to increase sales. While VC dealers may have lots of cast iron stoves and DW stoves would get lost in the mix, the Majestic dealers may benefit from the addition of a good selling line like the Dutchwest. IMO, what they are thinking is it may increase both Dutchwest and Majestic sales in the long run.Chettt said:Dutchwest/Vermont Castings doesn't have a good reputation in wood stoves anymore. They are probably trying to use a different name.
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