Bad wood, bad setup, bad burning practices. If you do not correct this you will have a problem no matter what stove you purchase. Running a modern stove is completely different than running an old Pre-EPA smoke dragon.Yes, the dealer sent us a damper after two months of working with it. At this point I don't ever want to take a 4 thousand dollar risk. We could put in a propane boiler and plumb the main parts of the house for that money! (brother is a plumber). We never got a burn time more that 5 hours. Yes some of that was probably the moisture of wood, however when dealer came with his own seasoned oak the result was the same...no heat and not a longer burn time. The dealer had a Mansfield Hearthstone in his home. Reburn never happened like we saw at the shop before we bought. Generally we were cold all winter. I realize it was radiant heat but I couldn't even get warm standing next to it. Ran the pellet stove all the time and an electric radiator heater up stairs just to keep upstairs at 60.
Bessie usually heats me out upstairs so I have a curtain to block most of heat from traveling up. We use a fan to draw stove heat into living room which is in the stone section of the house just off the dining room where Bessie is. The pellet stove is in living room but it is too freakin loud to run all the time.
You will have this problem with the Dutchwest if you do not learn from your mistakes.