Regency F3500 VS BK Chinook 30.2

[MissMac]

I've got a pretty good semicircle faded into my paint above my cat on the Sirocco 30.1. Been burning in it for 4 years, but that fading started the first year. There's also a bit of a faded spot on the front of the stove above the door, in line with the middle of the cat.

 

[stoveliker]

but there is no convection jacket here. The Chinook 30 (being compared here) has a 2.5" or so spaced extra steel top. It just does not get that hot because the heat is transferred to the convecting air.

 

[Pbhead]

I thought I would write my update on the Regency, now that we used it for a full winter.

Bottom line, we love it!

It easily burns through the night and we never have to light a new fire unless we purposely let it go out so that we can clean the ashes out. The stove throws a wicked amount of heat. We usually have it turned down pretty low, even on -40 nights. We have a 1200 square foot main floor and 1000 square foot loft, and the stove is on the main floor. We have our forced air furnace fan come on 20 minutes every hour to circulate the air. We burned about 4.5 cords so far.

I installed the combustion air kit. The odd time when we have it turned all the way down to minimum and it is warm outside, we get a sooty smell in the house. We have learned to keep the air turned up about 5% to alleviate this problem.

We had our wood cut into 18" lengths to maximize the amount we can fit into the firebox. We can fit 8-12 pieces into the box, using regular sized split pine/spruce.

Lighting the fire is super easy using the top-down method (learned on this forum). We actually don't even split our wood into kindling anymore. Lighting the fire is actually just that easy.

The only beef about the stove is that the snap disk controlling the fan has failed. We have the fan on manual over-ride, so it doesn't bother us, until we get it replaced.

We would buy this same stove again in a heart beat. We are really happy with the purchase.

 

[begreen]

Thanks for the update and review. It sounds like a winner! If you get a chance could you add this to the Ratings section?

Stove Reviews

www.hearth.com

 

[Pbhead]

Done