Replacing old Kent TileFire - looking for recommendations

[Tilefire]

Hi all - I am looking to replace my old Kent TileFire stove and have been researching what might be a good fit. I wanted to get some recommendations on what might be good models to consider. I posted in classic woodstoves about potentially trying to repair my old Kent, but I think I’ve made the decision to upgrade for all the benefits of the new stove tech (longer burns, higher efficiency, etc). Packed with wood the Kent will be hard to relight after 7 hours without starting from scratch and the majority of heat is gone after ~4 hours.

My situation:

• mid-Atlantic USA, have good seasoned firewood I process myself
• As you can see from the pictures my stove is in a corner type hearth so I think a north-south stove would be best for my setup
• wood stove is primary heater for house (~2800 sqft top two floors) when weather gets cold. With the tilefire, my heat pump doesn’t usually kick on at all and I can keep the top two floors nice and warm.
• stove located centrally in living room with cathedral ceilings that go up to 28’. I have two ceiling fans that run on high to push the hot air back down. Total stovepipe length is ~27’ of double wall or so. 6” pipe with a key damper.

I am currently settling on the Regency F3500

Concerns:

• concerned that it won’t convect well and heat my whole house like the Kent does. The Kent combined with the ceiling fans moves a huge amount of warm air around the house and even distant rooms are nice and warm.
• The specs on the Regency are certainly impressive and I like the look, but I am also concerned that the fire won’t be as bright/enjoyable as the Kent because of the cat. My family likes watching and sitting by the bright flames. It doesn’t have to be burning bright all the time but it would be good to have the option if we were having guests or sitting right by it.
• I don’t want to be forced to run the blower on the regency at all times to get good heat off of it. I saw in the showroom the blower is quite loud on high. Also my corner hearth doesn’t have an easy outlet that I could use. That said, I can figure out a way to get a cord back there in a nice-looking way at some point so I’m fine with stoves that have a blower.

Really appreciate any recommendations and am open to any brand that I can get in the area. Thanks in advance for any advice

 

[EbS-P]

Regency seems like a good choice. When run high there will be flames. Do you have a damper? If not I would recommend one.

Pacific energy might be something to took at.

 

[stoveliker]

I think it's likely the Regency will be more efficient than your Kent. That means that more heat per BTU produced is shed into your room.
One way or another the heat will come in.

The same for the PE.

You will need the damper. I don't think moving the heat from room the room will be significantly different.