Wow! I just got done reading the entire thread again! It always amazes me how m,uch good information can be obtained from this site. Thank you all who have posted with information on this stove. I really have come to realize that like most stoves these are not fond of being pushed constantly. I will only be heating at most 1750 sq ft with this stove. It will also have the help of my Dutchwest Large Cat. Together they will completely blow us out of this house, even if I heat the entire 2000 sq ft that will be finished before the baby comes in May! Right now the DW heats 1000 even during the coldest below zero temps that Central Mass have to offer occasionally. Once the Encore is here (provided it passes inspection,) the two should work in uni sen just fine. I have not decided which one is going in the living room or basement yet. I may end up with the DW back in the finished basement. I know how to operate it comfortably enough to leave it down there without constant babysitting. The fear is that the Encore will blow us out of the living room. The radiant heat may prove to be too much in there, as it is not part of an open floor lay out. The only opening is a cased opening the size of a doorway, which leads to the main hallway in the middle of the house. Moving the air is a constant battle. I may add some duct work in the attic leading to the three bedrooms as well as an in-line wall fan to get warm air to the kitchen. Both these set ups would be connected to a thermostat in the living room/ stove room. In this case the DW is only going to heat 750 sq ft of the basement. However it will do the job of heating the entire house during the shoulder season. I still have a lot to think about before I make a decision, either way this won't be until the next heating season.
The Encore was supposed to get picked up last Saturday, but I had to delay the pick up by another week. It will be picked up this Friday or Saturday. In the meantime, I found some warming shelves on Ebay which arrived today. They suffered some damage to the enamel during shipping, as was apparent from the pieces of enamel in the bottom of the box. This could have been avoided by wrapping each piece with cardboard before putting them in the box. Now I have to resort to touch up paint, but they should look Ok with a bit of cover up. Again, thanks for all the input, I will post some pics as soon as the stove is here. This is an Ebay pic of the shelves, they are actually darker (midnight blue,) the flash makes them appear light blue.