Woodstock Ideal Steel or Jotul F55?

[Newburnerwisconsin]

I would only use it a emergency. I live way out in the sticks so burning wood is way of life for me and my family. I just don't want to have to get up every 4 hours all heating season and fill the stove. I am getting tired. It gets cold here. Single digits and below zero so the stove is going to get a workout. We heat 6 to 7 months of the year.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Looks like there are flames coming out of the glass!

You can cook on it, it just requires removing the lid. Not a big deal if the cooking is only occasional or during power outages but a hassle if you use the stove top frequently.

That's just part of the magic of a BK! When not using the cat, the flameshow extends outside the firebox into the room!

 

[Newburnerwisconsin]

That's just part of the magic of a BK! When not using the cat, the flameshow extends outside the firebox into the room!

I don't plan on watching the fire that much. About a couple of hours each day. Mostly I want the long overnight burns. Fill the stove with oak. Set it and walk away.

 

[Newburnerwisconsin]

Warranty is actually for 6yrs. Practical use reports show about a 10,000 hr. lifespan. or about 2.5 yrs of 24/7 burning if wood is the only source of heat. YMMV Pickling the cat may extend its life. Price will vary with the vendor and stove model but in the $250-280 range for the Ashford 30.1.

Ouch. That's a expensive part. 2.5 years?? That does not seem very long.

 

[Mark8]

That's just part of the magic of a BK! When not using the cat, the flameshow extends outside the firebox into the room!

Are you saying the only time your going to see flames on a BK is when you bypass the cat, why would you run a stove with the cat disengaged, isn't that polluting the air.

I don't plan on watching the fire that much. About a couple of hours each day. Mostly I want the long overnight burns. Fill the stove with oak. Set it and walk away.

For your situation and temps your looking for performance not on ambience. My temps don't require max performance.

 

[SuperJ]

How many square ft are you heating? It gets -26 here how cold does it get there? Does the Ashford need a rear heat shield? I did not see one one thier website. How do you clean your chimney? I do have a local BK dealer to do the install if I go with the Ashford. My insurance company requires that. Thanks for your time and knowledge.

Sorry for the delay...

Ashford 30 has close clearances without a additional heat shield (it's built in). I'm heating about 1200sqft but my primary area is probably only 600 (living room/dining room/kitchen). It gets about -26F here too, stove has lots of heat especially with the fans. When it gets really cold I run the stove to keep my main area about 75F and the furnace a bit to keep the basement about 60F. The stove would have the heat output, but my house is too closed off to allow it move around, so I run the furnace a bit rather than roast everyone out living room where the stove is.

I clean the chimney myself, mine is pretty easy since it's about 15ft straight up of class A on a bungalow roof. No bends or weird old masonry to deal with.

Clearances: (broken link removed to http://www.blazeking.com/dealerarea/hearthpad/AF30.1%20clearance%20specs.pdf)
Hearth Pad: (broken link removed to http://www.blazeking.com/dealerarea/hearthpad/AF30.1%20hearth%20pad.PDF)
Corner Clearances: (broken link removed to http://www.blazeking.com/dealerarea/hearthpad/AF30.1%20corner%20clearance%20with%20ember%20protection.PDF)

 

[Mark8]

View attachment 223547

Blaze King Ashford 30. I just wish I could cook on it.

You can cook on the PH, are you considering that stove as well, or does it not fit your requirements?

 

[begreen]

Ouch. That's a expensive part. 2.5 years?? That does not seem very long.

Not everyone burns 24/7 for 6 months of the year.

 

[Newburnerwisconsin]

Not everyone burns 24/7 for 6 months of the year.

Back to the other stoves. That's pretty spendy. Replacement parts and costs matter.Thank you for getting those numbers for me. I thought BK had a ten year warranty on the cats.

 

[Ashful]

What does it cost to replace the catalytic combustor in a Blaze King? I see woodstocks are $175.00. How much for the Princess or Ashford? They really have a guy over the barrel in that. They could charge you whatever they wanted and you have to pay it. I like the fact that Blaze King has a 10 year warranty on its Cat. I wish I could cook on the Ashford.

First one is free, within ten years. After that, $168 for Princess, more ($250?) for Ashford. Not enough for me to care, when the stove is saving me $10k in oil, in that time.

 

[Highbeam]

Not everyone burns 24/7 for 6 months of the year.

No, that’s just part time. Some of us burn 9 months per year!

Princess cat is 186$ including tax and shipping. Burning it right now.

 

[Newburnerwisconsin]

First one is free, within ten years. After that, $168 for Princess, more ($250?) for Ashford. Not enough for me to care, when the stove is saving me $10k in oil, in that time.

That's a great point Ashful.

 

[begreen]

No, that’s just part time. Some of us burn 9 months per year!

Princess cat is 186$ including tax and shipping. Burning it right now.

Yes, the Princess cat is much less expensive.

 

[Newburnerwisconsin]

No, that’s just part time. Some of us burn 9 months per year!

Princess cat is 186$ including tax and shipping. Burning it right now.

Ok that's just me. 5 months full time. (Nov.-Mar.) 2 months shoulder season (Oct.,Apr)
10 year warranty??? On the first Cat??? Wow. I hope the Ashford will heat my house. 1900 sq ft.

 

[Highbeam]

Ok that's just me. 5 months full time. (Nov.-Mar.) 2 months shoulder season (Oct.,Apr)
10 year warranty??? On the first Cat??? Wow. I hope the Ashford will heat my house. 1900 sq ft.

Honestly, the 10 year warranty is only for your first cat at 10-12 thousand hours. That might be 3, 6, or 10 years but you’ll only get one free replacement in the first 10 years. Those of us that burn full time will wear out a cat every 2-3 years. Still a great deal since you are saving so much fuel every year. Enough to pay for a cat once per year! Same with Woodstock. Cats only last so long.

 

[Ashful]

Honestly, the 10 year warranty is only for your first cat at 10-12 thousand hours. That might be 3, 6, or 10 years but you’ll only get one free replacement in the first 10 years. Those of us that burn full time will wear out a cat every 2-3 years.

I really doubt the oft-quoted 10 - 12 thousand hour lifetime. It has to have some dependency on cords burned, in that time.

Case in point, I'm putting roughly 5000 hours per year on two combustors, but one sees twice as much wood per year (2x loads per day vs 1x load per day). Other than the odd warm day shut-down, both stay continuously active for 5000 hours, meaning each is still in active region at reload time, and both are nearing the end of their third year.

The combustor that has seen only 1 load per day is still hyper-active, compared to the noticeably aged combustor that sees 2 loads per day. When I say "noticeably aged", I mean by comparison to the other, I'm not sure I'd even notice the aging of the high-use combustor if I weren't running another stove by which I can compare it daily.

I'd expect species also has something to do with lifetime, but there's no doubt in my mind that cords burned is at least as big a factor as hours of activity.

 

[weatherguy]

I wouldn't worry too much about the cost of the cat, the long burn times and wood savings will more than make up for that. Seeing pics of your house I know if it was mine I'd have it narrowed down to the IS, Princess or Ashford. You shouldn't have any problems finding a certified chimney sweep to install a Woodstock, your 90% there already. Out of those three I'm pretty sure you'll be satisfied and will give you better performance than the stove you have. Life will be a breeze in cold weather.

 

[AlbergSteve]

First one is free, within ten years. After that, $168 for Princess, more ($250?) for Ashford. Not enough for me to care, when the stove is saving me $10k in oil, in that time.

My power bill for the two months prior to installing my Ashford was $600! My projected bill since then is about $160. In four months of burning, I will have saved enough to buy two cats for my stove AND a nice bottle or two of Islay single malt.

 

[AlbergSteve]

Tonight it's 30 f out here and the house is at 71. I am hoping the Blaze King or Woodstock will save me some work, and really crank out the heat when I need it. We had -26 three weeks ago.

I'm not sure how large a house @MissMac is heating, but she's well north of you and it's been way below zero for a long time this winter, and she's heating with a "30" box. There are a few wood burners "above the jetstream" that are heating just fine with the Ashford 30.

 

[Newburnerwisconsin]

I wouldn't worry too much about the cost of the cat, the long burn times and wood savings will more than make up for that. Seeing pics of your house I know if it was mine I'd have it narrowed down to the IS, Princess or Ashford. You shouldn't have any problems finding a certified chimney sweep to install a Woodstock, your 90% there already. Out of those three I'm pretty sure you'll be satisfied and will give you better performance than the stove you have. Life will be a breeze in cold weather.

I think with that exposed basement wall you'd have a tough time heating your whole place in below zero temps, but like Highbeam said, construction/ insulation/ wind all make a pretty huge difference.

yea I know. Believe it or not, my Heeitage heats this home down to the low teens and single digits. Then my Lennox furnace kicks on to help. I have to refill about every four hours and so I am looking to get away from doing that. All the stoves I am looking at should do fine. All have a bigger firebox so they should burn longer.

 

[Itsals1]

yea I know. Believe it or not, my Heeitage heats this home down to the low teens and single digits. Then my Lennox furnace kicks on to help. I have to refill about every four hours and so I am looking to get away from doing that. All the stoves I am looking at should do fine. All have a bigger firebox so they should burn longer.

I'm around the Eau Claire area. Get in contact with Ray at the Hearth Shop, I believe that they could install your new stove for you. I myself have a Jotol Oslo F500 and have been thinking about changing it out for a fireplace. Ray showed me a RSF in their showroom that has a catalyst in it, I think it's designed for 3000 square feet. Just a thought.

 

[Ashful]

I have to refill about every four hours and so I am looking to get away from doing that. All the stoves I am looking at should do fine. All have a bigger firebox so they should burn longer.

No matter what stove you choose, in those conditions, you’re going to be limited to how manny BTUs you can stuff into the box. Woodstock’s and BKs are more efficient than the rest under most normal conditions, so you gain a little there, but the efficiency gap closes as burn rate increases.

You could go big, a BK King, or one of the almost-comically large JA Roby’s. The King has the advantage that you can stuff it full and run it in low two days at a time in warmer weather, not the JA Roby.

But maybe it’s time to just change your mentality toward the whole thing. I spent two winters furiously feeding stoves, in a hopeless effort to heat this place almost entirely with wood. We were always cold, and it was wearing me out. In year three, I decided I’d just feed the stoves on a schedule that suited me (namely twice per day), and set them to burn down their respective loads at a rate that fit my loading schedule. The boiler would kick in as needed, to fill any gap.

Result: I’m still pumping a lot of BTUs into the house with wood, saving me at least $3k per year in oil. But, our house temps are more even (we have eight zones of heating), we are warmer, and I’m not killing myself trying to keep up with it all.

 

[begreen]

Another big stove that will work on a 6" flue is the Quadrafire Adventure III with 4.5 cu ft capacity and with room thermostat control.

 

[MissMac]

I'm not sure how large a house @MissMac is heating, but she's well north of you and it's been way below zero for a long time this winter, and she's heating with a "30" box. There are a few wood burners "above the jetstream" that are heating just fine with the Ashford 30.

@Newburnerwisconsin i've got the Sirocco 30.1 - newly installed this year. Prior to getting the stove, I was heating my approx. 1700 sq.ft house with propane. I've got some drafty windows, and the living space in all on one level - the basement just has my water treatment stuff, the furnace, and my plumbing. We had a few good snaps of -40*C weather here this winter (i.e. like 2-3 weeks solid of this frigid weather), and I was able to keep the house comfortable with the stove. However, during that intense cold, I was reloading every 4-5 hours, and was burning pretty much on wide open during the day. I burn jack pine, which burns hot and fast. I'm sure you'd extend the burn times by burning a hardwood such as oak, which i think i saw you talking about in an earlier post. During this weather, I had the stove cranked mostly so we could be like the cats basking in the sun, and because i was trying to get heat down into the basement, which isn't an easy task in my house with my set up. However, at night i was dialing down my stove enough to get about 8 hr loads off of the jack pine so that i didn't have to get up in the night to reload, and this was still keeping us comfortable in the house. Not sure if this is helpful info, but there's my 2 cents.

 

[Newburnerwisconsin]

What is most important is the btu output from the stove at the 8 hr mark and whether that exceeds or undershoots the heat loss rate for the house at a given outside temperature.

IIRC reports were that the Heritage wasted a lot of heat up the chimney. I was always amazed at the flue temps being reported for this stove. Typically our stove flue temp runs about 100º under the stove top temp. FWIW, stove top temps above 400F at hour 8 in a non-cat 3 cu ft stove are possible.

I believe that. If I buy the F55, I should have a lot more heat in the house.