Thanks. Eau Claire is about 65 miles
From me. If they will install the Woodstock, that is my first choice. Followed by the Blaze King. Ideal steel should not have any problem heating my home.
Woodstock Ideal Steel or Jotul F55?
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From me. If they will install the Woodstock, that is my first choice. Followed by the Blaze King. Ideal steel should not have any problem heating my home.
You can also check with local CSIA certified sweeps in the area - www.csia.org
Knots
Minister of Fire
I live in Maine. It gets cold. The house is only a few years old and is very insulated so it almost doesn't matter what the outside temp is.
The house is a ranch. 1400 sq ft. Half of the basement is a two-bay under garage. There's an attached garage on the other side. The stove is in the center of the basement. 2x8 walls and good windows. The garages stay above freezing just from the heat bleed-through on the walls.
I don't typically run the stove at night. I get up in the morning and the house is around 55F if it's real cold. I head down and stuff the cold stove full of hardwood.
1). It takes about 45 min to get up to temp.
2). Next it runs 3 hours or so at 500-600F.
3). Then it ramps down to about 400F and stays there about 3 hours. I usually open the primary air a little and back off the damper.
4). I rake the coals forward and open the primary air more. Leave it for an hour. Now it's at 300F with some coals. Upstairs the house is around 67F.
5). I reload with 3 or 4 splits and run the cycle again. House is at 70F upstairs until evening and slowly drops off.
If I burn more at this point it will get too warm in the house, just in time for bed and I like to sleep cold.
It gets nice and toasty in the basement. The foundation is entirely insulated on the outside with two layers of foam board. As a result, the concrete ends up being a large thermal mass. Once everything is up to temp in the basement, it takes a while to bring it back down again.
Of note, the house is so tight that I have an air exchange system. I have it on a timer so it runs in the middle of the day and cycles some fresh air in and some house air out. As a result, I lose some heat during that time.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Holy carp! 55F... indoors?!? That would lead to divorce, if repeated more than once every few years.
7 hours to reload right? That's not bad for a non-cat. My house was new in 2006. Its a by level with a finished basement. The stove would work. I like the simplicity of it. Blaze King is making a really strong case.
Knots
Minister of Fire
LOL. I'm usually here by myself. I like to sleep in a cool room and the master bed is above the stove. When it's 55F upstairs its 60F downstairs. I typically take a cup of coffee and a book down and read while the stove gets happy. Then the heat rolls right up the stairwell and the kitchen is nice.
Yep, 7-8 hours.
Most woodburners heat with noncats just like most beer drinkers consume low quality macro brew beer like coors/bud. A noncat is fully capable of heating your home. If you’re even considering a noncat then you owe it to your future self to look at Englander NC30 stoves. Every bit as good as any noncat and only cost like 700$. I own one and run it hard with excellent results... for a noncat!
This kind of insulting BS helps no one.
The 30NC, while a good stove is not the same as any other non-cat, just like the Buck cats are not the same as the BK cats. There is cost cutting in the 30NC that one doesn't find in better stoves. The fragile baffle is a prime example. Going further, the F55 doesn't even use tubes, like the 30NC and it has better latching, a cast iron jacket etc.. There are lots of differences.
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Geez bg, you seem to have misunderstood something. My point is pro noncat. Most people love noncats and most love macro brews.
I actually own an nc30 and haven’t broken the baffle board yet. But I did break one on my hearthstone, a stove that costs about 5 times as much. The nc30 latch is extremely robust. Have you ever seen one?
I see no significant evidence of cost cutting in the nc30 but I would expect and tolerate a few. Same weld spatter and paint as my bk. Most noncat stoves use ceramic baffles and burn tubes. For some reason most cost several times more than the nc30.
BS? Rude.
Yes, have seen lots of 30NCs and helped install a couple. It's a good stove, but there are cost cutting differences. It's not the equivalent of the F55 which does not have a ceramic baffle or burn tubes and sports a costly cast iron jacket. FWIW PE stoves don't have a ceramic baffle, nor Osburn, Enviro, Lopi, Regency etc. Even Drolet is phasing them out.
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Good riddance. My ceramic baffle is glowing right now.
Remember the context of this thread. The op is considering “settling” for a noncat. I was trying to convey that the noncat system is very capable of doing the job. Most people use them. My mistake was beer abuse! Couldn’t think of a better analogy. I enjoy both types, macro micro and in a few minutes will be mashing in my homebrew. All choices we are lucky to have.
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