I'm trying to heat 2400 Sq ft w/ a vaulted ceiling in living rm and dining rm. For the price I'm well pleased with it. Best built I could find in area. Plus one of my friends recommended drolet.
redneckdan hope this message turns out right. Haven't looked at optima yet. I do know that a lot of stove boxes are the same but they change the base to look different.
Just recently bought the HT 2000 a few weeks ago. I am very happy with it. I wanted the big firebox and also happy about the economical price. For me, it was a big leap from what I had before, a 1980s Earth-stove. We got the circulation fan to go with and that is a great option, because this stove has a lot of convection spaces around the back half and the fan gets the heat out and circulating. Logs/splits can go EW or NS. I was surprised too, how smokeless it is when burned properly.
I bought a used drolet el dorado for a little kicker stove in the basement. I use it before I fire up the OWB; when the power fails; in the sub-zero temps that none of us look forward to-otherwise the basement stays in the upper 50s low 60s. It is hooked up to a masonry chimney and does not perform as well as the comparable englander nc-13 which I have at another residence. I am attributing this faster wood usage to a very strong draft and plan on installing a vent damper to help slow it down. Will alos be posting about this and the results, if any.
Drolet Tundra furnace here. Haven't had it that long so I'm till tweaking my setup, like it well enough so far. For anybody not familiar, Drolet came out with this model 3 years ago and they have had some significant problems with 'em, but I think Drolet has done a pretty good job of taking care of things and retaining their customers through it all for the most part
