I'm always looking at different stoves and comparing btu's and burn times to see if there is one that may fit our needs better. I run a Jotul F 400 Castine in our fireplace opening. It sits maybe 1/2 way out. On days above 20 degrees, it heats our house well. With these near 0* days, I'm thinking of something with a longer burn time. I'm limited to having the stove fit in the fireplace opening, so my choices seem to be the Jotul line. I also like how quick a cast radiant stove heats, and I don't know if the steel box will take longer to heat up. I've been reading about the F45 Greenville. It is a steel firebox and cast iron jacket. The dimensions with the short legs will fit fine in the fireplace opening. It would also sit 2/3 the way out so I could cook on it. It is a north/south loader with a firebrick lined box. It uses the "cigar burn" front to back burn cycle. I also understand it is more of a convective heater versus a radiant heater. The Castine has a large glass door, and kicks a lot of heat. Above 20* outside and it is very warm in the living room. It holds about 3 large or 4 medium splits east/west. The splits sometimes roll to the front and it spills ash out the door onto the lip. 90% of the winter it does what we need it to do, this past week, the NG boiler is helping quite a bit. The fire box is small, so it can only run so long and need a reload. I believe Pallet Pete has the F 50 Rangeley and I think two other members have the F50 and F55. So I am looking for some honest opinions and thoughts on the operation and also if being brick-lined does it not radiate as much as an all cast stove? Both the F400 and F45 has similar btu output, and heats similar square footage. I'm thinking that F45 would heat slower and maybe radiate more out the top with the firebrick lining then out the front like the Castine. I appreciate the insight.
I will tell you that the features of the F50 are fantastic... We cook on the cooktop like its a stove top regularly because well why not its there so use it. Our purchase of the Rangeley had a lot to do with it being a steel body wrapped in cast. It radiates heat very well and its much softer heat than the old stove was. It has allowed us to go through power outages and still be able to cook, heat water and even use it like an oven in the dead of winter. It also has an insert grill for the cook top. You lift the cook top and insert the wintergrill to use it like a wood fired oven or grill. For our needs having those options meant a lot in the purchase process. Heat output is great the stove has heated our house VERY well for 6 years now. We went from 7 to 8 cord with the last stove to about 3.5 to 4 full cord with this stove its very efficient and clean. When I cleaned last spring there was about 1/4 cup of creosote that came out. In comparison both the Vogelzang and US stove would fill a gallon pale even with dry wood. I can easily get our 1500 sq ft 2 story house to 80 in short order. The stove will hold coals for days after its not being used too which is nice. When we light it we almost never need starters. Its been running just about non stop for the last month until tonight. The ash grate is a nice feature however if we did it again I would probably order it without the ash pan only because we do not really use it. Tonight I cleaned it all out just because and decided to use it for a while and see I forgot just how well the stove burns with it the grate being used so we may go back to using it. Now to be fair here is what our experience was. We purchased it in 2012 at discount as a showroom display. It was a fairly new design at that point and had maybe 2 years under its belt 2010 I think. We struggled the first year to the degree I was pulling my hair It turned out to be faulty gasket cement and Jotul sent us new cement and gaskets at no cost. That fixed the problem and they admitted they had a faulty run of cement gasket on the first batch of stoves. Guess what we had a 2 year old display model that was out of the first batch off the assembly line. After that the stove has been very good except I just found the ash grate broken and Im not sure why it broke. Thats the first real issue we have had and even the stove shop ( Who is known for their integrity in business ) was baffled by that one. I think that in all honesty it may be my fault it broke I suspect it was over fired at some point this year. I do not remember it but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. When I was sick as a dog a few weeks ago it was all I could do to load the stove and lay back down. Jotul has had some very good customer service with us and I am glad we went that route. I myself have been looking at smart burn technology but to be perfectly honest right when I think its time I remember all the features the stove has and why we love it. Its probably gonna stay for many more years unless I can stumble into a nice hybrid stove with these same features... The wintergrill and removable top load cook top are hard to find features.
We find that north south it gets nice hot loads, east west gets slightly less hot but longer loads and we mix them to get in between. Its a big box...
Thank you Pete. I don't think the F45 has the winter grill option. Cooking on top again would great again. Looking at the efficency numbers, it seems the Greenville burns cleaner than the Castine. I like the n/s loading option too.
Here is the F50 Rangeley. TECHNICAL DOCUMENTATION TECHNICAL SPEC Emission: 2.84 gram/hr Heating capacity: Up to 2,500 SQFT Approx weight: 569 lbs Log size: Up to 20 in Flue Outlet: 6 in Efficiency: HHV 71.91%-LHV77.76% Flue exit options: Max output: 83,000 btu Top and Rear
F55 Castine TECHNICAL SPEC Emission: 3.50 gram/hr Heating capacity: Up to 2,500 SQFT Approx weight: 475 lbs Log size: Up to 18 in Flue Outlet: 6 in Efficiency: HHV 76.23%-LHV82.37% Flue exit options: Top and Rear EFFECT Max output: 83,000 btu
The F500 & F600 are good lookers too. We almost bit at the F-600 thats a sexy stove but it didnt have all the bells and whistles. Another one to look at that makes very nice stoves is Pacific Energy T-5 & T6 those have cook top wings that are pretty slick...
All too big to fit in my fireplace opening. I'm limited to size. I was chatting with Ray and his Alderlea is more convective than radiant. I'll end up stopping by the local dealer in the next few weeks to get more info.
I browsed through the manual and specifications and like the 45! Like many steel stoves (even when jacketed with CI) the use of fire brick is more common and shouldn't effect your stoves heat output, but would rather allow a hotter flue (cleaner), protecting the steel from warping, as well as a longer burn cycle. Getting 18" splits n/s will be great! The clearance to a mantle or combustibles is likely the same as the f400. Is the combustion system relatively the same? I missed the details while researching.
The combustion info is in the manual. Cigar burn on the F45, Castine has the front doghouse. F45 reviews mention longer burn times and softer heat with the firebricks. Castine throws a lot of heat out the door. My concern is if the F45 is more convective. I won't have room for a blower.
