Hey everyone! I have a nice fireplace which works great for sending a bunch of hot air up the chimney. Looking at getting a woodburning insert so we can actually get some heat out of it. Our house is a single level 3400sqft, currently heated by electric and a small pellet stove. Supposed to have radiant floors heated with propane, but apparently the system wasn't designed correctly (prior homeowners did it themselves) and never worked well. Hoping to heat primarily off burning wood and pellets, and not have a massive electric bill again this winter. I visited a couple local businesses. One recommended the Kuma Cascade LE. The other recommended the Ironstrike Montlake 300. Does anyone have any experience with either of these inserts? The Kuma would cost about $5000 installed, the Ironstrike about $6000.
There is a very pleased user of the Cascade LE on this site or another related site. I'll see if I can look him up and get you in touch. Sounds like the users that have reported are very pleased with the performance. Kuma is your home team by the looks of it? The customer service sounds really good also. I know little of Ironstrike products and have heard even less from users. They may have a outstanding product. Don't know. Welcome to FHC. Edit: AndrewC check your PM's
Are both these units EPA 2020 listed? If not, they won't be eligible for the 26% tax credit...would be a deal breaker for me right now...
Thanks moresnow. Yeah, Kuma is a few hours north of us. I'd guess that would make any warranty or maintenance problems much easier to handle, since parts wouldn't have very far to go to get to me. I'll check my PM's. Brenndatomu, I double checked - both are EPA 2020 listed. 26% tax credit is huge!
I guess I kinda fumbled the ball on this one...not only EPA 2020 listed, but at least 75% efficient too... EDIT: looks like they both qualify...
No worries, I'd checked that too! Both say they're eligible for the tax credit. They list efficiency at 81% and 80% respectively.
Apparently they're owned by Innovative Hearth Products, which is headquartered in Alabama. Manufactured in the USA. I'm leaning toward the Kuma. The Ironstrike is a bit bigger, but I'm not convinced it would provide enough advantage to be worth the extra $1000. And yeah, locally built is nice too.
We had the Kuma Alpine installed last fall. Very happy with the stove after the first year. Easy to operate, overnight I can pack her up and still have coals to restart 9-11 later. That's pretty good for such a small stove. The customer service is very good as is the warranty. Glass stays clean and very little coaling issues with this stove. Less coaling may be due to the dog house being even/level with the fire bricks? All made in the USA too. The only con would be that I don't care for the rheostat for the blower being on the cord. Also that a 15" split is all that will fit N/S loading and I had 9 cords at 16-20" from our previous stove (PE Summit) but that's not Kuma falt lol.