Holy moly..can't believe this post...We have had a Hearthstone Soapstone stove since 2002. We maybe clean our chimney every 2 years(now that we live in a wet cold climate we are doing it every year)...hardly anything there. Use dry wood..old super dry willow (we had tons of it) and now fir..My husband and I have arguments as to what constitutes dry..He tolerates a little wet.. me NO!!
Pile Juniper or oak on the coals at night ..damp it down and go to bed. Always a little bit of coals in the AM. 6-8 hour burn without attention. As per smoke..ok once in awhile I see smoke from the chimney but little or no creosote in the chimney speaks for itself.
We now use sugar pine pine cones to restart the fire in the AM..works a treat!!
I had an old ..who knows what.. wood stove in Mt and same thing..I guess it comes down to how well ya build fires!!
We need a small auxiliary stove in our house now..and I am totally confused as to what to buy..pretty concerned..quality of a lot of things has gone to hell..heard rumors it's that way with wood stoves too. Catalytic converter? May only cost $200-$400 for the part but how hard is it to change them? Heard impossible in some cases.
A little leery after all this 2020 EPA change and maybe I'll just wait till the dust settles before I buy one.
Am considering a Blaze King Ashford 20..swore I'd never do a catalytic converter..oh well. Ok maybe Lopi of Morso 2B classic..
I personally think cutting down on procreating will have more affect than EPA regs on wood stoves!!
