Customer Reviews for Ashley Hearth Products 2,000 sq. ft. EPA Certified Red Enameled Porcelain Cast Iron Wood Stove with Blower

I replaced an antique woos stove forged around 1902. If its metal wasn't getting thin in places I would have never traded in for this more modern stove. The modern stove doesn't put off as much heat for the same amount of wood and is much more difficult to construct a fire in. The modern stoves could take a lesson from the design of the older stoves which made it easy to add large pieces of cord wood and build kindling around it. The look of this stove is great. It does hold a long piece of wood but you can't stack much wood because your vertical space is pretty limited. Remember I am comparing in my mind to the antique stove which had two doors vertically on the front of the stove giving you extended vertical access not offered by the door on this stove. If you haven't fueled an antique stove you probably will think this is fine. The stove is well made and more than a two man job to move. I got movers who promised four but sent two guys. They were very strong and well equipped but they struggled mightily. So if you have to move this stove even a short distance, you'll want four strong guys with lifting straps. The antique stove was much easier to remove the ask, so I'm not liking that much either. The antique design has a grate through which ashes drop to a underbelly section that can e scooped out by a fireplace shovel. No real work involved. This modern stove has a cast iron plug that seats in a small round hole through which you could scrap the ash. Again, the modern version is a poorly engineered device in that respect.for the routine task of removing ashes. The only construction I had to do was screw the blower device onto the back and slide the spring ends on the door handle and ash tray handle. The exterior surface is immaculately coated in the porcelain and I have no fear that is a very durable application of a porcelain outer coat. The instruction caution that you might wan to fire the thin up outside before bringing it into your house. That is extremely good advice, as so much smoke poured out of it on first firing that I was questioning whether I had improperly installed the stove pipe. It burned off some coating inside and left the house smelling of this smoke for a week. So, either be prepared to endure that or burn off that coating that is inside the outer mantle of the stove (you can't get to what is burning off to somehow clean it first. That of course is a bad practice by the manufacturer. They surely know how much smoke is going to pour off it for the first couple firings and it would really have been in the customer's interest for the manufacture to pre-fire them. It was enough smoke that I am surprised they don;t have lawsuits from buyers who would claim damage due to this smoke generation. Now that the stove is in place and fires have been built, I have no doubt I will never have to replace this stove for any reason. It is solid. The firebricks might need to be replaced but the main metal construction is very solid, walls, doors, hinges, legs, flue connector -- solid. If I could find a copy of my Round Oak wood stove which was over 110 years old, I would buy it in a heartbeat as that stove was clearly superior in most aspects from the more modern stove. As much as the modern model wants to claim efficiencies in burning, the old stove generated more heat from the same amount of wood. Since you and I don't have a way to purchase a re-casting of one of those old models, we're stuck with this model and I am sure, of modern stoves this is a clearly superior model. I'm saddened because I can do the comparison. The Round Oak company made stoves that were used in the late 1800s in trains stations in the middle of nowhere and probably kept those places toasty. This modern stove wouldn't have been tolerated by the people who passed through those frozen sites. Sorry Ashley, you REALLY need to take a page from the past.