Review: Vogelzang Deluxe Boxwood BX42E
Overall Performance:
Efficiency:
Ease of Use:
Vogelzang Deluxe Boxwood BX42E
I've had this stove for about two weeks. It is not even close to air tight, and as such needs to be used with caution, and under supervision. I certainly would not put this stove (at least as is out of the box) inside your home. I've had a couple of runaway fires so far (with just a couple of pieces of dry wood) that created flue exit temperatures of 900+ degs F (my thermometer was pegged). The lack of air tightness seems to be primarily due to the lack of good seal on the fire door and gaps around the cooking plates and the flue collar. Granted, the stove is advertised for garage/shop use, but still, you need to careful. I'd recommend keeping the wood load up near the front of the stove, as another reviewer had suggested, both to keep the flue temperature in the safe range, and to extract the most amount of heat from the stove.
In terms of the stove's performance overall, it's ok. Given all the gaps, and the straight shot to the flue at the back of the stove, starting up a fire is super easy. However, as mentioned above the gaps in the top of the stove tend cause a burn that it much hotter at the back of the stove than the front, so you're probably throwing away a good bit of heat up the flue. Even after a couple hours of burning, I can still touch the front of the stove, while the back is super hot. The flue collar gaps are probably the biggest reason for this. In terms of build quality, this thing is pretty lacking. On my stove, the front hearth, which attaches onto the bottom of the stove with bolts was drilled incorrectly so the holes didn't line up well with stove. I can see that they've included bolts that are a smaller diameter than the drilled holes, I presume so that you can still get it together :). All in all, a "you get what you paid for" and "made in China" type product.
That all said, I'm going to attempt to do some sealing of my own using fiberglass rope and stove cement to try to improve the performance of this stove, and most importantly, get more control over the fire. I think some 1/4" gasket rope around the cooking plates (I don't plan to actually use those) and some stove cement on the cutout where the flue collar sits will help a bunch. The front door will be a bit more difficult, as it's pretty gappy along the bottom and the lower left side (top and sides are ok, generally, with include gasket). I think I'll probably just get some relatively large gasket rope, and cement that in along the bottom of the door, and see how that does. After all that, I'll probably have wished I'd just bought a good sealed stove. But of course, you can't get those for $199.00 either, at least new.
If you do get this stove, be safe, and watch how much wood you put into it at a time. I'll re-review with the modifications I mentioned once I've tested it out.