Hi Everyone
I am starting to look into another stove for next year. Currently I am using a St. Croix Lancaster to heat my small place, about 1100sf. I come across some Bixbys every so often and was wondering if that would be a good choice. My Lancaster was very cheap and have had to put nothing into it yet. Just looking for opinions.
thanks
Bob

bixbys very good if you read manual and pay attention to it ,prices right now

blume98 wrote:

I thank you for the reply. I have always been impressed with what I have read about the Bixbys. I see some for around $750.00 on average, so I am thinking about one of those, I will be burning pellets mostly unless I can get corn for a reasonable price.
thanks
Bob

The St Croix is a very good simple stove not much to go wrong as long as you keep the innards clean. manual lighting and manual dumping of the clinker.
The Bixby is also a good stove only not quite so simple. It is capable of starting with pushing the button, will dump the clinker for you and keep going without interuption. It does require you reading the manual and gaining experience on how to run it. Its not for everybody as it does take some effort to learn how it works. It can be frustrating in the beginning but once you understand how it works most people like it. You can run it with a thermostat plus you can start it with a phone call or with the use of a computer.
Back when I was burning corn I would mix one gallon of pellets with five gallons of corn and was able to run the stove for close to a month nonstop before stopping to clean it.You can dump the ash drawer and add fuel while it was running.
There isn't many dealers left but if you are willing to read and learn on this forum you don't need a dealer looking over your shoulder. Parts could be a consideration but at the price you are talking you could buy two new Bixbys for less then the price of your Lancaster and save one for parts. You will find the Bixby will produce a lot more heat then your Lancaster. It will be a little more noisy but the convection fan pushes close to twice the air.
There is a knack to running at a low temp for a long time but that is covered here on IBC.

i really don't see a problem with parts , , board repair can take time, depending on how busy my guy is but it gets done

Well let me weigh in on this one a little bit.

Now take my info with a grain of salt...I am a new Bixby owner (been running mine only 2-3 months) and do not have nearly all of the experience that a lot of the guys here do.

With that said these are the pros I see with Bixby...they put out a lot of heat. Or at least are capable of it. Good size hopper so you don't have to be filling constantly. Works well once all the bugs are worked out of it. The price on these have come way down now and you can get them for a real good deal now...even better than I paid.

On the negative side....they take what seems to be a large amount of time to get them running properly. If you don't have time to play with it every day or evening it starts becoming a real pain in the but. I have to be out of town for a few days at a time so it's hard to constantly be messing with this thing. Also, so far once you seem to get one thing nailed down something else starts going out of wack. Also, they are a little on the loud side with the fan pushing the air out. With a smaller place you might be able to run it on a much lower setting so that might not be a big factor for you.

So overall if you are home every night and have time to "tinker" with the thing it's a pretty good buy I think. If you want something you can just throw pellets in and walk away never thinking twice about it...I would look at something else.

With all that...this forum has been great!! And the guys on here are really really helpful and go out of their way to reach out and help us guys in need. Just my two cents.

Your comments are well taken, Jame. I, too, had a bit of a learning curve. Now, other than regular cleaning, I touch only the console panel, the hopper lid and the ash drawer handle. I'm still using the same trim pot settings as last year, and it runs reliably unattended. My earlier gremlins were related mostly to the vent configuration and perhaps some leakage at the burn plate gasket. I made an improvised "stretch" vent cap ( forum.iburncorn.com/wiki/index.php/BixbyFAQ#Venting )that blocks wind pressure and better separates the exhaust from the air intake; and I caulked in the burn plate gasket. With that, and while knocking on wood, I can say that heating with this stove is truly an enjoyable push button operation.

Mine heated our Home for five years on corn and kept us warm at a fration of the cost of oil ! LEt me say RIGHT NOW the Bixby has the best support out there and they should be thankful for all the people here Blume,RONA, CORNY to name a few that help and no change but as Jame states it always was something going wrong or we came Home and the stove would be off, it just was always something !Towards the end of last year with the price of corn going thru the roof we switched to wood pellets that turned into a nitemare ! I know mix a little corn in and alls well ,thats fine if youve got time ,to much of a hassle for me ! So I bought a Harman XXV only because a friend has a P68 bought it the same time I got my Bixby and has done nothing but clean it in all those years ! from late November till now the Harman has run without a hitch not even the slightess hickup !Cleaning from top to bottom 20 mins the most ! and very easy !all I need is a vac and a paintbrush ! Now for my Bixby it is now in service @ my place of business it is saving on oil and still gives me trouble but i can live with it there it isnt in my livingroom !If you have time to play dont mind going thru the hassel its a fine machine, if you want to turn it on forget about it well get something else

I thank everyone for their input on the Bixby. Time will tell as to what I get next. My Lancaster is doing a good job of keeping us warm and not using any oil or propane. With this cold weather we have been having have been running some corn in the stove. The Lancaster loves corn more than pellets. Been doing a 60/40 to 75/25 mix corn to pellets. Next year if corn is under $400.00 a ton will burn corn.

Bixby's put out a lot of heat.I cut a square piece out of the metal panel by the ajusters and covered it with a piece of plastic that slides. I can get to the fine tuners quickly if needed. Mine has run perfect on pellets for the last 3 seasons. Good luck.