Previous review: We have two Novas: a super, five star Nova and its miserly, one star cousin. FIVE STARS: The rear vent stove gets 5 stars. It’s a pleasure to use. In the morning, the coals are still warm: we stir them up, add more wood (which catches from the embers), and just keep going. It burns evenly and the firebox stays hot even after the fire dies down. Love the big viewing window and the ease of use. We wish we had two of these…. But we don’t. ONE STAR Our second Nova is a miserly, fire-hating, lump of metal. Its the type of appliance that breaks up long-standing marriages. This second stove is a top vent. It’s miserable. On the second re-visit to try to get it going, our installer gave up on traditional fire building methods and (literally) lit it with a propane blow torch. Which was great. We kept it going for the night but even with an 8 hour burn, it still had hand sized chunks of unburned wood in the center of the stove in the morning. The firebox wasn’t hot enough to light a new piece of wood on the embers. Our installer’s assessment is that the top-vent only wants perfectly dry wood in tiny pieces. Ugh. (Note that we use the same wood as in the other stove.) UPDATE: The rear-vent is still the super star but, with a few tweaks, the top vent is functioning much better: * on the third visit the installer pulled the top vent forward in the fireplace as much as possible creating more air space behind it. This has made the biggest difference. * now we don't fool around: we get this stove as hot as possible as quickly as possible by using lots of kindling and smaller pieces of wood. If the ash in the bottom is low or cooled, we seed some hot ash from the other stove. * we burn in a U-shape. If we can get the back and sides heated up quickly, the stove is happier. The top-vent is still quirky. But I've upped my stars overall to 5 because now that we understand the quirks we can sustain a good fire (and get it started without gnawing our teeth to nubs in frustration). Additionally, the customer service team at MFfire has been helpful in trying to figure our what's up and offering suggestions to help us get the stove functioning more efficiently.
