Wood stove research... which one?

I asked this question some time ago, and Rspike (among others) had good responses. I never did get a stove and am again looking at options. I forgot this thread and found it on a search. Thought it might be interesting to dredge up again.

http://arboristsite.com/showpost.php?p=502477&postcount=26

HH, I've been burning a stove for 7 yrs now 24/7 from early Nov-late March. My stove was made in a dumpster fabrication shop and is little more than a metal box lined with fire brick and a hole in the top. It has served us well and heated the house good too. But just this week I decided to step up (kinda) and bought a new to me stove. Its a Nashua and even though its still almost 30yrs old its looks very well made and heavily constructed (500lbs).
The most important factor to me is a stove that can burn all night long and still have a good coal base in the morning to restoke from. My old unit will do that but probably because the firebox is so large rather than efficiency.
Something to keep in mind. I've heard for yrs about the new EPA stoves but this past winter I delivered a load of firewood to someone. He invited us in to the house. He has a very nice Vermont Castings stove. Beautiful thing to look at with all kinds of whistles and bells all porcelain even the pipe was too. I'm looking at this thing of beauty and then I realized something......it was putting maybe a tenth the amount of heat my old ugly does! So just keep in mind what a stove needs to do, heat! All the whistles and bells and efficiency ratings won't mean a thing if it doesn't put out much heat. I cut my own firewood and never have a shortage issue so a few more sticks a day ain't no big deal to me and some of them old stoves can really put off the heat. Before I would drop 1,000.00-2,000.00 dollars I would make sure of how well it can heat. Old stoves are a dime a dozen and can be bought cheap so If you buy one you don't like you won't have much in it. If you spend 1,500.00 you might be forced to live with a dud.

The old stoves will get a lot hotter and burn greener and junky wood a lot better than the EPA stoves. The new stoves are safer in that the draft is limited so they will not get away on you. If you have to have an insurance inspection you might not get aproval for anything over 10 years old or anything that is not UL listed. The new ones are an obscene price compared to one you can put together for yourself. I just ordered a Kitchen Queen 380 wood cookstove http://www.woodstoves.net/aboutus.htm that will do for spring and fall and heat my hot water as well as a fair bit of the cooking but time I get it here and install another chimney it will cost me three grand. Take a long time to pay for itself but it will keep me entertained so I guess that is better than other ways to spend it.

check out http://www.pacificenergy.net , I installed the Pacific Insert , it's rated to heat 2000 sq. ft , and it works well to heat 1200 sq. ft. home in the cold and damp Oregon winters , very well made and reasonably priced , every bit as good as the higher end inserts , just doesn't have the fancy finish , and it comes with a blower , where other ones charge you for it

Clearance distance to walls and furniture etc. is something else you need to consider. I have been using a Regency for 10 years. The clearance, heat output & being a non-cat stove were the deciding issues for me. I suggest you buy the next larger size than recommended. That way you can use larger logs and get longer burn times without throttling down the air.

I recall that when I went to the local distributor, they recommended that I watch out for getting one too big. They said that if you get one too big and constantly have to keep it throttled down to keep your area from being a sauna, you'll have problems with creosote. Better a little smaller stove burning at capacity than a large one choked down. I have 1800 sq ft of decently insulated house and have been looking at stoves rated for 12-1500sq ft. I'm looking at supplemental heat rather than 24/7. I figure I'll run it in the evening and through the night but let it burn out during the day. Rspike said in that post above that you never really get what they say it will put out, so I've also been looking at the 2000 sq ft stoves. I kinda like the modern looking stoves like the Pacific Energy Fusion. Looks like a big stainless microwave oven on a pedestal.

Ian

Locoweed said:

Clearance distance to walls and furniture etc. is something else you need to consider. I have been using a Regency for 10 years. The clearance, heat output & being a non-cat stove were the deciding issues for me. I suggest you buy the next larger size than recommended. That way you can use larger logs and get longer burn times without throttling down the air.

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+1 Absolutely correct. Unless you want to keep the stove running full bore and stand next to it throwing logs into the firebox as fast as the stove consumes the wood, get the next bigger size and run it throttled down a tad. Much easier on the stove operator.

I view the firebox like the gas tank on your car. The bigger the tank the farther you will go. I stoke up my 30x36 inch box plumb full and regulate it to 500 degrees surface temp. It will go for hours that way. I usually stoke 3xs a day as I burn 24/7 for about 5 months of the year.

Interesting all the "go big" opinions.. are you sure we aren't discussing chainsaws? Oh well, since I'm the one that's never run a wood stove, I will take the advice of the ones that do. I'll skip the smaller ones and stick to the 2000 sq ft models.

My wife has nixed the modern look... says she prefers the classic stove look. Actually, she would rather have a fireplace w/ insert but since we have no fireplace, that would really drive the price through the roof.

Ian

Hey, I have a Hampton H300 and love it. I heat a house with 1000 ft2 basement and 1250 ft2 main floor. The stove is in the basement and will heat the whole house, although the basement will get a tad toasty to get the upstairs to 72. It is also an extremely attractive stove. The only drawback is it only will take 18" firewood, that is kind of a bummer. Take a look...

http://www.hampton-fire.com/Wood/Stoves/H300/index.php

C

I love my Regency F2400 stove.It's not the fanciest unit out there, but it's easy to use,very efficient, and long-burning.Build-quality is high...right up there with Pacific-Energy.You can't go wrong with either brand IMO.

Regency secondary-burn

No visible smoke from chimney at this stage of burn.

Check out Hearthstone stoves if ya want. My folks have had theirs for 28 years. I have had mine since 94 or 95. Heavy cast frame with 1'' 1/2 soap stone on the sides and top. Beautiful stoves but a little pricey. They been around since late 1700's early 1800's.

Hey Saucy.. I see you have your pipe turned 90 deg right off the stove. Ever have any problems getting draft? The installer I talked to wanted 3-4' of vertical pipe before turning. He said it was better for draft that way.

Ya know, thinking back, it might have been a rear exhaust stove and we were asking if it could go straight out the wall and eliminate any pipe in the room. Yea, that sounds right. He wanted to come out the back and turn 90 for 3 or 4 ft of vertical before going outside.

Ian

Haywire Haywood said:

My wife has nixed the modern look... says she prefers the classic stove look. Actually, she would rather have a fireplace w/ insert but since we have no fireplace, that would really drive the price through the roof.

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I can't speak for anyone else, but we burn with a 100-year old Century Crawford cookstove. We like it because we use it for baking and stovetop cooking, and it throws off a lot of heat. In making this choice, we defered to my wife's preference since she had one growing up and learned to cook on one.

The drawback is the small firebox - about 20" deep and about 10" wide. Needless to say, she's not an all nighter. If I load it tight at midnight, I'm down to embers by 3:30am and we need to restart each morning.

Very rarely is there any visible smoke coming from our chimney. An advantage of a cookstove is that we can burn everything from junkwood and real little stuff, up to a good sized stick of wood. On the occasion where we light it up for a small late May fire to take the chill off or to boil some noodles, I'm burning mostly the woodchips from the barn floor produced over a wonter's worth of splitting kindling.

A VT Castings WinterWarm Fireplace Insert and a Jotul 602N help stave off the the oil delivery business in this house. Our wood burning season can last from the end of August to mid May. The summer gardening season is pretty brief this far North.

My 2 cents worth

Haywire Haywood said:

Hey Saucy.. I see you have your pipe turned 90 deg right off the stove. Ever have any problems getting draft? The installer I talked to wanted 3-4' of vertical pipe before turning. He said it was better for draft that way.

Ya know, thinking back, it might have been a rear exhaust stove and we were asking if it could go straight out the wall and eliminate any pipe in the room. Yea, that sounds right. He wanted to come out the back and turn 90 for 3 or 4 ft of vertical before going outside.

Ian

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I feel I get a lot of extra heat from the stove pipe. Look closely at my double wall pipe and you will see slots at the top and bottom for air flow. Getting more heat out of your stove is like heat for free.

Or you can just run single wall pipe up to the cieling, that is what I did. Get a ton of heat from that. Just be sure you dont run single wall through the ceiling or walls!

Mine is too close to the wall for single wall pipe. Another thing you have to take into consideration.

Haywire, you're right about the elbow,it doesn't help with the draft but the 16' of straight chimney above that make it useable.Ideally, a straight run of double wall pipe would be best, but I'm limited by the previous owners' install of the wall thimble into the brick chimney.....