Talk me out of a Vermont Castings Stove

[Erik B]

@reddogrunner Do you have any pics of your set up? Haven't heard of anyone using a freestanding stove into a prefab fireplace.

 

[Marine5068]

I could put that in the garage. I'm on my way.

You're right, I have made up my mind. But in order to maintain some marital bliss I must concede to what I feel is an inferior stove. I have heard far to much bad press about Vermont Castings since they were bought out.

If the Blaze King Ashland just had something interesting on the door, I could swing her over.

I find many of the stoves in the market today to be aesthetically pleasing... As does she. Jotul makes a beautiful stove and my Saw dealer sells them. I would love to buy a stove from him but he doesn't sell any catalytic stoves. I really feel that in order to run a stove the way we would run it, Ive got to be able to burn smoke. Last year we were quite comfortable in the house letting the current stove smolder overnight. The house is well insulated. But that smoldering with no way to burn the smoke created so much creosote in the chimney it was insane.

Were taking a day off from cleaning out her Moms house and we are going to put our hands on some stoves. A soapstone stove would be cool which is why I showed her the Woodstock stoves... Several I liked but they weren't the same ones she liked. That and I know Id have to brace the floor with that much weight. Fortunately its just a crawl space under the addition.

The ONLY thing holding ME back from another Vermont Castings stove is it isn't the same company that built our current one that's been in service since 1990 and will still run with no visible smoke coming out the chimney. Maybe putting a pool in next to the stove so when it gets hot...

"too" much bad press

 

[reddogrunner]

I'll post some soon. I have a bunch of stuff I need to capture. Wood piles, baskets, firewood bags, etc. etc.,

 

[CaseyForrest]

The stove link I gave you earlier sits on our hearth in front of our prefab fireplace. It does a GREAT job transferring heat. We never turn the blower on and it heats our ranch home very well.

We don't have the clearance to set a stove in front of the fireplace without extending the hearth. And we don't want to take up the real estate to do so.

I dont want to insert it into the fireplace either. I do intend, if possible, to use the existing vent above the fireplace as another exit for radiant heat. Just need to remove the tubes and damper, which need to come out anyway.

 

[CaseyForrest]

We've settled on the Jotul C 550 Rockland

 

[chuckwood]

I could put that in the garage. I'm on my way.

But that smoldering with no way to burn the smoke created so much creosote in the chimney it was insane..

Have you ever tried the spray that contains manganese nitrate? Rutland is the brand of creosote remover I use, I get it by the gallon at the wood stove dealer - also found it at Home Depot. Every day, spray on the fire at least a dozen squirts or so and it makes the creosote loose and fluffy so a lot of it falls back into the stove where it burns up. You need a straight pipe with no obstructions in it like heat exchangers, etc. With an elbo in the pipe, you'll need the type that is actually a T with a cleanout on the bottom. Works well for me. I do my share of smouldering, I let my fire burn on low at night so I've still got coals to get it started easy in the morning.

 

[CaseyForrest]

I have not. I will look into it thanks.


Sent from a field

 

[reddogrunner]

I posted a more detailed thread just now, but here is a pic of a stove in a pre-fab unit or more specifically in front of a pre-fab unit.
[photo=medium]3167[/photo]

 

[trukn2004]

We've settled on the Jotul C 550 Rockland

Beautiful stove! the wife was very picky about our stove too, but fell in love with the Jotul F500. With all my research I found it to be one of the nicest units available. I know it isn't a cat stove, but her mother has one and she didn't want to get a cat. does the Rockland have a cat? If not, you can still get some decent burn times out of it, just takes a bit of learning. Last night I reloaded at 830pm, ran it at 1/3 air for 2.5 hours, then opened it to 1/2 and went to bed. The propane heat kicked on at 6:00 am this morning, since the temp had dropped, but the stove still have about 2 good-sized coals in it and was reading 125 degrees on the stove-top thermometer. I am still very new to burning, and quite paranoid about running my stove low, but I know this unit has the capacity to burn for a solid amount of time.