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Peter Stahl
08-12-2011, 8:12 PM
What is a good wood stove that won't break the bank. My Daughter has a 1000 sqft house and wants to install a wood stove. Any brands you like or don't like? Stoves we should stay away from? Which is the caddy and which one is crap? Thanks for any replies.

Pete

curtis rosche
08-12-2011, 8:15 PM
we have a vermont castings. about thirty years old though, but we use it to heat in the winter.

Craig Matheny
08-12-2011, 9:16 PM
We have a Vermont in a 5000 sq ft home and it heats all down stairs

Mike Archambeau
08-13-2011, 10:03 AM
Another thumbs up on Vermont Castings. They build a very nice product. Mine is also 30 years old now and still looks and works great. Have you considered burning coal? Long burn times of 20 hours are possible, so you can load the stove and leave the house, and still have a fire when you get home.

Charlie Reals
08-13-2011, 10:37 AM
We have a Vermont in a 5000 sq ft home and it heats all down stairs
Of course it does Craig, what is the average winter low in Anaheim? Not the best plug for VC lol. We have a Lopi and it will run you out of the house. I will burn 7 cord a winter.

David G Baker
08-13-2011, 11:16 AM
Make sure that your daughter understands the dangers associated with burning wood. There are many deaths in Michigan every year due to misuse of wood stoves, many are caused by lack of proper maintenance.

Bill Huber
08-13-2011, 11:55 AM
I guess my question is, would it be better to have a stove made out of metal then a wood stove?:D:D


Ok, I am sorry, I just had to do it.

Sean Troy
08-13-2011, 12:06 PM
We have a Lopi and could not be happier. Great tax break also.

Charles Goodnight
08-13-2011, 1:06 PM
OK, here is what I know:

There are two basic types of wood stoves, catalytic and non catalytic. The catalytic stoves have a catalytic chamber that combusts the wood smoke at a relatively low temperature so the smoke comes out clean. Non-catalytic ones have the smoke circulate above the fire box so that it gets burned a second time, again making it cleaner. I have a non-catalytic stove, which are a bit easier to take care of, but need to be burned hotter. Others swear by catalytic stoves that can be burned cooler and still not gum up the chimney. Catalytic stoves are more sensitive to accidentally burning stuff that you perhaps shouldn't have burned (i.e., accidentally throwing something in the stove with paint on it).

Almost any good quality stove company will produce a stove you can be happy with. Basically, the more fire brick inside the better. The fire brick protects the metal stove and holds heat. Basically the way a hot stove works is that the intensely hot stove (500 to over 1000 degrees) chars and vaporizes the wood. The vapors from the wood and the charcoal is what burns. (Fireplace temperature is controlled by limiting the amount of wood, wood stove temperature is limited by the amount of oxygen).

Cheaper stoves will have less mass, and will get hot faster, more expensive stoves will tend to have more mass (fire brick and soap stone) and heat slower, but will hold the heat longer. Soap Stone stoves (and masonry heaters) are the ultimate in stove mass, and depending on how you use the stove may be a great choice. These stoves heat slow, but will hold their heat for 8 hours or more. Thus, don't expect to come back to a cold house, fire up the stove and be toasty ten minutes later, but you can expect to wake up in the morning, throw a few logs in the still warm stove, and expect it to be a great place to drink your coffee.

Some other things:

Wood stoves , especially non catalytic stoves, should be burned HOT at least for 20 minutes every day you use it. Otherwise you risk creosote build up, and a chimney fire. A friend tells me you should aim for a mini "chimney fire" every day so that the big ones don't happen. For this reason, also be careful not to buy a wood stove that is too big. If you get a giant stove to heat a small house you will end up burning it cool, and have creosote buildup.

Sweep your chimney annually. I repeat, sweep your chimney annually no matter what. If you end up using your wood stove 24 hours a day all heating season you might consider two sweeps a year.

I keep a chimney fire extinguishing flare near my stove. I have never had to use it, but well, I like my house, so I keep it around.

Wood stoves are a very friendly safe, and clean way to heat, while keeping our heating dollars in the US. It quickly becomes the center of your house in the winter. I would not have a house without a wood stove. Have fun shopping!

David G Baker
08-13-2011, 3:56 PM
Some insurance companies will not insure your home if you have an indoor wood burning stove or will drop you if they find out that you have one.

Charlie Reals
08-13-2011, 4:15 PM
Wood stoves are a very friendly safe, and
clean way to heat, while keeping our heating dollars in the US. It quickly becomes the center of your house in the winter. I would not have a house without a wood stove. Have fun shopping!
Charles, my wife will argue the clean part with you lol. We wouldn't be without it. 70 deg in a house heated with wood is a lot different than one heated with propane central heat.

Jim Becker
08-13-2011, 5:52 PM
Vermont castings is what I bought a number of years ago after considering the then-available options.

Jerry Bruette
08-13-2011, 7:32 PM
I just spent a cople of hours today talking to a dealer about pellet stoves. Looking for a way to heat the cabin that I'm getting ready to build.

We used a wood stove in the old cabin and it was either 100 degrees or nobody wanted to get out from under the warm covers at 2AM to throw wood in the stove. With pellets you can fill the hopper and get 8 to 10 or more hours of burn time.

No cutting wood, no splitting wood, and no dirt from the bark mess. Just fill the hopper and enjoy the warmth.

Jerry

Tom Winship
08-13-2011, 8:12 PM
Guys, I just have a hard time thinking about stoves right now. Hopefully we will need one again some day. There was a cold front today, it was only 101.

Dan Hintz
08-14-2011, 5:54 PM
Bit of a drive for you, Peter, but I have one sitting under the deck you can have, if you want it... I could also give you some single- and double-wall vent pipe to go with it. We had it in the basement to heat the entire house until we replaced it with a pellet stove last year.

Peter Stahl
08-14-2011, 7:17 PM
Thanks for the offer Dan, not sure if I'll be able to get down there. Also thanks everyone for all the replies so far. Sounds like Vermont castings is a good stove.

Mark Rice
08-16-2011, 12:13 AM
We have a wood stove upstairs and a pellet stove downstairs. They are the only sources of heat that we use. We have electric heat but it is expensive and has trouble keeping up when it gets real cold. The wood stove is free for us with all the beetle kill on our property. Even if we had to pay for wood it would be cheaper than the pellet stove. The pellet stove is cheaper than electricity or gas. We burn a bag of pellets a day. A bag of pellets cost 4.00. The pellet stove will easily heat 2500 sq ft and it is a Quadrafire Classic Bay 1200 that cost us about 3000.00. That was just for the stove with no pipe. The pipe was about another 400. Wood stoves are cheaper. After experiencing the performance of the Quad I would look at a Quadrafire wood stove. This pellet stove is the best for the money as far as performance goes. It isn't super pretty and doesn't have a lot of the bells and whisltes that some of the other pellet stoves do.
The wood stove takes longer to heat things up but the heat lasts longer because of the bulk of the metal and fire bricks. The pellet stove heats things up faster but the heat doesn't seem to last as long. The wood stove needs to be monitored for fuel and the pellet stove is a no brainer. I just put a bag in every night and set the thermostat. Some nights it doesn't even take a bag, depending on the weather.

Harman, Quadrafire, Vermont are all the same owner, just different companies.

Good luck with your search.

Oh yeah, and I have not seen any companies that will not insure you for having a wood stove in your house. I have seen insurance companies not insure garages with wood and pellet stoves but not houses.

My wife did try to blow up the house with the wood stove by throwing too many small pieces of wood in and dampening the flu back to fully closed. The unburnt gasses built up and eventually exploded. We heard a whump and saw smoke come out around the front door of the stove. It wasn't a big deal. I just don't put any kindling size wood in the wood box anymore. No harm, no foul.

Bob Riefer
08-16-2011, 8:37 AM
One thing with wood burning is that you do affect your indoor air quality. There's lots of information on that available by using your favorite search engine. My understanding is that wood stoves made in recent years do a much better job of limiting this issue than, say, a used wood stove of older vintage. But I'm no expert, just passing along what we learned.

For pellet stoves, find out about pellet availability in your area. Where I live, we've had shortages every year for 10 years straight. When the shortage occurs, you're either without pellets, or the price is driven up. Either way, a pain in the neck.

We burn about 1-2 cords per year at my place, mostly on days when the whole family will be home a lot, and love the warmth it gives to supplement our house system. We run our central HVAC system on "fan only" mode when the stove is cooking - this filters the air in the room and redistributes the warmth throughout the home.

Dan Hintz
08-16-2011, 10:46 AM
One thing with wood burning is that you do affect your indoor air quality. There's lots of information on that available by using your favorite search engine. My understanding is that wood stoves made in recent years do a much better job of limiting this issue than, say, a used wood stove of older vintage. But I'm no expert, just passing along what we learned.
If the stove is properly vented to the outside air, there should be zero effect on indoor air quality. Air is sucked from the room to burn with the wood, and all of it should then zip out of the flue. The biggest concern should be is the wood heating the house's air faster than the cold replacement air being sucked back into the house.

For pellet stoves, find out about pellet availability in your area. Where I live, we've had shortages every year for 10 years straight. When the shortage occurs, you're either without pellets, or the price is driven up. Either way, a pain in the neck.

We burn about 1-2 cords per year at my place, mostly on days when the whole family will be home a lot, and love the warmth it gives to supplement our house system. We run our central HVAC system on "fan only" mode when the stove is cooking - this filters the air in the room and redistributes the warmth throughout the home.
If you place your order early in the season (September/October), prices are about as low as they'll be the entire year and you don't have to store them for long (I paid about $200/pallet delivered). For the wood stove, we go through 2-2.5 cords a season... with the pellet stove, we go through about 2-2.5 pallets worth. That seems to back up the claim that a pallet is roughly equivalent to a cord of wood.

I find bringing in several bags of pellets significantly easier than handfuls of wood, the heat is significantly more even, and I don't have to watch the pellet stove to prevent it from getting too hot and catching the flue on fire. My particular model of pellet stove is 90% efficient (highest one out there), and I can have it light itself an hour before I get home so I arrive to warm weather inside. The stove even has the option of a GSM module so I can control the stove through my cell phone ;)

Mark Rice
08-16-2011, 11:01 AM
The stove even has the option of a GSM module so I can control the stove through my cell phone ;)

Now that is a true geek. Made me chuckle. Who wud uv thunk it. :D

Mike Cutler
08-16-2011, 11:41 AM
Peter

I have a Quadrafire 5700 step top stove, about the biggest stove you can buy. Next step is a wood furnace.. It's too big for your daughters needs, but Quadrafire would be close to the "caddy" of woodstoves in my opinion.

For 1000sq/ft. though I would seriously consider a pellet stove. The technology and venting of the pellet stoves have come a long way since I installed my stove,a nd the mess is exponentially less with pellets.

Bob Riefer
08-16-2011, 11:46 AM
dan wrote:

If the stove is properly vented to the outside air, there should be zero effect on indoor air quality. Air is sucked from the room to burn with the wood, and all of it should then zip out of the flue.

As with just about anything, of course, perfect execution can perfectly eliminate a problem. However, there are no perfect wood stoves, no perfect wood stove operators, and the fact is that you must open the stove to feed it. The wonderful aroma of wood burning, the slightest layer of ash on surfaces near to the stove, the smoke out when you inadvisedly try to start a fire with a cold chimney, etc... these are all indications that something is getting out of the fire box and into the room. For most people, it's not a huge deal. But, it's worth mentioning.

Dave Anderson NH
08-16-2011, 12:10 PM
I'll put a plug in for Jotul stoves. I've had one in my basement shop for about 10 years and I love it. The quality is similar to the older Vermont Castings stoves but without the price. Two years when we've had pwer failures lasting several days during the winter it has been our saving grace. With the flat top I have used it to cook and heat water in addition to provide heat. Ours is a Jotul #4 and is not catalytic while still meeting clean air standards.

Steve Griffin
08-28-2011, 10:48 PM
DId you make a stove decision yet Peter?

Hope you don't mind, but I thought I'd bump up this thread as it already has some excellent advice posted. We are in the stove market and I like the idea of getting it before we need heat.

Anyone else have stove advice? Our new house is 1800 square feet. The woodstove will be primary or secondary heat depending on the economy....

Quadrafire appeals to me, though my wife would prefer something that looks better than a black box.

Thanks! Steve

Peter Stahl
08-29-2011, 2:18 PM
No, haven't really had much time to look yet. Lot's of good advice here though.

Joel Goodman
08-29-2011, 5:26 PM
Some insurance companies will not insure your home if you have an indoor wood burning stove or will drop you if they find out that you have one.

My insurance company asked about woodstoves and had us fill out a form about it's installation but no adverse issues. I would make sure the install is up to code. And clean that stove pipe every year!