Wood Stoves

[nashlaw]

Wanting a wood stove for my home. Will go in livingroom and house is a ranch style about 1200 sq ft. I live in middle Tn so the winters are usually not too harsh. What brands do you guys have experience with and what do you have as far as safety tips? I am wanting to spend about $1000 to $1500 (or less). Black iron is fine as I really just want heat, but would like it to look nice.

 

[Switchblade]

Since we have no fireplace or chimney, I have looked at the old styled cast iron models at Tractor Supply for my basement. A leveled pad of brick, a hole in the SE wall and it could work to actually heat the entire house during the evenings and night or in emergency power outages in winter. They have a pretty neat model for <$500 if you include the piping and stuff, and the ones that are around the $400 - $800 mark look good too. All have good reviews

 

[shoot4fun]

"Since we have no fireplace or chimney......"

If you do then you will have more options. We had a Buck fireplace insert for several years and it did a fine job.
My hunting cabin has no fireplace but the wood stove has a "chimney" custom made with stainless pipe that goes out thru the wall insulated by firebrick.

 

[Sean the Nailer]

I've visited others in the past, who had a stove with a catalytic converter in it. That thing put out a massive amount of heat, with practically no flame. It simply smoulders the stoking, to which each load lasts for many hours. And there was NO smoke out the chimney.

One day, when I build the place that I want, I'm getting me one of them. I've heard others have had some issues, but I've been told that regular maintenance is the key to longevity. The BTU return though, ....wow.

 

[bullseye13]

I installed a Drolet for around a $1000. Not the prettiest insert, but it's almost 80% efficient, and we got the 30% tax credit. Bought it with the intention of burning wood 2-3 times a week in the winter, and ended up burning wood almost daily. It paid for itself the first year. It's cold to say the least here in Wisconsin, and it will keep our 2700 sf house (finished basement & main floor) at 68°-70° when it's -10 or above. My only gripe is I wish it would hold a little more wood. A good fire only last 3 hours then needs refilled.

 

[Slapchop]

Lots of information can be found at the following two links.

Hearth.com Forums Home

http://www.arboristsite.com/community/forums/firewood-heating-and-wood-burning-equipment.55/

The guys on those forums are as fanatical about their wood burning stoves as the members here are about shooting.

 

[Jig Stick]

Maybe a dumb question...but how can you use a wood stove if you have no chimney or stack running up the side of the house? I've only seen coal stoves that direct vent straight out of the house, but they require electricity to power an exhaust fan. That defeats the purpose of a backup heat source if the power goes out.

 

[nashlaw]

Jig, you have to run vent pipe from the stove to the outside.

 

[kansas]

If you hire someone to install your stove pipe you can probably spend over a grand pretty easy just for that, especially if you buy good pipe. If you do it yourself your insurance co may not cover you. These are all of the things that we looked at before installing one in our new house 10'years ago.
We have a small Dutch West catalytic wood stove that you have to use small amounts of wood in or it will run you out. Unless your house is drafty I'd get a small, higher quality stove and make sure it is properly installed.

 

[Jig Stick]

What I'm asking is do all wood stoves require a chimney that goes up the side of the house and end above the ridge line, our are there some that can be vented horizontally out of the wall

 

[Alpine 338]

Running the pipe/vent through the wall, and up the outside of the house is mostly a thing of the past as this is not considered safe, and not allowed in many places by local/uniform building codes and/or NFPA codes and standards, unless you have an existing fireplace where you can vent the stove through the existing chimney. You will need to penetrate the ceiling/roof above the wood stove. Inside the house, you're required to have double wall pipe until your pipe gets outside of the roof. If you have a long run, you may want to consider going up to a 8" pipe to ensure you have a good draft. Ive got about 25-ft of pipe, and being at 8200-ft elevation, I went with 8" stainless, double wall, UL listed, stove black pipe. Where it penetrates the ceiling, there's an 18"x18" sheet metal box that prevents heat transfer to combustible materials. It's really easy to install everything yourself, saving you hundreds. Most places will require you to pull a building permit to install a wood burner, and some places that have inversion problems will require the stove to be EPA certified, so buying an old and used stove may not be an option.

Don't even consider an open fireplace, as most of your heat goes up the chimney, and it sucks cold air into the house.

If you can afford it, I suggest you buy a Quadra-Fire stove. They are well worth the money.

 

[KR1]

We now heat our home completely with wood. In my opinion it's a very easy choice when deciding upon a brand of wood stove, Blaze King.
Due to heating needs and clearance we decided upon the Sirroco.

The initial expenditure is more than average, but it pays a return in reduced wood consumption through greater efficiency for years to come.
This stove gets loaded every 15-18 hrs and keeps us toasty.
Our electric bill dropped by about $125 per month on average after switching over to wood heat :^)

 

[pizzamanny]

Hearth.com

 

[pmclaine]

Been wanting to get a Jotul stove for a while now.

 

[HardCorpsHunter]

I think you should have a professional come to your house and give you some idea's and a bid. Sit on it, and choose your route on DIY or professional instal. I have bought and used two Lopi stoves and loved them. I spent a little more and bought the solid brass door frames...I polished the doors twice a year to remind me of my days as a Marine! Minimum, you will be 3k into this project if done right. On the build of my new home I paid to have my Fire Place Xtrordinair, 44 Elite Wood Fireplace stalled, and I did 60% of the work on my house myself...pick your battles.

This thing is wonderful for our cold winters.
http://fireplacex.com/ProductGuide/ProductDetail.aspx?modelsku=98500113

Burning dry wood is VERY important...the wood I cut and split one year will be used the following. I burn around 6 cord a year, and wouldn't have it anyother way. If you pull the trigger here quickly, I would plan to start buring next winter, not this winter, unless you have seasoned wood!

Good luck.

 

[kraigWY]

I can't help with brands, mine is older then me, I don't know who made it. It works great. I have central heat (forced air) that I haven't had turned on in about 3 years. I heat with the wood stove and it keeps me warm. Even a couple a week ago where we had a week of more with sub-zero temps -10 to -15.

A couple hints, get one with a glass front, noting beats taking your morning coffee while stirring into a fire.

Crap builds up in the stove pipe if you burn wood. Once a week, (more wouldn't hurt) throw an alum. beer or coke can (empty of course) into the fire, it will totally burn up but in doing so will keep your stove pipe clean.

Another hint, get your pregnant step daughter to live with you during the winter. She has to get up to pee several times a night, in doing so she'll put wood on the fire and the house will be nice and warm when you get up.

 

[bullseye13]

I can't help with brands, mine is older then me, I don't know who made it. It works great. I have central heat (forced air) that I haven't had turned on in about 3 years. I heat with the wood stove and it keeps me warm. Even a couple a week ago where we had a week of more with sub-zero temps -10 to -15.

A couple hints, get one with a glass front, noting beats taking your morning coffee while stirring into a fire.

Crap builds up in the stove pipe if you burn wood. Once a week, (more wouldn't hurt) throw an alum. beer or coke can (empty of course) into the fire, it will totally burn up but in doing so will keep your stove pipe clean.

Another hint, get your pregnant step daughter to live with you during the winter. She has to get up to pee several times a night, in doing so she'll put wood on the fire and the house will be nice and warm when you get up.

Good tips. The pregnant Step daughter one is hilarious. Ive heard about the alumimun cans and also heard of moth balls, but wasn't sure if it actually works. I burn a chimney sweep log every couple months.

 

[Xshot]

I've had my Homestead (made by Hearthstone) wood stove for 11 years. It's a soapstone and cast iron type, low clearance, located on the main floor in our great room. The main floor is 1400 square feet. The second floor has 2 additional bedrooms, a large full bath, a large common area and totals just under 1000 square feet. It can be closed off by a separate door (multiple panes of glass). The lower level is another 1400 and is accessed by an exposed stairway - no door - from the main floor.

This stove heats my entire home. We primarily live on the main floor. The lower level and second floor are typically 10 - 15 degrees cooler than the main floor. It's usually 73 - 76 degrees on the main floor by bedtime. Around midnight I bank the stove and go to bed. The furnace, set to 68 degrees, doesn't kick in until mid - late morning. Around 4 PM I clean out the cooled ashes and start the process all over again.

All appliances are LP except for Advantium (microwave & halogen) oven. I burn 700 gallons of propane annually, which also includes heating a 900 square foot area in my barn/shop to 52 degrees when not in use. I crank the shop up to 65 degrees when I'm using it.

I replaced the rear firebrick and door seal last year. Cleaned the SS insulted and double walled chimney for the first time this summer. Didn't get much creosote, maybe 1/2 a coffee can. The stovepipe and chimney are a straight vertical shot of 25 feet.

We've been experiencing sub-zero temps and staying warm. I hope this info helps.

 

[LVshooter]

This is the one I have. Vogelzang Durango High-Efficiency Wood Stove with Blower — Model# TR008 | Wood Stoves| Northern Tool + Equipment
Works great for heating up my 1500 SQ FT shop.

 

[SFree]

Napoleon 1900 series steel stove that I've used for 10 years and heats 2200 sq. ft. With seasoned wood it keeps the main level to 75*. If I could afford one I would go with the Hearthstone soap stone also, as they are much more consistent in the peaks and valleys of heating/cooling cycle, but they are 3x the cost. Mine was $1100 and I believe the soap stones in this area run @ $4000.

If I could do it all over I would install an outside wood furnace and integrate it to my hot water system, may do it yet and still keep the free standing stove. They're just to good to not have in the living room...

 

[MontanaMarine]

We put in a Lopi 1750 Republic about 6-7 years ago. House is 1680 sq-ft ranch style. Opted to have a professional install of the chimney just to be safe and up to code. Your home insurance probably won't pay a thing if your home burns down and your wodstove/chimney are not installed to code. Anyway, the pro install was only about two hours labor, around $200. Well worth it to me. Stove was about $1150, hearthstone $200, chimney/connector pipe about $400, so total with labor was about $1950. Then I spent $300 on a chainsaw, and another $300 on a splitter.

Lopi 1750,



I've been buying firewood by the logtruck load, then cutting splitting myself. One truckload lasts 3-4 winters, $1100 delivered for the last load of 14 cords. So I figure about $350 per winter to heat the home.



cutting/splitting,



We put the stove near the middle of the house, you can see the chimney here, about 15-feet from stove to chimney top. It's a straight run so it's easy to brush it out, I brush it once a year.

 

[mtrmn]

I have a 1200 sq ft house and a "Consolidated Dutchwest Federal Convection heater"-the smallest one they made back in the late 80's. Now owned by Vermont Castings, the CD has a catalytic converter in top and a good flat cooking surface on top. 18" wood is the longest you can squeeze in there, and I usually cut mine about 15-16". I live in La and the winters are generally mild, but the temp has been known to drop to zero F. (Around Christmas 1989) Heats my whole house with the aid of a ceiling fan above it. And it works whether you have electricity or not. I have double wall stainless pipe coming up inside the living room and it transitions to triple wall going through the ceiling and through the attic. Had to get a licensed chimney sweep to install it so that my insurance would cover it.
I am not up on the current offerings from Vermont Castings, and they may well have been bought out for all I know. I have not had to do any wood stove research since my purchase was "One and done." Go quality and forget about it. I have not turned on my electric furnace since 1988.

 

[Switchblade]

Do you notice a bug or vermin issue with the wood stacked against the side of the house?

 

[SFree]

Switch,
I keep mine stacked on the back porch for the season then whatever is left over gets hauled back to the barn/lean too. No mice (farm cats, don't feed 'em, if they can't make a livin on 120 acres they don't deserve to live), and too cold for bugs. Porch can hold about a chord, and the dog kills everything else...

 

[MontanaMarine]

I haven't had any bug issues, but I only keep firewood stacked by the house during the heating season too. Any extra gets moved away before summer. What you see in the pic is only one layer deep, it's actually about 12' from the wall of the house.