OK...I've been lurking, searching, Googling, Binging, visiting showrooms, talking to sales guys, and peering in neighbors' windows for 6 months. Still...I've got nothing. My house is an 1800 sq. ft Colonial...25 years old...well insulated and generally pretty tight. I have a room addition on the back of the house that's 20x16 with cathedral ceiling that peaks about 16'. Its wide open to the rest of the first floor.
So here's the issue...I'd really like to add a hearth and a woodstove in that room. I'm not really looking to heat my house 24/7... maybe just the weekends or winter vacations when we're actually home...power failures...zombie apocalypse...the fall of civilization as we know it. It's going in our living room so it has to be aesthetically pleasing to make the wife happy and the engineer in me would really like it to be a high quality piece...American if possible. My local dealer, who is a heck of a nice guy and seems very helpful, sells Vermont Castings and has been steering me toward the Encore or maybe the Intrepid II. I've read a pile of threads about VCs here on the hearth.com and I'm not sensing an overwhelming wave of support. I'm also considering Jotul, Quadra-Fire, or maybe Pacific Energy...cat or non-cat...I am truly clueless.
We plan on spending a significant amount of time in this room so we don't want to be roasted out of the place. We run a couple potbellies in the family cabin in Vermont and temps routinely hover in the high 90s or higher...it's like a sauna...and I think we burn up all of the available oxygen because I can't stay awake for more than 15 minutes at any time. I'd rather not keep my house that hot, but I'm concerned that catylitic operation may require me to run hot.
I need an unbiased opinion or ten. Anyone?
So here's the issue...I'd really like to add a hearth and a woodstove in that room. I'm not really looking to heat my house 24/7... maybe just the weekends or winter vacations when we're actually home...power failures...zombie apocalypse...the fall of civilization as we know it. It's going in our living room so it has to be aesthetically pleasing to make the wife happy and the engineer in me would really like it to be a high quality piece...American if possible. My local dealer, who is a heck of a nice guy and seems very helpful, sells Vermont Castings and has been steering me toward the Encore or maybe the Intrepid II. I've read a pile of threads about VCs here on the hearth.com and I'm not sensing an overwhelming wave of support. I'm also considering Jotul, Quadra-Fire, or maybe Pacific Energy...cat or non-cat...I am truly clueless.
We plan on spending a significant amount of time in this room so we don't want to be roasted out of the place. We run a couple potbellies in the family cabin in Vermont and temps routinely hover in the high 90s or higher...it's like a sauna...and I think we burn up all of the available oxygen because I can't stay awake for more than 15 minutes at any time. I'd rather not keep my house that hot, but I'm concerned that catylitic operation may require me to run hot.
I need an unbiased opinion or ten. Anyone?