How to choose a woodstove

John Gulland's information seems very practical. I always learn something when I read his work.

In regards to heating capacity

This is where an experienced dealer can be a big help. Dealers learn how each stove behaves and know how satisfied customers have been with various models.

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I wish this was happened more. But, base on the posts here and my own experiences, there are a lot of dealers that are poorly educated in their field, offer awful advice, and many times the advice is self-serving.

Got his site in my favorites,it's a great piece.I did like the N/S loading but i'm happier now and more comfortable.Also,no more ashpans for me,personal preference.

The article mentions that with stoves that are designed for east-west loading, logs can fall against the glass; so why is this a problem? When I fully pack my VC Defiant CAT stove, logs do rest against the glass above the andirons, but it has never caused a any kind of issue.

Gridlock said:

The article mentions that with stoves that are designed for east-west loading, logs can fall against the glass; so why is this a problem? When I fully pack my VC Defiant CAT stove, logs do rest against the glass above the andirons, but it has never caused a any kind of issue.

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In theory, a log can roll causing it to hit and break the glass. But, really, the issue is people wedging in a split that sticks out too far and they try to close the door causing the glass to crack when it hits the split.

Nothing wrong with a split touching the glass.

BrowningBAR said:

In theory, a log can roll causing it to hit and break the glass. But, really, the issue is people wedging in a split that sticks out too far and they try to close the door causing the glass to crack when it hits the split.

Nothing wrong with a split touching the glass.

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Ah Ok, thanks. The article seems to imply that any logs against the glass at any point is not a great idea.

BrowningBAR said:

..there are a lot of dealers that are poorly educated in their field, offer awful advice, and many times the advice is self-serving.

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Ditto on that. I had two salesmen from the same local dealer suggest I needed two different stoves with heating capacity that differed by more than 250%.

begreen said:

This used to happen fairly frequently when we had the Castine and always made me nervous. It's an E/W loader with no andirons. We never had any issues, but I did my best to avoid the issue. It's only happened a couple times since we upgraded to the T6.

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Happened a lot with the Heritage. It was to the point where I would just load up splits leaning against the glass from the very beginning since that is where they would end up at some point in the burn.

Joful said:

Ditto on that. I had two salesmen from the same local dealer suggest I needed two different stoves with heating capacity that differed by more than 250%.

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I had a lot of dealers push me in the direction of pellet stoves every time I would walk in to the dealers around here. As a first time buyer it was incredibly frustrating as we began to second guess ourselves. Nothing wrong with a pellet stove, but when you have multiple dealers saying wood isn't the way to go, and that pellets are your solution supported by, what I later realized to be, bad information, it really makes the buying process difficult.

Also, we ran across the "anything to make a sale" approach quite often. That is where they will tell you anything that they think you want to hear to get you to buy a stove. "Yes, this Napoleon 1100 will easily heat your 2,200 sq ft drafty home", "I know the brochure says 6 hour burns, but you should expect longer. I have some customers getting 12 hour burns on this Intrepid."

In truth, dealers will find the good points of whatever they are selling and that is good. What is bad and extremely poor salemanship is when they run other type stoves down. Somehow it has never worked well to build yours up while running others down. It's never worked in the past and won't in the future except for the gullible.

Backwoods Savage said:

In truth, dealers will find the good points of whatever they are selling and that is good. What is bad and extremely poor salemanship is when they run other type stoves down. Somehow it has never worked well to build yours up while running others down. It's never worked in the past and won't in the future except for the gullible.

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The other thing I noticed was that if they thought Stove X was in your budget, that is what they would push. It didn't matter if the stove was 1.5 cu ft and going into a grand cathedral, they were just trying to make a sale.

BrowningBAR said:

The other thing I noticed was that if they thought Stove X was in your budget, that is what they would push. It didn't matter if the stove was 1.5 cu ft and going into a grand cathedral, they were just trying to make a sale.

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Like any business, any population that eats what it kills, so to speak, is going to have a level percentage on badly-motivated scrubs who take the easy way out, and another percentage of professionals that act as such. I've spent too many years as a stockbroker and mortgage banker, and met a share each of commission-hounds and people who really give a spit about doing a job correctly.

Too bad so few realize that it's possible to be both if it's done correctly.

Gridlock said:

The article mentions that with stoves that are designed for east-west loading, logs can fall against the glass; so why is this a problem? When I fully pack my VC Defiant CAT stove, logs do rest against the glass above the andirons, but it has never caused a any kind of issue.

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For me with the Napoleon wood always ending up on or very near the glass it ended up overheating the cast iron door frame on the glass turning it white.

Nice article.
I am glad I can burn N-S again.
It does seem like you can load it up more.

Several things I would consider are the side the door opens on and how easily it is to clean after brushing out the chimney. It is nice to have the door open away from the side your wood supply is on so you don't have to go around it to put wood in. It also is an consideration as to how difficult it is to clean the ash from the area of the stove above the firebox after cleaning the chimney, mine requires the removing of several firebrick before cleaning so the ash falls into the firebox. Any remaining ash is removed by inserting a hose from a shop vac up the holes and vacuming out. My parents stove has a system where the roof of the fire box is easily taken out and no vacuming is required, I much prefer that method.

BrotherBart said:

flaming log, caught it on the toes of a brand new pair of very expensive western boots, embers exploded in all directions on the carpet of a brand new month old house.

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I know it's not right to laugh at the misfortunes of others, but that is just funny as hell.

BrotherBart said:

What will not make your day is if that log decides it wants to move down and rest on the glass at the moment you have the door open. Long story, longtime ago, flaming log, caught it on the toes of a brand new pair of very expensive western boots, embers exploded in all directions on the carpet of a brand new month old house.

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Yea so whats the problem.Just breaking it in right(the house).

I enjoyed this article, and I'm a fan of woodheat.org but the article seems to leave out the fact that firebox size is the best predictor of heat output and burn times. Maybe I missed something, but I think that is a really important factor when determining which stove to buy. Just my two cents, and as I said I enjoyed the article.