expertise sought - one stove enough?

Welcome.......... Always better to go Bigger than needed. IMO

Guessing the Fireplace is masonry because of the age of the home... Are you looking to install a Insert or Freestanding in front of Fireplace? Or are you planning a Class A install through the roof or on an outside wall?

For Looooong Burn times... Your looking for a Cat stove. Plenty of good models. But Blaze King and Woodstock (Soapstone) stoves are some of the better known models.

For 2 stoves, with liner and/or Class A flue... Thats gonna cost a little bit... Especially if your having them installed. But the 2 most important questions are..... Do you have Good "seasoned" wood (1-3 yrs Cut/Split/Stacked. Depending on species)??? And Whats your budget? ?

That looks like it's gonna be a tough house to heat with one solid fuel-burning appliance. How many in your family, and where do you spend the most time? Welcome to the forums! Rick

Not sure I understand your drawing totally (dotted lines represent ???), but I'll throw in my 2 cents. I live in a clapboard house built in 1805 with haphazard insulation, 2400 sq ft in central NY. It is not open plan but does have a large central hall and open staircase. I got a Woodstock soapstone Progress Hybrid stove (their largest model) last year, put it in a place analogous to where your fireplace is and in front of my fireplace and it heated the house surprisingly well. We were amazed that the heat travelled around as well as it did. The upstairs was always toasty warm due to heat rising. The farthest downstairs rooms were cooler, but a small floor fan aimed from the cold room into the stove room, circulated the warm air well enough that the colder rooms were quite tolerable. I got burn times in the 12 - 14 hour range, even once got a 21- hour burn (I'm using burn time to mean that I could still throw in wood and it would light off without a match). I'm a novice at wood burning, so I'm thinking that both burn times and ability to heat the house will improve as I get more experience under my belt and better wood. Good luck.

Get the biggest stove you can find. Also get a cat model stove. I have about a 2600sqft home. about 2000 of its on one level, well the den is sunken on a slab the rest of first floor is on a crawl so its a few steps down where the stove is. Its on one side of my home and my bed is on the other and the house is not open. It will keep us warm and even though this last year was warmer we did not use heat at all other than the stove. Now the room right over the stove is a master suite that is in remodel stages and nothing is up there. its 500sqft which mirrors the room the stove is in, it still is pretty cool up there but thats with the door up the stairs shut so im not sure what it would do open? But for you area and real cold normal winters my stove is undersized for your aplication, well even in a normal year its undersided for my home.

I dont think they make a soapstone stove big enough for your application? Also do you have new windows, insulation? I have newer windows but dont really have much wall insulation which pulls my cool out of the house as fast as it goes in in the winter, which is why i went to wood.

nhorzepa said:

That's what I'm afraid of! But if it can't be a primary source of heat, secondary is nice also. Anything to warm up the cold living rooom would be a help.

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It sounds like you have an existing heat system that you're not entirely happy with, but that you can keep using. Start with one good stove (could be the progress if you like it), and take it from there. It doesn't sound like you _need_ to run 100% off wood, so there's no shame in using your existing to supplement when necessary. (I mean your current source of heat might turn out to be the secondary)

If it works well, you might well be able to use the wood as your base heat - providing most of the heat to the house - with whatever you have now to kick in during the middle of the night, when you're out for a weekend, or whatever.

If you decide you really need or want a second stove after, deal with it then.

nhorzepa said:

Yes, masonry fireplace exists that goes straight up through the second story and we'd like to put a freestanding in front of it.


We have 3-4 cords split/stacked now of beech from this winter, but my husband works as an arborist and is looking for quick seasoning wood to bring home ASAP.

Budget....low as possible. LOL But willing to spend ~2-3K for a worthy stove. There is a used Mansfield around us for a great price and we're seriously considering it.

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That's what I'm afraid of! But if it can't be a primary source of heat, secondary is nice also. Anything to warm up the cold living rooom would be a help.​

As of this winter, there will be 6 of us. We seem to spend most of our time in the kitchen, dining room and tv room (despite all the kids toys in the living room).​

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THe dotted lines were my haphazard way of representing the upstairs rooms (half of which is a dormer), which only cover a small portion of the house.​

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Last fall I was really looking seriously at the progress, but am unsure mostly because it's a brand new model. Hearing how you say it heats your house makes me wonder if it would work reasonably well for us.​

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Ok sounds like you're off to great start. Are you guys new to heating with wood appliances? I would be checking out that Mansfield. Honestly, the Mansfield was the first stove I thought of when I read through your first post. I have no experience with it except what I've read on the forum, and Hearthstone website. If you're familiar with wood stoves then buying a used stove may be a great option. If your completely new to wood stoves it can be tricky buying a used stove and knowing what you're looking at. All of that being said I'd still be looking at that used Mansfield. 3.2 cf firebox, soap stone, attractive unit, Sounds like a good fit for your application.

dafattkidd said:

Ok sounds like you're off to great start. Are you guys new to heating with wood appliances? I would be checking out that Mansfield. Honestly, the Mansfield was the first stove I thought of when I read through your first post. I have no experience with it except what I've read on the forum, and Hearthstone website. If you're familiar with wood stoves then buying a used stove may be a great option. If your completely new to wood stoves it can be tricky buying a used stove and knowing what you're looking at. All of that being said I'd still be looking at that used Mansfield. 3.2 cf firebox, soap stone, attractive unit, Sounds like a good fit for your application.

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Great minds must think alike, cause the Mansfield was the first stove I thought of too. T6 could probably do the job too. The Mansfield seems to be a gentle giant and is on my short list for stoves for my new house, which is much larger than the OP's.

Too the OP, I have/had an 50's ranch house too(we close on the sale in a week). I also live on a street with ranches all built by the same builder and these houses are very common throughout the area we live in.. Get the house(attic especially) insulated and airsealed before you install the stove. Air seal all your light fixtures and electrical penetrations. Install baffles and get your attic insulation up to R50-60. The air sealing made the biggest difference in my house. I spray foamed my entire attic. I actually had less R value with the foam, but my attic was completely sealed. The difference was HUGE. My utilities were cheaper. The furnace, which previously came on about 5-6 times an hour, came on 1-2 times per hour for a couple minutes. I was able to keep the house temp stable with my insert in an uninsulated basement, which I couldn't do before. The drafts were gone. I'm not saying to go with spray foam, cause it's incredibly expensive, but airsealing in these older attics is crucial IMO and can be done cheaply by a home owner with some Great Stuff and caulk.

Edit: Install lots of ceiling fans too. This will get the air moving. You will probably need some fans on the floor blowing cool air toward the stove. This makes a huge difference. You're layout could make it tough, but I would give that used Mansfield some serious thought if it was in good shape and the price was right.

Sorry for being so long winded. I blame the Maker's Mark.

nhorzepa said:

Hi folks! I've learned so much from this forum and went back and forth thinking about posting asking for advice...didn't want too sound too much like a newbie asking all the same questions. But I'm starting from square one and could really use some input.

My goal is to primarily heat my ~2000 sq ft 1.5 story ranch built in the 1950's in northern NJ. The house has masonry walls on the first floor and it appears that the previous owners attempted to insulate some spots. It's not the most open floor plan but I think that it will work. The half the upstairs is directly above the stove room. The other half of upstairs might be cooler. I just don't know what the correct sizing of the stove should be. And what stove to get. I like the idea of soapstone (this wood stove is because I can't afford a masonry heater).

We really want a low maintenance stove that burns for a long time (we both work full time) and is easy on the eyes.

Any thoughts if one "large" woodstove is enough or if two smaller ones would be better (and where to put the second)?

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Welcome to the forum nhorzepa.Worry not about sounding like a newbie. In fact, please do sound like a newbie because that may bring you more comments and suggestions!

My first thought was that this could be a challenge to heat but still possible. As for stoves, my first thought is the Woodstock Progress. Yet, if you could get the Mansfield for a decent price it would not be all bad. However, I do feel you would get more heat from the Progress. The Progress is also really nice to sit in front and enjoy the view of the fire. It is a cat stove which means you will get long burn times and the cleanest burn....so long as you feed it good fuel. The 3-4 cord of beech is an excellent start. Warning: on this forum when you refer to a cord of wood, we refer to a full cord and not a face cord. That is, a cord of wood measures 4 x 4 x 8, or 128 cu ft of wood. 3-4 cord will probably heat the entire winter. We highly recommend that you get 2-3 years worth of wood on hand at all times. That is wood that has been split and stacked because wood just won't dry much at all until it has been split and stacked....out in the wind. It will dry much faster out in the wind than in a wood shed or barn. Also, wind is more important than sun. And you are very wise to have wood on hand already so you are a step ahead of 99% of new wood burners.

Please re-read the post from HollowHill. I was fortunate to be able to visit her before the stove was installed. She does have a house that is difficult to heat but still possible. As she stated, a small desktop fan sitting in a doorway or hallway blowing INTO the stove room will do wonders for heating those far rooms.

Perhaps the biggest benefit of a soapstone stove is that it won't roast you out of one room and leave the others cold. Then when you add the catalyst, you have a very clean burning stove so you won't have to worry so much about possible chimney fires. Give the folks at Woodstock a call. 800-866-4344. Please also keep in mind they will give you a six month guarantee on the stove. They will do all they can to satisfy you and get your stove working right. If it is too small or you don't like it, send it back. They are number 1 in customer service and satisfaction.

I think one stove is all that I would recommend. Your original post says you want something low maintenance and you work full time. I think I am pretty enthusiastic about wood burning and I work at home most of hte time, but I think two stoves would be one too many for me. I think with two you are likely to use only one most of the time. I'd go with a big cat stove and plan to use the existing heating system for backup. I think one stove will keep most of the house reasonably comfortable most of the time. Here in central PA, where the weather is about the same as your weather in NJ, there are only a few weeks of each winter when we use a lot of backup heat. the rest of the time we can make our small wood stove in the basement do a pretty decent job of heating the house. if you have a big wood stove you'll do even better.

Wow great! Good luck with that monster. I look forward to some pics. Keep us updated as I'm sure you'll have more questions.

EatenByLimestone said:

Since the stove looks like it will be facing away from the house, I think all of the heat will be radiated into the room you are in. Floor and ceiling fans aren't going to do much with radiant heat.

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I see the distinction used a lot in this forum, and I'm not sure I understand. Radiant heat will heat objects in front of the stove, which will in turn heat the surrounding air. That surrounding air can then be moved by ceiling fans, as air always assumes the temperature of high-mass objects in its presence. Why would ceiling fans not help with radiant heat?

Heat is only purely radiant in the absence of air movement. If you cannot constrain the movement of air, then you have convection, desired or not.