Which wood stove for large open log home @ 7600 elev?

That's a big house, not sure one stove can heat it all. The Lopi looks like a very nice stove, it was in the top five of the stoves I liked. My dealer had one burning and it has a very nice looking fire and many people like the top loading feature.

Do you want to heat your whole house or just the main living area?

My favorite stoves are soapstone, very nice for continuous burning, and very attractive. Isle Royal, Morso 3610, and Pacific Energy are three big stoves you may care to look at also.

I grew up next to an original Defiant, made before they had glass doors...we used it in the living room and a small Westinghouse stove in the kitchen to suppliment the heat in a 9000 square foot house. It was pretty effective, but even with the two of them running full bore you couldn't keep that house warm...but it was a seriously huge 3 story house.

I'm in a similar situation to you with a mid sized open floor plan log home...24' ceilings in the great room, wall of windows on one side, about 1750 square feet of floor space, but the footprint of a 2300 sq foot home.

I bought a Morso 3610 for the great room and do not think it will heat the whole house at all times, but it will hopefully cut my oil usage by about 40-50%. What I did was look at my home's layout, the arrangemetn of heating zones relative to open air volume and the max output of my boiler in btu's. Boiler is a 180,000btu and will run 5 simultaneous zones for heat in my house (hot water, and heated slab in the basement too)...my 3610 is rated at a max of 60,000 btu, so figuring the law of averages and that the rating is under ideal conditions I ought to be able to get a consistent 30,000-40,000 out of it...if I did my metal math corectly this should easily ake care of the heat load of my great room on all but the coldest, windiest days...other day I should be able to get some good heat into the upstairs master bedroom from convention currents and hopefully some will belld down the 1st floor hall to the back 2 bedrooms too.

I have 2 large ceiling fans in the great room to help keep the warmth circulating and may buy one of those heat powered fans at some point for some directed heat as well.

In a house your size you're probably looking at 2 stoves to approach anything like efficient heating...but a big one in the great room and then maybe another in the next largest area of the home, on the opposite end.

Got any photos to share with us? I'd love to see what you've got for a house.

Ya know, this might be the first time I've said this, but that sounds like a perfect application for the new Extra Large Hearthstone stove coming out.


There is not way a single Lopi Leyden or Defiant is going to heat that entire house, you're definitely going to either need a monster stove, or two stoves. I like the two stoves idea because if they're positioned correctly in the house you'll be able to only burn one stove when the weather is mild, much like some of our members already do.


I'm not sure if there is information on the new Hearthstone stove, or if you've even interested in a soapstone unit, but that would probably be just the ticket for the large area you're trying to heat.

What about the blaze king stove with the 4.5 cu ft fire box? Now you are talking about some serious size and heating capacity and very effecient in GPH

that hearthstone is a monster. I read about it in the dealer letter the other day. Almost 700 lbs. I don't know what the budget/space situation is but have you considered one of the masonry heaters? I've always heard great things about them.

AT 700lbs, isn't that almost like a masonary heater?

Yeah the Hearthstone we're talking about is a step above the Mansfield. It has a 4.x cubic ft. firebox. Hearthstone compares it to the Hearthstone I. Pretty amazing feat getting a wood stove with a monster firebox like that EPA approved.

It's called the Equinox. It's passed EPA and is currently in safety testing. Should be available in October. Also they've come up with a wood burning cookstove looks really nice.

If you're not opposed to fireplaces,check out the Napolean High Country NZ6000.....4.8cu,ft firebox and looks great too boot.

If your looking to heat that place solely with wood I personally would have 2 big stoves.

If your looking to supplement your heat, 1 stove will help, but it will not cut it 100% of the time.

Huge house, 1 stove and PINE, you'll be firing that thing like a locomotive.

That tall you'll certainly want double wall pipe. The heat that an epa rated stove lets go up the chimney is necessary to ensure proper draft. Double wall pipe will help slow the cooling of flue gasses and help your draft.

I wouldn't give up on the Defiant. Yes, there is some bad reviews on this site, but I bet most are because of operator error or bad installs. VC sells lots of stoves, probably more than any other manufacture, so yes, they will have more complaints on this site. You have to get a stove that you can stuff a chit load of wood in, and a top loading Defiant or a Blaze King would do the best in my opinion. Go with the largest cat stove you can find, you will get longer burns and more heat with that pine wood, than you would with a non cat stove. I know people will argue that fact, and I don't want to bring up the whole cat/noncat debate, but in my experience it's true.

Sorry, I didn't realize the Defiant came in a non cat everburn stove. The book is still out on the new everburn system, and I haven't heard of any great advantages so far. But time will tell. I just know I can get true 12 hour or more burn time with my 2 cu ft fire box cat stove with oak, and a good 6 to 8 hr burn time with softer woods.

It would sound to me like if you don't already have some big ceiling fans installed you will need them to drive your heat back downstairs... I can say from having gone through it in our house which has a 24 foot ceiling that is of the "can't get there from here" variety, that you should look at Casablanca fans - they are very expensive, but supposedly top quality. They also are the only fans that have NO maintainance requirements in the fine print, and that can be reversed from the floor (on some models)

We found this out when replacing the cheapo fan that the original owner had put up (no real complaints, it lasted 20+ years) and trying to find a replacement that we would never have to touch again - Considering that I had to rent and put up an 18' staging tower in the living room, this seemed like an important feature.....

There have been issues with some of the VC fireplaces, and we have had mixed reviews on the VC "Everburn" versions of their stoves, but most of the VC cat stoves, such as the Encore and the Defiant seem to have been pretty solid and low trouble. Not sure you could do the job in a house your size with just one stove though, at least not at the coldest temps. Certainly it would help then, and might be enough to carry you in milder weather but not below freezing unless you have mondo-good insulation...

Gooserider

You may want to take a look at the big Jotul, the firelight 600..it it s a little bigger than the mansfield.

apologies for the hijack...must be the sedonna vortexes hitting me up in Quebec!!

Does anyone have pictures of the new hearthstone equinox..stopped in the other day at the dealer and only a line drawing..The company that owns hearthstone, Spain based. has been making woodburning cookstoves for a long time, am interested to see that also..

I made a good suggestion with Blaze king it is a well made stove incrediable long burns and very clean operating. It has the large firebox and heat capacity no 3 cu ft box can match

All other suggestions have smaller fire boxes Me I hate being the one of the first to being quality control to new products. Waiting for a new model without user history to me is a bit of a gamble
I'm not willing to take. Part of the initial problem is no reserve of parts support no dealertrouble shooting experience witha new model. all of which can equate to less than swift responses to problems that could occure. Let me ask you how all the new owners of Beta Max worked out for them? Another factor you are not an experienced burner. You may not reconize if a problem esist for quite some time. I would call this strike 2 at purchasing a new model .Strike 3 no user base to draw upon to help you learn how the stove functions. both on a dealer stand point sell the stove or repairs. Just some food for thought.