Hello all, My wife and I are looking at the Fireview and were wondering if anyone on this site uses one and what they think of it. We are looking to heat about 1100 Sqft maybe up to 1400-1500 if we open some doors to rooms upstairs for guests.
How do you all like your stove overall?
If you could do it over what would you do different if anything?
What is your favorite thing about the stove?
What do you not like about it?
Thanks all.
Welcome to the forum owingsia.
1. Love it.
2. Would have bought it much sooner.
3. It keeps us warm.
4. That's a difficult one. Can't think of a thing we don't like about it.
We used to heat with an old Ashley but have had many other stoves over the years. We finally got tired of being cold in our own house. The Ashley did okay until the weather got down below 10 degrees or maybe even 15 degrees. We closed off part of the house but were still never satisfied. Before taking a shower we used to run an electric heater so we didn't freeze. Now fast forward to the Fireview.
We had sort of looked at the Woodstock stoves years ago so it was on our list along with Hearthstone and Lopi and a few others. We looked and asked questions. What we mostly found was that stove dealers knew only a little bit about the stoves they sold and liked to put down anything they did not sell. To me that is the worst type of excuse for selling, but that is another story.
We talked to a fellow who owned a Fireview and went to his home to discuss it a bit. It turned out that we had met this fellow years ago and had done some business with him and some of his family. He also had 3 or 4 children (married) that also owned Fireview stoves. That was a plus and when we left his place we knew then we had to have a Fireview.
I might add that we had heard some horror stories about stoves with catalysts. We sort of decided we would not buy a stove with a cat. Then we (to our horror) learned that all the Woodstock stoves had cats. But the fellow we talked to put our fears at rest. So how have we done with the stove?
We purchased the stove in 2007 so we are now into our 7th year of burning. We heat entirely with the Fireview in a bit larger space than you have. We used to close off part of the house in the winter but once we started with this stove, we no longer close off any part of the home. This is the first thing we really took note of and we found ourselves comfortable all winter long. Not only that, but we keep our home around 80 degrees all winter long; even on these below zero nights.
Today it appears our high temperature will be 10 degrees. We got up late which meant the stove had gone 14 hours since the last load. The house temperature was down to 75 this morning. I quickly added 4 small splits to the stove. I should have added a bit more because I just put in some more just before typing this. Tonight I will fill it with all oak as we expect to get well below zero and the oak will hold the fire the longest with good heat throughout the burn.
The second best thing we found about this stove is that we really cut down on the work required because we burn only half the amount of wood we used to burn; sometimes even less! We used to burn 6 cord per winter and also remember one really cold year when we went through 7 1/2 cord. So far only one winter did we go over 3 cord but that as about a wheelbarrow over the 3 cord mark. One winter we went through only 2 1/2 cord so that balanced out nicely.
We have remodeled since installing this stove so the added insulation has helped because we also added a room but do not burn any more wood. We used to have to move some heat to the rear of the house (easily done as we set a small 7" fan on the floor in the hallway and set it on low speed blowing toward the stove room) but we no longer have to do that as it stays nice and warm all through the house.
We did rely on that six month guarantee because believe it or not, I still had doubts. I could not see how a stove that small could heat our old drafty place. However, as most owners, we never considered sending it back. We love it. We do have the stove on a raised hearth (16") which makes loading the stove much, much easier as we can sit on a chair and the stove door is perfect height. Otherwise we'd have to bend and we are too old with worn out bodies to want to bend while handling wood.
The only other thing I'd like to add is that Woodstock is about the easiest company I've ever dealt with and their customer service is second to none. They are a wonderful group of people. They may make suggestions but they won't push you. If they do, tell me and I'll get on thier case fast. lol
Here is a picture taken while my wife was making either applesause or applebutter. Notice our wood rack is on the porch which is right close to the stove. The video is short but shows a typical burn in this stove.
One thing I would caution you on: No matter what stove you buy, get some wood first
If you buy wood, do not plan on buying good dry wood as it just very, very rarely happens even though the wood sellers would tell you differently. In all the new epa stoves, it is a must to have good wood as marginal wood will give you poor results in any stove.
In addition, if you burn good dry wood, you will not only find the stove works better and you get more heat but you will also burn less wood! Remember too that most wood needs a year after it has been split and stacked outdoors in the wind. Wood sellers typically split their wood just prior to delivery. Some may split earlier but just have the wood in a heap. That will dry only the outside layer and the interior of that wood heap will not dry. If you plan on burning oak, beware! Oak is indeed one of the best but it takes the longest to dry; typically 2-3 years.
Good luck to you.
). Been a long search and we really do think the Fireview will be the perfect stove for us. Thanks to this forum we feel better about heating with wood. I have enough wood for next year already cut split and stacked (its going to cut into my BBQing wood but I can always burn not so seasoned wood in the pit). I have been busy getting 2015-2017 wood ready.
For a drafty old 1700 square foot 2 story house would the fireview be enough? You know, in the off chance that we would run onto another one before we buy something. Wish it burned coal too because I've been looking at anthracite and my gosh, if you could combine coal burning and cat it would burn FOREVER.
