For the person asking, "Which wood stove is best?" One newbie's experience

Forgive the lengthy post. Trying to relate 6 months of my journey to my first wood stove and it can't be done in a short post. I hope this helps other newbies. I enjoyed every minute of picking out my first wood stove, but I admit it can be damn overwhelming to get started! My stove was installed TODAY. I've been doing my first "break in burn" while typing this. Big, dopey grin on my face the whole time!! :D

If you got to this thread googling, “which wood stove is best” I thought I’d type up my experience and thoughts and maybe save you some hours of reading by compiling and paraphrasing others' good advice. I do hope you read a bunch on this forum. I enjoyed it immensely while I was freezing this winter, spending a fortune on propane, and imagining next winter in warmth and bliss... but if you can't spend hours and hours or are in a hurry to get your stove in before winter, maybe this will be useful.

Here is what I gleaned from reading and, most of it reflects my actual process. These thoughts are NOT my original ideas, but things I picked up from reading 100s (probably 1000s) of posts here at hearth.com. This forum is GREAT and the folks here are very knowledgeable and helpful and believe me they want you to LOVE your stove experience so don’t be shy.

1. “Which stove is best” depends on a bunch of factors. The better question is, “which stove is best for my specific situation?” If you’re a newbie, it takes a bit to figure out your specific situation. Face it, we don’t even really know where to start!! Important things to consider are, how big is the space you want to heat? How tall will your chimney have to be (different stoves perform better/worse with different height chimneys)? How much space do you have? This last question is likely going to narrow your choices so you have a more manageable number of stoves to chose from. If you’ve got limited space, a corner install, an alcove or what have you, you will probably find some variation in clearances to combustibles and you should know all this before you fall in love with a model that won’t work in your space. There are MANY posts on this point so if you don’t know, just search a few models and you’re likely to get some ideas based on your situation.

Here’s an example of what I mean: I wanted a different model than the one I bought at one point, but I have a vaulted 23’ ceiling and I read every word about this model and learned that it doesn't do well with tall chimneys and then read the manual. That one got nixed because, while I still think it’s an awesome stove, for my situation, it would have been not the best stove no matter how many loving reviews by satisfied owners I read. Reading solely about the stove and performance and specs wouldn’t have made me eliminate this as a choice. More often, stoves require taller chimneys so if you only have one story, be sure to read up that too to be sure your choice is good for your situation.

So, my point is that you should really have a good idea where you want your stove, where the chimney is going to be and can you have it stick up really high (in the case of a Class A with a steep pitch) in that spot? How much room will you have on all 4 sides of the stove to meet local codes for clearances to combustible in all 4 directions? There are probably other considerations, but these seem to me to be the more important “before you start” issues to work out. In short, don't go down the "which brand?" rabbit hole too soon.

Another point about how big of a stove to get: You will read a lot on this forum that a bigger firebox is generally desirable if you can fit it. I must have read a dozen times (or more) that you can build a small fire in a big firebox but you can’t build a big fire in a small firebox. So, my advice is to shop a size larger, generally, than you think you’d need and check the specs on that to ensure it can fit with clearances in the manual. If your space is tight, you can’t maybe do that.

2. Pick the dealer before you pick the stove. I read this several times before I bought my stove and I didn’t follow this advice. I wish I would have. I know I’ll be happy with my stove but I can already tell you that I’m going to have to find a different vendor for cleaning and inspection in the future. I had some stress related to my installation that was, frankly, 100% totally unnecessary. It would have been EASY for them to help me get through some of the details but they made it hard and treated me like I was an idiot. It was just not good customer service. Even though I’m deliriously happy right now as I type this since the end product is GREAT, I’m not inclined to give them my follow up business. The difference between most models doesn’t seem to me to warrant picking a dealer you don’t like to get some incremental spec/benefit. If I didn't pay a hefty deposit, I would have changed vendors and stoves. It was too late for me when I became unhappy with my dealer.

If you plan to have a wonderful relationship with your wood burning stove for years to come, it seems to me you should have an equally wonderful relationship with someone who can answer your newbie questions and make you feel comfortable during demolition, construction and installation. I think you should pick someone from whom you feel like you’ll get excellent service from the start and over the years as you need cleaning, new firebricks and the like.

3. Cat or non-cat. Maybe this should be #2 instead of #3 since some dealers specialize in ONLY cat stoves. I chose non-cat. I did this because I am a newbie and I just didn’t want one more thing to maintain. It probably isn't as complicated as some of the websites make it seem, but for my first one, I thought I'd keep it as simple as possible and still meet my needs. I have the luxury of not having to need a cat stove because I live in Western NC where it gets below 15 degrees about 2 days a year so if my fire goes out in the middle of the night, I’m not likely to be too miserable. Hell, I might not even get cold. If you’re reading this and you’re in Saskatoon or similar climate, you might not have this choice (but, if you’re in Saskatoon, you’re probably not a newbie either)! Cat or non-cat is like religion for some and there are whole threads on this so read on if you want more. To oversimplify, I would just say that you should consider how long you need a burn, what the issues are if the fire goes out, and what maintenance/catalytic replacement expense are you willing to take on. I think this overly-simplistic statement on it is going to open a can of worms for the seasoned veterans who can probably write a treatise on cat vs. non-cat...

4. What do you like? Since I haven’t had many stoves, I started this process with literally NO bias towards one vendor or another. I'd never even heard of any of the companies. After you’ve sorted out the items above, I think you can’t really go wrong choose what you like the look of. Some models have colored enamel paint, some are metal, some are cast iron, some have nice iron work on the glass, some are round and modern looking, some are very rustic looking... heck, one model even has an indoor grill option! By the time you’ve narrowed your list based on the considerations above, I would probably just pick the one you like the best. It seems to me that there really isn’t that much difference between each of the vendors (for comparable models) -- at least there wasn't to my naive eyes. If you’ve made it this far and you have a “short list” of 3 or 4, read up on ‘em here and pick the one that has the features and design you like best. But remember that what is "best" for one might be "worst" for your application so don't forget what you learned in #1 above and be swayed by a great review without ensuring it doesn't require an environment that your home and set up can't provide.

5. Feel comfortable after you choose that you got a good stove. If you picked something that works in your space and situation, and you still have issues, be sure first your wood is properly seasoned (i.e. moisture check) and then post your question/issue here! The theme I saw many times reading this forum was that most of the problems were due to people not picking a good stove for their situation/space or burning crappy, unseasoned wood. I can’t recall a situation where someone got a genuine lemon. This reiterates why I think it's good to have a good dealer. In my situation, if my stove has issues, I'm NOT comfortable with my dealer so I will have to rely on another one that doesn't sell my model or this forum for help. Not ideal for a newbie, but I'm confident my stove is going to work great because, well, they all more or less do unless you did something wrong in step 1 in assessing your needs, floor plan, clearances, etc.

Now, you may be asking, what did I get???

So, I ripped out a ventless gas set up. It smelled, provided not much in the way of heat, cost a fortune in propane and had absolutely no soul whatsoever. I had considered a zero clearance fireplace for months before settling on the stove. There were many reasons for this and this post is long enough so write me if you want to know more about my choice, but the main issue was that it was more costly and I would needed a blower and there were lots of posts about the noise blowers make. No dis on those that have FPs, but I just decided it wasn’t for me after some homework.

I got the Pacific Energy Alderlea T6. I have 2300sqft+ with a large vaulted ceiling with a 2 BR loft overhanging the great room. The floor plan is very open and has a 23' ceiling so I was only looking at the biggest models by vendor. I posted before/after pictures. I hope you like them!

Thanks to everyone who was SO HELPFUL on my journey. This was my favorite EVER home improvement project -- and I've done a fair amount of them over the years in various homes. Probably, if you posted here, you helped me even if you didn’t know it. I swear I’ve read nearly every word on this forum during my journey!! I'm so glad I found you.

So far, the stove is working great in my large, open space. But, I've only done ONE break in burn so far and not in the best conditions for a good data point. Ask me again after the first cold week and I'll probably have a better assessment.

But, having said that, here's what I've observed so far: I started it up about 2:00pm yesterday and burned all evening. At 11, I stuffed it pretty full to see how it would do overnight. I woke up to warm ashes and put a few pieces of kindling in and it lit right up. It got down to low 40s overnight but it was warm in the house when I got up. I have 2 ceiling fans over the great room and one in the loft. I took a picture showing the 2 in the great room and you can just see the blades of the loft fan in the left of the picture. One of the bedrooms upstairs has a fan as well.

Yesterday, I had just the two fans in the great room going at top speed while I was burning and it seemed very pleasant everywhere in the house and I was trying to keep the fire pretty HOT per my installers recommendation to break it in. But, I also had all the doors and windows open because it was 68 degrees outside and the smell wasn't pleasant for the first few hours of burning. It seems fine now, so I guess I'm broken in! Honestly, it was damn pleasant in the house everywhere all day yesterday with lots of cool cross breeze and the warmth of fire. I was cleaning up all the construction dust and putting my home back together (I had some other work done in the remodel besides the stove) so I was moving around, climbing stairs, mopping, moving furniture and the like and I wasn't hot at all. This morning, it's cool outside (40s when I woke up. 54 now) and I've got 3 windows open and a small-ish fire and one fan going. It's simply heavenly in here right now with the contrast of a cool-ish breeze and the warmth of the fire. I'm LOVING it.

I have a separate thermostat for the upstairs loft (central heat is propane forced air downstairs and a heat pump upstairs) so I could watch the temperature difference all day during my burn. Every time I checked, it was no more than about 3 degrees warmer in the loft. But, it's always hotter in the loft no matter what time of year. I think that it's likely going to be pretty hot upstairs at times -- particularly if I've got a big, hot fire going and the house is closed up because it's cold outside. If the fans can't knock the heat down, I guess I'll open the BR windows. Frankly, that's what we had to do pre-stove so I don't know yet if this will make it a worse problem or if we'll just continue with what we're used to.

To Jake's counterpoint about not shopping a dealer first: I guess this could depend on where you live. I imagine there are places where there are many dealers. Not so in my location. Evidently, I'm not in a location where folks like to service. The dealer I did chose (by virtue of picking a PE) was not thrilled about my location and pretty much let me know that at every turn (as I said, not the world's greatest customer service). When I was thinking I would get a fireplace instead early in the project, I shopped a different dealer and they were also not happy about my distance from their shop either -- and these were the two closest places. I don't think my home is so remote -- I'm probably about 45 mins from my dealer -- but I guess they like to work close to home. Jake probably has a point if there are many dealers in your area, but if you're in a place where there are only a few, I stick to my original suggestion to pick the one that you will love working with. I seem to recall a recommendation from my reading on this forum that you should try asking your dealer if they can get a brand they don't normally carry so this may be a good compromise between my point and Jake's counterpoint.

My only "complaint" at all so far is how boring it is. Having had masonry fireplaces all my life and more than my fair share of outdoor fire pits, I'm used to "engaging" a fire pretty routinely to refuel, poke at it, move the logs around and what have you to keep it going at a nice, even rate and to ensure a total burn. I can be entertained with a fire all evening just playing with it and stoking it and keeping it burning the way I like. But, my stove requires absolutely NOTHING from me. I stick the splits in any ol' way and off it goes. No poking, no rearranging, no engaging with it, nothing. Boring. ;-)

When it gets cold outside later in the year and I'm burning a big, hot fire with all the doors closed, I'll post my experience about using the fans to move the heat around and if/how that's working out for me.

begreen said:

Oh it's not that boring. You need to close down the air control in at least two steps. (You are doing that, right?)

For the fans you probably don't need to run them at full speed to get good air mixing. What I would try is to run them with one blowing down and the other reversed and blowing upward. That should create a convective loop, mixing the air and breaking up heat stratification nicely. You should be able to run them on medium speed with good effect.

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This is a good idea -- to have them run opposite. I'll try it, but I may not have a full report until I see how it does with a hotter fire and closed up house. Right now, I just have ONE fan going (blowing down) and it's fine. My fire is very small right now because I think I'm more or less "broken in" and I'm just having one to have it because I can... :D

Yesterday, I had the air control full open or mostly open for several hours. I was going for raging hot fire to burn off the initial smell. The flue popped 3, maybe 4 times, which the installer told me it would, but no leaks and all seems well. So, no, I didn't adjust it in 2 steps yesterday! :D

Today, I opened it all the way up to get the kindling lit and left it that way during breakfast and the first cup of coffee. I probably got to fully down in multiple steps over the course of the next hour or so. It's as low as it goes right now and burning low and beautifully. I've still had less than 24h of total burn time so it's not like I'm an expert already. And, I'm admittedly not burning in conditions where I need good heat regulation so I'm sure my technique won't be thoroughly tested and refined until winter.

I've also learned another terrific lesson this morning -- I went out to my wood crib and pulled off some splits. The wood is well seasoned, but I guess there were a few splits in the second or third layer with some bark that held moisture from some recent rain. It's amazing the contrast to watch what good, dry wood will do in this thing vs. something that, while seasoned, has too much moisture. HUGE difference. And, it virtually instantly dirtied up my clean glass. I'm actually glad I saw this so I have a good visual of what "not good" looks like. Glass cleaned right up when I opened the air and put on some good, dry stuff and let it burn hot for a few minutes. I'm going to do a better job keeping the rain off my wood cribs. Outdoor fire pits are pretty damn forgiving so I've been able to be lax about how I store my bonfire wood. This won't do for my stove fuel.

fourwinds said:

I like your hearth. I've been wondering what kind of hearth I might like to have built in my future home build. I like the wood storage part of yours. What kind of material is the wood storage insert constructed of?

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My GC built it out of heavy duty plywood. I took a picture of some scrap we saved so you can see how thick it is. I had to sacrifice part of a closet in the BR behind this wall, but I didn't need that big of a closet and I really wanted the convenience of wood right there next to the stove. I included a picture of how the closet looks too. I'm glad I had a closet to sacrifice or else I probably wouldn't have the wood cubby.

The cubby is about 30" deep so we can actually stack 2 deep even for the longer splits. Typically, he uses the chainsaw bar as his ruler as he cuts pucks so most of our splits end up no longer than 18". Two rows of 18" sticks out some but it works fine and doesn't spill out. My depth was determined by the closet depth so that's why it's 30"

The cabinet on the bottom is about 18" tall. I wanted a spot for the "ugly" stuff I didn't want out on my hearth like ash can, lighter, hearth gloves, etc. And, no, I won't put a bucket of ash I just emptied in a wooden cabinet!! But, I wanted a spot for it when it wasn't needed and I didn't really want to have to bend all the way over (I'm not getting any younger, you know). There are plenty of pictures on the internet where the wood goes all the way down to the floor, but since I could go deeper and double stack, I thought the cabinet would be good for storage and to save my back!

As an aside, the asymmetric design was not what was planned at first. I had originally had the stove centered on the hearth with narrow wood cubbies on either side. But, when we ripped out the gas FP and chase, we learned that the orientation of the floor joist (for the OAK) and the ceiling joist (for the chimney) forced my stove to move right of center. I didn't want to cut out more of the wood floor to make a HUGE hearth and it was going to be a very big problem to try to fill in/patch the flooring where the old hearth was to keep a symmetrical design moved to the right. Plus, I wanted room on the right of the stove for some furniture so I was more or less stuck with the footprint of the original hearth that I took out (about 65" wide). So, I redesigned it to make the asymmetry work and look purposeful. We could have angled the pipes -- there are several examples of people having to bend their pipe stack to get around these issues, but I opted for straight up and down with some asymmetry on the bottom. It actually looks better than I imagined it would when I was sketching it out on paper and going over the options with my GC. He really wanted me to do a symmetrical install and did NOT think it would look good off to one side. He's changed his mind since seeing it finished! ;-D

My original plan was to use cultured ledge stone similar to what is in the "before" picture, but I switched to natural stone veneer just before the mason showed up. I haven't seen the bill for this change yet (still waiting for the final invoice from my GC which I won't get until after I pass inspection) so I hope I'm not going to regret it! I doubt it because I love the way it looks and I'm glad I've got real rock. More soul, IMO.

Baron62 said:

Just curious as to the suggested issue with the Quad IR. I have one for the last 7 years and love it. The distance from the top of my stove to the top of the masonry chimney is 32 feet.

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A quick search doesn't yield the thread where I read about the height on this particular model. I know I spent a lot of time reading here so I can't pull the title of the thread up from memory after all this time, but I recall that it was in the discussion of someone's problem... I'll do some more digging after work.

If I can't find and link to the specific thread that I recalled when typing my post last night, I can certainly edit my original post to remove the reference to a specific brand. My real point wasn't to steer someone to or from a brand to but to give an example of some considerations about the specifics of the space, height and set up. I can certainly do that without referring to any one specific brand/model. In fact, I may do this later anyway since it distracts from what I was hoping to convey...

After work, I'll search and/or edit.

Baron62 said:

Just curious as to the suggested issue with the Quad IR. I have one for the last 7 years and love it. The distance from the top of my stove to the top of the masonry chimney is 32 feet.

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I did find the post I referred to but I'm tempted not to link to it because I'd rather not throw a specific model under the bus since that wasn't my intent in my post. Therefore, I've modified my original post to remove reference to your brand. Might I suggest that we take this chat offline and remove reference in this thread to the IR?

begreen said:

OhioBurner, if the fans don't have a remote control, look on the body of the fan motor for the reverse switch. Most have this.

kbcarolina, please be sure to not run the stove with the air wide open. That is only for startup. It's a bit counterintuitive but closing down the air control will actually make the stove get hotter.

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Yes, thanks. I did read your other post in this thread on closing down air flow in stages too, thanks. Good tip. I ran it only open (well, actually mostly open) just for the first few hours or so and the fires were on the small side since it was warm out. I just wanted to get the stink out. It's been mostly closed, actually, for the remainder of the burns I've done since then -- except for the AM start ups where I have to get the hot coals going again. Then, I open it but just through about the first cup of coffee.

I actually do have some questions about how it's burning, because I don't really seem to see ANY effect in the flames when I close the air flow. You mentioned "lazy" flames in your post in this thread, but I can go from full open to full closed with absolutely no stepping down and no apparent impact on the flames. It's almost as if I'm getting too much air all the time. But I've left town on business and I want to have some more info to post here and I'll start a separate thread on this because I think I'll get LOTS of good tips, but I don't have enough data points to describe what I'm seeing so I want to do that to help you know what's going on exactly so you can help me better. I also want a thermometer before I go down this path because I want to be sure that my issue isn't simply because I re-loaded when it was too hot. So, I'm out of town on business now and not burning at all and won't be for at least 2 weeks. I'll post again soon. I have back-to-back conferences so if I don't reply to your tips here, it's because I'm off trying to earn some money to pay for my fancy remodel and stove!! ;-)