Insert or wood stove

i'm going the stove on the hearth because there's no fan needed,my stove has the ash pan,i'm not heating the fireplace just my house.


I like the looks of the insert but not the "needed fan" to blow the heat out.if you move you can always put the stove in a room,try that with the insert.

John

IMO, you get more radiated heat from the free standing stove, whereas that radiated heat would go to warming the fireplace, not the house.

Last spring we bought a PE Summit that we were going to sit inside the fireplace (big stone, see through fireplace). But instead, we placed it ten feet away, standalone. I'm sure it will heat more efficiently that way and we like the looks better.

As has been mentioned, a freestanding stove will put out good heat when the power fails. Not so for an insert.

Ken

Just for the sake of argument, the inserts blower will heat a larger area more evenly and faster than a purely radiant stove.

Mine heats 1500sf with no fans running in hallways or doors, the blower on low sets up a strong convection loop.

Freestanding with a blower kit. Rick

Sounds like a pretty big house - what ever he gets, I think he'll definitely want a blower. Radiant will heat that room, but a blower will help move heat around the whole house. As far as heat going 'into' the fireplace from an insert - I don't think that is such a big deal. The brick around my insert rarely gets to 100 degrees - when the insert is at 900F and the room is 85.

Rich M said:

Just for the sake of argument, the inserts blower will heat a larger area more evenly and faster than a purely radiant stove.

Mine heats 1500sf with no fans running in hallways or doors, the blower on low sets up a strong convection loop.

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I agree. It's amazing how much heat my insert provides. The heat moves throughout the house with the fan on low.

The stove would take considerably more square footage though, I would think.
It seems like a waste of that fireplace opening.
I do believe they also look better, but that the freestanding would probably kick out more heat.
My small insert does a pretty good job on our 1000 ft2 first floor.
Some heat goes upstairs but I haven't been able to quantify it since my wife always turns on the heat.
It sounds like he has room for a pretty big insert. I would go with that.

I think a lot depends on aesthetics, what looks best to you.

If you fireplace is on an exterior wall, i.e., has exposed masonry for its back, the insert will loose some heat to the outside a stove would put in the house. The Insert blower helps keep the masonry cooler, i.e., more heat into the room, and if the chimney is interior to the house you get the chimney heat back and so the advantage of a stove is less in this case.

I got an amazing amount of heat out of an old "slammer" insert for the past 15 years. It did have a nice variable speed blower. I now have a new Quadrafire 4200I and am making a serious effort to season my wood ... so I expect the Insert to give me a lot more heat per pound of wood than the old one did. Somewhat to your question, with a blower even my old insert put out lots of heat, it heated the house if I was willing to accept a 10-15 degree variation between the room with the insert and the room most remote from the insert. This would be the same with a stove, one still needs to move the heat around room-to-room.

I agree with Jerry. For me the biggest factor in the decision would be whether it was an interior or exterior chimney. Stove for the extirior and insert for the interior. With two stories the heat storage of an interior chimney would be a big plus.

Personally I like the looks and radiant heat of the fireplace stoves over the inserts. Inserts are worthless without a blower and then you can't regulate the burn with a thermometer or pipe damper because most are flush with the fireplace.

Todd said:

Personally I like the looks and radiant heat of the fireplace stoves over the inserts. Inserts are worthless without a blower and then you can't regulate the burn with a thermometer or pipe damper because most are flush with the fireplace.

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With a modern stove, would you even want a damper plate? Why?

Ken

Are power went off this morning.if it was really cold out our stove still works the same without power.you can always put a cheap fan in the opposite side of the room if needed.i also love the ash pan thats not available on the insert.


Something else to consider----if we move and theres no fireplace we can go free standing.


One more thing!! i do not need to remove a 400Lb insert to clean the liner :coolgrin: thank you lord

Ken45 said:

Todd said:

Personally I like the looks and radiant heat of the fireplace stoves over the inserts. Inserts are worthless without a blower and then you can't regulate the burn with a thermometer or pipe damper because most are flush with the fireplace.

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With a modern stove, would you even want a damper plate? Why?

Ken

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Most modern stoves have stops on the air control to keep a certain amount of air for maintaining a hot fire for secondary combustion. These stove were tested with 13-16' chimneys and the taller you go the stronger the draft and shorter the burn time. A pipe damper will help slow her down if you happen to have too strong draft.

Wow, I have a lot to learn and it looks like I came to the right place. This is just the situation my husband and I are considering. We moved into the house two years ago and are looking to make the switch from primarily LP furnace to primarily wood burning stove. We have an open fireplace (interior wall) and not a lot of money to spend on a stove. We're leaning toward a stove over an insert, preferably with a blower kit. The only place we have to put it is in the fireplace/on the hearth (which extends 19" past FP face). I'm just wondering how this would work? I know next to nothing about stoves... Would we be able to find one (I mean, are they available?) to fit on the hearth? Would it have to set back into the FP some? How do we make use of the existing chimney? What becomes of the fireplace? Any advice would be much appriciated.

~K~

daisyblend said:

Wow, I have a lot to learn and it looks like I came to the right place. This is just the situation my husband and I are considering. We moved into the house two years ago and are looking to make the switch from primarily LP furnace to primarily wood burning stove. We have an open fireplace (interior wall) and not a lot of money to spend on a stove. We're leaning toward a stove over an insert, preferably with a blower kit. The only place we have to put it is in the fireplace/on the hearth (which extends 19" past FP face). I'm just wondering how this would work? I know next to nothing about stoves... Would we be able to find one (I mean, are they available?) to fit on the hearth? Would it have to set back into the FP some? How do we make use of the existing chimney? What becomes of the fireplace? Any advice would be much appriciated.

~K~

Click to expand...

K,

Back in the 70's, we had a wood stove sitting in front of the fireplace. We sealed off the fireplace and vented through it. It heated the house through the cold winter in 78. In our case, I had to shorten the rear legs (that sat on the hearth) and then put a concrete shield underneath and in front of the stove.

First off though, I am assuming that you have a MASONRY fireplace, not a zero clearance sheetmetal one. If the later, the chimney will not be adequate for a wood stove.

Late last winter, we went hunting for a wood stove that would fit inside our current masonary fireplace. It was a bit tought finding a good sized stove low enough to fit. But we finally bought a Pacific Engineering Summit. When the dealer delivered it, we had him set in on the other side of the room until we could get the fireplace prepared. HOWEVER, we decided we really liked the stove sitting was it was, standalone So we put in a new chimney and will leave the unvented gas logs in the sealed off fireplace.

I do feel that standalone is a bit more efficient since it's not surrounded by tons of heat absorbing stone although the Summit pretty much shields the back and sides.

Anyway, we had our first burn-in fire and are looking forward to cold weather

If you put the stove in the fireplace, or in front of it, you will possibly/probably need to extend the hearth.

Ken