Help with a wood stove decision

Have you considered the effort to move the fuel to the basement?

I would reconsider and place the stove in the living area if at all possible to get the most heat out of the stove, reduce the work to get the wood to the stove, and increase the ambiance by actually viewing and feeling the heat of all of your hardwork.

Otherwise, go large, as the basement walls will be soaking up a lot of the heat... And you will not be running up and down the stairs as frequently. Though it would be good exercise.

Jack Straw said:

b121 said:

With a Lopi Endeavor I tried heating a finished basement (1500 sf) with open stairs and my main floor (1500 sf)
thinking the heat would rise up the open stairs to the main floor.
All I got was 90 + degrees in the basement an 65 degrees on the main floor.
With a lite candle I could detect cold air returning to the basement along the nosing of the stair steps and warm air
flowing up stairs along the ceiling of the basement to the open stairs. So there was an exchange of hot/cold air taking place
but not at the volume required to comfortably heat both floor levels. Floor grates may have helped improve this hot/cold air exchange, but from what I've read
about a wood stove in the basement, it's still difficult getting the proper hot/cold air exchange.
We don't use the finished basement very much so for next winter I just recently installed a Woodsock Fireview at my main level and the basement will be heated with oil (hot water baseboard) with the thermostat turned back to 60 degrees.

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I think you had too small of a stove for you area. I am Heating 1500 sf in total with an endeavor.

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I am glad the Endeavor works well for you and I agree the Endeavor is rated for 1,200 to 2000 sf not 3000 sf.
I like the looks of the Endeavor and I loved watching the fire display.
Originally I had the Endeavor upstairs with the intent to heat just the upstairs (1500sf)
I was not happy with trying to maintain proper stove pipe temp , as to not promote creosote, and temp to keep the secondary burn going, plus
trying to maintain a comfortable living area temp (70s). To do this, I limited the size of the fire with smaller loads of wood, but had to feed the stove more often.
I thought a better solution would be to make the Endeavor heat more square footage by placing it in the basement.
I could put large loads of wood in it and be able to maintain proper stove pipe temp for longer periods of time between adding wood.
The extra heat produced would just flow upstairs, but that resulted in the above mentioned scenario.
I hope the Woodstock Fireview will work better for me, but it does not have as good a fire display as the Endeavor (I'll miss that)
With just a few test fires I found I don't have to run the Fireview as hot, because of the catalytic converter, and I like even temp from the soapstone.
However the real test will come this next heating season.

I assume you have a walk-out basement? Full time wood burning should not involve flights of stairs.

That is a great price an the Mansfield - not just good, but great. We are talking a warrantied stove for a Craigslist price.

You put in a flue already? What size? That will have an effect on your choices. So will the stove location; there is a wide variance in minimum clearances between makes and models.

You've had some good advice here. I concur with those who suggest a 3 cu. ft. firebox - you are in a cold, cold climate. The Mansfield is that size.

The air circulation issue is significant. My current house circulates warm air up the stairs very well - When I climb the stairs I can actually feel the cold air at my (shoeless) feet flowing down. In my previous house, the warm air would stratify about 2/3 of the way up. A large, open stairway should help a lot.

There are a lot of pros and cons to different designs and materials, but I'd have already bought that Mansfield. The soapstone vs. cast iron vs. steel heat characteristics are way over-analyzed. I've used all three extensively and midway through the winter you realize that they are a box that holds fire. Soapstone is a little slower to respond to a fresh load, but that is only an issue if, like me, you are away from the house all day and need a quick warm up after work. An insulated basement is not going to warm up/cool down all that quickly anyway, especially if you have a 600 lb. chunk of rock emitting heat all day!

You can also overstress the difference between cat and non-cat stoves. I'm currently using both (cat Dutchwest in the 2,000 sq. ft. shop, non-cat Jotul Oslo in our 2500 + sq. ft. house) and I could easily live with either for 24/7 use.

So, have you got that Mansfield yet? No? Sigh. You can lead a horse to water.... Well, the Pacific Energy Summit is an excellent (steel) stove. So is the Jotul 600 (cast iron) and the Quadrafire you mentioned. The other two I am not familiar with. I believe Buck also makes a very good steel stove in that size. Englander stoves are well thought of and are attractively priced, but are definitely industrial in appearance.

Here is the order of priority as I see it: 1) The stove must be usable with the already-installed flue; 2) It must meet your clearance requirements; 3) It must be sized for your heating load; 4) It must satisfy your aesthetic requirements, if you are going to end up looking at it in a finished basement.

You have several nice options to choose from, which is rather a good problem to have.

Mark

andyfilius said:

Some great information. thanks!

What is your opinion on the Catalytic vs. non-catalytic?

thanks,
andy

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think of a catalytic converter in your car, you know, those things that go bad after 2 yrs or so, now think of still passing epa test (or in the stoves case, still having the same effeciency)with out having to replace somthing every 2 yrs. and you have my freind a quadrafire