I too need help deciding on stove

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strawman

New Member
Oct 25, 2008
30
Central WI
I am a long-time wood-burner. I have a one level 1800 sq ft ranch-like home. East, west and north sides are earth-bermed to 2 ft from roof line with full southern exposure. Currently have '87 Xtra large VC Federal airtight convection cat. stove bought used many years ago. Operating as it was meant to it would have been way big but as the combustor was toast when we got it, we burned as it was. Not efficient, granted, and now I want to get more out out my wood cutting efforts. Being bermed , the house is relatively easy to heat (and cool). Have been looking for a couple years and were oh so close to the Hearthstone heritage and came as close as half down on the Jotul Oslo. Backed out on both. I just can't shake the concern that if used the way they're meant to be, they would cook us out. I burn well-seasoned hardwood in a central Wisconsin winter. The stove would be in a 15 x 15 family room mostly open on one end to slightly larger dining/kitchen area. I use a 1 sq ft room-to-room in-wall fan to assist moving heat to rear half of house as well as using furnace fan. Along with the smallish size of the room it will be in, rear clearances are an issue. Also the style and appearance of the VC,Heritage and oslo is the look we like.This in mind, I' ve been looking hard at the Napoleon 1100C and Pacific Energy Alderlea T4. Quite a downsize I know, but when it's cold I can load'em and when not so cold still get good efficiency. We're usually around to keep things burning so burn times exceding 6-7 hours isn't a huge deal
Any shared experiences with either of these would be most appreciated as well as any other feedback or suggestions. Thankx and sorry if a bit long-winded. strawman
 
Only advice I have is that if your house is 2k sq ft...get the stove that heats 2.5k or more. Take you time and look around and talk to your neighbors that burn wood. Have fun looking around.
 
Our set up at home sounds a lot like yours. I installed a Buck Model 21 last winter and it heat our entire upstairs with no problem. We keep the fan on low almost all the time and use a ceiling fan to move around the air. We've been very pleased with the stove.
 
Given that you are concerned about overheating your home, yet want to burn efficiently, I would suggest looking at a cat stove to give you the benefit of being able to run a low burn for an extended period of time rather than dealing with short hot fires. Soapstone may be great for not blasting you out, but the downside of woodstock stoves is that they do require significant clearances compared to some stoves out there. I don't know if it would be too much stove for you or not, but perhaps something like the BK princess would be a nice one for you - it has great clearance requirements, only needs 6" pipe (I don't know what you have), and is a good cat stove. I'm sure there are many other good cat stoves too - it just happens that this is one other one that I have looked at fairly close besides the Fireview.
 
Thankx for the feedback. Haven't ruled out soapstone but woodstock seems to only come with the side door on right which won't work for me. Would prefer to stay with afore mentioned style. Previous stoves were all cast iron. Again, leaning that way. Looked over the "review stoves" link regarding the two I mentioned and they look favorable. Any additional experiences with those or other suggestions? This site is so helpful, thankx again
 
strawman said:
Thankx for the feedback. Haven't ruled out soapstone but woodstock seems to only come with the side door on right which won't work for me. Would prefer to stay with afore mentioned style. Previous stoves were all cast iron. Again, leaning that way. Looked over the "review stoves" link regarding the two I mentioned and they look favorable. Any additional experiences with those or other suggestions? This site is so helpful, thankx again
Click to expand...

Ask them to build yours with the door on the left if that is all that is stopping you. The controls will still be on the right, but the door will be on the left. For my install it looks to be working out well - then again I have only played with the controls, have yet to burn in it :)
 
Minimizing clearances was a big issue with our installation as well. We ended up with a T6, looked at the T4, T5 , looked at the Hearthstone Bennington, but the double doors looked like they would be messy and harder to load. I believe (but sure I will be corrected if in error) that the cast iron shrouded PE alderlea series have some of the lowest clearances of the stove on the market today. You can sit quite close to these units without getting "sunburned" and yet they convect quite a bit of heat out the top of the stove when they get sufficiently warmed up.

As mentioned many times here, go large, as you can burn and control a larger stove during the shoulder seasons, but you will most likely be waking up at night if you are considering burning 24/7 with a smaller stove, and max heat during the winter season will suffer with a smaller stove.

One question I have, what was the rated heat output of the VC Federal airtight convection cat. stove (xtra large)? And if known, could that help you decide on the btu output needed for the new unit?
 
I couldn't find any specs on btu in my documents . I went to Ver. Castings site and searched "model FA288CCL"
Range of 8400-38700 surprized me as this is the extra Large model. Hard to tell though as we burned it without the combustor which would, I'm sure, result in lower output. Stove still did a decent job for us. Makes me think a lower btu rated stove operating as it is meant to may suffice. Thankx for the heads up
 
Once you figure out the clearances and size of stove that would fit in the existing site (don't forget chimney dimensions) I personally would primarily concerned with firebox volume, and then btu output.

If you look around this site for various other threads on "deciding on a stove" you will find at least 100:1 comments regarding firebox/stove too small vs stove too big.

You will also see many comments regarding building a smaller fire in a bigger box etc
 
strawman said:
Hard to tell though as we burned it without the combustor which would, I'm sure, result in lower output.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't bank on that. We ran our Encore cat last year with a fireback too warped to force the gas through the cat and had no problem maintaining 600+. The primary advantage of the cat is that it lets you maintain a lower burn longer and still be efficient. We are pushing our 45K rated stove to heat 2000 sq ft but are on a windy ridge with a lot of glass.
 
If those are your choices I would go with the T4 or T5 great warranty on the stove and they work great.
 
I don't think you'd have much issue with the Oslo or the Heritage. These are pretty flexible stoves. It won't drive you out of the house unless you refuse to stop feeding it fuel. Get used to burning shorter, hot burns in fall and spring. Long burns are for winter. Stick with at least a 2 cu ft stove or you will be back wanting bigger. In the PE Alderlea series that would be the T5.
 
Slow1 said:
Given that you are concerned about overheating your home, yet want to burn efficiently, I would suggest looking at a cat stove to give you the benefit of being able to run a low burn for an extended period of time rather than dealing with short hot fires. Soapstone may be great for not blasting you out, but the downside of woodstock stoves is that they do require significant clearances compared to some stoves out there. I don't know if it would be too much stove for you or not, but perhaps something like the BK princess would be a nice one for you - it has great clearance requirements, only needs 6" pipe (I don't know what you have), and is a good cat stove. I'm sure there are many other good cat stoves too - it just happens that this is one other one that I have looked at fairly close besides the Fireview.
Click to expand...
I have to agree. Cats are a little more efficient and allow longer and lower burns. The BK Princess and Woodstock Fireview would be at the top of my list.
 
Thankx to all for the input. A couple additional things.
As I stated, minimal clearance is essential as room is small (approx 230 sq ft) and want it to sit out in the room as little as possible. Venting out of the top seems to be best for that as well as getting a better draw. Will be going up 2 feet, 90 deg to the right (facing the stove) then over 3 ft to 7" flue lined masonry chimney about 14 to 15 feet high. Some stoves maybe won't like this.
Not to belabor the point but small room size is the main concern for getting the right size stove. Thankx fo all the suggestions. Looking forward to any other feedback
 
Given that, the BK Princess would probably be my first choice. Either way, you're going to need fans to move the air in and out of the room, otherwise it will get warm in there with the other end of the house significantly cooler.
 
Take a look at the Hearthstone Shelburne. I'm not sure if it is big enough for what you want but I've found it be efficient, more than enough for our 1400 sq/ft and provides great clearances with the heat shields.
 
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