Hubby and I burn wood at least 7 months a year, and go through up to 10 cords of mostly fir with occasional pine and cherry. Our house is 1800 square feet, and the only other heat sources are a couple of baseboards that we rarely use. It is an open-floor plan with a ceiling fan but no blower on the stove. SW Washington is fairly mild climate but we live at 2300' elevation so we get more snow and cold than most in our area.
Our house came with an old, huge Frontier(?) steel stove that had a crack in it, made visible by flames inside. That scared us. About 15 years ago we replaced that with a Waterford cast-iron stove. We opted for a non-cat because we were newbies, and for cast iron because we liked the looks.
We have never been all that happy with our Waterford, which is probably a bit too small for our space and doesn't hold a good overnight burn with the soft (but well-seasoned) woods we're burning. Also, we haven't maintained the stove well, so right now we have a cracked firebrick, poor circulation, a bent clip on the window glass, some chipped enamel, etc. etc. Haven't replaced the baffle either. Probably why we are getting poor performance! But as I said we've never been thrilled with this stove's performance, although it was admittedly better in years past.
The tax credit is making us wonder whether we should replace our stove this year instead of overhauling it. Esp. since Waterford is out of business and we may have trouble getting parts? It would be really nice to be able to leave home for the day (we both work at home so we don't do that usually) and come back to a warm house.
Should we be looking at steel stoves this time around? I've heard good things about Lopi, which is the brand we were considering way back when we decided on cast iron instead. Back then my research suggested that there weren't many performance differences between iron and steel, and that iron might have an advantage in being easier to replace individual parts and less risk of getting the stove dangerously hot. Our original steel stove was not only cracked but also warped in the back, which really gave us pause about steel, even though we weren't the ones who caused that.
We try to be safety- and energy-conscious. We installed double-wall pipe when we bought our Waterford, and a couple of years ago we installed an air intake pipe into our crawl space to try to reduce draftiness. But the intake pipe seems to have interfered with our damper so it doesn't shut 100% anymore. Possibly another reason I'm giving the Waterford bad marks.
I'd love to hear some feedback about steel vs. cast iron. We still like the look of our cast iron but we're willing to sacrifice looks for something more practical if that's the choice we have to make. Judging by our lousy maintenance track record with a non-cat stove, we probably shouldn't get a cat, right?
The brands available here include Lopi, Jotul, Pacific Energy and Quadrafire. They all seem to have their adherents, but we will probably go with Lopi if we opt for steel. Our neighbor swears by his Blaze King, but I bet there's a downside to that super-long burn time, isn't there? And I'm not thrilled with the look of the BK.
I run through five to seven cords a winter...dependin' on how cold it is. I am seventy two and still cut...haul...and split all my own wood...from my own wood lot. Burn white pine on the warmer days and a mix of hard wood the rest of the time. Good luck on your stove hunting...Franklin
