Need guidance wood stove shopping-added pics of fireplace+chimney

I'm thinking you can get a better price if you can keep looking.
You can even get a brand new Englander stove for just under $1,000.00.
But you may want the soapstone stove, which is a matter of preference.
Never hurts to see what all you options are. NEVER rush into a stove purchase, without careful planning & research.

I heard of someone getting an Englander nc-13 at the Home Depot for $498 where they also had the NC-30 for $498. However the Hearthstone stoves are better but the price could be lower. I'd offer him $700 and work up to 800 maybe. Just an example this Woodstock Fireview on CL:http://longisland.craigslist.org/for/1558482712.html. Check out this sith to compare Hearthstone:http://chimneysweeponline.com/wscompha.htm

~*~Kathleen~*~ said:

I am looking at a hearthstone heritage non-cat from 1998 and wondering how I can find out how the effeciency and emissions compare to a newer model.

I'm also wondering if it's a fair price. According to the seller this was used as a secondary heat source and it's in excellent shape.. Seals have been recently redone. He's dropped the price to 1k, which is about what I can pay for a new stove. New they run about $2800

Thanks,
Kathleen

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$1k is steep for a 12 year old stove


Compile a list of stoves that will suit your needs. Members here make way too much of this process - there are basically 3 sizes of stove: small, medium, large all with some variation within those categories. And every manufacturer makes at least one of each size and if you need a small stove then pretty much any of them will do the job and so on with the other sizes.


As a long term investment find the (a) stove you need and just eat the price tag. Even if you tripled your budget to $3000 (probably includes installation) you're still looking at $.41 per day amortized over 20 years. And 20 years is a perfectly reasonable expectation.

~*~Kathleen~*~ said:

I am looking at a hearthstone heritage non-cat from 1998 and wondering how I can find out how the effeciency and emissions compare to a newer model.

I'm also wondering if it's a fair price. According to the seller this was used as a secondary heat source and it's in excellent shape.. Seals have been recently redone. He's dropped the price to 1k, which is about what I can pay for a new stove. New they run about $2800

Thanks,
Kathleen

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Way over priced. You can get a much newer model used for $1,000 to $1,500.

VCBurner said:

I heard of someone getting an Englander nc-13 at the Home Depot for $498 where they also had the NC-30 for $498. However the Hearthstone stoves are better but the price could be lower. I'd offer him $700 and work up to 800 maybe. Just an example this Woodstock Fireview on CL:http://longisland.craigslist.org/for/1558482712.html. Check out this sith to compare Hearthstone:http://chimneysweeponline.com/wscompha.htm

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I wouldn't call them better. Just a different way of heating.

~*~Kathleen~*~ said:

Thanks for the input. I'm looking to use it as a primary heat source for an old, poorly insulated (working on that) cabin about 950 square feet. I live here full time. I have been shopping around, mostly looking at smaller steel stoves new. I have an old masonry fireplace. My budget for stove, liner, installation is about 2500.

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Take your time. Poke around here and ask questions. $2500 is a good budget but it will go a little further this summer if you can wait.

However, if you plan to burn you need to get your wood for next year in post haste.

How small do you mean by "smaller" cast iron stoves? The small fireboxes wouldn't do the job for heating overnight unless you got up to reload, (and you mentioned you wanted the stove to be your primary heat) and they often take small splits--if you bought your firewood, you'd probably have to recut a lot of it.

The heritage has a 2.3 cubic foot firebox. My steel stove has a firebox that size, and it works wonderfully for me; I build big or small fires as I need. However, I don't know if building smaller fires works the same in a soapstone stove, because of the soapstone's thermal mass. (a fire too small for the stove doesn't burn cleanly, and deposits creosote in the chimney). Being in NC, I'm sure you would need to make smaller fires far more often than I. Maybe someone can address this question here, or you can find that in a search.

If that older stove has been seldom-used, just a few times a year for those years, (or you know someone who can really check it out, or you read on here what to look for in it, and the stove checks out) I think it would be a good deal. But if there's an Englander or a floor-model steel stove of the right size selling for under that, I'd go for the new stove myself. Once I warmed up in front of my own steel stove, what it looks like didn't matter anymore--although I had fallen in love with the cast-iron stoves while shopping.

Hi Kathleen, and welcome to the forums Always nice to see one of the "sisterhood" here

What kind of a layout does your cabin have? Where is the fireplace in relation to the rest of the house? An insert might work, or it might not, depending on the layout.

A floor plan might help here.

Keep reading, and feel free to ask away.

Accckkk, almost forgot.

Get thee some wood now, if you haven't already, and keep collecting it

We have 2 soapstone stoves (in different buildings) and both are catalytic stoves. Even in the "shoulder seasons" I burn the stoves hot to take advantage of the "thermal mass" aspect of them. I've found that "little" fires don't really heat the stone as effectively and I try to avoid "smouldering" fires in general. I've found that one good fire/day is often enough to bring the spaces up to the sort of "cozy level" I prefer.

Yeah, get on the wood supply immediately! You can never have enough as "back up" and it takes time for split wood to cure properly, esp. if it's humid where you live. Welcome to the "sisterhood", good to see the distaff ranks filling out!

~*~Kathleen~*~ said:

Thank you for the links.

I am wondering if the Heritage is too big for my house. It's rated at 1900sqft. so on paper it is. That's why I've been shopping smaller stoves.

My house faces south with the fireplace on the west wall. This is a "great" room. It shares a wall with one bedroom. There is a hallway to the small drafty kitchen. The other bedroom and the bathroom are across a small hallway from the first bedroom. The walls between rooms are simply slats of old chestnut, so if heat travels as well as sound, that will not be a problem. I don't heat the bedrooms anyway. I would like to be warm in the kitchen. There is an old chimney behind a wall.....

I have heated with wood before, it's been awhile, and I have never shopped for a stove. I do need to get some wood already and I have a line on that.

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1900 sq ft is under optimum conditions. If possible you should always oversize a bit. If you decide to go with the Heritage it should do fine.

Yeah, I "get" the whole macho, stove shop scene... but any place worth its salt will treat you properly, if they don't walk right out the door and make sure they know why. Just 'cause we have chesticles is no reason to assume we don't know what we're talkin' about and what we want in stove.

I maintain the most important relationship any woman establishes is the one with the automotive mechanic.

As it has been said many times on many forums before...it is easier to build a smaller fire in a bigger stove than to build a huge fire in a small stove. The stove will last longer if you don't have to over-fire it, and it will behave much better with less adjusting throughout the burn. If this stove will indeed be your primary heat source, and the cabin is poorly insulated I would definitely go bigger. You should post a pic of the opening.

Oh my...what an absolutely perfect setting for a nice hearth stove installation! Lovely, just lovely. Rick

BrowningBAR said:

VCBurner said:

I heard of someone getting an Englander nc-13 at the Home Depot for $498 where they also had the NC-30 for $498. However the Hearthstone stoves are better but the price could be lower. I'd offer him $700 and work up to 800 maybe. Just an example this Woodstock Fireview on CL:http://longisland.craigslist.org/for/1558482712.html. Check out this sith to compare Hearthstone:http://chimneysweeponline.com/wscompha.htm

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I wouldn't call them better. Just a different way of heating.

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Better...yup...they are better! IMO