help deciding between woodstock fireview, jotul 500 oslo, or pacific energy alderlea

cdirks said:

I don't want to wear everyone out by asking the same question but it really is an agonizing decision for me at the moment.

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Don't be afraid to ask. We viewed the purchase of our stove as a major long term investment and did a lot of research. After digging through the past threads for about 6-8 months we proposed our short list of stoves as well as the layout and condition of our house. The PE T5 was not on our short list but after recommendations by BeGreen and others that is what we ended up going with and we're glad we did. As BeGreen mentioned, if you can provide a layout or description of your house it will help with the recommendations.

The Fireview would be pushed to heat that much space. But I don't think you can beat the customer service from that company and with the Fireview you can get some great burn times. The Fireview may be a little small to heat that area on the coldest days but the rest of the time that stove will be great.

cdirks said:

Hi, I posted a couple of days ago about using a woodstock fireview in my 3600 sq ft house. Only heating main floor which is 1800 sq ft. Ranch style house with a spread out design. Mid 70's construction with insulation. Some leaks around doors which I'm trying to address. Todd here on the forum says he thinks the fireview would be a great fit. Thanks a lot Todd for your opinion and weighing in on the question. Woodstock told me that my house and layout would be on the upper limit for the fireview.

I don't want to wear everyone out by asking the same question but it really is an agonizing decision for me at the moment. So basically it is between the fireview, jotul sf 500, or pacific energy alderlea. I personally like the looks of the fireview or jotul the best. I'm just confused because this stove is more of a luxury than a great need. I would like to burn wood because of the atmosphere it creates and I also don't want to be so tied to the grid that I'm out of luck when its down.

My friend told me I would be happy with any stove I buy and he would not be afraid of running the smaller fireview. He said that most of our winter temps are 20+ about 90% of the time. He thinks I will sooner get a too big of stove vs too small. It can get cold here as it is -4 degrees as I type. I'm located in SW Kansas. Sorry for getting long winded here. Any other help, suggestions, or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

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Welcome to the forum cdirks.

As Woodstock stated, for sure that would be on the upper limits for a stove the size of the Fireview. Yet, we've read on this forum of several folks who heat that much space and more. We've seen folks heat over 2,000 sq. ft. so no doubt it depends a lot on how well the house is insulated and if the air can circulate well. We do know of some tricks to assist that circulation though.

I have never ran the jotul or PE stoves but have known several who heated with the jotul and I've never heard many complaints about the stove.

I guess one thing I'd look at for sure, and perhaps doubly so in this case is the fact that Woodstock has the 6 month guarantee. If you bought from jutul or PE, would they let you return the stove after 6 months if it was not performing to your expectations?

You no doubt already know of some of the stories about Woodstock and how they will really do what they can to help their customers. Their customer service is second to none! They are at the head of the class. In addition, look at the beauty of the stove. Of course there will always be some who don't like this design or that design but this stove is like owning a great piece of fine furniture.

We're now into our 4th winter heating with the Fireview. We have no complaints. We like to compare it to our old stove. We now burn about 50% of the wood we used to burn and stay a whole lot warmer.

I doubt you would go wrong in buying any of the 3 stoves you've mentioned and we wish you good luck.

May I also suggest you get next year's wood on hand very, very soon. No matter what the stove will be, dry wood will allow that stove to operate and give the heat it can while not dry wood will give you nothing but problems.

Congratulations cdirks! You just bought one extremely fine stove. May it serve you well.

cdirks said:

Another question. The Jotul dealer told me that the non-cat Jotuls burn efficiently on low burns because the damper is on the air intake vs in the stove pipe like older installations. This he says makes a smaller fire without choking it down. While the fire is smaller it is still hot which make the secondary combustion chamber still operate. Any ideas on this? This dealer carries PE and Harmans as well. While I have reserved a Woodstock Fireview with a refundable $250, I am still considering a Jotul 500 Oslo. The reason being my house may be a bit much for the Fireview and I think the Jotul 500 may have a bit more fire power without being too big.

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Welcome cdirks. In my moderately-biased opinion it's pretty hard to find the knowledge you're looking for and an unbiased opinion from a dealer - No offense to the great, unbiased wood stove dealers on Hearth.com. So you're at the right place to help you with your decision and you might want to only visit dealers to physically see and touch the stoves you're getting advice on from here and not rely too much on their information. You will also get some biased opinions here because people really fall in love with their stoves and are excited to share their satisfaction. With that said, there are many who have owned several kinds of wood stoves and/or are able to be objective with their advice - BeGreen is a great example of this. In the end you'll obviously have to trust your judgment after sorting through all of the opinions and facts.

Now....my advice is BUY THE ALDERLEA T5 OR T6! :lol: Actually, if you have the means - a drawing, rather than a description, of your floorplan will really help people help you. I know it's kind of a pain in the A$$ but you're investing a lot into something you'll have for a long time, so it's worth the trouble. I also believe strongly in a thru-wall fan(s), which works wonderfully for my 1700 s.f., 3-level split floor plan. The T5 heats my entire house with no natural gas furnace assistance, though it struggles a bit when its -20. It wouldn't do as well without the thru-wall fan. Good luck to you!

One thing to keep in mind with regards to Woodstock is they have a new stove coming out this spring and it is larger than the Fireview. You may want to consider this.

Good luck,
Bill

If I may add to the mix just a bit,
I'm a Fireview owner who's quite happy with the performance I'm getting- heating my whole house from the basement and getting 10 hour burns, but-
when it's been in the single digits I can't get above 62 in here. Going to add some floor grates which should help a lot, but I sometimes wonder about the Pacific Energy Summit, which is a lot bigger and has their Extended Burn Technology. It's basically a temperature-sensitive valve that keeps the fire just hot enough for secondary combustion until the fuel runs out. In principle it would work on any stove, but it only seems to be on that one as far as I can tell.
Point is, if you want to do entirely without other heating, you will probably need to either set up good air circulation or get a somewhat bigger stove. But if, as you say, you're mostly after the ambience of it, you probably can't do much better than the Fireview. I often wish it would burn more wood so I could tend it more. It is too beautiful for the basement.
My house is new and well-insulated with a totally open floor plan on the first floor, around 1200 sq. ft footprint.
Adam

cdirks said:

I would like to burn wood because of the atmosphere it creates and I also don't want to be so tied to the grid that I'm out of luck when its down.

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In this case, i would certainly recommend the Oslo or the T6. You will get a much better light show! I also used to own a Fireview and find I get much more heat out of my Oslo. (Sorry, Dennis)

That being said, Woodstock's customer service is great and if I were you, I might wait for the new stove.

cdirks said:

They said that the airwash system for the glass actually works better on the PE than on the Jotul.

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Our Oslo glass got dirty once and that was when I tried to put a load of green wood in it for an overnighter. Other than that, I only clean the glass about every 3 weeks and even then its not bad at all. Cant imagine another stove being any better than that.. equal maybe.

Not to hijack the thread, but I am interested in Minnesota Guy's through wall fans.
Can you elaborate?
Also- do you find pushing warm air into the cold room or does pulling out cold air work better through the wall?

Mike T said:

Not to hijack the thread, but I am interested in Minnesota Guy's through wall fans.
Can you elaborate?
Also- do you find pushing warm air into the cold room or does pulling out cold air work better through the wall?

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It's only a one-way fan. It pushes a significant amount of warm air into main and upper levels. I can see the thermostat go up or down depending on whether the fan is on or not. I actually have a temporary fan in the hole (happens to fit perfect) for now - still waiting on my deadbeat electrician buddy to help me hook it up.

If you have more questions I can respond in this thread:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/57960/P0/

cdirks,

I realize you are not in the same climate as myself, however, when we were looking to purchase we were told to subtract 20% from mfg.'s btu specs for decent heating in our climate. Our Oslo is rated at 2,000 sq. ft. - we are heating around 1500 very comfortably.