I got the green light to put a wood stove in my house from the wife. I do have to re do the kitchen to do it, but it happens. I should start off by saying I would like almost heat my house with a stove (1200 sq. single floor ranch). I've been talking to a few guys at work and they swear by the vermont castings intrepid 2, Ive also been looking at regency stoves, they seem pricey. I know its wrong but Ive been looking at TSC, the have a United States company stove, seem hit or miss. I would like to have something that would be able to load at night, go to bed and reload before going to work. I'm sure the furnace will kick on during the work day, but I plan to set it low, like around 60. I don't have to worry about fire wood, I spin wrenches part time for a tree and firewood company. I would also like something that would sit close to the wall, I know that there has to be clearance, but I don't need tripping over it all the time. I would like to spend about 600 - 700 buck on the stove. not to sure about that whole catalyst thing either. Thanks Mark
starting from nothing
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North of 60
Minister of Fire
Hello Mark, and welcome to the Hearth Forum. What type of existing chimney have you got at this point?
ddddddden
Minister of Fire
A forum favorite in that price range is the Englander, AKA Summer's Heat at Lowe's, AKA Timber Ridge. www.overstockstoves.com Drolet at Northern Tool is worth a look too. You're probably going to need to spend at least another $500 on a proper chimney. It's great that you can get free wood, but you need to let it dry for at least a year for best results with modern stoves, so you might want to start stacking up a supply of wood and take your time finding a stove.
Yep.. The Englander 30 is a Beast. Just installed mine yesterday in my Basement. I still have the Pellet stove upstairs (Going on its 4th season). But I hope to reduce my pellet consumption.
Getting you wood seasoned is Large Part of it. I have over 10 Cord now C/S/S and just installed my stove
What is your wood situation? How Much? How long has it been Split and Stacked?
Whats your chimney set-up? Or are you installing Class A??
Is this a Basement or Living area install?
Floor plans or Pics help a lot...
Welcome to the Forums. If you do a search on what your looking for. 90% of the time it has already been talked about/gone over.
Getting you wood seasoned is Large Part of it. I have over 10 Cord now C/S/S and just installed my stove
What is your wood situation? How Much? How long has it been Split and Stacked?
Whats your chimney set-up? Or are you installing Class A??
Is this a Basement or Living area install?
Floor plans or Pics help a lot...
Welcome to the Forums. If you do a search on what your looking for. 90% of the time it has already been talked about/gone over.
I have no chimney at all for a wood stove, only for the furnace. I have a ranch house built in the 50's, nice and square. I plan on putting the stove in the living room, biggest room of the house and most time is spent there. I have a unfinished crawl space that has vents to the outside, figure I could suck cold air from there. the house is 25' by 50'. roughly 1200 square feet. Its a single story and it will be a straight shot to the moon for the chimney. I made friends with a roofer, certified and that nice stuff. I'm gonna have him do my chimney from start to finish. I work for a firewood dealer after work, its all seasoned and dry. All hardwood, mostly ash. I'm still on the fence about the catalytic converter, not too sure about the pro or cons. Not too sure about a blower either. Mark
Sounds like you are on a fast track.
I'd suggest starting a new thread / doing some searching through the archives here if you want to debate cat vs non-cat if you want a full thread w/ both sides of the story. If you decide to mix in steel vs, cast, vs soap stone hold on to your hat, it's going to be a bumpy ride.
At the end of the day I have never seen a stove that is 100% perfect for a particular home 100% of the time. There are advantages and disadvantages to each type of stove. In all, a lot depends on your budget, your intended use / work schedule, as well as your home layout / climate. There are lots of factors!
Welcome and we look forward to seeing your progress.
pen
I'd suggest starting a new thread / doing some searching through the archives here if you want to debate cat vs non-cat if you want a full thread w/ both sides of the story. If you decide to mix in steel vs, cast, vs soap stone hold on to your hat, it's going to be a bumpy ride.
At the end of the day I have never seen a stove that is 100% perfect for a particular home 100% of the time. There are advantages and disadvantages to each type of stove. In all, a lot depends on your budget, your intended use / work schedule, as well as your home layout / climate. There are lots of factors!
Welcome and we look forward to seeing your progress.
pen
gmule
Feeling the Heat
I was where you are about 2 weeks ago. Have fun with it and post up some pictures. I like to see what others have done.
ddddddden
Minister of Fire
Unless you are buying used, there are no catalytic stoves for $700, so you can skip that option and focus on the non-cat "afterburner" type of stove. You probably don't need to worry about drawing air from outside, unless your house is exceptionally tight.
For 1200 square feet, there are ample stoves that will heat your entire home without a problem. Most small stoves will. You don't have to worry about catalytic in your price range - they don't really exist there.
The next questions you want to ask yourself are about stove longevity and how often you want to fiddle with it/how long you want it to burn and what you like to look at. You and your wife, putting a stove in your living room, are going to want something you find attractive.
A quality stove with a 10+ year lifespan is probably going to run you $800-1000 at the bottom of the range. What I mean is 10+ years running on the original steel plates without warping and what not (provided you don't fire it up to 900 degrees TOO often). You may need to replace the door seal and a firebrick in that time, but that should be about it.
The Englander NC-30 is a LARGE stove, capable of fully heating your home, providing very long burn times, and is good quality. It runs $800 (good sale) to $1000 (about normal price). But it's also, again, quite large. This means you can smoke you and your wife out, or get 10-12 hour burn times on a full load of hard woods, or find ways to provide nice long even heat to your entire house. It's more stove than you NEED, but that's not a bad thing.
There are many other stoves. I think you should reset your budget a bit on the stove - you'll be happier at the end of the day in your choices. Whats your budget for the chimney and chimney install?
The next questions you want to ask yourself are about stove longevity and how often you want to fiddle with it/how long you want it to burn and what you like to look at. You and your wife, putting a stove in your living room, are going to want something you find attractive.
A quality stove with a 10+ year lifespan is probably going to run you $800-1000 at the bottom of the range. What I mean is 10+ years running on the original steel plates without warping and what not (provided you don't fire it up to 900 degrees TOO often). You may need to replace the door seal and a firebrick in that time, but that should be about it.
The Englander NC-30 is a LARGE stove, capable of fully heating your home, providing very long burn times, and is good quality. It runs $800 (good sale) to $1000 (about normal price). But it's also, again, quite large. This means you can smoke you and your wife out, or get 10-12 hour burn times on a full load of hard woods, or find ways to provide nice long even heat to your entire house. It's more stove than you NEED, but that's not a bad thing.
There are many other stoves. I think you should reset your budget a bit on the stove - you'll be happier at the end of the day in your choices. Whats your budget for the chimney and chimney install?
In this price range you are most likely looking at Englander, Timberwolf, Drolet. Shoot for a 2 cu ft stove.
the price of the chimney is a whole other budget and it really isn't a issue. I want to have a stove and size the best chimney to it. What is this double burn stuff? Never heard of it... hmmmmmm
Mark
Mark
Backwoods Savage
Minister of Fire
Welcome to the forum Mark.
Your price range somewhat limits you and that is why you've received the suggestions above. You might want to revise the dollar figure a bit.
You want to load the stove, go to bed and then reload in the mornings. You also want to do the same during the day. Therefore you need either a large firebox or something like a cat stove. Don't fear the cat stoves! We did but found out our fears were way off base. Also, with the cat stove you are usually talking about some long burn times. The Woodstock stoves are excellent for this but perhaps out of your price range. Perhaps a BK stove might also interest you. Keep an open mind and yes, for sure base the chimney size on the requirements of the stove. If the stove says 6" then a 6" chimney will work the best. Same for an 8".
Another thing to keep in mind is that the burn requirements during daylight hours are much different than nights. Not as long of a burn at night compared to your working hours during the day but nights are colder than days so keep that in mind. For sure if I filled our stove for a long burn it would serve nights as well as longer days and the house would not vary much in temperature. Unlike others, I want to keep our house at a respectable even temperature and do not like the big swings of the temperatures. The cat stove serves us well.
Good luck to you.
Your price range somewhat limits you and that is why you've received the suggestions above. You might want to revise the dollar figure a bit.
You want to load the stove, go to bed and then reload in the mornings. You also want to do the same during the day. Therefore you need either a large firebox or something like a cat stove. Don't fear the cat stoves! We did but found out our fears were way off base. Also, with the cat stove you are usually talking about some long burn times. The Woodstock stoves are excellent for this but perhaps out of your price range. Perhaps a BK stove might also interest you. Keep an open mind and yes, for sure base the chimney size on the requirements of the stove. If the stove says 6" then a 6" chimney will work the best. Same for an 8".
Another thing to keep in mind is that the burn requirements during daylight hours are much different than nights. Not as long of a burn at night compared to your working hours during the day but nights are colder than days so keep that in mind. For sure if I filled our stove for a long burn it would serve nights as well as longer days and the house would not vary much in temperature. Unlike others, I want to keep our house at a respectable even temperature and do not like the big swings of the temperatures. The cat stove serves us well.
Good luck to you.
ddddddden
Minister of Fire
Mark, are you asking what secondary burn is? It means burning the smoke, either with a catalyst or by injecting hot air into the top of the firebox (non-cat.)
Ok, after researching I kinda like this stove:
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200360211_200360211
Anybody have any insight on this stove? Not too sure about this air tube thing, I know what a cat is because of my automotive background. not too sure how some tubes are supposed to burn heated gases. Mark
http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200360211_200360211
Anybody have any insight on this stove? Not too sure about this air tube thing, I know what a cat is because of my automotive background. not too sure how some tubes are supposed to burn heated gases. Mark
Here's a good article to help you learn about the difference between catalytic combustion and secondary combustion. The majority of modern stoves use burn tubes or some other form of secondary air manifold to reburn the excess wood gases.
http://www.woodheat.org/how-epa-certified-stoves-work.html
Before jumping the gun on the Vogelzang you might want to look at a couple others. The main reason being heavier metal and a more square firebox so that you can load it north/south (wood parallel to the sides of the stove). At 18 1/4" x 11" the Shiloh has a smallish, shallow firebox. Compare this to the Drolet Myriad at 18 1/4 x 20 1/4 or the Napoleon 1400 at 18.5 x 18.5"
http://www.dynamitebuys.com/store/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=869 (call for price)
http://www.woodheat.org/how-epa-certified-stoves-work.html
Before jumping the gun on the Vogelzang you might want to look at a couple others. The main reason being heavier metal and a more square firebox so that you can load it north/south (wood parallel to the sides of the stove). At 18 1/4" x 11" the Shiloh has a smallish, shallow firebox. Compare this to the Drolet Myriad at 18 1/4 x 20 1/4 or the Napoleon 1400 at 18.5 x 18.5"
http://www.dynamitebuys.com/store/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=869 (call for price)
FyreBug
Minister of Fire
glh85 said:
If you like that stove you may want to look at this one. http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200394627_200394627 They are identical and Vogelzang is almost a copy of the Century. Same size. Although Century is made in North America with better warranty and thicker material. It rates 4.3 stars out of 5 versus the Vogelzang at 3/5.
It sounds to me you have a tight budget. So Englander, Century and Drolet are good brands to look at. All made in North America with good warranty & support. You can shop in Big Box stores or internet retailers.
If you are shopping around on the internet, BeGreen provided a link to DymamiteBuys who has good deals. You have looked at Northern Tools who sells a few brand and this one http://www.northlineexpress.com/ sells many brands including Timberwolf, Volgelzang, Drolet & Century.
well it happened. I pulled the trigger on a stove. I waited and waited for prices to come down and got a drolet eldorado. Got it for 568 out the door. I have been getting wood split and stored, I got three pallets ready to go for next year. I plan on being a weekend burner so short burn times won't bother me too much. Right now the stove is in the garage, I wonder if I can put a chunk of stove pipe on and have a few small fire on the back drive way? Oh well I'm really excited and can't wait until next winter.
Mark
Mark
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