Anybody regret buying too much stove?

[leftyscott]

I just put a down payment on a quadrafire 5100.

My house is 2100 sq. ft 3 levels. Insert will heat 1st and 2nd floors 1700 +/- sq. ft. While NW Arkansas does not have harsh winters, I burn nightly Nov to April.

I see a lot of posts where folks regret getting too small a stove, but none regret buying too much stove.

Stove is in living room with 20 ft. ceiling. Upstairs bedroom also has high ceilings. Also, kitchen has 12 ft. ceilings.

Additionally, house has poor insulation.... cold in winter hot in summer.


I chose the 5100 b/c I liked the long burn times. I want to go to bed warm and wake up 8 hours late just as warm. Also want to all but eliminate the need for electric heat.

Does this make any sense? Also, got a pretty good deal on the stove.

Appreciate any comments.

 

[BrotherBart]

My main stove has a 3.5 cubic foot firebox and I have never regretted it. Most of the time I heat the joint overnight without even stuffing it full. Three big splits and let it do its thing.

 

[eernest4]

I have a 12 cu ft firebox on my stove & in the winter , I fill it up & burn it hot!.

It was a 1970 smoke dragon but I converted it to secondary burn by using the hot water tubing
inside the stove, which leaked water when under pressure to secondary air tubes by drilling
3/16th holes every inch in the water pipes.

I cut the smoke up the chimney by 60 % and only use half of the wood that I used to. I frequently get 700 deg stove top with 400 deg stack temp

I am heating 2700 sq ft with it. The stove is in the basement which is usually 84 deg and the first floor 67 to 72 with the second floor 58 to 64 depending on outside temps.

I sleep on the first floor & use the second floor for storage & a tv computer room.

I have a new englander 30 wood stove but I am afraid to install it because going from the 12
cu ft firebox I now have to the 3.5 cu ft firebox of the englander , I am afraid I might not get enough heat.

the 12 cu ft firebox is a bit cold in the winter time as it is.

I bought the englander because It got it for $476.oo new, price was too low to resist & I though that I was going to sell the house & I wanted a wood stove small enough to move with me.

Well , the sale fell through because of the depression & I am still burning my big old stove.

The englander is sitting out in the wood shed.

 

[begreen]

The local stove shop said I had to be nuts to consider a 3 cu ft stove for our house in our 'mild' climate. Fortunately, after speaking with wise folks here and Tom Oyen, I realized that it wasn't going to drive me out of house and home. Went from a 1.5 cu ft stove to a 3 cu ft and would not go back. No regrets here for getting the T6.

 

[Jags]

I doubt that after installing the quad, that you are gonna be back here complaining of too much heat. :cheese:

I heat 1750 sqft of farm house on a hill with a 3.0 cu ft box. I would not consider anything smaller (for me).

Not many complain of having too much heating capability because you always have the option of making a smaller fire. It doesn't work if you try to do that the other way around.

 

[daveswoodhauler]

I agree with the previous posts.....if I didn't have limitations on what size I could fit, I would get something that would allow a min overnight burn of 8-9 hours....getting up in the middle of the night is a pain in the arse...I'm just jealous of the larger fire boxes.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I've never heard of anyone buying a stove that was too big. Several said they never fill the firebox because they don't need that much heat but most will admit to filling it during the coldest part of winter. Let's face it, when the temperature drops below zero, you need lots of heat.

So I'd say you will continue to hear about those who try to go too small. It also amazes me why so many people want to heat with wood but want to go as cheap as possible. Playing with fire is not the time to go cheap.

 

[BrowningBAR]

I think this is more of a concern with new burners when they are about to purchase a stove. I was concerned about the size of the stove at first. Now I'm thinking there is no such thing as too much stove.

 

[rdust]

I know the stove I just purchased will be too small when it gets really cold out. This wasn't due to price it was more due to the area restriction my wife gave me. Our family room is only 10x16 and she wanted to keep the foot print small as possible so I settled on a stove with a 2.2 cubic foot firebox and a low clearance to combustibles. I think the biggest issue we'll have is with overnight burns but even at that I usually stay up till midnight and the wife gets up early around 6 so it may not be that big of a problem.

If you have the room I'd say go as big as you can.

 

[BrowningBAR]

I know the stove I just purchased will be too small when it gets really cold out. This wasn't due to price it was more due to the area restriction my wife gave me. Our family room is only 10x16 and she wanted to keep the foot print small as possible so I settled on a stove with a 2.2 cubic foot firebox and a low clearance to combustibles. I think the biggest issue we'll have is with overnight burns but even at that I usually stay up till midnight and the wife gets up early around 6 so it may not be that big of a problem.

If you have the room I'd say go as big as you can.

A free standing stove sure does eat up a lot of space if you don't already have a fireplace for it. I'm lucky as I already have three chimneys and two fireplaces. The third chimney is in the living room and we will have to build a hearth for it. We will end up creating a firebox for the chimney and putting in an insert for our third stove to prevent the stove from eating up space. But that costs a lot more to do so the other two chimneys that already have fireplaces attached were the first to get stoves.

 

[Wet1]

How large is your house that you need three stoves? Sounds like a lot of work (and wood consumption) tending to three stoves!

BTW, generally speaking, oversizing a stove is a good idea (IMO). A stove that can't burn throughout the night or stay toasty while I'm at work isn't optimal for anything other than supplemental heating... which is fine for some people. My goal is not supplemental heat, I try to do all of my heating with renewable and/or alternative energy, so I want a larger stove that I don't have to babysit. In the long run, I think you would find having a small stove to be a lot more work.

 

[BrotherBart]

How large is your house that you need three stoves? Sounds like a lot of work (and wood consumption) tending to three stoves!

Oh it is. It really is.

 

[BrowningBAR]

How large is your house that you need three stoves? Sounds like a lot of work (and wood consumption) tending to three stoves!

The way my house is set up it is nearly impossible to have one stove produce heat that will reach the entire house. So we have a large stove in the Summer Kitchen (family room) and a smaller stove (just bought) in the kitchen. My square footage is 2200 square feet, but even with the second stove in the kitchen I do not see the heat making it to the Living Room and the third bedroom. And I only anticipate the dining room and the second bedroom getting 'some' of the heat that is produced in the kitchen. I think the kitchen and bedroom 1 will get the most heat, which is what we want as bedroom 1 is the master bedroom.

I have attached floorplans so you can see what I am working with.

So, in the end (in about 5 years or so) I will have a large stove in the Summer Kitchen, a large insert in the living room, and the kitchen will have a medium sized insert. I work from home and my desk is located in the Summer Kitchen, so that stove will run 24/7. The stove in the kitchen will run a bit less than 24/7, and the stove in the Living Room would run less than that (weekends, company, really cold days).

With new stoves (I currently have older used stoves that aren't as efficient as a brand new stove) I would probably go through 6-8 cords depending upon how much the kitchen and living room stove is used. I went through 4 1/2 cords burning the old Vigilant 24/7 and very hot as I went through an entire month (Jan 14-Feb 16) without a furnace. So, if I had a new stove I bet I would only go through 3 cords for that one stove…maybe less, if I’m lucky.

I am always open to suggestions, though.