Looking for my first wood burning stove

Hello everyone! I am planning for my first wood burning stove. I have been looking at the Englander and US Stove brands from Home Depot. My home is a 1300 sq ft ranch style. One of my main concerns is I can't find a stove that seems to fit the square footage of my home. Is it ok to get a stove bigger than what I need? Say, a stove that can heat 1500 or 2000 sq ft? Or will I need to keep the air control mostly closed to keep them from running me out?

I'm "iffy" about the Englander brand just from reading the installation guide in their owner manual online. It looks like they have some typos in the clearances from walls and the fire-proofing required under the stove doesn't seem right either. Manual says the floor must have an R value of at least 2, which if I use cement-board I would have to layer something like 3-5 sheets on top of each other. I even called their customer service and was told the R value is a typo and just to ignore it. I cant ignore it though, in the area I live the installation will have to be inspected and have to be to the manufacturers specs.

Thanks in advance to everyone who posts a reply. I greatly appreciate any advice.

Forgot to mention that I live in southern Ohio. The winters here aren't too terribly bad or long.

Im from Northern Ohio and I will tell you Most will agree with me on Englander being a better stove and having better customer service.

I have there big wood stove (and 2 pellet stoves / my Father also owns 1) and the 30-NC is a Heat Monster.


The 13-NC and 30-NC can be had pretty cheap. The 30-NC can be had for less than $700 delivered (right time of year). There are many popular stoves out there. But the 30-NC ranks high here....

Welcome to the Forums. US Stove isn't bad. But my Uncle owns a 2000 and for the price he paid. I bought my 30. Much bigger and much nicer. IMO....

Around here the Englanders are well liked as a good stove for a decent price with good folks who will back up their products . . . and in fact there are at least one or two folks associated with them that pop in here from time to time.

To answer your question . . . in general I recommend folks figure out their square footage and then go one size up with the stove since many stove manufacturers are relying on lab tests not your real home tests (i.e. knowing what your home has for insulation, size of the home, etc.) It is far easier to build a small fire in a large fire box than it is to attempt to stuff more wood into a firebox that is already filled to capacity . . . that said . . . I also believe you can go too big . . . and it always makes sense to figure out the square footage and figure out your own needs (i.e. is your house well insulated, do you have a lot of older windows in the home, etc.)

As for the R value . . . I might suggest calling Customer Service again and this time asking for documentation to be sent to you stating what R value is needed . . . if this is on an official letterhead most Fire Inspectors I know (and in my line of work I know a few) would be willing to accept this as documentation . . . or you can always build to the spec listed and know it exceeds your needs (there are other ways to achieve the R value required besides layering 3-5 sheets of course -- utilizing an air space for example.

first I've heard of a typo. You sure you talked to ESW's customer service? I think you'd be happy with either brand, but I sure am partial to Englander. You could do what I did, but it's certainly not cost effective. I got the smaller stove first and then decided I needed bigger, so got that and put the smaller stove in my barn. If I had got the bigger stove first my wife would never have let me get a stove for my barn, lol! So, the big question is, do you have room for more than one stove!?!?!

Not that I have anything against US Stoves, but as an alternative to an Englander I'd be looking at Drolets. Do you have any local places to buy those? FyreBug is their local representative on this forum and is quick to offer help or advice if you have questions or problems.

My stove is oversized for my house. The (Lopi) Republic 1750 is rated for 1200-2000 sq ft and we're just about 700. HOWEVER we're in a former summer cottage that wasn't really built (read insulated) to be a full time home, and I am keeping the original windows (although once we're done restoring them, with the aluminum storms that were already on them, they really aren't that inefficient). We burn smaller, shorter fires when we don't need as much heat, and it holds it's own in really cold temps. We usually end up about 1/8-1/4 open on the air control once it's settled in. I don't know what your budget is, but the Republic is a pretty good stove and has really good clearances (4 1/4" from the back wall with doublewall and no r-value requirement for hearth pad protection).

How does that 1750 handle small fires or dampened fires when the weather is moderate? This stove is high on my short list but 2.2 cf seems a bit large for my situation with a pretty tight house and moderate climate, and I know I'll have to be burning very small fires and/or keep the damper down a lot. So, does it seem like the stove operates well with small fires, and how does it behave with the damper down (blackened window, poor efficiency, etc)? And does it seem to convect well without fan? I like this stove a lot on paper, and I wonder how you like it in the cool-but-not-cold weather? My situation is a lot different than yours, I know, but it sounds like we both will be burning low a lot.

I'm doomed...

I guess what I'm trying to determine is if burning small, quick fires in a largish stove is efficient and clean. I don't mind tending it. I just want to know that it's an acceptable method of control. A lot of times this spring when we first moved in, we would just run the electric furnace for a while in the morning and the house maintained pretty well, so in that respect, It should work okay, as long as the stove is happy that way. Plenty of supercedar for daily starts?

It is acceptable, and fact is, it is better to go a little too big than too small. You can build small fires in a large stove, but you can't build large fires in a small stove.

That doesn't mean you need to buy a huge stove, but it would probably be best if you got a little larger than you thought you would need.

Keep in mind, you are getting this advice from someone that is heating 2,150 sq ft with 9 cu ft of stoves. So, I naturally will recommend going a bit larger. But, my situation is quite unique.

I've seen your other posts, Browning. This is an understatement. Thanks for your input. I enjoy your posts. How you juggle all those stoves is amazing. BTW, you make a heck of a rifle. I had the chance to shoot one of your .50 cal sniper jobs awhile back.

That's what I was looking for. Thanks. I was kinda curious if eclecticcottage solved their window soot problem from a while back, and if slow burns may have contributed to that and if they are still happy with the 1750 in general. I'm not going to obsess over cleaning the window now and then, but I think there was an issue with soot in the house or something too. Can't remember now. Maybe it was a wood quality issue. It's very interesting to read about people's experiences as everyone and every situation is different.

We have the Endeavor, which is the same firebox as the 1750, and it does fine with smallish fires. Being on the Cumberland Plateau in the Southeast, we can have winters that are really mild (like last year) or winters with multiple snows and times where we don't get out of the teens for a week or two. The key for me is dry fuel. If you want to have "efficient" small fires, dry fuel is what you are after. We have so much standing dead, beetle-kill pine around here that it's not funny. I put that stuff up (cut/split/stacked) for a year, and clean, small fires are a non-issue.

I really don't know if we're set with the glass issue, since we didn't have to burn too much after the gasket was replaced. It was really just by the handle that was a problem. Could have also been an issue with fuel (since it wasn't only our first year with the stove, it was our first year at the Cottage, we had to buy wood), although we did have it happen with just ecobricks. The soot in the house comment was from another 1750 owner with a basement install and something to do with the furnace I think. I know it was a basement install. We've never had a problem with soot in the house, nor a "wood smoke" smell (except for that one overfire incident).

We really only did shorter, smaller fires for shoulder season, vs really damping it down. We didn't really heat ourselves out, and managed to remain comfortable as well. It is really our only method of heat here, except the vent free, and we shut that down in March (I think) and didn't even install it until January. Otherwise, the Lopi is it.

We had a unique agreement with the PO of the Cottage so we have several cord of wood that was CSS last summer here, as well as left over we bought, and ecobricks for this coming season. We also have some standing dead pine we CSS over the winter. Should see pretty quick if the window soot issue is resolved or not when we get into burn season. It wasn't the whole glass, just about 1" over from the side where the handle is. We also found out the stove wasn't level when installed (stupid us, should have checked) so that might have been part of it too.

At this point, the 1750 and the Sirroco would have been the only two I'd have considered had the sirroco even been an option when we bought ours, even knowing what I know now. I love the woodstocks, but the clearances kill me. I don't like the looks of any other BK stove. The Republic has been a good stove and I'm still overall happy with it. I think the Sirroco would have been a bit better in shoulder season, but that's about it.

We did use the fan a good bit, but we have a weird layout. As far as "open" space, think of an H. You walk into an open to each other kitchen and dining room which leads to a very narrow hall, off of which are the bathroom and bedroom. The hall leads to the other "end" of the H which is the living room. The stove is in the living room. The fan seems to help move the heat through the whole H, but it also does fine without it, unless it's REALLY cold (we only had a few of those days, but it seemed to really help the most when it was in the teens or below).

I wouldn't hesitate to step up one size on the stove. My house is 1155sf and my insert is rated to heat up to 1200sf. It works, but if I had to do over again, I'd seriously think about getting the next larger size. And I'm not subjected to harsh winters here either. If I was in a place that got seriously cold in winter I would absolutely go big on the stove.
Getting the house too warm is easy to fix.

Thanks. I'm convinced...