First off, I would like to thank everyone here for the wealth of knowledge I learned while reading this forum for the past year. I finally registered after lurking for a long time.
Exactly one year ago I installed my first wood burning stove. We purchased a Sedore about 2 years ago, but it took a while to get put in. I wanted to build a little addition to the house so that the stove would be out of the way, but also have a door to the outside so that bringing in wood was simple.
After reading here, (I didn't find this site until after I bought the stove) I realize that these stoves aren't used much. I thought that I would share some observations now that I used it for a season.
The basics:
-We own a farm house that is now about 2,800 sf. 7 years ago we did a remodel and addition that included spray-foam insulation in the walls and new windows.
-Our house has a ground-source heat pump for heating and cooling. My wife always considers this "cold heat", mostly due to the low discharge air temperature of the heat pump. She was really wanting some radiant heat.
-We live in the country. Power losses are fairly common in the winter. After an ice storm about 3 years ago, we lost power and it got down to about 50 degrees in the house. Not a big deal, but if it was out for a while longer, I would have needed to drain down the water and put RV anti-freeze in the waste traps. We decided that we wanted a back-up heating system that didn't rely on electrical power of any sort.
What I like about the Sedore:
-It holds a lot of wood, and has pretty good burn times. 12 hours on a fill is easily achievable with good wood.
-The draft control works great. I was surprised by how well it can maintain a constant temperature. Heck, I think it works better than the electronic thermostat on my heat pump.
-The down draft design is awesome. Fill from the top, burns on the bottom. I was skeptical at first (I thought I would get fire and smoke out when I opened the lid), but once you get used to it, it works great.
-It is easy to keep going. As long as you have some coals on the bottom, just throw some wood on top and go. I've gotten a fire going without using a match after at least 24 hours from the last loading. Open the draft bar, prop the lid open, and if there is any live coals, it will fire up. My wife loves this.
-Because it burns evenly, no fooling with it while it is burning. No piling coals or special ways to stack the wood. Dump it in the top, set the draft bar, leave it alone.
What I don't like:
-Sometimes starting it from cold can be tricky. You really have to get the draft going properly. I have a tall chimney, so I have good draft. Still, it is a little draft-finicky.
-Sometimes I get a draft fluctuations that cause the ash door to rattle. Usually, this is during warm-up. Once temperature in the chimney stabilizes, it goes away.
-It took a while to learn the ins and outs of the stove. I took me several tries before I could open the lid without setting off the smoke detectors. The first time I lit the stove I stunk up the entire house. However, with practice, I have gotten much better at it. It does have a learning curve.
-The window is really, really small. Now that I have one, I guess I wish that I could actually watch the fire. Since I am a "function over form" type of guy, this is a small deal, but I do wish that it had a larger window as an option.
What I don't know:
-I have no idea how efficient the unit actually is. The literature says that it is "very efficient", but I have no idea, even after using it a year.
-The literature says that you can burn "practically anything". I've just stuck with split wood. Once I got a bag or two of wood pellets on sale from the local feed store. I would throw a few scoops of them in with my splits, but I don't think that I would try to use them exclusively.
-I have not put corn or sawdust or used oil or any other foolishness in it, so I can't speak to how well it handles those things.
-The literature says that it burns clean. I clean the chimney monthly, and I seem to get a lot of creosote. Since this is my first wood burner, I don't really know what "a lot" means. I have nothing to compare it to. And since this was my first year, before the end of the year I was burning wood that was probably too wet, but it was all that I had. I don't really think that this is any cleaner than any other decent stove, but I'm just guessing. No stove is maintenance free.
Would I buy it again?
-Yes. Once you get the hang of it, it is really easy to use. It puts out a LOT of heat. You can go for a long time between filling. We thought that we were just going to use it occasionally and as a back-up, but we ended up using it all the time. My wife loves the radiant heat.
Is it better than others?
-I don't know, as I don't have any experience with others. We have one friend that has a wood burner, but it is small and they are constantly feeding it. I wouldn't trade for theirs, but I don't even know what brand theirs is... not really a fair comparison or probably helpful to the reader.
Once again, thanks to all who post here. I have learned a lot just from reading.
Exactly one year ago I installed my first wood burning stove. We purchased a Sedore about 2 years ago, but it took a while to get put in. I wanted to build a little addition to the house so that the stove would be out of the way, but also have a door to the outside so that bringing in wood was simple.
After reading here, (I didn't find this site until after I bought the stove) I realize that these stoves aren't used much. I thought that I would share some observations now that I used it for a season.
The basics:
-We own a farm house that is now about 2,800 sf. 7 years ago we did a remodel and addition that included spray-foam insulation in the walls and new windows.
-Our house has a ground-source heat pump for heating and cooling. My wife always considers this "cold heat", mostly due to the low discharge air temperature of the heat pump. She was really wanting some radiant heat.
-We live in the country. Power losses are fairly common in the winter. After an ice storm about 3 years ago, we lost power and it got down to about 50 degrees in the house. Not a big deal, but if it was out for a while longer, I would have needed to drain down the water and put RV anti-freeze in the waste traps. We decided that we wanted a back-up heating system that didn't rely on electrical power of any sort.
What I like about the Sedore:
-It holds a lot of wood, and has pretty good burn times. 12 hours on a fill is easily achievable with good wood.
-The draft control works great. I was surprised by how well it can maintain a constant temperature. Heck, I think it works better than the electronic thermostat on my heat pump.
-The down draft design is awesome. Fill from the top, burns on the bottom. I was skeptical at first (I thought I would get fire and smoke out when I opened the lid), but once you get used to it, it works great.
-It is easy to keep going. As long as you have some coals on the bottom, just throw some wood on top and go. I've gotten a fire going without using a match after at least 24 hours from the last loading. Open the draft bar, prop the lid open, and if there is any live coals, it will fire up. My wife loves this.
-Because it burns evenly, no fooling with it while it is burning. No piling coals or special ways to stack the wood. Dump it in the top, set the draft bar, leave it alone.
What I don't like:
-Sometimes starting it from cold can be tricky. You really have to get the draft going properly. I have a tall chimney, so I have good draft. Still, it is a little draft-finicky.
-Sometimes I get a draft fluctuations that cause the ash door to rattle. Usually, this is during warm-up. Once temperature in the chimney stabilizes, it goes away.
-It took a while to learn the ins and outs of the stove. I took me several tries before I could open the lid without setting off the smoke detectors. The first time I lit the stove I stunk up the entire house. However, with practice, I have gotten much better at it. It does have a learning curve.
-The window is really, really small. Now that I have one, I guess I wish that I could actually watch the fire. Since I am a "function over form" type of guy, this is a small deal, but I do wish that it had a larger window as an option.
What I don't know:
-I have no idea how efficient the unit actually is. The literature says that it is "very efficient", but I have no idea, even after using it a year.
-The literature says that you can burn "practically anything". I've just stuck with split wood. Once I got a bag or two of wood pellets on sale from the local feed store. I would throw a few scoops of them in with my splits, but I don't think that I would try to use them exclusively.
-I have not put corn or sawdust or used oil or any other foolishness in it, so I can't speak to how well it handles those things.
-The literature says that it burns clean. I clean the chimney monthly, and I seem to get a lot of creosote. Since this is my first wood burner, I don't really know what "a lot" means. I have nothing to compare it to. And since this was my first year, before the end of the year I was burning wood that was probably too wet, but it was all that I had. I don't really think that this is any cleaner than any other decent stove, but I'm just guessing. No stove is maintenance free.
Would I buy it again?
-Yes. Once you get the hang of it, it is really easy to use. It puts out a LOT of heat. You can go for a long time between filling. We thought that we were just going to use it occasionally and as a back-up, but we ended up using it all the time. My wife loves the radiant heat.
Is it better than others?
-I don't know, as I don't have any experience with others. We have one friend that has a wood burner, but it is small and they are constantly feeding it. I wouldn't trade for theirs, but I don't even know what brand theirs is... not really a fair comparison or probably helpful to the reader.
Once again, thanks to all who post here. I have learned a lot just from reading.
