possible new Woodstock Fireview for next heating season.

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sappy

Member
Jan 30, 2011
95
Vermont upper valley
waiting for estimate from local sweep on through the roof install on new stove setup. We will be ordering a new Woodstock fireview if all goes well to replace our 12 year old Harmon p61 pellet stove.
 
Nice... When/if it goes pics please. Just wondering what made you change over from pellet to cord wood ???

Shawn
 
Good for you sappy. The Fireview is a great stove. Are you going to pick it up at the factory? Have you chose the color yet?
 
Good choice. The people at Woodstock are excellent to deal with. You will be as happy with the people as you are wit the stove.
 
Flatbedford said:
Good choice. The people at Woodstock are excellent to deal with. You will be as happy with the people as you are wit the stove.

They are great to deal with, and the stoves are great quality and great looking. I like their stuff!
 
Backwoods savage, I hope to pick it up when ready as I live across the river in Vermont around 8 miles from there. I used to have a classic for yrs. These are new to me, but I do know some local folks who have these.
Looking at replacing stove for many reasons. My Wife not eal familar with things that can go wrong with the pellet and cleaning it etc. I pay $1000 to 1200 for the pellets every year. I can get some wood from my sugaring business from time to time, I cant say that with the pellets. I hope to keep this 12 foot by 24 long room warmer in the heart of the winter so that it might help lift the heat out my 3 or 4 steps into the rest of the 78 foot long home to make it all a little warmer. I still have to buy 700 gal of propane just to keep the far end of the house at 62 or 63 degees and hot water. It is 75 in here now and the pellet is heating the house at 30 degrees. I think the woodstove will keep each room along to the end as i look right straight down the hall a little warmer than the pellet can. I do have fans every 10 to 15 feet to help move stuff along. I know it is hard to move heat sideways.
I was goinf to have a builder make a 6 inch high hearth with woo framing and one half inch cement board and ceramic tile on that. Does this sound kosher?
Thaks in advance for all the help you all have been in researching this. You do a huge srvice daily more than u know.
 
Sappy, we were blessed last September to visit the Woodstock factory. Here are a couple pictures we took. The first one is just a bunch of the Woodstock folks and a few from hearth.com too.

GroupphotoatWoodstock.jpg


This one Mike H. must have told a story. From left to right: Vaughn (hiding), Lauren, Mike, Dennis and Judy.
Vaughn-Lorin-Mike-Dennis-Judy.jpg


And here is Tony, aka fire_man and his wonderful son TJ asking questions about the stove.
TonyTJ.jpg


And here is the new stove still in Research and Development.
Frankenstove-1-2.jpg


Call them anytime with questions. They like to help.
 
Dennis, those are great pictures to go along with a great day! Thanks for posting them.

That Frankenstove is one mean looking beast! I just called Woodstock and they have still not settled on the final Firebox size. I was told they are trying to hit as close to 3.0 cu ft as possible, right now it looks like it will come in at 2.8. The Fireview is 2.2, so I don't see how they are going to get the 50% increase in size quoted on their original blog. I imagine the extra burn tubes in addition to the cats are taking up much of the height, so the increase in BTU's will come mainly from improved efficiency rather than an increase in firebox size.
 
Those are fantastic pictures. I would love to go to that and meet some of you all.
 
Thanks Tony. And I hope TJ is doing fine too.


Sappy, Woodstock does have a couple outings every year and for sure one in the summer. Last year the one they had in September was originally scheduled for August. I was glad they moved it back else I may not have been able to go and that is the first time we have been there but do hope to return. They really are some very nice people and if I were looking for work that is one place I would definitely look at just because of the way they run the business and that, of course, brings in good people. Mike H. is probably the one who had the biggest influence on us going to the party but we were treated by all as if they had known us for a long time. I kept hearing, "Where's Dennis?" or "Hey, Dennis is here!" Simply amazing.
 
Thanks for the info Dennis. I know it is cold here in the conn river valley of Vermont as well. I do sugaring made 20 gallons last night but it is quite froze up right now. It will no dought be a good sap run next week when I am back at work lol, having work and sugaring until wee hours to deal with. Oh well the warmer weather will be here soon enough to end the sugaring for another year. Take care.
 
sappy said:
Thanks for the info Dennis. I know it is cold here in the conn river valley of Vermont as well. I do sugaring made 20 gallons last night but it is quite froze up right now. It will no dought be a good sap run next week when I am back at work lol, having work and sugaring until wee hours to deal with. Oh well the warmer weather will be here soon enough to end the sugaring for another year. Take care.

Sappy, we just passed 30 gallons on 120 taps. Still going strong in southern MA. Oh, and to be fire related, nothing like the fire going through that arch!
 
Maybe this year will make up for last year with the syrup. At least around here, last year was the worst year than anyone can remember. The first time I was involved with making syrup was in 1954. I lived with a family who made syrup and his father also made syrup, so this goes back a long ways. I've only been to the sugar shack twice but hope to go back this week. I'm sure there hasn't been much of a run for several days now as we have not even been above freezing. The sun has been relatively warm though to cause the typical growth of icicles. It is supposed to get to 30 today and sunny so I'll bet there is some dripping.
 
Yea Dennis, it is froze up here in Vermont as well. We have around 1100to 12oo taps with around 200 on buckets still. We make between 200-300 gal a year. I usually handle around 400 plus however throughout the year. I still do sugaring with all wood. Usually 10-12 cords a year. This is why I want to go back to wood at the house and get rid of the pellet. As we speak there are a lot of dead maples from storms this past yr up in the woods and I have some at the sugar house I can set aside for the house at times. I will need to for the first year by at least 3 cords of real dry wood from a local vendor here, as the wood I have set aside and am setting aside will not be dries as I will like by fall. What do you think if I get kiln dried from a local vendor here? They sell it at stores nearby and it looks good. They also deliver to ur house by the cord. As mentioned after this year I will have stuff myself but will need GOOD dry to start.
 
That is a lot of taps for sure and I'm sure it keeps you busy. Good for you. My friend also still uses wood for the boiling and knows if he runs short all he has to do is come and help himself to some of our wood. For sure you should get rid of the pellet stove and burn good wood. It seems like the kiln dried wood might be a bit expensive. Still, if you approach him he may give you a discount and that would certainly help.

3 cord is about what we burn here but this year we definitely will be over 3 cord for the first time since we got the Fireview but it has been a very cold winter and March is the exact opposite of last year. Seems to me that at this time last year I had the 6 cord split and stacked already. I haven't even started this year's and won't until this ice and snow has melted.
 
You will like the Fireview - geat stove. If your square footage would allow, you might consider the Keystone - another beautiful stove.

Good luck,
Bill
 
Regarding the size of Frankenstove, whether or not 2.8 cu ft is 50% larger depends on if you're talking cu ft of air space or actual usable space that will hold splits. What they publish look like "real world" dimensions(14.5 x 13 x 20") rather than a total volume spec, but I measured something like 12.5 x 12 x 19.5". Todd measured similar. Yeah, all the mfrs exaggerate firebox size, I'm just saying to compare apples to apples when comparing. The actual usable space of the FV ~ 1.8 cu ft, so 2.7 cu ft of usable space would be 50% larger. Anyhow, I think they're going for technical merit points rather than brute strength/size. . .they could've simply done a 3-cu-ft FV and had it out the door a year ago. . .and probably sold every one that they could build. Oh yeah, congrats Sappy! Welcome to the Temple of the Cat. (Are you sure you don't want to wait for Frankenst0ve?)
 
yea, I know a lot of folks who have the fireview in my area and I really like it. The room it is going in is one half of a 24by24 garage with one half finished. That being said it is 12 by 24 which lifts 3 steps up into the rest of the very long ranch house[about 1900 sqare feet upstairs. The stove will be on the gable end away from the sleeping area which is on the other gable end. We figure it will drive us out of the room at times, but I will open a window when home if needed, lol. I hope it keeps that end of the home at least 75 through the heart of the day, as this is all I get will the pellet stove there now. I figure it will be warmer at times even after it kinda has gone out therefore moving some more heat along to other parts of the home laterly somewhat. I know this is hard to do but right now in the high 20s low 30 and pellet is keeping the propane furnace from coming on in that sleeping area albeit, we only have the thermostat set at 62 anyway. I am hoping as it gets cold next heating season that the 62 room temp might turn into mid 65 66 without having the furnace do it, but instead from the fireview output at times.
 
Sappy, have you tried a small fan blowing into the stove room? It seems to work wonders. Blow the cool air in and it forces the warmer air out. Works better than trying to move it in the opposite direction.
 
Dennis, would I in the next room up from the woodstove blow a standup fan or something towards the stove room? and would I still have my corner fan in doorway still blowing out the hot as well?

Another question. My Brother in law is a builder. I was going to have him build me a 60 inch wide by 48 deep 6 inch raised hearth for this stove. My question is He was going to cut the commercial carpet that parcially would have been under the base-it will just be the concrete floor there now. Second he was going to make the frame out of wood. Then he was going to put one half inch thick cement board down with ceramic tile on that. Do we need [2] cement boards or is how I decribe this to be kosher?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 
Den said:
Regarding the size of Frankenstove, whether or not 2.8 cu ft is 50% larger depends on if you're talking cu ft of air space or actual usable space that will hold splits. What they publish look like "real world" dimensions(14.5 x 13 x 20") rather than a total volume spec, but I measured something like 12.5 x 12 x 19.5". Todd measured similar. Yeah, all the mfrs exaggerate firebox size, I'm just saying to compare apples to apples when comparing. The actual usable space of the FV ~ 1.8 cu ft, so 2.7 cu ft of usable space would be 50% larger. Anyhow, I think they're going for technical merit points rather than brute strength/size. . .they could've simply done a 3-cu-ft FV and had it out the door a year ago. . .and probably sold every one that they could build. Oh yeah, congrats Sappy! Welcome to the Temple of the Cat. (Are you sure you don't want to wait for Frankenst0ve?)

Good points, but I have to assume Woodstock is being consistent in how they rate their firebox sizes. They quoted 2.2 cu ft Fireview and potentially 2.8 Frankenstove, so for now that is the best "apples to apples" we have. My plan is to load my FV with a full firebox of splits, pay a visit to the new stove and load it with the same splits. Then continue to fill her up. This will be the best way I know to gauge the difference. The problem will be I think the new stove takes longer splits so I will have to play games to fill it up with my 16 inchers.

I agree, they are going for technical points rather than brute force. Kind of like an efficient supercharged computer controlled V6 vs an old fashioned brawy carburated Big Block 454. The V6 might just win these days. We'll have to wait and see the BTU test results on the new stove.
 
Sappy, don't use a pedestal fan. You want just a small table top fan and run it on low speed. I would still leave the small fan in the doorway. At least I think that is what you say you have is one of those small fans that fit in the top corner of the doorway. The two fans working together would help you immensely. Now look at this picture. Sorry it doesn't show the whole thing but have a good look.

Woodstove-1.jpg


This is a 16" raised hearth. It is built out of 2 x 4's. The carpet was removed. There is 1/2" cement board with ceramic tile on top (double cement board would not hurt but I did not feel it required that much and it hasn't been a problem at all). The hearth measured 42" x 60". We threw that together in 2007 so it has served us well for 4 winters now. So how does that compare with what you are describing? The only thing I would caution you on is to build it higher. The 16" height of ours has proved to be excellent because I can sit on a chair while loading the stove and it is at about a perfect height for working there. Another 2" would not have been bad either. The extra room on the hearth has proved to work well in the winter months for boots, gloves, etc but sadly in the summer months it ends up as a catch all. My lovely wife has this terrible habit where she can't seem to leave a level surface bare; it seems to always have a need for something sitting on it.... But that is a different problem.

What do you think? It sounds like our thinking was pretty darned close except for the height. I do feel the height does make a big difference. I was a bit afraid because as I told my wife, heat rises. We might have a cold floor. That has not proved to be the case. She won.
 
Check your emails Tony.
 
Dennis, that is very nice. It is very similar to what we have in the living room-at other end of house where we currently have a Vermont castings propane stove. We used to have the Woodstock soapstone classic [older model] there for yeasrs. Not sure how it was built as it was here when my Wife,s Grandparents lived here. I think that one is around a foot high. It has always been useful as you said for driying boots, rising bread dough, or as my Wife use to do with the classic[still does when I run the castings from time to time]. This is just down the hall from the bedrooms. My Wife would never want it that hot on that end of the house now[hot flashes, lol] This is why The new stove will go at the exact opposite end of house at other gable end.
 
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