Questions for selecting new free standing wood burning stove

[new_wood]

Hey everyone I am looking for some suggestions on a free standing wood burning stove. I currently have a very small early 80's "Little Buck" instert. We are getting ready to remodel/expand our current home. Our current wall with brick chimney will be removed so we have decided to go with a free standing wood burning stove in the new addition. The current insert is just too small and even if I pack it full at night and choke it down it still burns out way before morning. We have decided to go with the free standing stove since we have access to firewood and would like to burn more around the clock to help with the heating bill. A current family member has a free standing stove and it really keeps their place nice and cozy....so much radiant heat it seems like the way to go. Anyway, my question is what kind of specs should I be comparing when I am shopping for a new stove? Heating capacity, BTU output, firebox size, flue size, efficiency? What are the most important to compare? Why the difference in a 6" or an 8" flue? Since we currently have a Buck Stove I have been checking out the Buck model 74 non-catalytic stove. Anyone have any input on this stove or any others they would recommend? Thanks in advance for any input.

Denny

 

[Wood Duck]

I would recommend choosing a stove based on burn time and ease of use, and I suggest that Blaze King catalytic stoves seem to be great based on those two factors (from what I read on this forum). Some of the guys with Blaze Kings report really long burn times, which is very nice. No matter how much you enjoy messing with the wood stove (and I enjoy it a lot) you will still appreciate long burn times. If you really need to mess with the stove, you can always go ahead and mess, but it is nice not to have to. For ease of use, I think cat stoves seem better than non-cat. Yes, you have to learn how to engage the cat, but in reality non-cat stoves require attention too, and cat stoves seem to be better at low, long burns which are needed a lot of the time. With my non-cat stove, I cannot simply engage the cat and leave the stove - I have to adjust the air as the wood goes from the hot burn/off gassing phase to the burning down coals phase or I get either an overheated stove or too many coals. I don't have a cat stove, so you can take my comments with a grain of salt.

One complaint I hear about Balze King stoves is that they are ugly. i have never looked at pictures nor seen one in person, so I have no opinion on their appearance. There are other big cat stoves from other manufacturers that my be about as easy and long burning as a Blaze King.

 

[Mt Ski Bum]

First off before anyone here reccomends a stove, we need to know some more information to better help- what is the approx. square footage of the area you're trying to heat? how insulated is the house? is the house pretty air-tight, or is it really drafty? what's your floor plan like- is it fairly open, or is it divided up into multiple closed-off rooms?

All those factors can make a difference in what stove would work best for you. For instance, if you have a drafty house with little insulation, you'd probably want a larger stove- one that's rated for more sq. footage than the actual size of the heating area. On the other hand, if you have a super-air tight, well-insulated house, then a smaller stove rated at or slightly below the size of the area you're trying to heat would probably do good. If your house has an open floor plan, than a radiant stove would probably do just fine, however if your house is divided up into multiple closed-off rooms, a convection stove would probably be better.

Also consider what type of looks you like- are you looking for a nice cast-iron type stove, or are you more attracted to soapstone stoves, or do you want to stick with steel stoves?

 

[new_wood]

We are basically doubling the size of our house from 900 sq feet to just over 1800 total sq feet. The stove would be in our living room which is roughly 15' x 17'-6". Across the front of the house is really wide open but the master bedroom and one of the spare rooms would be the most distance from the stove. Our home isn't insulated the best as of now but during the remodel we plan on taking care of this problem. We are putting on new siding for the whole house so while the old is off we will be insulating and making sure everything is really buttoned up. I will try to attach an image of our proposed floor plan but all I currently have is a pdf file. I will have to do some research because I am not familiar with convection stoves....advantages, etc. Thanks.

 

[Mt Ski Bum]

We are basically doubling the size of our house from 900 sq feet to just over 1800 total sq feet. The stove would be in our living room which is roughly 15' x 17'-6". Across the front of the house is really wide open but the master bedroom and one of the spare rooms would be the most distance from the stove. Our home isn't insulated the best as of now but during the remodel we plan on taking care of this problem. We are putting on new siding for the whole house so while the old is off we will be insulating and making sure everything is really buttoned up. I will try to attach an image of our proposed floor plan but all I currently have is a pdf file. I will have to do some research because I am not familiar with convection stoves....advantages, etc. Thanks.

Beefing up insulation is always a good start- I've seen that reccomended alot on these forums. Convection stoves are basically stoves with a "convection chamber" that surrounds the firebox which draws cool air in from the room, circulates it around the firebox, & exhausts the warm air back into the room- most convection stoves have an optional blower that can speep up air circulation & help push air through the convection chamber.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Denny, even as you draw up a floor plan for the members on this forum I will advise two things for your consideration. Number one is to keep an open mind when it comes to choosing a stove. That is, do not rule out one type over another and the same for size. Size will be one of the biggest factors though and you can certainly go too small but oversize will not do any harm. Also keep an open mind on other parts of the stove. For instance, when we bought out last stove we ruled out a catalyst on the stove. That was wrong, but we had heard some bad things about cat type stoves. Long story short, we now own a stove with a cat and love it.

Number two is to get your wood on hand as soon as you possibly can. You should already have next winter's wood cut split and stacked. If not, no stove will make you happy. I have always recommended folks get 2-3 years ahead on their wood supply and that will take care of almost all the woes of wood burning. If you don't believe that, stick around to next December and January when new people start looking for reasons their stove will not work worth a hoot or their chimneys plug up with creosote.

One more piece of advice is to never think you can buy good dry wood from a wood seller. 99% of the time you will be told it is good and 99% of the time it will not be dry enough. It is just one of those sad facts of wood burning.

We welcome you to the forum and wish you the best of luck.

 

[My Oslo heats my home]

Big Jotul fan here. Not sure how many sq. ft. your looking to heat but they are worth a look. A little bit more coming out of your wallet but I think it was worth it.

 

[leeave96]

Some stoves that come to mind are Jotul Oslo, Pacific Energy Alderlea T5 and Woodstock Fireview.

See their respective web sites and do some searching for these models - IMHO, they are great, trouble free, easy on the eyes, reliable woodstoves.

Good luck,
Bill

 

[begreen]

In a semi-poorly insulated almost 2000 sq ft Ohio house, I would start thinking convective 3 cu ft stove. This would boost you into the Pacific Energy Summit or Alderlea T6 range. The Fireview is a good choice too and I would look at the Napoleon 1900.

 

[Mt Ski Bum]

+1 on BG's reccommendation of a large convective stove- the PE T6 is a good possibility. I'd also recommend checking out the Avalon Olympic or its cousin, the Lopi Liberty. All 3 of those that I jsut mentioned are all very good stoves, & I don't think you'd be disappointed in any of them. I alos like the looks of Hearthstone's soapstone stoves, but they're radiant only, still it wouldn't hurt to consider them also (I believe most Hearthstones have an optional blower fan, so that might help convect some of that heat)- the Mansfield would probably be the best fit for the 3 cu-ft size range that BG recommended.

 

[new_wood]

Ok so here are some specs on the few non-cat free standing stoves that I have researched. Are there any other specs I should take into consideration along with look and price?

Jotul 500 Oslo Napoleon 1900 Buck Model 74 PE Summit Alderlea T6
EPA tested output BTU/H ? 34,000 40,900 37,501 37,501
Emissions G/H 3.2 2.9 3.6 3.56 3.56
Heating capacity sqft up to 2,000 1,000-3,500 1,500-2,600 up to 3,000 up to 3,000
Efficiency 72% 69.8%? 78% 72.5% 72.5
Log size up to 22" 20" 22" 20" 20"

 

[Mt Ski Bum]

Ok so here are some specs on the few non-cat free standing stoves that I have researched. Are there any other specs I should take into consideration along with look and price?

Jotul 500 Oslo Napoleon 1900 Buck Model 74 PE Summit Alderlea T6
EPA tested output BTU/H ? 34,000 40,900 37,501 37,501
Emissions G/H 3.2 2.9 3.6 3.56 3.56
Heating capacity sqft up to 2,000 1,000-3,500 1,500-2,600 up to 3,000 up to 3,000
Efficiency 72% 69.8%? 78% 72.5% 72.5
Log size up to 22" 20" 22" 20" 20"

If you're considering a Jotul, I'd step up to the F600-Firelight instead of the F500-Olso
As for specs to consider, I'd say in the following order: firebox size, heating capacity (sq. ft.), convection vs. radiant, looks, & price.

 

[Bub381]

Jotul Rangeley,loads 18" n/s and 20"e/w heats 2000 sq ft.Just take a look.I've seen this stove. can't believe the low price.Not full of expensive moving parts to break.Also uses the $3.00 firebrick not the $100 + brick inserts that make ya cringe when they crack. A fairly simple stove. Just what a fella would need to burn wood. Don't need to learn a page full of info to run it.

http://www.jotul.com/en-US/wwwjotulus/Main-menu/Products/Wood/Wood-stoves/Jotul-F-50-TL/

 

[jeff_t]

Ok so here are some specs on the few non-cat free standing stoves that I have researched. Are there any other specs I should take into consideration along with look and price?

Jotul 500 Oslo Napoleon 1900 Buck Model 74 PE Summit Alderlea T6
EPA tested output BTU/H ? 34,000 40,900 37,501 37,501
Emissions G/H 3.2 2.9 3.6 3.56 3.56
Heating capacity sqft up to 2,000 1,000-3,500 1,500-2,600 up to 3,000 up to 3,000
Efficiency 72% 69.8%? 78% 72.5% 72.5
Log size up to 22" 20" 22" 20" 20"

You can take btu ratings and heating capacity for what you want. Firebox size is what you most want to look at. Like BG said, look for something in the 3 cu ft. range. More wood in the stove is what gets you more heat and longer burns. For the money, Englander's nc-30 is hard to beat. The Summit and T6 have the same firebox, just different on the outside. Those are all good stoves, just depends on what you want.
And the Blaze King isn't really that ugly. If you're close to Michigan and interested, I bought a King last week for a pretty rockin' price. They still had another in the warehouse.

 

[bogydave]

Some of the epa stoves & specs here:
http://www.epa.gov/Compliance/resources/publications/monitoring/caa/woodstoves/certifiedwood.pdf

 

[new_wood]

Thanks....some good info. Jeff - I am also considering the Englander 30-NC. I have started some research on its specs and such but haven't got too far.

 

[certified106]

In a semi-poorly insulated almost 2000 sq ft Ohio house, I would start thinking convective 3 cu ft stove. This would boost you into the Pacific Energy Summit or Alderlea T6 range. The Fireview is a good choice too and I would look at the Napoleon 1900.

+1 Ohio can be kind of difficult to size a wood stove due to the crazy temperature ranges that we can see however speaking from experience size your stove for the coldest weather you expect to sustain and you will eventually learn how to tone the heat down on the days you don't need it. What part of Ohio are you from as the weather is vastly different between the southern and northern ends of the state during the winter.

 

[new_wood]

I live in Lebanon........pretty much right smack in between Cincinnati and Dayton.