Greetings from the Shenandoah Valley! I live in a circa 1920 house, two storis, with replacement windows and decent attic insulation. We've got about 1600 sq. ft currently and use a 1980's (I guess) Sierra stove to heat the house in addition to the gas furnace. We're looking to add to the house, a living room, bathroom, pantry downstairs and a bedroom with bath and walk in closet upstairs. We're looking at 450 feet per floor. I've talked to the contractor about cutting some vents in the ceiling to allow the heat to rise upstairs. I've been doing some research and the stove that I like the most is the Dutchwest 2477 non-catalytic. I like the sideloading feature and the optional fan. In looking around this site I've seen some cautions regarding similar stoves. I don't think I'm going to have to burn this stove constantly, mostly during colder/windy days and nights. My wife's opinion (looks) is also a consideration here. Any guidance would be appreciated.
Small stove for addition
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Visit some stove shops with your wife. Make a short list of those you favor the most and then ask plenty of questions. Your question sits squarely in the category of "what car should I buy". There are a bunch of choices. Just to throw some names out: look at Jotul, PE, Quad, ESW/Century (cost conscious box store stoves), Kodiac...whew, there are a bunch more.
If your wife points to a few agreeable stoves, then other suggestions or confirmations can be made based on her tastes.
Maybe take a look at the pics here: https://www.hearth.com/gallery/pics/woodcoal/index.html
and the ratings here: https://www.hearth.com/ratings/searchbytype.php
Hope that helps.
If your wife points to a few agreeable stoves, then other suggestions or confirmations can be made based on her tastes.
Maybe take a look at the pics here: https://www.hearth.com/gallery/pics/woodcoal/index.html
and the ratings here: https://www.hearth.com/ratings/searchbytype.php
Hope that helps.
ShenValSteve said:
If you get a chance post some pictures of your current setup. Sierra's are a rare breed and I enjoy seeing pictures of setups still in use.
I like the Jotuls, either the Nordic or the F3CB, but I'd like a fan and I like the sideloading feature on the Dutchwest. I liked the Quadrafire Yosemite, but that's too much stove for the space.
I'll see if I can get some pics of my Sierra. The guy I bought it from said his father worked for the company (in Harrisonburg) and made the stove specifically for himself.
I'll see if I can get some pics of my Sierra. The guy I bought it from said his father worked for the company (in Harrisonburg) and made the stove specifically for himself.
ShenValSteve said:
Dutchwest . . . definitely do a search for Dutchwest and Verrmont Castings stoves here before you go this route. I think you might reconsider your purchase based on some members' experiences.
If you like side-loading and Jotul stoves the Oslo might be a suitable stove for you . . . although it may be a touch too large.
I shivered just thinking about winter in the Shenandoah Valley. Only fifty miles West of me but I see those temps on the weather map every year. Brrrrr..
Skip the VC non-cat. Just too finicky to operate with fragile expensive parts to replace. Too many people here have had too many problems with them.
It is easy to say go with something like the PE Summit but good luck finding any dealer withing four hundred miles of ya. For a cast stove look at the Jotul F600. Steel, the Quadrafire 5700 or the Englander 30-NC. Soapstone something like the Hearthstone Mansfield.
You are going to need some serious firepower when you get that place stretched out to 2,500 sq. ft.
Skip the VC non-cat. Just too finicky to operate with fragile expensive parts to replace. Too many people here have had too many problems with them.
It is easy to say go with something like the PE Summit but good luck finding any dealer withing four hundred miles of ya. For a cast stove look at the Jotul F600. Steel, the Quadrafire 5700 or the Englander 30-NC. Soapstone something like the Hearthstone Mansfield.
You are going to need some serious firepower when you get that place stretched out to 2,500 sq. ft.
wendell said:
I'm assuming that the stove will not just be heating the addition and that some of the heat will be used in the 2500 sq ft total, but maybe this is a bad assumption?
I like the Oslo and the PE Alderlea T5, but they are too big. The Alderlea T4 is tempting, but I'm thinking it'll be so hot I won't be able to sit in my new family room.
Two places within 45 miles sell Pacific Energy products.
I'd like some heat from this new stove to help out a little bit upstairs when it's below 20 and windy. My current stove should be able to help out in the addition on milder days. I may consider replacing the old stove if I like the new one.
Brother Bart, I hunt in Highland County and have spent a lot of time fishing in West Virginia. I look at the temperatures over THERE and shiver!
Two places within 45 miles sell Pacific Energy products.
I'd like some heat from this new stove to help out a little bit upstairs when it's below 20 and windy. My current stove should be able to help out in the addition on milder days. I may consider replacing the old stove if I like the new one.
Brother Bart, I hunt in Highland County and have spent a lot of time fishing in West Virginia. I look at the temperatures over THERE and shiver!
Look into the Woodstock Soapstone stoves, they can be tuned down to low even burns and shouldn't blast you out of the room and can also pump out the heat when you need it.
www.woodstove.com
www.woodstove.com
ShenValSteve said:
Where are they? I get a lot of questions about dealers in VA for them and the only thing PE does is point to the distributor down in Tenn.. A shop in Manassas is just starting to try out selling them.
ShenValSteve said:
Can you post a floorplan? That way we can see how the heat may circulate. Right now we're just guessing.
The T5 is a pretty gentle convective heater that will heat over a wide range. It won't heat you out of the space unless you insist on stoking it with more fuel. During spring and fall, burn smaller fires. If you are warm enough, let the fire die down. When it's 20 and windy, you may want to have a fire going round the clock. That is when the additional capacity will be appreciated. But if the family room is closed off from the rest of the house, then a smaller stove would be in order.
If you just want to heat the room, you should consider the PE T4. It's basically a cast-iron clad Vista--pretty small. I don't think it will heat you out of the room unless you really stoke it and run it wide open. My Vista insert keeps my living room/kitchen area nice and toasty, with some heat going to the rest of the house. If I wanted to heat the house solely with an insert, I would have had to go larger, but a larger insert wouldn't fit in my fireplace.
I'm not tech savvy enough to know how to draw a picture of my floorplan and download it, but I'll try to describe it. The house is a modified 4 room over 4 room 2 story. Upon entering the house, the foyer is open with the stairwell upstairs. The living room is on the left, in front of the dining room with a door between. To the right of the dining room is the kitchen with a doorway between and doorway to the foyer. The current stove (old Sierra) is in the dining room. I use a fan to blow heat towards the front of the house and up the stairwell. At the top of the stair well is a landing where we have a desk and computer table, as well as a linen closet. There is a bedroom beside it, directly over the living room (this is usually the coldest room in the house). Behind it is another bedroom, directly over the dining room where the stove is. Off the upstairs landing is a small hallway, bathroom (small) on the right and smaller bedroom right behind it, over the kitchen. Sometimes I use a fan to move some heat toward the back bedroom.
On the addition, there will be doorway from the kitchen into the new family room, with a pantry on the right. Directly past this will be the new downstairs bathrooma and laundry room. The new living room will have a second doorway from the dining room. I may use folding doors to be able to close this off. Directly overhead will be a bedroom, with an entrance leading from the smaller bedroom (over the kitchen). There will be a walk in closet and a bathroom over the downstairs bathroom and pantry.
Total square footage of the addition is 384 per floor. My current house is about 1600 square feet. I have replacement windows (Andersen) and new insulation in the attic. In addition, I'm planning on having insulation blown into the walls when the current house has new siding put on and a new roof. My current stove does a good job in the house, but consumes wood at a pretty good pace.
Acme in Harrisonburg and Charlottesville sell PE products, although they don't have any on the floor. Edwards and Sons in Grottoes also carries them.
On the addition, there will be doorway from the kitchen into the new family room, with a pantry on the right. Directly past this will be the new downstairs bathrooma and laundry room. The new living room will have a second doorway from the dining room. I may use folding doors to be able to close this off. Directly overhead will be a bedroom, with an entrance leading from the smaller bedroom (over the kitchen). There will be a walk in closet and a bathroom over the downstairs bathroom and pantry.
Total square footage of the addition is 384 per floor. My current house is about 1600 square feet. I have replacement windows (Andersen) and new insulation in the attic. In addition, I'm planning on having insulation blown into the walls when the current house has new siding put on and a new roof. My current stove does a good job in the house, but consumes wood at a pretty good pace.
Acme in Harrisonburg and Charlottesville sell PE products, although they don't have any on the floor. Edwards and Sons in Grottoes also carries them.
I visited two dealers yesterday and got to look at PE Alderlea T5, too big for what I need but it gave me an idea what the T4 is like. I liked it. I also got to look at a Quadrafire Yosemite which I like and the previously mentioned Dutchwest 2477. Also got some very good information.
I found that the shop here in town carries PE, Napoleon, Lennox, and VC, although they have none of the latter on the floor. They did have a PE T4, which I really like, but after seeing it, I'm really concerned that it would make this family room too hot. That would leave the Quadrafire Yosemite. I really like the looks and it sounds like an excellent product. But to muddy the waters a little, I went back and looked at Napoleon's website and an wondering if the 1100 would work well for me. More thoughts, suggestions?
Ratman said:
My motto is get the fire so hot she has to "downsize her clothing options" nuf said!! haha
ShenValSteve said:
Methinks you are angsting too much about this decision. To simplify, forget model numbers and brands. Think about the firebox capacity and about what is most important for you.
The first one comes from experience. The reason I suggested the Alderlea T5 is that this stove will operate with a wide range of outputs, has enough thermal mass to retain and slowly release heat and has great low maintenance construction. The stove is not going to overheat the room unless the operator keeps putting fuel in the stove long after it is needed. In fall and early spring this may mean a short fire in the morning and in the evening. But when the temps get in the teens or lower, my guess is that you will be asking the stove to put out all it can. Experience tells me that a 2 cu ft stove is about the right size for this sized house in this climate. I am assuming that once you get used to the stove you will start working on distributing the heat out of the family room. But without actually seeing the house and potential issues, it's just an opinion. Same goes for the dealer. But if you go for the T4 or Yosemite, that's ok, it's just that when it gets cold, the stove may be pushed to it's limits.
A possible list for the second item would: size, clearances, cost, looks, etc. If cost is most important, the Napoleon offers a pretty good value in an attractive package.
But ultimately, what's hard to know is what is going to work well for you - in the long term. That is going to depend on how involved in heating with wood you and your family get. If that turns out to be mostly night and weekend fires, then a 1 to 1.5 cu ft stove will be fine. If you decide that you like the experience and want to burn 24/7 (in mid-winter) then you will need a bit bigger firebox to achieve this goal. That is unless you are an insomniac and don't mind getting up at 3am to restoke the stove.
ShenValSteve said:
I really don't think the T4 will make your family room too hot. Once it gets going, my Vista can be throttled down to a nice slow burn. Three splits every 4 to 6 hours keeps it cruising along without blasting us out of the room. When it gets colder, I have to add more wood than that and run it hotter. If your room gets too hot, just hold off on reloading it, it will hold the coals for quite a while to restart the fire. It's a pretty small stove--go any smaller and you may not have enough capacity to heat sufficiently when it gets really cold, and you'll be reloading every 2 or 3 hours. The cast iron should even out the heat delivery too. I also can't strees enough how happy I am with the quality of the Vista. The Vista (and I assume the T4) is one solid little stove! The stainless steel baffle is nice because there's less chance of damaging it if you hit it with a split (as you're more likely to do with a smaller firebox). The glass stays nice and clean, it holds a decent amount of ashes (I generally clean out the ashes once a week), and I have had no problems with it that weren't due to newbie mistakes and/or insufficiently seasoned wood.
I am angsting quite a bit. But I must admit, I really enjoy the research, I love stoves! My current stove does such a good job on my current house that I'm probably too concerned about heating myself out of the addition, since I can just not burn my current stove so hard. I like the T4 (and must admit that the movable warming shelves, while possibly just a gimmicky frill, do appeal to me) but I really like the side loading ability of the Yosemite (and that initially attracted me to the small Dutchwest). The addition will be well insulated, too.
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