Last year was our first full season burning (new home) and we were absolutely in love! All the metaphors of the hearth proved true as the family sat around in our "great room" and talked, read, and otherwise stayed warm together. No glass window, just heat. Bedrooms got pretty nippy on the sub zero nights, too, but I like cold sleeping. Of course, I (ever the tightwad) also loved my sub $100 natural gas bills. But we were burning a 1979 National Stove Works "Monster" (not it's real name) that ate through cherry like an industrial chipper on steroids. Huge fire box, but even with a damper on the flue and the automatic air intake thingee damped down, a full load of wood would be ash in about 6 hours. It had a 8 inch flue reduced to 6 (so it would puff smoke when loading). It kept us warm, but only if we stood their and stuffed the beast. Can I guess an efficiency of maybe 35-40%?
So we've been keeping an eye open for somthing a bit more contemporary and we were leaning toward a Englander 30. We have a good sized house ( split level w/ an addition and the stove's in the addition) but I was a little bit nervous that it would be too much, and fairly sure I'd have to completely redo my alcove. That stove is about the size of Spain. I actually liked the Lowes Century with the fancy door -- it was about 750 clams, but reviews here were mixed.
But we've also been eyeing cr**glist and eb*y for something used. Then a stove came up on Cr**gslist -- a mid-90's Lopi Endeavor and it looked pretty nice. $700 (he later lowered it to $600). Drove down to the Southern Tier (western NY) to beat a guy from Erie and picked it up Thursday.
The stove is virtually new. It was in a hunting cabin and got fired, he thought 10-12 times. It looks it. The gasket is barely dirty. He said they sold the cabin and he brought it home with plans to install it at home but decided he didn't have a good location for it. So it had just been sitting most of it's life. The secondary burn tubes are in great shape and there's not a scratch on the thing.
It fits my hearth beautifully. It has the reduced clearance heat sheilds which meant no modifications.
I'm a bit worried that the stove may be too small. The fire box sure seems small. I know I'll have to start cutting my wood shorter. I'm just hoping with the increased efficiency (70%) and a blower (perhaps) I'll have enough to keep warm. I know that a burn time of 10 hours is amazing compared to my stove and even if I got 8 burning it a bit hotter, I'd be golden. If worse comes to worse and it's not enough stove, I'll sell it and get a Lopi Liberty (or something equally monstrous).
I'd attach a photo by the @(*$&!@ Kodak software doesn't have a resizer that I can find anyway. I'll post a pic later when I have the energy to figure it out. Needless to say, it looks amazing.
So we've been keeping an eye open for somthing a bit more contemporary and we were leaning toward a Englander 30. We have a good sized house ( split level w/ an addition and the stove's in the addition) but I was a little bit nervous that it would be too much, and fairly sure I'd have to completely redo my alcove. That stove is about the size of Spain. I actually liked the Lowes Century with the fancy door -- it was about 750 clams, but reviews here were mixed.
But we've also been eyeing cr**glist and eb*y for something used. Then a stove came up on Cr**gslist -- a mid-90's Lopi Endeavor and it looked pretty nice. $700 (he later lowered it to $600). Drove down to the Southern Tier (western NY) to beat a guy from Erie and picked it up Thursday.
The stove is virtually new. It was in a hunting cabin and got fired, he thought 10-12 times. It looks it. The gasket is barely dirty. He said they sold the cabin and he brought it home with plans to install it at home but decided he didn't have a good location for it. So it had just been sitting most of it's life. The secondary burn tubes are in great shape and there's not a scratch on the thing.
It fits my hearth beautifully. It has the reduced clearance heat sheilds which meant no modifications.
I'm a bit worried that the stove may be too small. The fire box sure seems small. I know I'll have to start cutting my wood shorter. I'm just hoping with the increased efficiency (70%) and a blower (perhaps) I'll have enough to keep warm. I know that a burn time of 10 hours is amazing compared to my stove and even if I got 8 burning it a bit hotter, I'd be golden. If worse comes to worse and it's not enough stove, I'll sell it and get a Lopi Liberty (or something equally monstrous).
I'd attach a photo by the @(*$&!@ Kodak software doesn't have a resizer that I can find anyway. I'll post a pic later when I have the energy to figure it out. Needless to say, it looks amazing.
