which woodstove

[jennylynn]

My wife and I are building a small 26x34 log home in northern New York near Lake Ontario. 1 bed and 1 bath downstairs,2 beds and 1 bath uptairs. We are going to put in a wood stove that will serve as the sole heat source for the house at least for a few years. It is a high quality home with energy star windows/doors etc and very well insulated and air tight. There is a cathedral ceiling in the living room of close to 20' and that is where the stove will be located. The house is not a full time residence so I am looking for something that will give me a relatively fast heat as there will have been no heat in the place for at least a week when we arrive. We have looked at Lopi Leyden,Quadra-fire Royal-isle,Dutchwest(large) and the Jotul Firelight. We are thinking top load but it is not a must have, Double doors on the front are a requirement per my wife as she would like to have open door burns on ocassion for the fire place affect. Any inut or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[chad3]

The castine from Jotul can also be used as open door, even though it only has one door. This could be a fairly reasonable stove to look at as well. It also warms up fairly quick and will retain heat for a good long while. Not sure if this might be more stove than you think you need, but by the time you take off the 1/3 that most one here recommend, it could be right in the ball park. My house is about 1400 and I went one bigger than I thought with no regrets (I picked up an Oslo instead of the castine).
Good luck with both the stove and the cabin.
Just reread your post, saw that you are looking at the Jotul 600, I was thinking the F 3 CB. This stove is HUGE Not sure that you would want or need that much stove in a house of that size. Like I said above, the 400 or 500 should be plenty, I would not go with the 600 as you would prob. be way overheated 99% of the time.
chad

 

[Martin Strand III]

What is your source of cordwood? Buy it split vs forrage (read: scrounge) vs harvest your own?

What is your "fiddle tolerance" for messing around burning fires, reloading availability (going out for the day X-C skiing?), stacking wood, dealing with ash, cleaning up messes, dependency on electricity for blowers, augers, fans or not, etc?

Just wondering.

Aye,
Marty

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

the firelight or the isle royal would be a good choice. Both can be ran with the doors open, i wold lean towards the firelight because it uses cast iron burn plates instead of firebrick, they will both eventually need replacing but the cast plates will last a heck of alot longer. The castine would not be a bad choice either... but it requires a perfect chimney. The firelight is more forgiving.

 

[begreen]

Good questions Marty. I was also wondering what amount of temp flexibilty they have. In a small tightly insulated cabin, the temperature fluxuations could be extreme with a 3 cu. ft. stove. All the stoves mentioned seem too large to me for the application.

Seems like an ideal stove would have horsepower to heat up the place, but would also be comfortable running at a lower output. That said, from the way Elk has described the VC Encore cat operation, that's the stove I would be considering for this application. It even has a screen option for viewing as a fireplace.

 

[jennylynn]

Chad, thanks for the info I will look at the castine as That is one that I have not looked at. Marty, I buy tandem truck loads of logs and have them delivered to my house. I'll just take a load to the cabin now and then on my truck. I cut and split them myself as I do not mind "fiddling" I would really like to stay away from the electricity as much as possible. We have it but I hate to use it. We will be spending some days out from the cabin but should not be more than 6 or 8 hours at a time

 

[elkimmeg]

Maybe one should ask about the venting? remember he is also considering a stove that vents withan 8" pipe.
This case he might not need a costly reline to comply with cross-sectional codes He also could lookat a Vermont castings Defiant he wants top loading..


I think the lopi leyden and Quad Island royal have not been in the field long enough and that they are new models with new technology burn systems.
Me, I would want some more feed back on them. Intermitten use, you want something that is tried an time proven, You do not want to be fiddling the entire time,
to get it running correctly. Again Jotuls are a good choice and a quality stove.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

the quad has been out since 2002, the ones we sold people raved about them.

 

[begreen]

No one has mentioned soapstone, but the way usage has been described, I'd also look at a soapstone stove for the eveness of heat and thermal mass.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

problem is the slow heat up time, they want fast heat because they arent there all the time..

 

[Martin Strand III]

problem is the slow heat up time, they want fast heat because they arent there all the time..

Have you ever seen, or felt, a fire in a masonry heater firebox?

Besides being "spectacular" to the eye, with the "top down " method, it emitts almost immediate intense radiant heat through the glass door for up to a couple hours.

And, compared to firing up my basement wood/coal Harman TLC 2000 from a cold start (involving starting the kindling, building up firebox heat enough to introduce some coal, waiting for the coal to start, adding more coal, waiting to add more), the MH puts out heat much faster.

The "lag" comes from heating the masonry mass. This may be a popular misconception - that MH'ers don't produce "any" heat until the thermal mass is up to temp and begins to radiate. To repeat, there is considerable heat put out quickly with a MH having glass doors.

In fact, now I'm thinking about it, once the 50 lb fuel load or so is burning "wide open" there must be considerably more initial radiant heat compared to even a large metal wood burning stove (how many metal stoves can handle one 50 lb fuel load?).

Aye,
Marty

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

if you say so.
The steel display stove i have in my showroom heats up considerably faster then my mansfield at home. I fully aware that there is plenty of heat coming out of the glass of my soapstone stove at home, but i would argue that there is more heat coming out of the x amout of square feet of a steel or cast stove vs the small area of the glass.

 

[Roospike]

No one has mentioned soapstone, but the way usage has been described, I'd also look at a soapstone stove for the eveness of heat and thermal mass.

The house is not a full time residence so I am looking for something that will give me a relatively fast heat as there will have been no heat in the place for at least a week when we arrive.

The mid sized Pacific Energy stove like the Super 27 ,the Classic and the Spectrum have a door screen option and would be a good size stove for the listed house. Lift the door off of the stove and place the front screen on and you can go with 6" pipe and not the more expensive 8" pipe. I think Soapstone would take too long for your needs and i dont think they have a screen door option. The stove listed below you can have the screen door option.

Super 27
http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/pacsup27.htm

Classic
http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/pacspecc.htm

Spectrum
http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/pacspec.htm

 

[Martin Strand III]

This could turn into another empiracle argument, but I prefer not to go there.

To make any sense out of it, one would need to make measurements knowing how much wood was in each firebox (how much wood would you say can be put into one of your fireboxs?), the stove/heaters materials involved, their mass, etc.

The bottom line is you seem happy with your stove(s) as I am happy with mine.

Aye,
Marty

 

[babalu87]

IMHO you couldnt go wrong with a Morso 3610 though it may be a little big for that house