Wood Stove Recommendations

[pseudomike]

Hi all. Wife and I are looking into replacing our 1976 Russo Glass view with something more efficient. I am not really familiar with what is out there for stoves now days so I was hoping someone could school me. Overall efficiency isn't that great a concern for us (I enjoy cutting wood) neither is having the most aesthetically appealing stove on the block.

Our current stove is in our walk in basement. I built a heat exchanger for it that carries hot air through a 10 inch duct up to the first floor. Keeps the finished basement at reasonable temp and heats the remaining 2000 square feet no problem. Before the heat exchanger the basement got way too hot. It's a newer open floor plan log home, superb insulation. At 0 degrees it takes a solid day to lose 10-15 degrees with no heat going (of course it also takes some time to get those degrees back!!). I'd like a stove that will burn all night, simply add logs in the AM. The Russo is ok, but will not make it all night. I also toyed with the idea of adding a wood boiler to the current heating system which is a Buderus with all radiant heat. Would be nice to put it to use. My father bought a a newer stove and it seems nice, so long as you have near kiln dried firewood. I don't have time for that type of babysitting. My russo will practically burn water and I don't want to deviate too far from that.

Open to suggestions. What do you all think?

 

[DBoon]

Any new stove is going to need dryer wood than an old-design stove. IF you have the wood cut, split, and stacked a year ahead of time, you are probably going to be fine without more babysitting of the stove. And it will put out a lot more heat than the old stove for the same amount of wood. It takes some effort to get ahead the first year, but no more effort each year after that (and actually less effort since you are burning less wood for the same amount of heat).