wood stove upgrade

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marreque

Member
Feb 22, 2010
110
Fall River, Massachusetts
looking to upgrade from my vermont castings intrepid. this stove is to small for my home but i dont want to buy another underpowered stove. looking for some help
 
marreque said:
looking to upgrade from my vermont castings intrepid. this stove is to small for my home but i dont want to buy another underpowered stove. looking for some help


What square footage is your house?
Is it an open floor plan?
Is it well insulated?
Do you want to burn 24/7?
Are you hoping to eliminate as much oil usage as possible? Or just supplement?
 
Using the "fast reply" option..

given the data presented...

Hearthstone Equinox..
 
Dakotas Dad said:
Using the "fast reply" option..

given the data presented...

Hearthstone Equinox..

How are you liking the blower in the homestead? Have you burned with and without the blower?
 
BrowningBAR said:
How are you liking the blower in the homestead? Have you burned with and without the blower?

dang I meant to PM you about that. cruising a little off topic (unless of course the OP up grades to a Homestead.. :cheese:

We had a pretty cool night last week while my wife was out of town, so cooler temps were more "livable"

with out the blower running, I would guess heat output was down from the norm about 20%, enough to tell the difference. And I feel after playing with it, if I run the fan wide open, it really does move a lot more heat around. We run with the blower at probably 1/2 speed when in the room, and don't really notice it, (sound wise) and I have started turning it up to near max when we head off to bed. as we get into shoulder season, probably turn it off to keep from being to warm in here (to me) no such temperature to her.


BTW, I only recommended the Equinox because I just saw one in person for the first time last week, and if that boulder can't heat your house, you are in need of multiple stoves or something. I swear my whole stove would go in that fire box a couple times.
 
Dakotas Dad said:
dang I meant to PM you about that. cruising a little off topic (unless of course the OP up grades to a Homestead.. :cheese:

Well, when the OP get's us more detail, we'll get back on track. ;-)

with out the blower running, I would guess heat output was down from the norm about 20%, enough to tell the difference. And I feel after playing with it, if I run the fan wide open, it really does move a lot more heat around.

Interesting. The dealer I spoke with told me I probably wouldn't notice much benefit from it considering it is a soapstone. Figured their might be some truth to it since the dealer was pretty much telling me not to give them money... Might bite the bullet and purchase the blower since I am already going to purchase the heat shield.


We run with the blower at probably 1/2 speed when in the room, and don't really notice it, (sound wise) and I have started turning it up to near max when we head off to bed.

Does it have an auto shut-off when stove temperatures get too low for the blower to be effective?

BTW, I only recommended the Equinox because I just saw one in person for the first time last week, and if that boulder can't heat your house, you are in need of multiple stoves or something. I swear my whole stove would go in that fire box a couple times.

It is a big bastard, isn't it? The Equinox would be completely inappropriate for my floor plan. The room it would sit in would be 140° and I would still need another stove or two for the rest of the house.
 
1300 sq ft. not a open floor plan. prob not gonna burn 24/7 but want to try to use as much as possible
 
marreque said:
we were considering the Lopi Leyden

Nice, I like the look of the Leyden.

Other to consider:

Jotul Castine F400 or Oslo F500 (depending on windows and insulation)
Woodstock Fireview, Keystone or Palladian
Pacific Energy T4 or T5 (depending on windows and insulation)
Quadra-Fire Cumberland Gap
Hearthstone Heritage or Homestead
 
There's a little more info..

1300 sqft well insulated, sealed, 1.5cuft firebox size or so would probably do fine, if poorly insulated, maybe 2.0.. depends on if you can get the stove located towards the center of the heated area. A small fan can do wonders to push air around.

as much as possible = 24/7 in my book.

BB, it *may* make a difference that the Homestead has a cast iron back. I figure blowing air over a hot surface moves heat from it and away from it. since steel transfers heat at a much higher rate, the amount of heat gained may be lower from stone.. but then the stone holds heat for a lot longer than steel, so over time the amount of heat transfered by the blower may be as hi or higher. the blower does have an auto shutoff/start, based on the temp of the stove. since the only place I track temps is center of center top stone.. somewhere around 150F, there it starts or stops.
 
Dakotas Dad said:
There's a little more info..

1300 sqft well insulated, sealed, 1.5cuft firebox size or so would probably do fine, if poorly insulated, maybe 2.0.. depends on if you can get the stove located towards the center of the heated area. A small fan can do wonders to push air around.

I would stick with a stove in the 2 cu ft area. He has an intrepid (about 1.3 cu ft) which isn't heating well enough and will want something that clearly heats better. I have an Intrepid and I feel his pain.
 
See, there you go, I highly recommend the Hearthstone Homestead...lol
 
marreque said:
1300 sq ft. not a open floor plan. prob not gonna burn 24/7 but want to try to use as much as possible

We also do not have an open floor plan but still burn 24/7 about the same size and our climate is a bit colder than yours. The Woodstock Fireview works great. Contrary to Browning's recommendation I would not recommend their smaller stoves as you won't get much for overnight burns and will have to feed the fire much quicker.

When we installed the Fireview we found right off that we were going to stay much warmer, and we have. We also are burning only half the amount of wood we used to. I will highly recommend the Fireview. It is not a cheap stove but will last a lifetime. It is a beautiful stove to add to the beauty of the home and will serve your heating needs excellently.
 
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