Suggestion on Stove Type, Esse?

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.
Can you imagine a soapstone cook stove with a cat? That would almost have to be built in place,, I can only imagine the weight, if it was built to a decent size. Just add onto the Hybrid,, turn it sideways and add onto the back side for the oven portion. Bet they'd be selling a few of those... All in all the Esse is a really nice stove.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ashful
Can you imagine a soapstone cook stove with a cat? That would almost have to be built in place,, I can only imagine the weight, if it was built to a decent size. Just add onto the Hybrid,, turn it sideways and add onto the back side for the oven portion. Bet they'd be selling a few of those... All in all the Esse is a really nice stove.
Sounds neat, but my kitchen just isn't big enough to have such a large stove in there to accommodation cooking, plus having a normal stove for the warmer months.
 
Sounds neat, but my kitchen just isn't big enough to have such a large stove in there to accommodation cooking, plus having a normal stove for the warmer months.
We were fortunate to have what was once a screened in porch on the old farm house, remodeled into living space right off of our kitchen,,,, it was like meant to be when we bought the place 3 years ago. Guess you could say it had Esse in our future;)
 
Sounds neat, but my kitchen just isn't big enough to have such a large stove in there to accommodation cooking, plus having a normal stove for the warmer months.

So, drop the normal stove, and install an air conditioning supply right above the Esse for the warmer months. :p
 
  • Like
Reactions: charly
For your primary heat source I would say to go with the Progress Hybrid with the built in cook top, if you want a cook surface...

They are heating under 1000 sq ft in a well-insulated, new home. Methinks that the stove wouldn't be the only thing cooking if they tried running a PH in this space. It's too much stove for this home.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rijim
They are heating under 1000 sq ft in a well-insulated, new home. Methinks that the stove wouldn't be the only thing cooking if they tried running a PH in this space. It's too much stove for this home.
Then a Fireview or they could use the Esse... Depends on how much they are going to really want to cook on the stove... You can buy two Fireviews for the price of an Esse... If the cooking thing is just when the power is out I'd say go with the Fireview..I mean that's a lot of money to spend just for a wood heater..I guess it depends on how bad they want an Esse...We just heated with the Esse while I was waiting to get the Fireview installed and the new hearth finished up... It did keep the opposite end of the farmhouse in the upper 60's,, so they should be fine... are they home , working all day? The Esse would definitely hold coals from a morning load until they got home from work, they wouldn't be relighting the stove... Another option is they could burn coal and wood....Coal when they are away for long periods and wood when they are home. The Esse comes with some massive coal grates.
 
I get the feeling the cook stove won't give them the burn times that they might need to make it a practical solution as a primary heater.

If they plan on going in another direction and getting a standard free standing stove, I would lean towards a stove like the Pacific Energy T4, T5, or Super, the Jotul Castine, the Woodstock Keystone, the Lopi Republic or Endeavor.
 
Then a Fireview or they could use the Esse... Depends on how much they are going to really want to cook on the stove... You can buy two Fireviews for the price of an Esse... If the cooking thing is just when the power is out I'd say go with the Fireview..I mean that's a lot of money to spend just for a wood heater..I guess it depends on how bad they want an Esse...We just heated with the Esse while I was waiting to get the Fireview installed and the new hearth finished up... It did keep the opposite end of the farmhouse in the upper 60's,, so they should be fine... are they home , working all day? The Esse would definitely hold coals from a morning load until they got home from work, they wouldn't be relighting the stove... Another option is they could burn coal and wood....Coal when they are away for long periods and wood when they are home. The Esse comes with some massive coal grates.
If they have a well insulated home under 1k sq ft a Keystone would work just as well.
 
Depending on your lifestyle, ultra-long burn times may not have to be a high priority. If your are gone for long times during the day and want to come home to a warm house, a cat may be the best choice. But if you don't need more than, say, 8 hours of burn time, then an non cat may be the better choice. That Esse looks like a nice cookstove, but may be too limited for primary heating purposes. And the place you've selected for the stove is quite a ways from the kitchen. A lot of stoves have decent cooking capabilities for occasional use.

Again depending on your burn time needs, I'd be in the 2 cf non cat camp, and except for the fact that your climate looks very cold, a smaller one may work in a nice, tight, well insulated smaller house. In the non-cat area, the PE Alderlea's have a nice cook top feature and are available in three sizes. A 2 cf medium non-cat can give you 8 hours easily. A T4 may suit just fine depending on typical outside temperatures. In the cat's, that Woodstock Keystone looks good to me.
 
Our first home was 780 sq ft,,, and after thinking about that,,,,,the Esse will certainly keep them warm enough. Burn times become an issue,,coal would certainly extend their burn times... You can really damp the Esse down as well.. I know Woody has gotten some long burn times out of the Esse. I'm not pinched for wood so I just let the stove cruise along.
 
Here's more info from Woody's site on the Esse.. Like I said there are always coals left after an over night burn,, so if you consider burn times coals, I'm getting 10 hrs easy on the Esse with softer silver maple. Woody is getting 14 hours.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Billybonfire
Thought I'd jump in here as I have heard the magic words, "cookstove that can be used as a primary heating stove"....
We live in the Yaak Valley of NW Montana, most of us have one stove that does both their heating and cooking all winter long. They don't run a second stove unless it is really cold, minus 0. Folks are busy and we don't have time to cut and split extra wood, or mess with stoves that need tending more than twice a day. Cookstove's that need to have the wood split the size of sticks and 16" long don't cut it up here. Some of the "Ornamental cookers" don't cut the make the grade either.
We look for cookstove's that are heavy welded steel construction, employ Thermodynamics to create convection heating, without fans, will burn wood 18-20" unsplit, heat and bake well, heat our domestic hot water systems, require little maintenance to keep the oven operational.
There are a few choices out there, the Ironheart is a great choice as it meets the above criteria with flying colors.

Depending on what you want to do with your stove, cook on it, or in it, will be a deciding factor. If you just want a nice little stove that wont break the bank, will work well and look great, the Napoleon 1400 C is a pretty straight forward stove, simple welded steel construction, famous 1400 bulletproof firebox, great looks of a cast iron stove, non cat, flip up lid to cook on and it will heat your space just fine. For what your asking, that would be my best suggestion for the layout and size of what your building. We have sold quite a few and everyone has been really happy with the stove, the opening top lid hides the mess you get if you cook very often and the little splatters you get on the cook-top that are hard to avoid. If you find you have to cook on it often, you will probably wish you had gotten a stove with an oven.

We have a Kitchen Queen 380 in the main house, 1200 sq ft lots of glass, open floor plan 20' ceilings, I regularly get 14 hr burns with no problems. Our daughter has the KQ 480, 2200 sq ft, an 18 hr burn is not uncommon. I'm sure anyone else that has burned a Queen will attest, amazing burn times, even if your not blessed with hardwoods.
It is all in the gaskets and the way the stove is built and engineered, very tight cookstove, Cant see the fire yet, but were working on that.

We also burn the Ironheart in the 600 sq ft cabin I built for our younger daughter.
It does a great job and I have folks in Alaska heating 1500 sq ft with the Ironheart.
I cut the wood, the Ironheart will burn less wood than just about any cookstove I know of, it also burns cleaner, the firebox is not large by Montana standards, but acceptable as it only needs tending twice a day. The Ironheart is a good looker as well as a good cooker.....Seeing the fire makes it unique, but it also makes it hard to cook in front of as it will light your nickers up. The sliding screen helps, but I find if I stand in front of it very long, I move to one side or the other. Size wise, it is almost the same size as a KQ 380, which is about perfect for the floor plan shown, in a cookstove with an oven.
Without the oven, check out the 1400C by Napoleon.

Hope this is helpful, you are getting lots of various opinions, simple is usually best.
 
Excellent post Obadiah. Thank you for your recommendations. We still have some time before we make our final decision, so we will have to think long and hard about how important an oven on a wood cook stove is going to be for us. Everyone on here has made some good suggestions. Thank You all for your thoughts.
 
When you're ready to buy, be sure you call Obadiah's! They're a great supporter of this forum, in every way.
 
When you're ready to buy, be sure you call Obadiah's! They're a great supporter of this forum, in every way.
That's who I bought my Esse from... Woody has become a very good friend....there's one honest , smart man! The sad part,,,, Woody has gone above and beyond to help people, getting a stove replacement for one example, when it was no longer warranted, things that no one ever hears about...he'd give you the part off his personal stove if it would keep you going ,,,, a very good person to buy from indeed..."Obadiah's"
 
Thanks guys, what can I say, I'm a "pyromaniac" cant help it, at least that's what the docs tell my wife......"he's all about fire, lives in a haze of smoke, dances in a whirlwind of flames, in the devils playground, he's nuts"..........Yippi Kiai!
The reason I am the way I am, is what I found in the midst of the flames and smoldering ruines of my life. Daniel 3:25-28.

May you and your house have a Blessed, Prosperous and Happy New Year!!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: charly
For another cooktop stove that doesn't look like one, yet offers flexible trivet warming options too take a look at the PE Alderlea T5 stove.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.