New Stove vs Used Stove?

Hey all! This forum is amazing and I have learned a TON about chimneys and wood stoves over the past week! We are thinking about getting a wood stove (currently have a broken gas fireplace so was going to use the hole through the wall for the new chimney) and install a stove in its stead.

My dilemma is twofold:
1: Should I get a used stove or new one (for used I am looking at older VC Vigilants and for new am looking at Osburn 2300, Jotul F500 and Drolet Austral 2/Drolet Legend). From my research, it seems like the new stoves are more efficient, require a smaller chimney and don't require any sort of fireproof material on the wall behind them (as long as you give them the appropriate clearance). This has me leaning towards a new one as used stoves seem to be around $300+ and the chimney costs more as does any sort of fireproofing on the wall (seems like a used stove will be a little less expensive but it will be close). Any insight into this would be helpful!

2: I am trying to figure out the metal chimney. From my research on here, it seems like most people prefer the double walled class A (looking at Duravent). I figure my chimney will need to be around 20-25' high, have a roof bracket and it will be through the wall installation. I have priced out the parts I need online and it comes to around $2300-2600 or so. The issue is how to install it. It looks pretty simple to install but the local guys in my area are quoting me $4000-5000 for materials and install. Does that seem reasonable or are they shooting for a home run?

Thanks so much in advance!

begreen said:

Welcome to hearth.com. The old Vigilants were great stoves but by now they are 35-40 years old. It is a somewhat complicated stove that need good maintenance to perform well. Unless you can find one that has been properly rebuilt with new parts for the bypass mechanism or one with very low usage I would buy new instead. There is a large difference between the models you mention. All will have closer clearance requirements. Tell us more about the house, the stove location and how open or closed off is the floor plan, how well insulated, etc.. Also, how is your wood supply?

DuraTech chimney is a good product. DuraVent has some excellent installation instructions on their website. I would download and read them over. Then feel free to ask questions if something is unclear.

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Thanks so much for the reply and welcome! I own an 1800sqft gambrel that was built in 1995 and has 2x6" exterior walls (decent insulation). The stove will be going into our living room and will sit practically on the end of the house on the gable end. Adjacent to that is a glass sunroom (complete glass everywhere in it). This has kinda been the bane of our existence every winter because it does get drafty due to the glass walls and ceiling and it is elevated off the ground on sonatubes. I am hoping the wood stove will help keep that room warmer and then heat the rest of the house as well. The floor plan is fairly open and the downstairs is pretty small (I think the house is only 1500sqft without the sunroom). I am not sure how our wood supply is. I would be purchasing seasoned wood from someone (not sure who yet). Hoping it is dry! Let me know if you need any more info, and glad you agree with the new stove, it was how I was leaning.

begreen said:

Good, inexpensive stoves that will heat the place start around $800 and go up from there. One thing to consider will be the flue system. Most stoves are going to want a 15-16ft flue system height to run correctly. There are a few exceptions though. With the good insulation in the house it sounds like you could work with a 2 cu ft stove, especially if it is going to be burning mostly nights and weekends. A larger stove will extend burn times but you some will require a bit more regulation to not overheat the house in milder weather.

The odds of getting seasoned wood at this time of year are almost nil unless you pay the premium for kiln dried wood. You might think about getting wood for next year and stacking it under a top cover, sides open. For fuel maybe consider burning a good compressed wood product this year.

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Awesome! Thanks so much! Yeah, I think I need around a 20ft chimney to get the 10x2 rule on my roof. Thanks so much for the info on the 2cu ft stove and compressed wood. I was just looking at that actually and was wondering how good they were.

begreen said:

There are a lot of good 2is cu ft stoves on the market. The choice will depend on style, design and budget. The price range can go from $700 to $3000 for just the stove depending on the features, design and materials.

BioBricks, Eco blocks, Homefire Prest-Logs and Northern Idaho Energy Logs are all good compressed fuels. Treat them with respect, they pack a lot of heat. Avoid cheap compressed products. They are not worth it and create a lot of ash.

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Thanks a lot, this is very helpful. I'll take a look and see what makes sense!

Wisneaky said:

Don't get me wrong I really like duravent, but you can buy a class a chimney from menards.com and spend around $1000 for the whole setup. Plus a lot of times they run special pricing on them.

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Thanks for this! We don't have menards around here but I will keep looking. I am leaning towards letting someone else just install and supply the materials (seems like insurance companies would prefer a professional to me installing it). Got a second quote of $3000 for 20' double wall chimney installed through the wall and single wall stove pipe installed to the stove. Still a little high to me, but getting there! A nice member on here gave me some info on getting an Englander NC-30 for around $800 shipped and with tax from HD so that is another option. It is huge, but seems like it should work decently based on the reviews here and on HD site.

revdocjim said:

One thing to double check. There is double wall stove pipe and then there is class A insulated double wall chimney. For what it's worth, I spent over $5,000 on a chimney install last year. It includes one section of single wall, then two class A 90s, two sections of class A horizontal run and then 25 feet of class A straight up. Of course my location is a completely different market, but chimneys are not cheap.

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Yeah, they are quoting me class a. It just seems like it should be less seeing as how the pipe itself is only around $2000-2500, but I have never installed a chhimney and have no idea how difficult/time consuming it is. It looked easy on Youtube, but that guy might have been struggling with stuff for hours in between his shots, haha.

Wisneaky said:

Just so you know menards will ship to your house.

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Oh, thanks! I will price out some pipe from them, then. It is difficult to install if I set some staging up?

begreen said:

No Menards out here. They do offer a good value on chimney pipe that is hard to beat. For compatibility and ease of installation stick with one brand for all the parts of the system. Regardless of chimney pipe you buy I recommend downloading the DuraVent instructions. They are a good primer on installation steps.
http://www.duravent.com/Product.aspx?hProduct=1
Go to the literature tab. View attachment 164939

If you do buy from Menards also download the Supervent instructions and catalog from their website. That way you will have a more complete picture of what is involved and the parts needed.

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Hey Begreen! A lot has happened since you helped me before (thanks for all the advice!). We purchased a Jotul F500 Oslo, selected a chimney installer (ventis chimney), and had 2 full cords of wood delivered. As everyone has said, much of the wood is very wet. I don't have a moisture meter yet, but as I was moving parts of the pile, some were nice and dry and some were quite heavier than you would have thought. Do you have a preference as to which of those bio fuels you would purchase? Biobricks looks like the most convenient to get but not sure if the others are better? I was thinking of burning the wood I got with a few of the bricks to make sure it burns but help regulate the heat. Thanks again!

begreen said:

Congratulations. You might check around for kiln dried wood in your area and save the current wood for next season.
BioBrick brand bricks tested well for me. Here's my review:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/wiki/biobricks/
I also had great results with Northern Idaho Energy Logs (NIELs) and HomeFire Prest Logs
https://www.hearth.com/talk/wiki/fuels/

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Thanks so much! I don't think I will be able to get any wood from anyone else. It was a bear to get this wood. I called at least 6 places before someone called me back/had any wood. I was just relieved that they had wood (would have been tough staring at that pretty woodstove just sitting there all winter "I guess it COULD be warm??"). I will grab some BioBricks then. I don't think the Idaho Logs are available in CT (looked for a bit online for them). Thanks again, you are very helpful!

begreen said:

If you are near Enfield I think there is a good supplier there for NIELs.

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Ah, yeah I am not. I'm in Stonington (about 10 min to the RI border).