What is the highest price you would pay for a wood stove?

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I would want an insulated liner.
 
For me, the price I wanted to pay came down to what I wanted to use it for.

For what I have now, I wasn't in the mood to sink more than $2k into a setup, but I use it mainly to heat my basement and have a NG boiler for the upstairs, plus I buy most of my wood. Now if the stove or insert were to be used for the entire house as the primary and/or NG wasn't an option, then sure, a setup would warrant a higher budget.
 
Many people put extra money into areas of their home to look nicer as well as being more functional. A stove or fireplace in the living room is not all that different. I played with the idea of installing a Tulikivi masonry stove when we did our remodel. It didn't fly with the budget dept. or my wife, but it could have been an interesting 10K + investment for the right person. I had a friend who put one in a house in AK and it looked great.
 
Many people put extra money into areas of their home to look nicer as well as being more functional. A stove or fireplace in the living room is not all that different. I played with the idea of installing a Tulikivi masonry stove when we did our remodel. It didn't fly with the budget dept. or my wife, but it could have been an interesting 10K + investment for the right person. I had a friend who put one in a house in AK and it looked great.


Money changes people.
 
I wasn't going to weigh in here but wth. $3,000 would be my limit. If I wanted a stove that would typically be more than that new, I would try to find a slightly used one. Guess no different than a car, sort of.
 
SBI makes good cheap stoves I wouldn't me worried about the stove but the rest of the package would concern me.

Is your "cheap" comment in reference to price, construction, or both? I replaced my 30 year old trouble-free Osburn with a new 2020 Drolet that looks to have the same build quality. I swapped out the old stove in about an hour and the new stove performed flawlessly this first season.

Can you expand on your definition of cheap?
 
Is your "cheap" comment in reference to price, construction, or both? I replaced my 30 year old trouble-free Osburn with a new 2020 Drolet that looks to have the same build quality. I swapped out the old stove in about an hour and the new stove performed flawlessly this first season.

Can you expand on your definition of cheap?
If you look at what I wrote I said they were good cheap stoves. Meaning they are good quality low cost stoves. Yes if you compare them side by side with higher end stoves you can see there were some compromises made in the name of cost savings. But they are still good performing fairly durable stoves. Englander makes similar quality cheaper stoves as well.
 
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I paid $2500 for my Jotul Oslo. Worth every penny. Plus paid $1400 for the install and I already had the stainless steel pipe.
Plus I built the beautiful hearth, a contractor would have charged $500 for that, and probably would not have done as good of a job as I did.

Worth every penny.
 
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Here ya go. The magnificent stove on the left that I used to own, the Sotz double drum.
Rated at 250,000 btu. Firebox, 32 inches long and the door 11 inches square.
The Sotz kit, just $75. Two hours of work and you are all set.
Sadly, Sotz went out of business twenty years ago.
Even worse, my girlfriend hated that stove! She threatened to leave me if I didn't get rid of the Sotz.
 
3500 for the kuma, 25’ liner was 1500, misc fitting and what not, plus the saw, chains, goggles and chaps and goggles I figured around 8k.

The electric bill before insert was 750. The last one was 107. So I should have a quick ish ROI. Now

The electric water heater was 50 bucks last month, on top of the 107. Anyone else have a spouse who demands scalding hot water?
 
3500 for the kuma, 25’ liner was 1500, misc fitting and what not, plus the saw, chains, goggles and chaps and goggles I figured around 8k.

The electric bill before insert was 750. The last one was 107. So I should have a quick ish ROI. Now

The electric water heater was 50 bucks last month, on top of the 107. Anyone else have a spouse who demands scalding hot water?

Yes to the water. I'm installing a wood cook stove with a domestic hot water coil for fall, winter, and spring. The house came with a solar water heater for summer, but we've yet to see if it works.
 
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Here ya go. The magnificent stove on the left that I used to own, the Sotz double drum.
Rated at 250,000 btu. Firebox, 32 inches long and the door 11 inches square.
The Sotz kit, just $75. Two hours of work and you are all set.
Sadly, Sotz went out of business twenty years ago.
Even worse, my girlfriend hated that stove! She threatened to leave me if I didn't get rid of the Sotz.

Wow, that's wild! Are the barrels just regular steel barrels? What's the small one on the right?
 
Wow, that's wild! Are the barrels just regular steel barrels? What's the small one on the right?
Yes they are regular barrels and yes they often burn out or melt. They are not safe stoves.
 
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The barrels are just regular 55 gallon drums. I used that Sotz kit for 4 years. With the huge firebox that thing would really put out the heat. The fire burned in the lower barrel and the top drum was a heat exchanger.

As bholler said, if you weren't careful you could burn out the stove. The instructions said to put 4 inches of sand in the bottom to keep the hot coals off of the thin steel.
In spring, you took the whole thing apart and dumped out the sand. Because, during the summer the sand would absorb moisture and cause the steel to rust out. Clean out the thing in April, and spray it down with oil to protect the steel.

I ran my Sotz for 4 years and then, I had to move, and it was bye bye for the Sotz.
It was a primitive stove but I was a broke college kid, this was back in 1975, I got a lot of good use out of my Sotz.

The smaller one is also a Sotz, they had a kit with a round door that you could use on a 30 gallon drum.
 
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Paid $3900 including shipping for progress hybrid. Paid $9000 including shipping for Esse 990.

I would currently pay up to $5000 for a wood stove that they don’t actually make. A progress hybrid, enameled ashford or etc. in the 4 cubic foot variety.

My budget is subject to extreme change due to life. Job loss, health deterioration or family crisis could take this to $0 at any time.
 
I paid $ 6100 for my Kuma sequoia stove and my Pacific Energy insert along with the insulated liner. My heating bills the last three winters has not been over $200 a year to heat 2450 sq feet on the first floor, and another 1500 sq feet in the walk out basement. I'm sure if you add in time and energy cost of moving wood cutting etc.it is not a giant saving, but I like wood heat if I found a stove I wanted I would try and figure a way to get it.