Advice on first wood stove?

[Bragg Creek]

Hi all,
This forum is an amazing wealth of knowledge. Hoping to borrow some.

Recently moved to a small acreage just outside Calgary Alberta. Back yard was fully treed and we cleared about 1/2 acre, have a decent sized pile of decked logs, white spruce and lodgepole pine. Gave away the Poplar.

Got a kinetic log splitter, this thing is awesome, about 2 second cycle time. It doesn't like big diameter logs though. I split about 2 cords so far, and have it stacked in wood shed. I kept the already cured blown down wood separate from the fresh cut wood.

Plan to put a wood stove in basement as supplemental heat source. The 34 year old furnace needs to be replaced, and new furnace will be direct vent, so the old chimney chase can be repurposed for wood stove chimney.

Chimney will be almost straight up from basement to 2nd story roof, 35'.

House is around 3000 sq feet including basement. There's an open staircase near where stove will go that extends up to main and 2nd floor. Thinking this will be great for heat transfer through house. Can also run furnace fan to help distribute heat.

Only looking for supplemental heat, to displace burning natural gas, and utilize some of the free firewood.

Like to have:
18" logs fit
Glass viewing door that stays reasonably clean
Don't need super long burn times, 10-12 hours would be perfect.
Will be burning spruce and pine.
Convection better than radiant for this application?
Stove is in basement, for function more than form, it doesn't need to be a work of art, but would like to see the flames when it's burning
Prefer something affordable

What other info would be useful in order to suggest model and brand of stove?

 

[kborndale]

Is the basement insulated? How will the heat be getting upstairs? Start working on your woodpile now.

 

[Bragg Creek]

Basement is insulated, hot air will be going upstairs by convection up open staircase, radiating thru floor, and moved around by cold air returns to furnace.

Got 2 cords split, 1 cord is blow down logs that has been curing for 1-2years.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Why give away the poplar? It’ll burn just fine and seasons quickly.

I’d look for a large stove, 3-3.5 cu ft. The hard part will be running an insulated liner up the 35 ft of chimney.

 

[Eman85]

I'd have the chimney inspected first and go from there. Probably will need a liner and it will be pricey. If the chimney is good if it was me I'd look for a good used stove and go from there.

 

[Bragg Creek]

Any suggestions on what would qualify as a good used stove?

 

[Eman85]

Any suggestions on what would qualify as a good used stove?

I'd be happy with a Fisher or a Buck but a lot has to do with what is available in your area when you're looking for one. Plenty of steel stoves out there that would give you heat but you said you want glass doors and affordable. After the chimney inspection affordability might change. The good part about a decent used stove is if you like burning wood you can always upgrade and sell the old stove. If you don't enjoy the experience you're not out much.

 

[begreen]

Any suggestions on what would qualify as a good used stove?

A large 3 cu ft Osburn. Regency, Pacific Energy, Quadrafire, etc stove and also the Englander 30NC.

Have you considered the option of installing a wood furnace that taps into the current supply and return ducting?

 

[EatenByLimestone]

When buying used, condition may be more important than the name on the front. It can be the Cadillac of stoves, but if it was just in a demo derby it’s not a good buy.

 

[marty319]

Ha,bragg creek,used to go to those ice caves up there around 1975,yes I'm old.poplar is good to burn ,keep it for shoulder seasons.

 

[Ashful]

Any suggestions on what would qualify as a good used stove?

The first modern EPA stove you find in good working order!

In addition to what begreen already listed, some brand names brands to favor:

Pacific Energy
Blaze King
Woodstock
Jotul
Lopi
Hearthstone
Osburn
Regency
Englander
Drolet

You can get more model-specific advice as you turn up some options.

I listed Englander and Drolet last because, while good budget stoves, they are still budget stoves. If I were going with one of those brands, I'd favor new over used. A new Drolet may be cheaper than a used stove from the top four on this list.

 

[mojoliveshere]

this would suit you well I reckon - https://www.pacificenergy.net/product/summit-le/

Made in BC, so maybe you can find some on the used market in AB?

 

[cahaak]

If you just want function, then any new EPA stove will work fine. I burn a Drolet Myriad and it works great, fire view is fine, it is plain black and not fancy at all, but holding up great as I burn nearly continuously. I would get something with a fan and if you want, you can direct another small fan at the stove to scrub more of the heat off of it. The main thing for you will be running ~30+ feet of class A chimney up your existing chase and through the roof. That will like cost more than the stove even if you DIY it. Make sure it is doable and space correctly and so on. That would be the first thing I would work on. Once that is in, hooking the stove up at the bottom is pretty easy.

 

[Bragg Creek]

Yeah the Class A chimney is not cheap. I plan to get it professionally installed, and have gotten quotes from most the local vendors.

When I say affordable stove, not necessarily looking for used, just mean a top of the line soapstone or Blaze King won't fit my budget. Would like mid range stove.

The Pacific Energy one linked above looks to check all my boxes. Will look into that.

Thanks for all the feedback.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

With 35’, I don’t think I’d look at the summit/super line from PE. They breathe way too easy. Others will disagree with me on this, and recommend multiple key dampers to knock the draft down some. I’m unsure of the draft characteristics of the True North line.

 

[Newbie78]

Get a big drolet. Virtually the same as the osburn for not much more than 1/2 the money. Excellent customer service from SBI (refreshing). Check out drolet, myfireplaceproducts, and SBI sites for the most comprehensive description of their products than almost any other manufacturer... when you compare you will realize that the drolet, osburn, and enerzone stoves are very much the same. The only significant difference I can see is that the enerzone has a 1/16" thicker top plate on the firebox. Other than a higher quality baffle and some other niceties of no real consequence they are the same. Chevy, buick, cadillac. Drolet, osburn, enerzone.

you may have to install a pipe damper above the stove.

 

[begreen]

With 35’, I don’t think I’d look at the summit/super line from PE. They breathe way too easy. Others will disagree with me on this, and recommend multiple key dampers to knock the draft down some. I’m unsure of the draft characteristics of the True North line.

This will be an issue with almost any stove unless the basement's negative pressure effect mitigates anticipated strong draft. If this is the case adding a key damper may be all that's necessary. There are several candidates. The PE Summit, Jotul F55, Lopi Liberty, Quadrafire 4300, Regency F3500, Ironstrike Country ST310 , Drolet Legend III or HT3000, and Osburn 3500, Hearthstone GM80, BK Sirocco 30.2, etc. are all candidates.

 

[Bragg Creek]

The minimum space required to run a Class A chimney pipe is 12" unobstructed void? (8" pipe plus 2" clearance)?

Are there any Class A that require only 1" clearance?

 

[begreen]

I think all are 2" now. What is the problem that you are trying to solve?

 

[Bragg Creek]

Was talking to a friend about wood stoves last night. He has a Regency, said it works well and he likes it. But several members of his family have Blaze Kings, either Prince or King models. He has convinced me this is the best stove to get. They are pricey, but the time saved in stoking the stove over years, plus being able to put bigger pieces in (less splitting, less bucking logs if longer rounds) maybe worth the higher up front cost of the stove. Thoughts on this rationale?

Deciding between the Princess and King for my use case, and application, but may be constrained by the chimney diameter of the stoves.

I have 11.5" clearance between my floor joists where I want to run the chimney pipe. I'm hoping I can somehow bevel out the joist by 1/2" to get to 12" clearance. Any ideas on this appreciated.

Its a double joist here, don't think missing 1/2" will have any structural risk.

Pics of where chimney would run, once the furnace/water heater venting is removed.

 

[Ashful]

BK’s can burn very low, so assuming you can provide optimal draft and wood, the usual advice is to go with the biggest BK that will fit on your hearth.

That said, as I just commented moments ago in another thread, operating these stoves at their absolute minimum burn rates requires ideal draft and wood supply.

The BK Kimg will go up to 40 hours on a single load. Or when you need more heat, turn it up and rip thru that load in what… less than 8 hours? Princess hits 30 hours max.

Do note that the king specs an 8” pipe, which ups the installed price a bit, and ruins compatibility with many other stoves. The Princess is the more common 6” collar.

 

[Bragg Creek]

I have 11.5" between joists where I want to run the stove chimney. I want to remove this furnace vent and run stove chimney in the existing chase.

A 6" stove pipe coming off Princess would require 10" space to allow for 2" clearance around the chimney?

Or do you have to add a double wall thickness to the 6" coming off stove? Meaning 12" space required for clearance?

 

[monkfarm]

Why give away the poplar? It’ll burn just fine and seasons quickly.

I’d look for a large stove, 3-3.5 cu ft. The hard part will be running an insulated liner up the 35 ft of chimney.

We had all our heat from poplar living in the woods north of Duluth, MN in the 70s, -40F at times. My Uncle lived a little north of me, survived on poplar in a barrel stove.

 

[begreen]

Or do you have to add a double wall thickness to the 6" coming off stove? Meaning 12" space required for clearance?

6" class A chimney pipe is typically 8" in diameter and requires 12" space for clearance.

 

[Newbie78]

6 + 2 +2 = 10 (In fact my selkirk sentinel is 10 1/2" diameter)

+2" clearance each side = 14"