Basement Woodstove Options - BK,Lopi,GM60

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WilliesWoods

New Member
Jan 7, 2023
2
Maine
Looking to install woodstove in a new build house in a partially finished basement but having trouble deciding on what stove to get. Live in Mid-Coast Maine.

Hoping to get input but want a good stove, nothing fancy, long burn times, quality built and not requiring too much maintenance or fussing to work.

House:
-2 story 28'x32' mostly open first floor, 3 bed 2 bath upstairs. Chase and 6" pipe straight up just off center of the house.
-Walkout basement walls insulated, ceiling uninsulated 18x32 section will have woodstove (opposite 10x32 side of basement is laundry, stairs, utility).
-Future plan to add a wall behind the woodstove to split in to bedroom and basement living room. (house designed and built with this plan)
-Currently heated by 1 heat pump downstairs and 2 upstairs (master and hall) - bathrooms and guest / nursery have cove heaters for supplemental heat.

Woodstove:
Have an older Jotul 118 - decided too look for something more efficient that will better suit needs instead. Want to heat the basement and help during power outages (three so far this year is pushing the timeline), between baby, life, and work, long burn times are a plus. Drove around to a couple shops and looking at the following.

BK Sirocco 30.2 - A frontrunner but can't find any in stock at any stores I called and lead times vary but will be summer.
GM 60 - Checks a lot of boxes, like the looks, in stock, Stove shop rep cautioned about quality / longevity.
Lopi Evergreen - In stock, looks totally fine, not a lot of info to be found. If going with in-stock stoves this likely wins.

The trouble right now is figuring out between the stoves, and whether or not to order and wait for the BK.


VC Dauntless - Originally an option - quality concerns and owner dissatisfaction removed it from the list.
 
Stove stock for many companies is sold out. It will take a while for some to build back inventory, especially the smaller production plants.

With the stairwell in the other room away from the stove, how will return air from the stairwell get from the partitioned 18'x 32' space to upstairs?

How has this worked out with the Jotul 118 so far?
 
Stairwell leads right to where the stove will be. Stairs are centered on one of the long walls making the layout a U around the stairs. Utility and laundry and either side of the stairs on that same wall in the basement.

Never did install the Jotul - basement was serving as the garage until the garage got stood up and shingled, which just got done. It was a bit of a tetris game down there so no room to install the stove.

Jotul is pretty - nice green enamel and in great shape outside, small cracks starting on the side plates inside. Decided to go new and install once.

Want the BK for the long low burn times - warm the basement but not smoke it out, and ability to stretch time between reloads without having to start a new fire.

Between the Lopi Evergreen and the Green Mountain am leaning towards the Lopi, but am thinking I will have to start a fire again after overnight / work, which leads me back to the BK and just waiting until I can get one.
 
Blaze King Sirocco 30 is closer to the Lopi Endeavor. Or the GM80.

I have my stove on 1st floor and the amount of heat on 2nd floor is not much. It really stays on 1st floor. 28x28’ house with stairs in the middle of floor. I don’t have a ceiling fan or any fans around stove. My basement is freezing tho. Prolly 50° I might look for a pellet stove during the summer to install.

The room you install stove in will be plenty warm.

I’m no expert and learn about my stove everyday but I have about a usable 2 cubic foot firebox. Mf Fire Nova 2. It’s a stretch to get more than 8hrs burn time. Besides the Sirocco 30 be ready to constantly babysit the small stoves if you want to crank the heat out of them.
 
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Have a couple cords of wood split and stacked yet? Needs to be done at least a year before you plan to start burning.