Beginners

[marcfrey]

Hello. Like a lot of people I suppose I am looking to buy a wood stove/wood insert to at least supplement my oil heat. I live in a reasonably tight 2300 square foot 1850 farm house (two stories), with a large (48 inch wide, 34 inch high at highest point and 25 inch deep) fireplace in the living room from which the stairs go to the second floor. First, should I go with a wood stove or wood insert? I am tempted by the Drolet Fireplace Wood Insert Model # DB03120, which seems to be reasonably priced. I am, however, just starting to learn about this stuff. Any advice anyone wants to give a beginner would be much appreciated!

The house also has a second chimney with a wood stove insert already in it. This is in the dining room/kitchen area. It does a nice job heating that immediate area but is not effective beyond it.

Thank you.

 

[begreen]

Welcome marcfrey. It sounds like your are already a seasoned burner. Can you tell us a bit more about the first floor plan? Is it open or many rooms with doors in between. What is the other insert that is in the kitchen area?

From what I have read and seen, (which is not much for this insert), Drolet makes some stout affordable equipment. You might also want to compare the Napoleon, Kodiak and Englander inserts in the 2 cu ft size range.

 

[marcfrey]

Thank you for the reply BeGreen. We bought the home 3 years ago with the insert in the dining room chimney already in it and have just burned wood on my property (it has some woods) and stuff people have given us, so I am certainly no a seasoned burner. I don't know the model of the insert (no apparent markings). There is another room between where this insert is and the living room so the heat doesn't reach the living room from the insert. The living room where the other chimney is is a good size room (I'd say 15 x 25 feet, with a stairway leading up the the second floor. The second floor has three rooms, including our bedroom (the other two rooms are relatively small). There is no door between the living room and the second floor (just the open stairway) so it seems at least some heat from a good stove in the living room should reach the second floor. The fireplace is aonly about ten feet from the stairway. Thank you.

 

[begreen]

To get to your original question, it sounds like either would work for you. A freestanding stove will work a bit better if the power goes out and it will be less expensive to purchase. You are fortunate to have a big fireplace cavity that can handle a freestander. Is there a wood mantle on this fireplace? If yes, there could be a concern about clearance to combustibles with a freestanding stove, so that will need to be figured in with the final choice.

If freestanding, I would consider getting a stove with a blower on it. Many of them can have the blower added on later if you are trying to save some dollars up front. If insert, a blower will be a necessity. In that case, try to find a unit that has a multispeed blower that is reasonably quiet on low/medium speed if you spend a lot of time in this room.

 

[fossil]

Some pictures sure would help. You can go insert, hearth stove, or freestanding, depending on the configuration of the fireplace and how much effort & $$$ & footprint in the room you're willing to expend on the project. Rick

 

[marcfrey]

I am not the most technologically advanced person in the world and don't own a digital camera but I'll see what I can do with a friend about getting a photo of the fireplace and posting it. In answer to GoGreen's very good question, there is a wood mantel 54 inches off the floor and a 6 inch or so wide wood frame around the entire fireplace just under the mantel (the horizontal section) and vertically down either end about a foot away from the 48 inch wide opening. There is of course brick all the way around within the wood frame.

What is a "hearth stove?"

There is plenty of room in the room to have a free-standing stove a bit away from the fireplace. A neighbor (a very handy neighbor, in fact, being a former home contractor) says it would be simple to set up a free standing stove with a pipe a bit up the chimney (I don't know how far - he says our chimney is "lined"). What I seem to be reading, however, is that it is more efficient to have an insert because less heat is lost. Any thoughts on that?

Someone else was telling me about the virtues of pellet stoves today. Mike, my neighbor (who has a wood stove), however, says he is concerned about what is going to happen to the price of pellets. I am also resonably physical and am not concerned about the labor of moving wood, so I am more attracted to a wood stove.

 

[fossil]

Hearth stove: (broken link removed to http://chimneysweeponline.com/inswood.htm)

An insert is just fine, lots of folks absolutely love them, and there are some beauties available...but a freestanding is probably the best way to make most efficient use of the available heat from the fuel you're burning, if you have the room available to do a proper installation. A hearth stove is kind of a step between an insert and a freestanding stove...it's "partially inserted". IMHO, they all benefit from a blower kit (with an insert it's essential). A lot depends on how married you are to the wood mantle and surround, the required clearances from combustibles, and a host of other factors. Just as an example of one possibility, I'll attach a pic of what we did in our great room...sealed up the old open fireplace completely, had a raised hearth built, ripped out the old wood mantle and replaced it with brick, and ran the stovepipe straight up in the room & out the ceiling/roof, without using the old masonry chimney structure at all. The possibilities are endless. Rick

 

[marcfrey]

Thank you Pyro. I am looking to do this in the cheapest way possible, and I am getting the impression that a free standing using the existing chimney is the way to go in that regard. I have plenty of space in front of the fireplace to move the stove away from the fireplace if necessary. I'll look into how far the stove needs to be away from the wood mantel (which would be a complete shame to remove since it matches the floor molding and is an integral part of the construction) but I would be very suprised if that couldn't be managed.

And an even more basic question - Are there questions I should ask when buying wood?

Interestingly, now that you describe a hearth stove, what I currently have in the dining room in the other chimney appears to be just that. There is steel plating around the fireplace attached to the stove but the stove itself sticks out about 6 inches. It's a good sized beast and can cook the dining room but it doesn't have a blower so it doesn't heat much beyond that room.

I realized that my cell phone has a camera which I have never used. Of course, I have to figue out how to get the picture into my computer...

 

[tkirk22]

And an even more basic question - Are there questions I should ask when buying wood?

Ask if it's seasoned and then assume that it isn't. Be at least a year ahead so that you can season it yourself.

The other question I would ask is what type of wood is it? Each has different burning qualities.

 

[fossil]

...Interestingly, now that you describe a hearth stove, what I currently have in the dining room in the other chimney appears to be just that. There is steel plating around the fireplace attached to the stove but the stove itself sticks out about 6 inches.

If I'm reading it correctly, that's an insert. A hearth stove wouldn't have the trim around it, it would just be standing there so most or all the stove is in plain view in front of an open hearth. There are inserts that don't completely "insert", they're not all made to be flush with the face of the fireplace. Rick