Cast Iron Stove that gets hot fast, and stays hot?

[sciencefan]

Thanks to everyone who responded to my post.

We have to decide whether we want to stick with convection heat or whether we want to go with radiant heat.

I like the way radiant heat dries the kids’ mittens and snowy clothes. But I didn’t like how it got everything in its vicinity really hot and we pretty much couldn’t use that room for anything else.

If I can get used to the fact of the convection heat taking longer to warm up the air in the house, I might actually enjoy it more in the long run.

I think what we did was we bought a stove that was too small for our needs.

So thanks to everyone who cast in their 2 cents... and Merry Christmas.
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Hi. This is my first post, though I have read many posts here.

We have used a cast iron "Franklin" look-a-like, not airtight, for 6 years.
I have always loved the way the heat comes up the stairs into the kitchen from the open area in the basement where the stove is.
Usually I can get it over 80 degrees at the top of the stairs within an hour, and keep it that way with about one log per hour.
I like it hot. I get cold easy. 72 degrees makes me feel cold.

Well, we found out our cast iron woodstove was illegal because the doors don't have a latch to keep them shut.
We always just put the 2 andirons in front of the doors to keep them closed, and we've felt safe.

Last month, we put a liner in the chimney and got a new steel woodstove... and I hate it!
We spent $3000 to be cold

I have no intention of wasting my time or my wood trying to entertain a fire in that thing.
After 2 hours and 4 sticks of wood, it was still only 75 degrees at the top of the stairs.
After about 6 hours, I finally got it over 80 degrees, but I used as much wood accomplishing that as I used to use in a whole day!
Not only that, but when I opened the stove, it was hot as a kiln in there! I'm lucky my hair didn't catch on fire.
The discrepancy between how hot it was IN the stove, and how moderately warm it was OUTSIDE the stove was extremely disappointing.

What makes it worse is it was 45 degrees outside all day long!
With my cast iron stove, I couldn't run the stove when it was that warm outside because I would get overheated.
What in the world is going to happen when it's 15 degrees outside for 3 weeks straight?!

I'm sure there are reasons why people like steel stoves, but I hate it.

They had told me the difference is a steel stove gives convection heat (heats the air)
while a cast iron stove gives radiant heat (heats the stuff in the room).
I knew ahead of time that I wanted cast iron, but my husband talked me out of it.
The only reason I even accepted this stove is because I thought it had a cast iron top. You can cook on it. But it's steel, too.
I am going to try to get my money back. (It was a used floor model.)

I want a cast iron stove, but now I'm afraid to choose one because even the cast iron stoves seem to be fancied up with that "secondary burn technology" and all that stuff.
I just want to be warm n-o-w.
I don't want it to be complicated.

We use wood heat to supplement our oil heat.

Can anyone suggest a cast iron wood stove that gets really hot really fast?

I have a 6 inch flue, and 18 inch wood.

[I don't think it's the stove's fault, but for anyone it matters to, the steel stove is a Napoleon 1100 - leg model. It's highly rated, but I don't like steel.]

Would any of the Jotuls serve my needs? This guy sells Jotul too.

Or let me put it this way: would I be happy with a Jotul?

I was in their shop where they were running a 118 and it wasn’t really that warm in there.

 

[babalu87]

Morso 3610

You can get it down in New Hampshire for around $1800 new
Dont be confused by secondary burn, too many people read too far into that.

It burns exhaust gases creating MORE HEAT, that is all.

 

[Hogwildz]

Hi. This is my first post, though I have read many posts here.

We have used a cast iron "Franklin" look-a-like, not airtight, for 6 years.
I have always loved the way the heat comes up the stairs into the kitchen from the open area in the basement where the stove is.
Usually I can get it over 80 degrees at the top of the stairs within an hour, and keep it that way with about one log per hour.
I like it hot. I get cold easy. 72 degrees makes me feel cold.

Well, we found out our cast iron woodstove was illegal because the doors don't have a latch to keep them shut.
We always just put the 2 andirons in front of the doors to keep them closed, and we've felt safe.

Last month, we put a liner in the chimney and got a new steel woodstove... and I hate it!
We spent $3000 to be cold

I have no intention of wasting my time or my wood trying to entertain a fire in that thing.
After 2 hours and 4 sticks of wood, it was still only 75 degrees at the top of the stairs.
After about 6 hours, I finally got it over 80 degrees, but I used as much wood accomplishing that as I used to use in a whole day!
Not only that, but when I opened the stove, it was hot as a kiln in there! I'm lucky my hair didn't catch on fire.
The discrepancy between how hot it was IN the stove, and how moderately warm it was OUTSIDE the stove was extremely disappointing.

What makes it worse is it was 45 degrees outside all day long!
With my cast iron stove, I couldn't run the stove when it was that warm outside because I would get overheated.
What in the world is going to happen when it's 15 degrees outside for 3 weeks straight?!

I'm sure there are reasons why people like steel stoves, but I hate it.

They had told me the difference is a steel stove gives convection heat (heats the air)
while a cast iron stove gives radiant heat (heats the stuff in the room).
I knew ahead of time that I wanted cast iron, but my husband talked me out of it.
The only reason I even accepted this stove is because I thought it had a cast iron top. You can cook on it. But it's steel, too.
I am going to try to get my money back. (It was a used floor model.)

I want a cast iron stove, but now I'm afraid to choose one because even the cast iron stoves seem to be fancied up with that "secondary burn technology" and all that stuff.
I just want to be warm n-o-w.
I don't want it to be complicated.

We use wood heat to supplement our oil heat.

Can anyone suggest a cast iron wood stove that gets really hot really fast?

I have a 6 inch flue, and 18 inch wood.

[I don't think it's the stove's fault, but for anyone it matters to, the steel stove is a Napoleon 1100 - leg model. It's highly rated, but I don't like steel.]

Is there a blower available for it that you can use to distribute the heat from it?

 

[sciencefan]

Why not fabricate a latch for your old stove?? I think you'll have a difficult time surpassing the performance that you previously had.

We HAVE thought of that! LOL!

Seriously, the handles on the doors are two little balls. It would take quite a bit of ingenuity.
We didn't realize all this hassle when we decided to just get something new.
Additionally, the stove is ready to be put out to pasture.

What I really wanted was the Hampton H300. I liked everything about it- including the way the handle latches nice and firmly. Not a fan of those spring-loaded jobs. But it was almost $2000.

 

[sciencefan]

Is there a blower available for it that you can use to distribute the heat from it?

Now that you ask, yes, but no wiring available to that section of the room.

 

[sciencefan]

Morso 3610

You can get it down in New Hampshire for around $1800 new
Dont be confused by secondary burn, too many people read too far into that.

It burns exhaust gases creating MORE HEAT, that is all.

That's what you're using.
They say it's their largest model.
Is yours in your basement?

 

[wg_bent]

I don't think she is looking for a blower to increase the amount of convection heat. For her the radiant heat was what she liked. She wanted the searing radiant heat. Cast iron or Steel is irrelevant, she want's a radiant stove. The 1100 is a convection stove. I would not expect a convection stove to over heat a single area as much since it does tend to heat the immediate objects.

I think we could debate convection vs radiant again for the 1000th time, but not get anywhere. She wants radiant.

She also want's cast iron. I think that's debatable also, but if cast is what she wants....

Vermont castings are all, as the name suggests, cast iron and are radiant stoves.

Harman also makes a radiant cast stove, as I believe does Napoleon.

Look also at Morso's (as already suggested).

Jotul's are also cast iron.

Another thing going on here is the stove size. I'm not sure how big your previous stove was, but a Napoleon is way on the smaller end of things. Don't go out and purchase a VC Intrepid or Aspen, both of which are cast iron but very small. Many of the Morso's are smaller fireboxes too, so be sure if your looking at stoves to purchase a stove with a firebox and heat output that will produce the needed level of heat output. The Morso 3610 is one of the larger Morso's.

Another thing to realize is that ALL stoves today do take some time to heat up and will have internal firebox temps that are quite high, actually higher than your old stove, and those temps take a bit to achieve before any real useful heat output happens. This is true regardless of technology.

My Osburn is designed similar to your Napoleon and is a similar size, and the only semi interesting heat that happens during the first 1/2 hour or so if starting from stone cold is out of the front window. The Osburn is quite capable of getting my livingroom over 80 on nearly any day of the year regardless of the outside temp, and I'm sure the Napoleon would also be capable of producing a lot of heat, but being a convection design, it won't have that same searing hot feel that a radiant stove seems to have. The actual side of the stove temp will be relatively lower that the same basic position on say a Jotul 500.

A neighbor of mine had a Jotul 600 that I helped her get started one day, and it took that stove a long time to produce any usable heat. It was a very large stove that would be quite capable of cooking the raised ranch it's in, but would take a bit.

 

[Hogwildz]

I don't think she is looking for a blower to increase the amount of convection heat. For her the radiant heat was what she liked. She wanted the searing radiant heat. Cast iron or Steel is irrelevant, she want's a radiant stove. The 1100 is a convection stove. I would not expect a convection stove to over heat a single area as much since it does tend to heat the immediate objects.

I think we could debate convection vs radiant again for the 1000th time, but not get anywhere. She wants radiant.

She also want's cast iron. I think that's debatable also, but if cast is what she wants....

Vermont castings are all, as the name suggests, cast iron and are radiant stoves.

Harman also makes a radiant cast stove, as I believe does Napoleon.

Look also at Morso's (as already suggested).

Jotul's are also cast iron.

Another thing going on here is the stove size. I'm not sure how big your previous stove was, but a Napoleon is way on the smaller end of things. Don't go out and purchase a VC Intrepid or Aspen, both of which are cast iron but very small. Many of the Morso's are smaller fireboxes too, so be sure if your looking at stoves to purchase a stove with a firebox and heat output that will produce the needed level of heat output. The Morso 3610 is one of the larger Morso's.

Another thing to realize is that ALL stoves today do take some time to heat up and will have internal firebox temps that are quite high, actually higher than your old stove, and those temps take a bit to achieve before any real useful heat output happens. This is true regardless of technology.

My Osburn is designed similar to your Napoleon and is a similar size, and the only semi interesting heat that happens during the first 1/2 hour or so if starting from stone cold is out of the front window. The Osburn is quite capable of getting my livingroom over 80 on nearly any day of the year regardless of the outside temp, and I'm sure the Napoleon would also be capable of producing a lot of heat, but being a convection design, it won't have that same searing hot feel that a radiant stove seems to have. The actual side of the stove temp will be relatively lower that the same basic position on say a Jotul 500.

A neighbor of mine had a Jotul 600 that I helped her get started one day, and it took that stove a long time to produce any usable heat. It was a very large stove that would be quite capable of cooking the raised ranch it's in, but would take a bit.

Hmmm, I'm thinkng of Roo and that Large P.E. Summit classic

 

[babalu87]

Morso 3610

You can get it down in New Hampshire for around $1800 new
Dont be confused by secondary burn, too many people read too far into that.

It burns exhaust gases creating MORE HEAT, that is all.

That's what you're using.
They say it's their largest model.
Is yours in your basement?

Yes that is what I am using
It is their largest model
I wouldnt put a stove in my basement with a gun to my head, I am never in the basement.

Warren
Next time you want it HOT FAST leave the loading door cracked open for a while

I start fires from the front and then re-load from the side. If I want it HOW FAST I leave the side door cracked.

 

[sciencefan]

I don't think she is looking for a blower to increase the amount of convection heat. For her the radiant heat was what she liked. She wanted the searing radiant heat. Cast iron or Steel is irrelevant, she want's a radiant stove. The 1100 is a convection stove. I would not expect a convection stove to over heat a single area as much since it does tend to heat the immediate objects.

I think we could debate convection vs radiant again for the 1000th time, but not get anywhere. She wants radiant.

She also want's cast iron. I think that's debatable also, but if cast is what she wants....

A neighbor of mine had a Jotul 600 that I helped her get started one day, and it took that stove a long time to produce any usable heat. It was a very large stove that would be quite capable of cooking the raised ranch it's in, but would take a bit.

Thank you for being a good listener

I haven't seen any of those debates;-) Shucks!

It's that "usable heat" thing I'm having a problem with. I've got heat inside the box but not outside.

The reason I think I want a cast iron stove is because I want radiant heat.

Another thing to realize is that ALL stoves today do take some time to heat up and will have internal firebox temps that are quite high, actually higher than your old stove, and those temps take a bit to achieve before any real useful heat output happens. This is true regardless of technology.

This scares me. Maybe NO stove out there will make me happy?

She also want's cast iron. I think that's debatable also, but if cast is what she wants....

Well, I am flexible on this. What do you suggest? Cause really I get it over 85 degrees in my kitchen when I'm running the woodstove.

As far as the size of my previous stove: the firebox was about 18 x 13 and over 15 inches high.
Here's a picture:

 

[sciencefan]

Would any of the Jotuls serve my needs? This guy sells Jotul too.

Or let me put it this way: would I be happy with a Jotul?

I was in their shop where they were running a 118 and it wasn't really that warm in there.

 

[sciencefan]

Listen, I'm with you on the cast iron. I know there are those that say it doesn't make a difference, but I disagree. Cast seems to have a radiant property to it, a heat holding property if you will. As far as using the stove in your basement, I'm all for that too. I say a warm floor makes for a warm house. Yes, others disagree. No latches on the door? Well now, I've found someone braver than me! I would be afraid of a log coming down and hitting the door and knocking it loose. Just me, but you obviously know the stove better. I would agree that making a latch for the doors may be your best bet. A good blacksmith could probably do this for you far cheaper than buying some big new stove. A good and faithful stove is kind of like a good and faithful dog. It's hard to part ways with them. Fix the old stove and buy yourself a steak dinner with the money you save compared to buying a new stove.

Well now, I've found someone braver than me!

ROFLOL!

I'm really tempted.

I just thought since it's not air tight, we should get something more efficient and supposedly kinder to the environment.

 

[elkimmeg]

Polite education here. No stove is designed to overfire the crap out of .I suspected in your first few sentances the Picture tell the entire story
No inspector or insurance co is going to approve a stove overfired for your purposes

Modern stoves 101 desired heating range surface temps 650 to 400 they are designed for burn time even distrobution of heat over a long period of time per load

If you over heat a cast iron stove like you did that Franklin you won't have it long You will crack it and render it useless. I glad some one or inspector stepped in the way you were running that stove was beyong dangerous somehow you survived without an incident

If you are going to burn witha modern wood stove you will have to modify your burning habits Modern stoves are not quick heat ups they are designed to be run 24/7
It's an accumulation of heat over a long period of time they use less wood doing it this way, All are designed to take advantages of secondary clean burns.
Using you current burning habits no modern stove will do what you are asking. Modify your objectives and being realistic many here are quite satisfied with the heat output.

No sense payings $1000's to over fire the crap out of it. I supose I could have candy coated my response but I think Blunt to save possible disaster may have accomplished that

Now we need more info area heated house lay out venting discription state or climate you are in

MAN JUST LOOKED AT THE PICTURE AGAIN HAS ANYONE WARNED YOU ABOUT CLEARANCES TO COMBUSTIABLES.SEVERLY OVERFIRING A STOVE IN THAT LOCATION??
YIEPS YIEPS!!. glad somehow you and your home survived now for some saftey and good advice.

 

[sciencefan]

I would agree that making a latch for the doors may be your best bet. A good blacksmith could probably do this for you far cheaper than buying some big new stove.

We just figured it might cost a couple hundred dollars, and at first we were just gonna spend about $300 on buying a used one.

It's my father who told us to buy a new one, and then he gave us some money to help pay for it.

This is the problem we're dealing with, though my husband and I have modified and invented our fair share of things over the years. The bottom line is the stove DOES need replacing.

 

[babalu87]

MAN JUST LOOKED AT THE PICTURE AGAIN HAS ANYONE WARNED YOU ABOUT CLEARANCES TO COMBUSTIABLES.SEVERLY OVERFIRING A STOVE IN THAT LOCATION??
YIEPS YIEPS!!. glad somehow you and your home survived now for some saftey and good advice.

Looks like the header pipes I had on my 69 Nova

I miss that car, well the engine anyway
327
202 heads
Isky cam (I forget the exact specs....I think 682)
Holley 650
Slip and slide powerglide tranny
VROOOOOOOOM VROOOOOOOOOOOM!!

 

[sciencefan]

Polite education here. No stove is designed to overfire the crap out of. I suspected in your first few sentances the Picture tell the entire story

Thank you for your response.
I don't think we were overfiring it. It was just really good at getting hot and staying hot.
We didn't use the stove last year because our chimney was cracking because of rain seeping in and turning to ice, so the woodstove is surface-rusted now.

Modern stoves 101 desired heating range surface temps 650 to 400 they are designed for burn time even distrobution of heat over a long period of time per load

I guess that's part of my problem. I don't know how to work a fire that way, and I also feel it is a waste of wood. My husband goes out in the woods and drags fallen trees home and mauls them by hand. Waste is not okay.

If you over heat a cast iron stove like you did that Franklin you won't have it long You will crack it and render it useless. I glad some one or inspector stepped in the way you were running that stove was beyong dangerous somehow you survived without an incident

I'm not sure what you think you saw, but my husband and I have common sense and a healthy enough respect of fire. I did not have to OVERHEAT my stove to get it to 85 degrees at the top of the stairs, all it needed was a couple of logs.

If you are going to burn witha modern wood stove you will have to modify your burning habits Modern stoves are not quick heat ups they are designed to be run 24/7
It's an accumulation of heat over a long period of time they use less wood doing it this way, All are designed to take advantages of secondary clean burns.
Using you current burning habits no modern stove will do what you are asking. Modify your objectives and being realistic many here are quite satisfied with the heat output.

This is a problem for me, too because once again it's a waste of wood. I don't need my stove to run 24/7. I have oil heat.
When I called the lady at the stove store to tell her that it still wasn't warm yet and it had been an hour and a half, she said, "Well you haven't been burning for 24 hours yet".
YOU MEAN I HAVE TO KNOW YESTERDAY THAT I'M GOING TO BE COLD TODAY?!
(That's what I thought on the inside.)

Now we need more info area heated house lay out venting discription state or climate you are in

I think the basement is about 500 sq. ft. The heat comes up the stairs to the kitchen and warms up the rest of the house- 1000 sq. ft. rancher.

MAN JUST LOOKED AT THE PICTURE AGAIN HAS ANYONE WARNED YOU ABOUT CLEARANCES TO COMBUSTIABLES.SEVERLY OVERFIRING A STOVE IN THAT LOCATION??
YIEPS YIEPS!!. glad somehow you and your home survived now for some saftey and good advice.

It's hard to tell in the picture but the stove was at least 24 inches away from the wall at the time.
Actually, the pipe is overwarming the wall with the new stove and we're going to need to pull it away from the wall another few inches.

 

[sciencefan]

I can hear "Taps" playing for your old cast iron stove right now. Like Elk said, I'm glad she held up well enough that it didn't kill you. Good thing is that scrap prices are really high and seeing that it is cast iron, you have a lot of weight there. Take the ol' girl to the scrap yard and there's some of your steak supper money!

Elk just visited the Vermont Castings plant and he says that they are really taking pride in their quality right now. It also sounds like you'd be helping the good ol' American economy by buying one of those stoves. I'm sure Elk or Craig could help steer you towards a stove that you can put in your basement if need be and still throw the heat good. Is there any reason that you don't have it upstairs? It's okay if it's preference, like I said, I like warm floors and I believe in radiant heat.

You're awfully sweet. You almost made me cry with that "old dog" stuff in the other post.

Hmmm scrap metal... that's a good idea. Or...

I was thinking of dismantling it and laying it on top of my new stove to gather up the heat and radiate it from there.
I wasn't sure if the legs on the new stove could handle the weight.

All that talk about steak; I'm gonna have to have some now!

It's in the basement because we bought the house that way.
We have a fireplace upstairs.
My son sleeps in the basement and it's not really fully heated - no separate thermostat.
It's always a few degrees cooler.

 

[sciencefan]

CAST??? I see LOTS of welds. I'll give odds that it's largely STEEL plate.

Hmmm. I don't know. I saw the weld places too. I thought my husband said he bought it from a man who was a welder for a living.

 

[sciencefan]

What if the guy won't give me back my money outright?
I might have to choose something else in his store and all he has is Jotul.

 

[sciencefan]

What if the guy won't give me back my money outright?
I might have to choose something else in his store and all he has is Jotul.

That would be a real shame if you had to take a Jotul.

Are you funnin' me?

But, just the same, get the Oslo, in blue-black enamel, put it out at the curb, gimme a call (I'm just thirty miles from Sturbridge!), and I'll leave you a few sheckels.

It looks like it's between the Oslo [$?], Castine [$1649], 118 Black Bear [$1399], and the F3CB [$1349].

 

[Jags]

CAST??? I see LOTS of welds. I'll give odds that it's largely STEEL plate.

I have to agree with Dylan, this is alost certainly a plate steel build. Thru the pics posted it appears that even the raised edges of the doors have been welded on. This would not be done for a cast stove. Mind you, I am not picking on the stove (personally, I see some really cool ideas, such as welding cut pipe onto the plate to create the rounded edges), I am just reviewing what has been posted. The top plate is also most likely "Plate" steel, by the looks of things. Cast parts, specifially the tops, don't typically have the finished (or better said - "cut") appearance that the top of your old stove has.

As far as fast heat up times, I think the general rule of thumb is (assuming apples to apples here):
1.) plate steel warms the fastest
2.) Cast Iron will be second in the race
3.) soap stone will take the longest

Please note: heat retaining ability will be in reverse order. I hope this may help.

 

[wg_bent]

I don't think she is looking for a blower to increase the amount of convection heat. For her the radiant heat was what she liked. She wanted the searing radiant heat. Cast iron or Steel is irrelevant, she want's a radiant stove. The 1100 is a convection stove. I would not expect a convection stove to over heat a single area as much since it does tend to heat the immediate objects.

I think we could debate convection vs radiant again for the 1000th time, but not get anywhere. She wants radiant.

She also want's cast iron. I think that's debatable also, but if cast is what she wants....

A neighbor of mine had a Jotul 600 that I helped her get started one day, and it took that stove a long time to produce any usable heat. It was a very large stove that would be quite capable of cooking the raised ranch it's in, but would take a bit.

Thank you for being a good listener

I haven't seen any of those debates;-) Shucks!

It's that "usable heat" thing I'm having a problem with. I've got heat inside the box but not outside.

The reason I think I want a cast iron stove is because I want radiant heat.

Another thing to realize is that ALL stoves today do take some time to heat up and will have internal firebox temps that are quite high, actually higher than your old stove, and those temps take a bit to achieve before any real useful heat output happens. This is true regardless of technology.

This scares me. Maybe NO stove out there will make me happy?

She also want's cast iron. I think that's debatable also, but if cast is what she wants....

Well, I am flexible on this. What do you suggest? Cause really I get it over 85 degrees in my kitchen when I'm running the woodstove.

As far as the size of my previous stove: the firebox was about 18 x 13 and over 15 inches high.
Here's a picture:

With a firebox that size, I think you should look at a large stove like one of the big Englanders like Brother Bart bought. All stoves sold today will produce a lot more heat for the amount of wood you shove into them than that beast ever did.

I also think you bought wayyy too small. A Napoleon 1100 is a very small stove, and for the way you want to use it you should be looking at something that has a firebox that's like 3.0+ cuft.

Elk explained a bit more on this, but I'll say some additional words here. An EPA stove like your napoleon should produce usable heat within about 30 minutes, and be full glory in maybe an hour. 24 hours? That person is burning an alternative bio material in their stove that is grown in Columbia.

Folks like RooSpike here have larger stoves (as does Elk) that they run in a more temporary mode during the warmer weather, so how about it Spike. How long does your PE take to produce any serious heat?

Also, What's a log mean? 4 logs? I tend to talk about splits where a split is a peice of wood 16" long and rougly as big around as a 64oz coke bottle. My stove will produce usable heat for about 4 hours on 4 peices of wood that big, maybe a bit longer, but Given that same 4 logs, a big VC Defiant, Pacific Energy Summit or a Lopi Liberty would not produce any more heat. They all burn with roughly the same effective real world efficiency and there are so many BTU's in the wood. They all will produce more overall BTU output than your current stove.

I think the reason Elk was indicating overfiring was in part that there's no latch, and no gaskets, and your stove is getting very hot quickly. That all adds up to a very hot fire heating up that beast of a stove quickly.

Yes, all the modern stoves will take longer to feel hot. But, a Jotul 600 that is running a full load with a surface temp of 650 is a very large very hot thing that will be capable of getting your 500 sqft room to 85 degrees easily after a couple hours. the difference is that if you fill that Jotul to the brim, cut the air control down to minimum, at 10 pm, at 7 am the next morning, that Jotul will still be quite hot, there will still be wood burning in it, and your kitchen will still be warm AND the oil heat will not have kicked on all night.

The material of the stove is not quite as important here as the size is. Actually, your stove is not cast. It appears to be welded sheet steel...at least the outside is. The fastest heating stoves made today are the steel stoves like your napoleon. Next come Cast iron, then soapstone. But on the heat retention, the order is reversed. Steel cools fastest, then cast then sopastone.

If you want fast heat, look at a big englanders, Lopi steel stoves, Big Osburns, Harmon, Pacific Energy, The list goes on and on.

 

[elkimmeg]

Your existing stove requires 36" from combustiables thats code. New stoves that are tested can be reduced to tested manufactures specs. sSngle wall stove pipe is 18" to combustiables unless they have a heat shield double wall pipe is 6"

I have been in my current occupation for quite a while National certified Building inspector and Mechanical inspector. I know the symptons of what metal looks like when over heated it turns a bit whiter than surounding cooler metal Grant it I am lookingh at you photos I see too many indications of overfiring

Thjere are many fine Cast Iron stove to choose from Moroso Jotul Vermont castings Harman Dutch West again Vermont castings
tell us more about you current replacement how you opperate it ect maybe from there we can get a better icture of its limitations and advise

You came here looking for help and to be educated as to how modern stoves work. It a little more than brand x vs brand y sizing a stove is important.

I also suspect freshly cut , even dead trees, have a higher moisture content than season split and stacked a year in advanced . The modern stoves require well seasoned wood
less than that stove preformance suffers in heat output

Draft is another issue not yet sescribed how long is your verticle length and is the chimney safe to be used ? If it is the age of your initial stove and metal then it is safe to say it would never pass today's codes which leads me to another question did your local inspector pass your latest installation? with those clearance issues?

I'm out there trying to prevent incidents and to uphold safety protect your well being. Everything I have said is to make you aware your situation may be compromised

 

[wg_bent]

What if the guy won't give me back my money outright?
I might have to choose something else in his store and all he has is Jotul.

That would be a real shame if you had to take a Jotul.

Are you funnin' me?

But, just the same, get the Oslo, in blue-black enamel, put it out at the curb, gimme a call (I'm just thirty miles from Sturbridge!), and I'll leave you a few sheckels.

It looks like it's between the Oslo [$?], Castine [$1649], 118 Black Bear [$1399], and the F3CB [$1349].

Jotul's are great stoves. In that list the Oslo is the biggest. The Castine and 118 are the same rated heat output. Just because the 118 in the store was not making the store 85 degrees, doesn't mean anything. That stove should be able to cook you out of a 500 sqft basement EASILY!!

 

[wg_bent]

One more small point here. I have a basement room that is about 450 sqft. Based on my experience with a smallish Osburn insert, I'm extremely hesitant to put ANY wood stove in that room for fear of so over heating that room as to make it unusable. My Osburn heats 2200 sqft with a 1.8 cuft firebox.