Back in the '90's somebody used to publish something called the "Complete Car Cost Guide". It evaluated pretty much every available model of car for ownership costs, taking into account purchase price, fuel economy, maintenance, insurance, durability, reliability and maybe some other aspects that I can't remember. Is anyone doing something similar today for stoves and fireplaces?
cost guide
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Not that I know of. You are way overthinking this. Are you an engineer? 
Nope.
Don't know of one for my kitchen range either. And there is one of them in every house in the country.
Don't know of one for my kitchen range either. And there is one of them in every house in the country.
Ricky8443
Burning Hunk
i disagree completely, i dont think he's way overthinking anything. its a great idea actually. there are so many thousands of posts and comments in the forums, but there is no good consolidated "consumer guide" for the masses.
In 2006, when we bought our Prius Consumers Reports and Edmunds were dissing the car badly. 2 yrs and millions of user miles later they did a complete 180 and loved the car. Go figure.
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(*ducks and runs*...)It's a steel/cast/soapstone box with either secondary burn tubes or a cat. Other than that, every category you mention is dependent on the use by an educated or uneducated operator. It would be hard to quantify anything that can translate from person to person.
IMO such a guide would be superfluous because unlike motor vehicles which can change dramatically from year to year wood stoves change very little (if at all) from year to year so when buying a stove there is very little guess work involved. Also, if I've learned anything about stove buying practices from this board it is that people tend to buy based primarily on 2 factors - 1) the aesthetic preference of the wife 2) cost. And things like ease of maintenance and ease of use are non-factors.
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You got that right!!
The conversation was:
me - I want a wood stove
her - the existing fireplace is ugly, ok lets get one
(go to store)
me - these 7 will fit
her - this is the only one that looks good
thats the stove we have today!
Of course thats before i knew about this forum and didnt look it up online. It does a good job, knowing more light have been nice, but wouldnt have effected any decision on my part.
Same goes for the wood shed:
Me: I want the wood covered outside, and the current little roof isnt good enough
her: ok
me: has to be about this big
her: here is what it looks like
I built it
She likes it
I planned for 4 cords, probably can hold about 5 cords of wood.... She is happy, I am happy
The conversation was:
me - I want a wood stove
her - the existing fireplace is ugly, ok lets get one
(go to store)
me - these 7 will fit
her - this is the only one that looks good
thats the stove we have today!
Of course thats before i knew about this forum and didnt look it up online. It does a good job, knowing more light have been nice, but wouldnt have effected any decision on my part.
Same goes for the wood shed:
Me: I want the wood covered outside, and the current little roof isnt good enough
her: ok
me: has to be about this big
her: here is what it looks like
I built it
She likes it
I planned for 4 cords, probably can hold about 5 cords of wood.... She is happy, I am happy
EXACTLY. Burning truly dry wood and knowing how to operate the stove properly are 90% of the difference. If you had a ton of money you could test each stove with 30% moisture wood and an idiot filling it. That would be more worthwhile.
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