Help selecting wood stove

[Maverick302]

Hello all,

I just moved into a raised ranch, 1500 sq ft on the main floor, with a pellet stove in the finished basement (about half the footprint of the house, other half is garage). Built in 1990 but decently well insulated. I would like to replace the wimpy pellet stove with a wood burner.

The house has a heat pump only. The hearth is in the basement on an exterior wall, and there is a fairly open stairway in the center of the house. As much as I would love the stove to be in the main living area, I have opted to keep it in the basement. I am looking to supplement the heat pump with the stove, keeping the basement warm and raising a few degrees upstairs

I have gotten quotes and have looked at several dealers, and have narrowed it down to Jotul or PE. Lopi's were on the list but no good dealer in the area. My questions are:

1. Is the T5/Oslo enough stove, or should I really be looking more at the T6/Firelight?
2. Can anybody highlight the differences in features between the PE & Jotul and explain why they like/dislike them? There is plenty of room to side-load the Oslo.
   
3. I understand the Oslo is all cast iron and the Alderlea are jacketed. Is there a big enough difference in performance to get the heat across the basement and up the stairs? The hearth is line-of-sight with the stairway, but about 25ft away.

Thanks in advance.

 

[begreen]

This setup will need convective heat. I would opt for the T6 with blower or the Jotul F55 with blower.

 

[Maverick302]

I figured the blower was a necessity

 

[bcrtops]

This setup will need convective heat. I would opt for the T6 with blower or the Jotul F55 with blower.

T6 as begreen states -- I favor the full steel box/burn chamber -- less trouble free -- years down the road, if keeping the stove for a very long term. Just my opinion.

The T5 would work if all that sq. footage was on one level. Ours serves fairly well for a 1750 sq.ft. old farm house, though it needs to run hard at freezing temps or below to keep up.

 

[Maverick302]

Great answers so far. Looking forward to hearing more input.

 

[Evan G]

I have no practical experience to offer here on the stoves, but am in a similar situation. Mine is a 1300 SF ranch with walkout basement that has 800SF of finished area and open staircase in the middle. There is no insulation between floors or between finished area and utility area. We also have lots of single pane glass in a poorly insulated house (1970 construction) and live in VA. Our current heat source is gas, and looking at last years bills, we used 12,000 to 20,000 BTUs / hr on average through about 3 months. I was considering a smaller vermont castings intrepid 2 with catalytic converter for supplemental heat but found a great deal on a used insulated liner and Jotul oslo combo, which I'm going to try out. If anything, I'm worried it will be too much heat.
My plan for distributing heat is to run the house blower when the stove is hot. At night, I'm hoping that the heat will rise to the bedrooms above the stove with no fans. I'll update after running the stove.

 

[bcrtops]

For a little more info from another thread on the PE stoves in general-- quoting Squisher

Squisher said: ↑
not sure what your dealer was pricing things at, and I think because they are made out here the pricing is probably better. The baffle system is much more robust than most reburn stoves and will last indefinitely and also they use a stainless flame shield above it to protect the stove and lastly they are designed and built as a floating firebox to relieve stresses on the stove as a whole. I think these are a few of the main pluses.
Squisher said: ↑
I clean chimneys/stoves so get to see hands on many different stoves. The quality and construction of PE is quite high IMO compared to some of the cheaper stoves. They also have a fantastic airwash system for keeping the glass clean. I generally clean my glass.........not at all. It just stays fairly clean on its own.

I would add that cleaning your own chimney is a "breeze" compared to a lot of other stoves. You do not have to remove your stove-pipe, but rather can easily remove the stove's baffle (no tools required) & you have a straight shot for your cleaning brush from top to bottom, or reverse. My belief is that the PE stoves are one of the best designed non-catalytic wood stoves on the market. One of most simplistic designs with the fewest moving parts, and the fewest gaskets to worry about. Also, like all wood stoves should be -- it only requires spark/ember protection hearth -- no "R" value nonsense to deal with for your hearth. The totally enclosed/welded steel firebox is another giant plus with regards to this stoves construction -- for the sake of # or parts, & sealing up the stove.

Edit: clearances -- some good close clearances to combustibles with the PE stove, too.

Both Jotul & PE have basically no Customer Service at the manufacturer level. Hence, buy from a really good dealer, as they will be taking care of any warranty issues.

 

[begreen]

Both Jotul & PE have basically no Customer Service at the manufacturer level. Hence, buy from a really good dealer, as they will be taking care of any warranty issues.

That is incorrect. They have limited direct customer support. At times these people get overwhelmed and they do at times filter small questions out.

 

[bcrtops]

I won't argue about the "quality" of available CS.
I do believe with both stoves, you will best be served with a good, reputable dealer.

 

[begreen]

Yes, for sure. That can make a big difference with stoves and many other products.

 

[firefighterjake]

That is incorrect. They have limited direct customer support. At times these people get overwhelmed and they do at times filter small questions out.

Apparently Jotul has two techs on site to answer questions . . . it seems they mostly serve to help answer dealer's technical questions when something a bit odd comes up on an install which requires additional help.

I only realized this since this month's Jotul Employee of the Month was one of the two techs . . . and one reason he was nominated was due to him stepping up while other tech was out of commission for a while.