If You Could Change One Thing...

[Caw]

Most of us here are passionate or aspiring wood burners who love their setups but...I think a lot of us have something we'd do differently or love to change if we could.

So...if you could ONE thing about your stove or setup what would it be?

For personal it's easy, I'd love to have a raised hearth. I love my Osburn 1600 insert but it sits on my hearth which is basically at ground level. I have to do a lot of kneeling and get on all 4s to adjust the air. It's also a little hard to see the top of the firebox and the pretty secondary show if you're sitting in the room. A raised hearth would give a better view and save my knees!

 

[MMH]

Honestly I’m not sure I’d change anything, maybe if I had more room in the area. Overall I’m happy with my set up, I might add a mantle for aesthetics but even that isn’t necessary (in my opinion).

I would change my wood operation though, currently my shop is right next to house, which is where I store our wood. There’s no room for cutting or splitting there so I’m doing that on the other side of the property and moving it multiple times etc.

 

[NickW]

I need massive BTU'S, so the NC30 is good for that; but I'd love to be able to turn it down like a BK overnight. Not sure how well it would work though... I seem to suffer a "draft lag" if that's what to call it. Drafts good and strong on startup and secondary phases, but I seem to really lose draft in the coaling phase and often end up with as much charcoal as coals in the morning and not nearly enough heat. I suppose using a "space heater" to try to heat all of my square footage is less than ideal... Getting it shut down at just the right time is tough. Too soon and it snuffs, too late and I'm fighting too high of temps and end up babysitting it until it comes down enough to crack the air open again.

 

[Highbeam]

I would like to add an efficient furnace. We have electric wall heaters as backup but are 100% wood heat. 9 months of burning each year is a lot. A lot of that time it is too warm outside for constant burning and a little squirt of heat from a furnace is all we would need.

Plus it would be a heat pump and that would give us cooling for the 5 or so days a year that we would like it.

 

[Caw]

I would like to add an efficient furnace. We have electric wall heaters as backup but are 100% wood heat. 9 months of burning each year is a lot. A lot of that time it is too warm outside for constant burning and a little squirt of heat from a furnace is all we would need.

Plus it would be a heat pump and that would give us cooling for the 5 or so days a year that we would like it.

I have a heat pump back up and can confirm that it's really nice on those 45-50 degree days. Just pop it on and it stays comfy for low $ where the stove would easily bake us.

 

[buc74]

Our stove is in the kitchen/ dinette area in the middle of the house which is nice. But having it in the living room would be a better. Only way to change that would be a second free standing stove and that ain't happening.

 

[EbS-P]

My chimney is in the center of the ranch layout house. Which is great for heating but I wish I could have an outside air kit. The basement isn’t that well sealed anyway and all the make up air just makes it colder down there. I have given it some thought and I don’t see any realistic possible way.

 

[MTASH]

I would demolish my masonry chimney and hearth, relocate the stove to the center of my house so I could get use Class A straight up and get a taller chimney.

 

[Das Jugghead]

Well I will go ahead violate the rules of the thread title here as there are a few things I would change or do differently and this is from the perspective of building one last house to retire/die in:

• Centrally located chimney and hearth.
• Very large masonry mass for the hearth to act as a thermal flywheel
• A poured somewhat polished concrete hearth surface for easy cleaning.
• Textured concrete mantel with corbels
• Wood storage areas integrated into the hearth wall on the left and right side of the stove
• A good quality wood stove that is free standing and not tucked into the fireplace
• No fireplace
• An airlock room to transfer wood inside the house from outside
• Permanent wood racks with clear roofs and doors on hinges rather than plastic sheeting

Things I would do again:

• Insulated stainless steel flue liner
• Insulated outside air intake
• Preheating the intake air

Sorry for violating the rules of the thread.

 

[MongoMongoson]

Easy for me. I would love to not have 12' ceilings. More volume to heat, and such a pain whenever you need to do anything at ceiling height, like disassemble pipes. With my old All Nighter Big Moe on my 18” tall Big Moe stand, I could stand on top of the stove and almost reach the ceiling. I won’t be standing on the Summit. It wouldn't help anyway.

 

[MongoMongoson]

Easy for me. I would love to not have 12' ceilings. More volume to heat, and such a pain whenever you need to do anything at ceiling height, like disassemble pipes. With my old All Nighter Big Moe on my 18” tall Big Moe stand, I could stand on top of the stove and almost reach the ceiling. I won’t be standing on the Summit. It wouldn't help anyway.

That wood pile looks really close to the Big Moe in that picture, but that is just the perspective. I know because I had to scoot the wood rack over about 4" to get it far enough away.

 

[Caw]

Sorry for violating the rules of the thread.

Pshhh you're outta here! Jk. We'll grant an exception as it was educational.

 

[firefighterjake]

Shari . . . if you're still out there and lurking around here at hearth.com I think you'll know the answer to this thread's original question.

The one and only thing I would have done different was pony up the extra cash for the blue-black finish instead of the matte black on my Jotul Oslo. At the time I was just happy to find a woodstove at a decent price as pellet stoves were pretty much unavailable until late Winter and woodstoves were selling fast back in 2008.

 

[Mutineer]

I bought an VC Intrepid back in the early 90's, it was rated at 28K btu/hr I believe, but I ran that poor little thing extremely hard for 27+ years. The inside casting surface in several areas was starting to erode, the ceramic paint that looked so good out of the box was chipping off all over and the cost of the catalyst elements was excessive so when the Obama woodstove tax credit program came about back in '09 I went to my local stove seller and asked him what he recommended for my 2500 sq ft colonial to replace the worn out Intrepid. He had the Jotul, Lopi and VC lines, but my budget ruled out the Jotul option and the VC route was a never again. When he got a clearer view of my budget, he said the Republic line from Lopi was a good route, and the 1250 was $1500, net $1000 after credits. It was rated at 66K btu/hr so I thought wow, 2.5 times the heat output sounds great. In retrospect, I should have kicked in a few more shekels and gotten a larger firebox stove than the 1250's 1.6 cu ft. Not disappointed in the plain jane look of the 1250 but would like to have a few more hours of burn time. Back then I knew it all, and I wasn't on Hearth.com.

 

[fire_man]

• An airlock room to transfer wood inside the house from outside

I have this now but would REALLY miss it if I didn't

I want a big enough storage shed for a year's worth of wood so I don't have to deal with those darn tarps all winter.

 

[Caw]

so I don't have to deal with those darn tarps all winter.

Death to tarps!

Im working on roofing as soon as the snow melts.

 

[Gearhead660]

Would have opted for the auto load option.

 

[Gearhead660]

Seriously though, only thing I would change is getting an aesthetically pleasing stove. Mine is just a big black cube. I bought it as a worker. Later down the road I may get me a fancy stove.

 

[logfarmer]

For me, a straight up through the roof chimney and a 2’ raised hearth for my freestanding stove so I wouldn’t have to bend over or get down on a knee to load it!

 

[Caw]

For me, a straight up through the roof chimney and a 2’ raised hearth for my freestanding stove so I wouldn’t have to bend over or get down on a knee to load it!

I'd do unspeakable things for a raised hearth.

 

[Highbeam]

I'd do unspeakable things for a raised hearth.

I’ve built three. Piece of cake for the first 12”.

 

[jetsam]

I need massive BTU'S, so the NC30 is good for that; but I'd love to be able to turn it down like a BK overnight. Not sure how well it would work though... I seem to suffer a "draft lag" if that's what to call it. Drafts good and strong on startup and secondary phases, but I seem to really lose draft in the coaling phase and often end up with as much charcoal as coals in the morning and not nearly enough heat. I suppose using a "space heater" to try to heat all of my square footage is less than ideal... Getting it shut down at just the right time is tough. Too soon and it snuffs, too late and I'm fighting too high of temps and end up babysitting it until it comes down enough to crack the air open again.

Sounds like you need a NC30 AND a BK!

As for me, I wish my setup was located on a Caribbean island. On the coldest nights of the year we could open all the windows and make stew on the stove....

 

[Caw]

I’ve built three. Piece of cake for the first 12”.

I'd do it in a heartbeat if I had the vertical space to still fit my insert. Not about to destroy part of the fireplace though that's above my pay grade.

 

[bcarp]

Grea thread, I really like hearing what other have to say.

I’d be knocking down the brick chimney and replacing with a double wall stainless Class A - and trying to control myself by not then getting vortexed into buying a BK

 

[gthomas785]

If I could change one thing, I'd have more sunny places in my yard to stack wood!