I'm torn...looking for your experiences

[tifferstwo]

So, we are replacing our fireplace with a wood stove. We want to heat our 2000 sq.ft two-story house, or at least reduce using our forced air while having a back up if we were to ever lose electricity, I will add we live in Alaska and if there was ever an earthquake we want to be sufficient for heating as well as cooking on it. With that said it will be the focal point of our main living area and while we want it to be efficient and serve it's purpose, I also need it to be aesthetically appealing.

I have been doing research and reading here and other websites, and have talked to one of our local dealers. But I'm completely torn and would love your personal experiences on these specific stoves, Blaze King Ashford 20 or 30 in white, Vermont Castings Resolute, Quadrafire Explorer I or II in white...and open to any other recommendations. I'm kind of limited to what is available in stock with the dealers here and special ordering would also cost shipping, which is always ridiculous to AK and we aren't wanting to spend a crazy amount. We also have access to purchase Harman, Alderlea, Hearthstone, and Regency. But looking for function and looks.

 

[Woody Stover]

I'm assuming insulation and air-sealing is very good? Will the stove be centrally located? So 1000 sq.ft. on each level? Where are the stairs? Fireplace or through-the-roof installation? Can you sketch a rough floor plan?

 

[moresnow]

I'm assuming insulation and air-sealing is very good? Will the stove be centrally located? So 1000 sq.ft. on each level? Where are the stairs? Fireplace or through-the-roof installation? Can you sketch a rough floor plan?

Ditto! All issues mentioned above will influence anyones recomendations here. Might also add that doing a thorough search here on the units you have mentioned will produce a mountain of info. And very possibly will answer many of your questions. Lots of good options out there. A few are outstanding performers.

 

[Poindexter]

Sorry, on my phone i cant see your location.

Where in alaska? how many energy stars does your house posess?

 

[Ashful]

Of those you mention:

Blaze King Ashford 20: don't bother. They make a 30, and it can run at exceptionally low heat output.

Blaze King Ashford 30: I like this stove so much, I bought two! It can run at any setting from full inferno to dull black box, and looks nice doing it. On a low setting, they will do reliable 30 hour burns on softwood, or 36 hour burns on oak. This ability is very handy for managing house temperature in spring and fall, when it is not blistering cold outside. I can also rip thru a full box of wood in just a few hours without running away, on the highest setting, if you need it.

Vermont Castings: not too many satisfied VC customers, here. Lots of former VC customers, though. Their 2-in-1 system (new ca.2013) looked very cool, and I so wanted it to work, since VC makes some of the most beautiful stoves ever cast. Reports here indicate it did work, but people had trouble with breaking some of the delicate refractory components, over and over.

Quad Explorer: I don't really know this line, which isn't a bad thing. Many of the brands we get to know best are they people having complaints with them here, and I haven't seen a lot of complaining about Quad.

 

[firefighterjake]

Blaze King . . . pretty sure it's the Official Woodstove of Alaska.

By the way, if you see my sister and brother-in-law in town be sure to say hi to them. They live on Linger Lane in Wasilla.

 

[bcrtops]

I look at stoves differently:
--1st thing I do is look at the exploded parts schematic/view
1) How many moving parts? The fewer the better
2) How many total parts ? The fewer the better
3) How many gaskets? The fewer the better, & preferably only a door gasket & glass gasket.

4) How easy is it going to be to work on? to clean? to clean chimney? Tools required, or not?

Consequently the VC would not be on my list, the Blaze King only because it "efficient", & I would go with the Quad

 

[tifferstwo]

I'm assuming insulation and air-sealing is very good? Will the stove be centrally located? So 1000 sq.ft. on each level? Where are the stairs? Fireplace or through-the-roof installation? Can you sketch a rough floor plan?

Well the house is older built in 82, we will put the stove where the fireplace currently is(I'll attach a floor plan), it is equal squad footage up and down, stairs are opposite side of the room from the fireplace, not sure about the Fireplace or through-the-roof installation, But we will find out when we take it out and open up the wall, we want to create an alcove for the stove to fit in. Don't mind the mess The picture of the stairs is from standing by the fireplace. There was no heating in the upstairs when the house was originally built, at some point they added 2 vents upstairs one in the master bedroom and one in the room right above the fireplace. The front upstairs bedroom has an electric wall heater in it, and the small office still has no heat to it. The room above the fireplace doesn't get very warm, but we are thinking they ran the duct behind the fireplace somehow, the duct to the master was run through the kitchen and a cabinet added to hide it.
.

 

[tifferstwo]

Ditto! All issues mentioned above will influence anyones recomendations here. Might also add that doing a thorough search here on the units you have mentioned will produce a mountain of info. And very possibly will answer many of your questions. Lots of good options out there. A few are outstanding performers.

Thanks, I have been doing a lot of searching on here and it has helped there is just so much, I just figured out the searching a specific topic after i posted the thread, otherwise it was really hard to get through all the threads. I'm still going at it, I'm not taking this decision lightly because it is a big investment and I want to make sure we make the best choice for us.

 

[tifferstwo]

Sorry, on my phone i cant see your location.

Where in alaska? how many energy stars does your house posess?

We are in Wasilla, not sure about how many stars, I don't think the house has been rated.

 

[tifferstwo]

Of those you mention:

Blaze King Ashford 20: don't bother. They make a 30, and it can run at exceptionally low heat output.

Blaze King Ashford 30: I like this stove so much, I bought two! It can run at any setting from full inferno to dull black box, and looks nice doing it. On a low setting, they will do reliable 30 hour burns on softwood, or 36 hour burns on oak. This ability is very handy for managing house temperature in spring and fall, when it is not blistering cold outside. I can also rip thru a full box of wood in just a few hours without running away, on the highest setting, if you need it.

Vermont Castings: not too many satisfied VC customers, here. Lots of former VC customers, though. Their 2-in-1 system (new ca.2013) looked very cool, and I so wanted it to work, since VC makes some of the most beautiful stoves ever cast. Reports here indicate it did work, but people had trouble with breaking some of the delicate refractory components, over and over.

Quad Explorer: I don't really know this line, which isn't a bad thing. Many of the brands we get to know best are they people having complaints with them here, and I haven't seen a lot of complaining about Quad.

Thanks, We were looking at the Ashford 30 as well, it's just a bigger jump in price, but thats why I asked on here, so I can have the feedback between the 2. I have seen a lot of unhappy customers with the VC too, which is a bummer because I really like how they look, so much more attractive than the BK. And I"m still exploring the Quad, seems most people are happy with a few int there who are not. But that tends to be the case for a lot of the stoves.

 

[tifferstwo]

Blaze King . . . pretty sure it's the Official Woodstove of Alaska.

By the way, if you see my sister and brother-in-law in town be sure to say hi to them. They live on Linger Lane in Wasilla.

Thanks, BK seems to be the stove most people go with up here but its not the prettiest.

 

[tifferstwo]

I look at stoves differently:
--1st thing I do is look at the exploded parts schematic/view
1) How many moving parts? The fewer the better
2) How many total parts ? The fewer the better
3) How many gaskets? The fewer the better, & preferably only a door gasket & glass gasket.

4) How easy is it going to be to work on? to clean? to clean chimney? Tools required, or not?

Consequently the VC would not be on my list, the Blaze King only because it "efficient", & I would go with the Quad

Thanks, I feel like I'm leaning towards the quad.

 

[Poindexter]

Still havent been to my desktop pc.

If you are north of trapper creek or so i dont think the ashford 30 would be enough stove in 2000 sqft unless you are in 6 star with a well designed hrv and an enormous wood pile.

South of there, out of the mountains and coming into the coastal weather systems with a 3+ or 4 star rating on the envelope, sure.

My dad had a VC, 20 years ago. Beauriful stove, he hated running it.

I have heard pretty good things about the quadrafire. check the emissions ratings carefully. i expect anchorage area wil be regulated burners in ten years or so.

Also consider the cordwood tou can get in quantity. the bk line is basically designed for softwoods.

 

[Ashful]

Thanks, BK seems to be the stove most people go with up here but its not the prettiest.

I held off a few years on buying BK, because I also thought their classic stoves were ugly. But the Ashfords really are pretty. I'm pretty picky about exactly how my house looks, which is why I was burning 30 year old Jotuls, and looking at troublesome VCs.

 

[Poindexter]

Curious enough to come to my desktop to make the pictures bigger.

Voted for the Ashford (30 implied) in your poll now that I have adequate info.

Given 1982 construction your house without upgrades will probably rate 2 or 3 stars. With triple pane glass throughout, all the air leaks around electrical receptacles fixed and waist deep blown cellulose in the attic 4 stars is likely achievable, getting a fifth star is probably not economical.

In other good news I suspect your existing fireplace is a pre fab. Is there a metal tag on it anywhere that says "heatilator"? If so the bad news is you have to take it apart from the top down, the weight of the chimney is born by the firebox. The good news is the house framing is already lined up to pass the heatilator pipe with no elbows, and it is fat pipe.

You should have no trouble installing new class A chimney in the existing run without having to modify any of the studs, joists and rafters. The one thing to be sure of is the new chimney is far enough out from the corner to meet clearance on a diagonal corner install. Actually the chimney should be fine, its the clearance between the back corners of the stove you pick and the walls you got to be careful of.

On mine (heatilator out, new class A in) I had the chimney installer push the new chimney as far out of the corner as possible given the existing openings, no framing mods, no elbows in my pipe and I have an extra inch of clearance beyond minimum at both of the back corners of both my Ashford 30 and the the similar sized non-cat that was in there before.

Your floor plan, like most any other drawn since about 1895, is not conducive to using a stove on the ground floor to heat the bedrooms upstairs. I would be looking for something that can reasonably handle 1-2k sqft without cooking you out of the first 1000.

How much are you paying this year for a cord of spruce delivered to the big city?

 

[begreen]

Agreed. For a 2000 sq ft house in AK I would be thinking something in the 3 cu ft range, castiron clad steel preferred. That would be the Quad Explorer III, BK Ashford 30, Jotul F55, Pacific Energy Alderlea T6 or similar stove.

 

[countrychick]

My aunt and uncle live in AK and they have a Quadrafire Explorer III. Love it! They have to open windows and doors it gets so hot! =) So there have to be dealers that sell those up there....

 

[tifferstwo]

My aunt and uncle live in AK and they have a Quadrafire Explorer III. Love it! They have to open windows and doors it gets so hot! =) So there have to be dealers that sell those up there....

There is a dealer in Anchorage and I went to chat with him today! Decisions, decisions...

 

[tifferstwo]

Curious enough to come to my desktop to make the pictures bigger.

Voted for the Ashford (30 implied) in your poll now that I have adequate info.

Given 1982 construction your house without upgrades will probably rate 2 or 3 stars. With triple pane glass throughout, all the air leaks around electrical receptacles fixed and waist deep blown cellulose in the attic 4 stars is likely achievable, getting a fifth star is probably not economical.

In other good news I suspect your existing fireplace is a pre fab. Is there a metal tag on it anywhere that says "heatilator"? If so the bad news is you have to take it apart from the top down, the weight of the chimney is born by the firebox. The good news is the house framing is already lined up to pass the heatilator pipe with no elbows, and it is fat pipe.

How much are you paying this year for a cord of spruce delivered to the big city?

No clue on cost of a cord of spruce? We have a bunch of birch and have woods in the back we plan to clear up all the fallen stuff and take down a few that we don't want there anymore. The getting the wood is the hubby's department. I'm just the researcher and designer I did look inside the existing fireplace and cleaned off a little silver label and as far as I can see it does not say Heatilator is says "preway built in fireplace" and gives the model number.

If you are north of trapper creek or so i dont think the ashford 30 would be enough stove in 2000 sqft unless you are in 6 star with a well designed hrv and an enormous wood pile.

South of there, out of the mountains and coming into the coastal weather systems with a 3+ or 4 star rating on the envelope, sure.

I'm in Wasilla, so I'm an hour north of Anchorage and probably 2.5 hours south of Trappers Creek.

 

[tifferstwo]

Another question, for the tax credit that some of these brands offer, do we have to have gone through the inspection to receive our rating in order to claim the tax credit?

 

[begreen]

I think all you need it the manufacturer's certificate that the stove qualifies for the credit.
(broken link removed)

 

[tifferstwo]

Ashful, I love your hearth. I'm trying to go with the farm house look/style, although yours is probably a bit more authentic! Would love to see the rest of your house!

 

[countrychick]

Oh that is cool! Yeah we have decision to make too. We are in the process of finishing our fireplace/hearth and then need to install wood stove before christmas. =) Have fun! I don't like this decision making process. Too many good choices! lol.

 

[tifferstwo]

Oh that is cool! Yeah we have decision to make too. We are in the process of finishing our fireplace/hearth and then need to install wood stove before christmas. =) Have fun! I don't like this decision making process. Too many good choices! lol.

I just read through your thread and it seems we have the same dilemma, except you have now given me additional things to think about. My hubby would be happy with he Home Depot Englander, me not so much, but I'm so torn between what to get.