In the market for a new stove

[fox9988]

Farm Bureau insures me with wood as the only heat source. I asked if it made a difference($) if wood was the primary vs secondary source, the reply was,"no".

Woodstock is a great company with great products.

 

[NectarNook]

So I put a deposit down on a Progress Hybrid. With 960 sq ft on the main floor with half being 18' cathedral ceilings, a bonus room of 252 sq ft in the attic, plus a full 960 sq ft basement that we'll probably finish out in the next decade... we figured it wouldn't be too large for us. Okay, so we think it's really pretty too, and maybe that influenced us more than anything else.

Thanks for all of the replies, and for all of the previous threads about Woodstock and their competitors. I was able to do A LOT of research just by browsing various threads. I look forward to once again being a part of a wood burning community.

To be delivered in late August...

 

[Todd]

Congrats, you made a great choice with Woodstock.

 

[begreen]

So I put a deposit down on a Progress Hybrid. With 960 sq ft on the main floor with half being 18' cathedral ceilings, a bonus room of 252 sq ft in the attic, plus a full 960 sq ft basement that we'll probably finish out in the next decade... we figured it wouldn't be too large for us. Okay, so we think it's really pretty too, and maybe that influenced us more than anything else.

Thanks for all of the replies, and for all of the previous threads about Woodstock and their competitors. I was able to do A LOT of research just by browsing various threads. I look forward to once again being a part of a wood burning community.

To be delivered in late August...

Will the stove be installed in the basement? Heat doesn't travel downward. Heating ~1300 sq ft with the Progress seems like a bit of overkill, especially if the place is well insulated.

 

[NectarNook]

Will the stove be installed in the basement? Heat doesn't travel downward. Heating ~1300 sq ft with the Progress seems like a bit of overkill, especially if the place is well insulated.

I just spoke with Jamie at Woodstock today. I was a bit nervous that it would be overkill, and your comment gave me the push to call and have a chat with him. He listened to the dimensions of our home and told me that we were right on the cusp between a Fireview and a Progress due to our high ceilings. He assured me that we would be able to achieve sufficient heat with the Progress without roasting ourselves out. We'll just have to adjust our load times to be spaced further apart and not completely fill the stove. Apparently, the catalyst only needs 500 degrees to start working, so we don't need a blazing fire to get the benefits from that.

And... there's always the 6 month deal. If we decide it's too much we can trade down for a Fireview. I'm excited. Either way, we'll have a great stove.

 

[teutonicking]

I just spoke with Jamie at Woodstock today. I was a bit nervous that it would be overkill, and your comment gave me the push to call and have a chat with him. He listened to the dimensions of our home and told me that we were right on the cusp between a Fireview and a Progress due to our high ceilings. He assured me that we would be able to achieve sufficient heat with the Progress without roasting ourselves out. We'll just have to adjust our load times to be spaced further apart and not completely fill the stove. Apparently, the catalyst only needs 500 degrees to start working, so we don't need a blazing fire to get the benefits from that.

And... there's always the 6 month deal. If we decide it's too much we can trade down for a Fireview. I'm excited. Either way, we'll have a great stove.

Congratulations, and welcome to the forum.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Thank you again for all of the replies. My husband and I took a look at the recommendations. We like the look of the Blaze King Princess and the Woodstock Progress Hybrid. The wood we have is all about 18-22" long, so a 16" stove would be a bit of a pita. Would it be worth trimming 3 years worth of wood to fit in order to have a smaller stove?

My fear with these bigger stoves is that our house is so small we'd end up needing to open every window in the house to let in cold air so we don't roast.

That's the start of our wood pile. I've stacked maybe 1/4 of what we have on hand. What is there is only about half of the total. I still have to do a few more trailer loads, but unfortunately my trailer is in the shop. It was throwing faults and the brakes weren't working. Turns out the guy who owned it before us was pretty free with his splits and cheap mismatched wiring. Lovely. I should be back to hauling at the end of July again.

I have the addresses for an Alderlea dealer and a Blaze King dealer south of us. I'll check them each out if I get a free day this week.

I'll keep y'all posted. Thank you, thank you, thank you for the advice!

btw - I've talked to several insurance agencies about home insurance. Of the seven so far, only State Farm is willing to work with us. I'll still make some more calls to find out if there are any others available. Foremost is at the top of my list to call now. The duds were Geico, Progressive, Travelers, AAA, Nationwide, and American Family.

We had 7 years worth of wood when we bought the Fireview. Our old stove could take 23" but the Fireview is recommended for 16". We did find that we can put in somewhere around 20" if those long ones are dead center. The longer stuff we did cut down but nothing went to waste. The cut-offs we just threw in for small fires in the fall or spring. Sometimes we just cut some of the lengths in half and again, fall burning uses them up nicely.

Many fear their stove room will be too hot and many find that is not true. If it does get too warm and especially if the far rooms are cold, a small fan sitting on the floor, running on low speed and aimed to blow into the stove room will work wonders. Rather than trying to push the warm air with the fan, you push the cool air and that will move out the warm. It really works nicely.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I completely get the desire to heat one's house entirely with wood.

But I have to ask, what happens if you are away from your house for a while in the winter without a backup system on a thermostat?
Do you have to drain the pipes every time you go on a trip?

When we went to Arizona for a few winters, yes, we drained all the water pipes. For the traps we poured RV anti-freeze into them. The toilet we dipped as much water as we could then dumped in the RV anti-freeze.

One other time we were gone for a week. It did not get cold until the last day of the trip and we made it home just in time. Most of the time we were gone the daytime temperatures were high 20's or low 30's. The coldest was around 15. We used 2 ceramic heaters (Pelonis). One in the kitchen and one in the bath. Kept the house in the 50's.

The night we got home the temperature was below zero. The water pump had just froze and it took only about 2 minutes to get it going again. The house was chilly but not below freezing. Naturally, I first took care of the pump then came back inside and lit a fire. It took a while to heat up as it got to -28 that night but we were okay.

One time we had to go somewhere and left home around 5:00 am. Return that night was after midnight. House was still warm. Add wood, set draft and went to bed.

 

[xman23]

Nectar,
That's just about our floor plan we did. Ours is 28' wide which I would suggest, plus a few other changes. Email or PM me if you would like more suggestions. So the stove, mine is in the corner of the living room. It's the focal point in the open room. See my avatar. You didn't say you have loft bedroom on the second floor over half the house. We do and you can melt candles up there if your not careful. The only issue with our stove at the far end is the down stairs back bedrooms are 5-8 degrees colder. Not a issue for us we don't use them much and when we do we turn heat on in those rooms.
We have a full unfinished basement. You get no heat from the stove down there. I would not put a stove in the basement and try to get the heat out and the cold back down there.
The Jotel Oslo Enamel finish is a perfect stove for my house. The stove your getting has been talked about a lot here and sounds great.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Send us some pictures when you can...gl

 

[NectarNook]

Today I drove a little over an hour south to Green Bay to pick up two big, mysterious boxes...

The tall, tarp-covered one in the back is our new Progress Hybrid stove from Woodstock.

The long one in the rear of the trailer is our new gun safe. All sorts of fun things going on for us right now!

Our house is coming along, too.

The interior is just stud walls. So we're not even close to being ready to install the woodstove. Crossing my fingers that my builder will have it ready in the next few weeks. It would be so nice to have the stove heating the place when temperatures start dropping!

My dad came out to see how much wood we have. He says it's well over 10 cords. More like 12. That's pretty neat, seeing as I had estimated about 22 face cords. I don't mind being wrong by coming in with a low estimate.

The wood came with an 8 year old splitter in excellent condition. I need to figure out a tarp for it for the winter. Until then, I've covered the important bits in some extra siding from the chicken coop and chained it to a tree so it doesn't walk off. I still need to buy a ball for our mower to haul it around. That thing is heavy when it's just me pushing it!

That pile is about 16'x24'x6', and that's not even all of it. Yikes! I still have two large piles to whittle down. It's just like eating an elephant... one bite at a time. Whenever I get a chance, I stack for a few minutes to an hour. It adds up. I'm running out of pallets, though! Might have to start stacking them on scrap wood from our building projects to make do.

Thanks for all of the advice on here, y'all! I can't wait to join the ranks of the wood burners again!

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Looks great, congratulations on all the good things that are happening to you guys...

 

[BrotherBart]

Shake or metal roof?

 

[NectarNook]

Shake or metal roof?

It will be a bronze metal roof. Should go on in the next week depending on the weather. Guess it gets a bit slippery in the rain, and boy have we ever had rain lately!

 

[BrotherBart]

Two words: Chimney sweep.

People asked me why I had the shingles replaced with shingles instead of metal this year. My reply was that I don't want to slide 16 feet getting ready to fall two stories.

 

[Oldhippie]

My husband and I are building a house in northeastern Wisconsin. It's sole source of heat will be a wood stove. While I'm familiar with heating using a wood stove, I find myself adrift in a sea of choices with a deadline closing in.

Here's a few details of our home, if it helps.

That is the layout of our home. It will be on an unheated full basement. It is 24'x40', giving us a total of around 960 sq ft to heat. According to ResCheck, our total building heating load is 23,578 BTU/hr. The bedrooms, hall, and bathroom are 8' ceilings, and the kitchen/living area is open beam to a height of 18'. All wood floors. Ceiling fans in every room to help circulate air. The stairs and entry are on the south side of the house where there are no shade trees. The north side of the house is shaded.

We have a trusty indoor kerosene heater for a just-in-case backup. We are on the grid, but would like to avoid using electricity to move the heat through our house if at all possible. We're kind of a long way from civilization, so we really want to be able to function on our own through storms and power outages. I would like a stove I can put pots and kettles on to boil water and cook meals. Nothing huge, just two at a time would be nice.

I'm enjoying browsing the threads here. I hope to be able to find a wood stove to meet our needs and have it installed before winter hits. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to offer advice. I'm overwhelmed and very grateful for assistance.

(I have at least two years worth of dry, split wood 16-20" long. 14 acres of hardwood forest to replenish it as I go. I'm all set there... just need help choosing a wood stove.)

Very nice layout. My home is almost identical in layout, although I am 28X36 and there is a loft on the 2nd floor which is our master bedroom. I assume the chimney comes straight up in the center of the house. Is it an exposed chimney? You should decide what you will do as far as a chimney liner, if you haven't already? I would also suggest a 2 flue chimney as you "may" want to install a 2nd chimney in the basement to provide heat down there if you want to use that space sometime in the future. I have a 2nd stove in mine and the basement is finished with insulated walls.

Anyway, make those chimney plans now, as it's not easy if even possible to do it later.

I vote for the Woodstock Fireview. With a stove in your central living area you want it to be attractive as well as a good heater and the Woodstock is all of those.

I seem to be having network problems but I'll be posting a pic tomorrow.

 

[NectarNook]

Two words: Chimney sweep.

People asked me why I had the shingles replaced with shingles instead of metal this year. My rely was that I don't want to slide 16 feet getting ready to fall two stories.

Hmm. Fair point. Maybe I can get my inventive husband to design human-sized gutters with twirly slides as downspouts.

It's a good suggestion. I'll definitely look into it. Our roof is a 10/12 pitch, so it would be a FAST ride down if one of us fell. Yikes!

Oh I forgot to mention. Our house is insured with State Farm. They had no problem with a sole heat source being a wood stove. I think the fact that we are less than 3 miles from the nearest fire hall helped. The agent did suggest a small space heater for when we plan to be away for long periods. I might look into that, but honestly I can't see us being gone much this first winter. I'll have too much to do finishing the house. The builder is only taking it to the drywall. I have to do the flooring, tiling, cabinetry, trim, paint, and interior doors. I also have to paint and trim the exterior. Yep. I'll be busy. When my husband gets back, we might have to dump the kids on my parents for a weekend and go relax at a spa with a good masseuse.

 

[BrotherBart]

Surprising. Most insurance companies won't insure houses with wood as the sole heat source anymore. An issue of water damage from freezing pipes and that is what he is talking about with the space heater. My insurance company just doesn't know that the heat pump died in the nineties. And a threat to tell the mortgage company won't work. Paid the place off six years early this year.

Enjoy that new house. It looks like a really nice home in progress.

 

[Grisu]

Oh I forgot to mention. Our house is insured with State Farm. They had no problem with a sole heat source being a wood stove. I think the fact that we are less than 3 miles from the nearest fire hall helped. The agent did suggest a small space heater for when we plan to be away for long periods. I might look into that, but honestly I can't see us being gone much this first winter.

I second the suggestion of the agent. In fact, I would even look into hardwiring a few electric baseboards while you are still at it. They are not that expensive, and you never know what may happen that keeps you from heating your house with the stove. From broken viewing glass to chimney fire; from family emergency to both you of being sick with the flu and no energy to tend the stove. In your climate, you may quickly get in trouble if you only rely on the stove and there is any problem with it or your ability to attend it. Knock on wood, you may not need any backup for several years. But better prepared than sorry when that need suddenly comes up.

 

[Oldhippie]

I should have read the thread to the end before I responded. Congrats on the Progress! Yikes that's a LOT of stove!

I may have missed what the deal is with the type/location of the chimney and number of flues?

You have lots of work to do, but it will be beautiful. Is there a 2nd floor loft?

 

[BrotherBart]

Yeah we are in the Tropics Of Virginia but there is an oil filled space heater in each room of this barn on plug in thermostats set at 50 degrees. I was in Lowe's one day in the spring and they were closing them out for $17 apiece (in season $50). I backed the Suburban up and said "Fill'er up.".

 

[BIGDADDY]

Maybe you should share the name of your insurance company.Not arguing, everybody is just saying that *most* won't insure a place without another heat source.

When we leave, the thermostat gets set as low as it goes, 45° I think. I'm pretty sure it has never come on over a weekend. Of course, that's with the stove loaded up with good stuff and set on low, so it's making some kind of heat for a day and a half

If you must have another heat source for insurance purposes I would suggest baseboard electric. Only because its probably the cheapest to install. I know it's expensive to use but since you plan on using your stove for your heat it won't matter. Good luck.

 

[NectarNook]

I should have read the thread to the end before I responded. Congrats on the Progress! Yikes that's a LOT of stove!

I may have missed what the deal is with the type/location of the chimney and number of flues?

You have lots of work to do, but it will be beautiful. Is there a 2nd floor loft?

One double-walled pipe will go straight up to the ceiling, through the end of the loft, and out the roof. I won't buy all the pipes until we can actually unpack the stove in a few weeks, though.

Yes, there's a second floor loft. With our steep roof, the builder suggested putting trusses with room in the middle above the bedrooms and bathroom. Turns out we had a lot of room up there. It'll be an unfinished 14'x22' space. Someday I'd like to make it the all-purpose craft room, but until then it'll be storage.

That is the nook where the Progress will sit. The loft comes just up to the end of that little wall where the stairs to the basement will go down.

The loft room with an eastern window.

The great room, living section on the left and kitchen on the right. It's going to be a HUGE space. Yes, we'll have a big ceiling fan to keep the heat circulating downward. In case you're wondering why there's a big door header on the window, we plan on eventually putting a sliding glass door there to access a future 20'x24' enclosed porch. Figured it'd be easier to frame for it now than down the road.

 

[Oldhippie]

So no brick and mortar chimney. Interesting. That isn't allowed by Massachusetts building codes. You'll be glad you got that Woodstock stove, even though I think you might have easily done as well with the smaller Fireview or numerous others as the layout is going to be easy to heat. You might need to put a small fan in one of those back rooms blowing out toward the stove to move more heat down there.. but maybe not.

On the ceiling fan. The general wisdom is a fan that will "pull" the air up toward the ceiling and then it gets pushed to both downward sloping sides and flows downward along the outside walls. Although it's a matter of opinion if the theory is as strong in practice as it is on paper. You can get fans that have different blade kits for that purpose. So consider that and do a little research on that subject.

Mine fan doesn't do that. It pushes air down back at the stove, and it is a pretty nice way of keeping the air balanced around the big "great room" and our of the loft upstairs.. where without it, we would also melt the candles.

Looks like it will be a wonderful place way out in the woods/country! You must be very excited. I bet you have a lot of critters out there?

 

[NectarNook]

So no brick and mortar chimney. Interesting. That isn't allowed by Massachusetts building codes.

Looks like it will be a wonderful place way out in the woods/country! You must be very excited. I bet you have a lot of critters out there?

Nope, just pipes. We have to go with double walled due to clearance issues, then it'll stick about 2' above the highest point of the roof. Not really sure what we'll do with the area in the loft where the pipe will come through. Maybe build a little grate around it or a column. Any ideas?

Yes, we're ECSTATIC! Can't wait to move out of town. Don't get me wrong - I like people. I just don't like living in a fishbowl apartment where my every move can be seen and I have no privacy whatsoever. Where our house sits, you can't see any of the roads. Everything we can see from the top of our hill is ours. I could run around starkers and no one would be the wiser.

I have more about our land and the house construction on my blog if anyone's interested. I write and post pictures on there as much as I can to keep my overseas hubby updated. http://atheisthomesteader.wordpress.com/