Looking for a good used wood stove

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Snowman56

New Member
Jan 1, 2020
12
Duncannon, PA
Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum and new to the wood stove world for the most part. I am looking for a good used wood stove to replace my dads old stove. The stove will be in the basement of a roughly 1600 sq ft ranch house. His chimney has excellent draft. There seems to be so many stoves out there and I really am not sure what to go with in terms of best brands, ease of use, catalytic vs non cat stoves. Any recommendations on a good easy to use stove would be greatly appreciated. He did say he'd like his next stove to have glass doors.
 
Great time of the year for such a venture, I think this question has come up once before, try the search box.
 
Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum and new to the wood stove world for the most part. I am looking for a good used wood stove to replace my dads old stove. The stove will be in the basement of a roughly 1600 sq ft ranch house. His chimney has excellent draft. There seems to be so many stoves out there and I really am not sure what to go with in terms of best brands, ease of use, catalytic vs non cat stoves. Any recommendations on a good easy to use stove would be greatly appreciated. He did say he'd like his next stove to have glass doors.
Most of what I see on craigslist are old smoke dragons. Good EPA stoves are less common. Stick with the major brands and if you find something, ask here.
 
That's a good tip. Nice stove and a good price.
 
Hi everyone, I'm new to the forum and new to the wood stove world for the most part. I am looking for a good used wood stove to replace my dads old stove. The stove will be in the basement of a roughly 1600 sq ft ranch house. His chimney has excellent draft. There seems to be so many stoves out there and I really am not sure what to go with in terms of best brands, ease of use, catalytic vs non cat stoves. Any recommendations on a good easy to use stove would be greatly appreciated. He did say he'd like his next stove to have glass doors.
If you wanna see a couple of Blaze King’s in action, I’m only 10 minutes from you...
Have the King Ultra, and a Princess, both are CAT stoves..
 
Any opinions on this old mill stove. A guy on fbook marketplace is asking $550 for it. looks to be in good shape. [Hearth.com] Looking for a good used wood stove[Hearth.com] Looking for a good used wood stove
 
I'd go for the Endeavor
 
Our T6 was 3 hrs away. Price was right, no regrets.
 
Check with your insurance company and see if they have any restrictions on unlabeled, pre-EPA stoves.
 
Older stoves prior to about 1979 were often sold with no UL testing or certification. They often were unbaffled and airtight which allowed the fire to smolder. This is how they achieved a long burn. The problem created was unknown safety and clearances and a lot of pollution. When sold in small quantities this was more a local issue, but after the oil crises in the late '70s stove sales really spiked, and consequently so did fires and pollution. This brought on tighter regulation so that inspectors and insurance underwriters could take the unknown out of the home installation. In the mid-80s tighter emissions regulations followed from the EPA. The positive side of this is that stoves became much more efficient, clean-burning while using less wood.

This is a quick summary. There's a lot more info here:

 
Older stoves prior to about 1979 were often sold with no UL testing or certification. They often were unbaffled and airtight which allowed the fire to smolder. This is how they achieved a long burn. The problem created was unknown safety and clearances and a lot of pollution. When sold in small quantities this was more a local issue, but after the oil crises in the late '70s stove sales really spiked, and consequently so did fires and pollution. This brought on tighter regulation so that inspectors and insurance underwriters could take the unknown out of the home installation. In the mid-80s tighter emissions regulations followed from the EPA. The positive side of this is that stoves became much more efficient, clean-burning while using less wood.

This is a quick summary. There's a lot more info here:

Thank you very much!
 
I have a Drolet Escape 1800 that works great and is well built. Nothing fancy, just a good solid stove. Pretty tough to beat the Home Depot price at $823 plus tax delivered to a local store. You then have a brand new stove that is EPA 2020 compliant.
 
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There is an older regency 3100 for $900 in Williamsport on Craigslist. I has been "refurbished" I can see the rear air manifold was cracked and welded. I would try for $600 or $700. $900 isn't horrible but it is a bit high. Or just go with a new Englander 30
 
Or the drolet is a good stove as well for the price
 
Opinions on the pacific energy super 27? Used one on fbook close to me for $1200. Just curious.
They are good stoves. If in good shape that's a fairly good price
 
It's getting close to the time of year when big box stores discount their stoves. Under $1000 no problem.
 
I cant believe nobody has asked what kind of chimney this new stove will be mated to.
 
Opinions on the pacific energy super 27? Used one on fbook close to me for $1200. Just curious.
Got a link? It's a good stove with great burn times for the 2 cu ft capacity.

Are the basement walls insulated? If not you may need a larger stove as about 1/3d of the heat produced is going to be lost thru the basement walls. If they are going to remain uninsulated then a 3 cu ft stove would be better.
 
Opinions on the pacific energy super 27? Used one on fbook close to me for $1200. Just curious.
Quality stove. If it's in good shape, I would go for that over a "value" stove. Parts are all replaceable, if needed. I liked the "floating firebox" concept. I got a PE T5 for my SIL recently..same box as the Super.
I think the 27 was about 1800 new, without any options. Depending on how old it is, you might be able to get them to bite for 1000. Can you get any pics? The metal tag on the stove (which I think has the date it was made,) the secondary baffle in the top of the box? Check the stove body corners by the door for cracks. Talk to the person that ran it if you can, ask how their procedure for starting a fire in it, and see if it sounds like they are knowledgeable, and ask if it was ever over-fired. If it's fairly new, or they didn't use it much, or they were a conscientious operator, could be a great deal.