Looking to add wood stove to our farmhouse.. your advice please

[Matt in ND]

Experts,

We're interested in our first wood stove.

The situation:
We live in a 1920s 2 story farm house, a bit under 1900 sq ft. We live in rural north dakota on 14 mostly wooded acres. Winters are both brutally cold and often very windy. -50F windchill usually happens a few days per year.

The house has a dual fuel forced air system - primary is off-peak electric heat, and when they cycle our electric heat off, the furnace switches over to fuel oil. We keep the house thermostat at 65F normally. When the furnace kicks on, the kids go and lay down infront of the vents. They like the blasts of warmth.

We have a first floor main room that is around 15x30, and it adjoins the dining room (about 15x10) in an "L" shaped configuration. The family spends most of the day in the first floor main room.

Once it started getting cold this year, my wife mentioned that she has wanted a fire going in the main room. She'd like to get it going in the morning, and let it burn all day, and into the evening. We'd probably not run it overnight.

I really like the magic of dancing flames from an open fireplace. We inherited VC gas inserts in our last house and while we used them, they really don't compare to a real fireplace, either in terms of heat output, audio appeal, or visual appeal.

So, here are our preferences for a wood burning stove

1) can put out LOTS of heat... kids and pets will want to be close to it because of the radiant warmth -- but not too close, because it would be unbearably hot if you were too close.
2) should look "historic", but not "outdated" (eg things from the 1850s look cool, things from the 1950s are usually strange colors.)
3) big visible flame display, like an open fire..
4) ability to run with doors open, to most closely simulate open fireplace experience
5) requires no electricity - so we can keep at least one part of the house warm if we have an extended power outage and our generator has trouble...

Nice to haves:
helps cut the heating bill

Non Goals:
heating the entire house
heating overnight

For me, the most important factor is that you get the open fireplace experience... where you'd just like to pull up a chair and look at the thing burn, while you listen to it pop and crack...

For my wife, she wants something that looks right and puts out lots of heat, to make the room very cozy.. both in how the heat feels and in terms of what the stove does to the invitingness of the room. She would probably want to run it with the doors closed most of the time. She doesn't want a fireplace because she thinks they are too inefficient, and she prefers the aesthetic of a vintage wood stove.

So, now the questions

1) what stove(s) should we be looking at? We like the door-open running and the size/aesthetics of the VC defiant, but I see that VC stoves are pretty unpopular here. The BKs don't look antique enough for our purposes, and don't really seem to advertise open-door running. The Jotul F600 would probably also meet our aesthetic / doors open needs.

2) The chimney stack for the house is in the center, but we want this stove on the exterior wall in our large 1st floor room. I hadn't planned on trying to tie the stove into the existing stack, because except for the basement, it is completely walled in with closets and living space on all sides on the 1st and second floors. I figured I would want to run the flue up a few feet and then through the exterior wall to the outdoors. I don't know if this is possible because I frankly know nothing about chimneys, vents, flues, etc. Also, we'll probably be putting a steel roof on the house soon, so I'm not necessarily excited about more roof perforations.

So, opinions please on what stove(s) we should looking at, and what our flue/chimney arrangement might look like.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[begreen]

The Jotul F600 is a good choice as would be the Quadrafire Isle Royale and maybe the Hearthstone Manchester. All of these stoves are radiant stoves. FWIW the screen option for a fireplace style fire is rarely used by most folks. We had one, used it twice and then it gathered dust.

If you can forgo the screen option you also might consider instead a convective stove. These stoves put out a softer, less radiant heat from the sides but are good at convecting the heat through large open spaces. A couple good examples would be the Jotul F55 or the Pacific Energy Alderlea T6. Both of these stoves have deep square fireboxes that are more flexible for loading. The ability to load N/S eliminates the possibility of logs rolling up against the glass.

Unfortunately I can't recommend the VC Defiant. They are beautiful stoves but maintenance issues can be high over time. An interior chimney usually will perform much better than an exterior one and need less cleaning. If possible that option should be explored. If could be less expensive and function better.

 

[DougA]

I agree on open door running. With a glass front, the open screen will never be used because your burn becomes a disaster and the heat from the stove is so much less. Yup, stay away from VC.

I question the 'non goal' of overnight heat. Wow, that's one of the big bonuses of a wood stove. I'm also surprised you are not considering a wood furnace to tie into your existing system. If you have all that wood, it makes more sense.

 

[begreen]

Sounds like they want the ambiance as well as the heat. Wood furnaces are boring to watch and not too cozy when coming in from a day in the snow.

 

[branchburner]

I agree on open door running. With a glass front, the open screen will never be used because your burn becomes a disaster and the heat from the stove is so much less.
.

I think by "disaster" Doug just means you won't get an efficient burn, and it will suck all your heat up the flue. It will be perfectly safe and very warm if you're sitting right by the fire, but may actually help make the rest of the house cooler. In other words, it will be a lovely but wasteful "disaster" just like a fireplace is!

It's nice having the option, but I agree the screen will gather dust. With a big glass door, the fire is just as appealing as an open fireplace. I do like being able to open my front door to grill on the coals, but don't bother with a screen then, anyway. Have not used it for years. And I'm a big lover of open fires... I get my fix of them at the in-laws house or in the backyard.

As for the the 'non goal' of overnight heat, you can achieve that with the Jotul F600 or the Quadrafire Isle Royale while still meeting the other goals.

 

[Matt in ND]

Thanks for the responses thus far. We plan on visiting some showrooms soon; will any of them bother firing units up for us? Some of my questions perhaps will be answered once we start looking at units in person if people going to light them up, so I apologize for having so many beginner questions.

Does the wood crackle and pop audibly in a wood stove with the doors shut? Is it truly as captivating to just stare at, like an open fire?

Some of the models mentioned are single door... it seems like double front doors are a better arrangement for open door running. I understand that I won't run open door most of the time, but to me, open door seems like the only way to get a really authentic experience, so I'd like to be able to do it some evenings. I guess I'm not willing to give up opendoor / screen running, even if it is inefficient

As far as tying wood heat into my forced air system -- my basement is pretty full already, and my current whole-house heat requires zero effort or mental energy on my part. If I wanted to move to wood primary heating, I'd investigate buried water lines and an outdoor wood boiler. I'd also do solar hot water collector tie in on the water lines while I was at it.

The motivation for adding a stove is really the enjoyment the people will have from having a warm fire in the room with them. That's part of why I'm less focused on getting good overnight heat - nobody's awake to enjoy it. My home furnace will keep the pipes from freezing and us from dying in our sleep, but I like the idea of charging the fire back up in the morning, heading out to do morning chores, and when we come back inside the stove is fantastically hot and we huddle around it and bask in the overwhelming warmth.

If I'm thinking about this the wrong way, or if what I want isn't really realistic, knowing now would save me a lot of money and trouble!

As far as flues or chimneys go - if I wanted to run something new on the outside of my house, what are the general guidelines for that? Is there such a thing as running the appropriate metal ducting up the side of a house?

 

[branchburner]

Does the wood crackle and pop audibly in a wood stove with the doors shut? Is it truly as captivating to just stare at, like an open fire?

No. But it is captivating in a different way. My wife swore she'd never prefer a stove to an open fire. She now prefers our stove to an open fire, and has no desire to return to a fireplace or even open the front door of the stove on occasion. The stove's radiant heat seems to permeate your body more evenly and thoroughly than a fireplace fire.

But relax... with the stoves mentioned, you can have it both ways. Having a stove with a screen option sacrifices nothing in terms of quality, value and functionality... and you only sacrifice your efficiency by USING the screen option, the actual frequency of which only time will tell. That fact that I never use it in no way makes me regret having it.

 

[Cynnergy]

You can have an exterior metal chimney, but they are far from ideal - see here: http://www.woodheat.org/outside-chimney.html

In addition to backdrafting, an exterior chimney in your winter temps, combined with cold starts every morning, will likely lead to a lot of creosote formation from cool flue gases.

 

[drz1050]

Lopi Cape Cod was the first stove that came to mind when I was reading what you want.... it has a giant window in the front, will be able to heat your whole place no problem, and has a historic-looking cast iron body. Just not sure about running it with the door off...

 

[Charles1981]

have you looked at soapstone stoves there are some large one likes the woodstock progress hybrid...

Those can put some heat out and have a unique look to them. Can't really run with the doors open though I don't think.

But once you start burning with a wood stove I think you will find that you never burn with the doors open in fireplace mode...because it doesn't really put out alot of heat. And that is the main reason for the install... the awesome awesome heat.

 

[becasunshine]

I have to put a word in here for our newly acquired Blaze King Princess. Big heat when you need it, a controlled low burn for shoulder seasons (do you even have shoulder seasons?) super easy to operate, uses a third less wood per the Blaze King web site. The large glass door lends lots of ambience.

You won't hear the pop and crackle of an open wood fire and when you get a good bed of coals in the bottom of the stove you won't get big flames. Our stove shop owner said it best: Blaze Kings are wood stoves in the truest sense in that they "cook" the wood rather than burn it up, hence you use less wood for big heat, and far less wood for low heat.

The catalytic combustor in the top of the fire box will burn off the combustion gases from the wood and this produces beautiful blue, orange and red floating flames in the top of the box. The logs below turn into huge glowing embers that burn for an unreal amount of time. In our experience, the glass stays clean if you are burning in the "normal" range on the thermostat dial. (Blaze King stoves actually have a thermostat on them.) So while it's not an open fire, the view is beautiful and quite cozy.

You may be able to use the largest Blaze King model in your situation, the King. The King looks like the Princess only it's larger. I was browsing the Blaze King site recently and started looking at their furnaces. The King stove model is only slightly smaller than their Apex furnace! The Apex furnace can tie into a conventional HVAC system, and according the Blaze King vice president (who chimed in on the thread on this forum) the furnaces are popular in Canada.

The Blaze King VP did note that there is some heat loss in the duct work for wood burning furnaces. While he didn't say this directly, the thought occurred to me that the King model stove was almost as large as the furnace, with almost the same wood capacity and almost the same btu output- and there would be no heat lost in duct work. All of that heat can be directly delivered into your living space. That is amazing when you think about it.

My husband and I were teenagers during the Arab Oil Embargo in 1973-1974 when petroleum prices spiked and took just about all heating and utility prices sky high with them. Wood stoves came roaring back out of obscurity. (Englander Stove Works was born in this period, IIRC.) My husband's family had a wood stove at that time and for many years afterwards. My family closed off the room with the fire place in it and we spent waking hours in that room. Both my husband and I were familiar with wood heating from that period- the good and the bad of it. We did a lot of shopping around before we decided on the wood stove we wanted for our location.

I can tell you from comparing my experience with using a banked up fireplace in a closed off room for heat, compared to my husband's family home with the wood stove, that the wood stove is a lot warmer- big radiant heat as opposed to a roaring fire drawing all of its combustion air out of the heated living space and sending it up the chimney. Of course the old school wood stoves pulled a lot of air out of the heated living space too. Back in the day, the room in which the wood stove was located was often too warm while the rest of the house was much colder, as the stove pulled its combustion air through the house and the resultant vacuum pulled cold air into the house from outside through every air leak in that envelope. That's why you'd often see people running a wood stove with a window cracked in the room- to cool that room down a bit and to pull combustion air in through that cracked window instead of through the rest of the house.

Today's wood stoves with catalytic combustors, secondary burns and hybrids that use both technologies put out a lot of heat without drawing so much air out of the house. We use a pellet stove in our little house in town, and we have an Outside Air Kit (OAK) installed on it to pull its combustion air directly into the stove from outside. I went into the wood stove installation in our remote location house insisting on an OAK for the wood stove as well. The stove shop owner convinced us that we wouldn't need it. Even our relatively tight, new construction house would provide the little bit of combustion air the Princess needs without going to the expense and disruption of trying to run an OAK from the middle of our house to the outside. So far he's been right on that. No problems lighting or running the stove and the heat in the house has been quite even. The stove isn't pulling big air out of the house and sending it up the stove pipe and chimney, thus pulling the equivalent volume air from outside into the house through every crack and crevice.

Otherwise I don't know a lot about wood stoves so other people with more knowledge will have lots more to say.

Good stove pipe is expensive but worth its weight in gold. A good double wall stove pipe will improve your draft and reduce your clearances. We have double wall stove pipe up to the ceiling with a couple of elbows at the top to clear a roof truss. We have a stainless steel chimney in the attic and out of the roof. Our house does not have a fireplace or a masonry chimney so the stainless steel chimney was the least expensive/least intrusive option. That being said, we have a long, almost straight (two 45' elbows at the very top to avoid that roof truss) stove pipe within the heated envelope of the house. We have 9' ceilings which contribute to that long run of stove pipe.

We paid to have a reputable stove shop install the stove, the stove pipe and the chimney to satisfy our homeowner's insurance requirement of a "professional installation." I do not regret spending that money- the peace of mind is worth it to me. Also, yes, the hole in the roof- and the support structure at the top of the stove pipe at our ceiling- it was worth the cost for the peace of mind in having expert installations for those perforations.

The stove pipe and the chimney draw like champs. We have no problems getting the a fire started nor maintaining a fire in the stove.

Here's a couple of pictures of the Princess, showing the installation, a fire, and dinner cooking on top of the stove- homemade chili and corn bread. (Click on the individual pictures to embiggen.) <:3~Link Removed Link Removed

 

[Bigg_Redd]

PE Summit Classic

(broken link removed to http://www.pacificenergy.net/products/wood/stoves/summit-classic/)

 

[toddnic]

You should also put this stove on your list. It has the esthetics that you mention above and is incredible regarding heat. The only drawback from what you mention above is that there is no door to open to make it more like a fireplace. Though, I don't know of any modern EPA woodstove that would work well with the doors open. http://www.woodstove.com/progress-hybrid.

 

[Boiler74]

Last night my stove had these ethereal blue secondary flames dancing in the firebox. No, it's not the same as staring into a campfire but it's pretty dang beautiful. And I was efficiently heating my house at the same time. Don't sell yourself short. Once you get going you're going to want to burn 24/7 and want that heat all the time.

 

[firefighterjake]

Welcome to hearth.com.

Random thoughts . . .

One issue in posting a question asking about a stove is typically what you end up with are most folks suggesting that you go with the stove they did . . . or a stove in the line-up . . . and it makes sense . . . after all this is the stove that they have the most experience with and they made the big purchase after weighing the pros- and cons- and if they're reasonably happy with their purchase they'll let you know . . . besides not too many of us would like to think we paid thousands of dollars and could have bought a better stove (and truthfully . . . I really don't think there are many modern stoves being sold out there that are bad . . .)

You specifically mentioned the F-600 . . . this would work. Depending on how well insulated your home is the F-500 may also work. These are radiant stoves and have that historic look you mentioned . . . they also have a large viewing area and can be run effectively without a blower. I know the F-500, and maybe the F-600, can also be run with a screen in place.

That said . . . I believe Pacific Energy offers up some very compelling designs that would fit your wants . . . and while I am not a big fan of most of Woodstock's soapstone stoves from a design standpoint, the Progress Hybrid may fit the bill for what you want.

You also mentioned that helping to reduce the heating bill would be nice . . . honestly . . . whatever stove you get should meet this goal. While heating the entire home and heating overnight are not requirements I would respectfully submit that if you get the right sized stove you would be able to meet both of these goals -- heating the entire home and heating overnight . . . which would be a plus.

You mentioned the aesthetics of the stove -- watching the flames, listening to the popping and crackling . . . like others I will say the screen may be one of those things that sounds really good, but when you see the large viewing area and experience the fantastic heat the screen may be relegated to the basement. I thought about buying the screen myself, but folks who had bought one before me kept saying they had used it once or twice and that was it.

View: Once you experience those secondary flames you will be blown away . . .

Sounds: It may not quite be like an open fireplace, but depending on the wood you should hear some snapping, crackling, etc. Pine works very well for this . . .

Outside chimney: There are some concerns with an exterior chimney . . . and I read all about them . . . issues with draft, creosote, losing heat, etc. In my own case I had to go with an exterior Class A (metal) chimney and I am happy to say that I have had no real issues with draft other than early and late in the burning season (although this is typical with many other folks), creosote is a non-issue and I lose very little heat to to the exterior chimney. One benefit . . . if you put in a T-connection where the stove transitions from the wall to the vertical Class A pipe you can very easily sweep your chimney from the ground in a 10-20 minute job . . . rather than having to climb up a ladder.

 

[Jags]

Had a screen for my Isle Royale - never used it. Took it back to the dealer.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

One issue in posting a question asking about a stove is typically what you end up with are most folks suggesting that you go with the stove they did

or a stove in the line-up

Bingo. This is what I did. I

 

[firefighterjake]

Bingo. This is what I did. I

And there really is nothing wrong with that . . . after all . . . we know what we like and what we don't!

 

[Matt in ND]

Yeah I noticed the sticky thread about "don't ask what to get"

That's why I went into extra detail about what was important to us and what wasn't. I wanted to make sure that there weren't good options I was overlooking. Because of your responses, I've now looked into the QF Isle Royale, and found out that there is a Home and Hearth dealership just 30 minutes from me, and they of course carry QF and also carry Jotul. I stopped in there today actually but they weren't burning wood and didn't seem excited about lighting anything up this morning. They also said their installers are booked until after Christmas, and that they're so busy they can't even send a guy out for a paid consult (to tell me if my location / plans will work out or not) unless I put down 50% on something. I'd be happy to pay to have a tech sent out to look at what I'm planning, but they apparently can't spare one right now.

The guy mentioned that in spring/summer they are totally dead, and its much easier to get quick turn around on stuff. Does that tend to mean lower prices as well, or do prices tend to be stable year round?

We'll be travelling this weekend and there are some other dealerships further away that we plan on stopping at. How important is it to have the dealer you work with be local/close?

 

[becasunshine]

"One issue in posting a question asking about a stove is typically what you end up with are most folks suggesting that you go with the stove they did . . . or a stove in the line-up . . . and it makes sense . . . after all this is the stove that they have the most experience with and they made the big purchase after weighing the pros- and cons- and if they're reasonably happy with their purchase they'll let you know . . . besides not too many of us would like to think we paid thousands of dollars and could have bought a better stove (and truthfully . . . I really don't think there are many modern stoves being sold out there that are bad . . ."

This. I think we are all prone to it.

I will say in defense of the Blaze King Princess that we researched our wood stove purchase carefully. Our wood stove purchase for our remote location (to which we hope to retire in a few years) was informed by our experience with purchasing our pellet stove.

The Napoleon NPS40 pellet stove in our house in town does what we ask of it the vast majority of the time. That being said, we went into the purchase knowing next to nothing about heating with pellet stoves. There were limited options for buying a pellet stove locally at that time (better now, I think) and we had to have an exhaust vent installed through plaster, lathe, block and brick- no chimney in this house. We also needed a hearth. We have no experience in installing a wood burning appliance and we needed some guidance on that. Purchasing through the internet and having the retailer drop ship the stove, plus building our own hearth, and even siting the stove in the house was a little overwhelming to us given our lack of experience. So we bought a good stove at our price point out of the stoves available at our local stove shop.

That being said, knowing what we now know about pellet stoves, 1950's brick and block construction (no wall insulation) and spreading btu's around a house from a stove, I think we would have spent more money and bought a stove with a higher BTU output. Then again- the Napoleon is a great stove at its price point, it's easy to maintain on a daily basis, easy to break down, clean, and repair if needed, and since we beefed up our attic insulation and did some air leak sealing, the Napoleon carries the house by itself on all but the coldest days. It would not be cost effective to sell the Napoleon on the used market now and buy a bigger stove, so we work with the Napoleon and on the vast majority of days, it does what we want it to do. Also, the Napoleon has a cool cast iron burn pot. I have to empty it almost every day, it certainly punishes me with a huge clinker if I don't get the air mixture right for any given batch of pellets, but I think that cast iron burn pot will still be around long after I'm gone.

Having that experience informed our choice for the wood stove- we went with the Princess rather than smaller, less expensive and more easily acquired stoves. (We paid an additional travel premium to have the sole Blaze King dealer in Virginia travel hundreds of miles to install a Blaze King in our house out in the sticks on the other side of the state.)

Save yourself time and money and buy your second stove first, in other words, especially if you think you will spend many more years in that house. You can swap out a stove after many years if needed, but you will likely want to install a chimney or choose a chimney location ONCE (unless you have a chimney fire, God forbid, that causes you to have to re-address/repair a chimney.)

Also, figure out what you want out of a wood stove, why you want it, and if that particular wood stove (or any wood stove, for that matter) is going to give you what you want.

A wood stove is never going to be a fireplace. A fireplace is never going to be a wood stove. A fire place is about ambience. A wood stove is about heating your house. Two different things with, honestly, minimal overlap. About the only things they have in common are wood, fire and a chimney. And even the chimney is likely to be different for your wood stove. IMHO, and just IMHO, it's better to think of a fireplace as an aesthetic accessory and a wood stove as an appliance that heats your house.

Read about everyone's experience with their own wood stoves, think about how that experience translates to your situation, pick and choose what looks likely to work for you. Go to every stove store in your area at least once. Talk to the staff. You'll rely on the store for parts, advice, installation if you go that route. (Our homeowner's insurance required proof of professional installation for both our pellet stove in town and our wood stove at the river.) If you don't get a good vibe off of the store staff or owners, keep moving. You will have questions even if the installation goes smoothly, the stove is sized perfectly and everything is working just like it should. You want to know that you can call your stove store owner or staff and ask those questions without feeling like you are imposing on them. Look, look, look some more. Ask questions. Know your home's square footage and have a good idea of what you want out of the stove in terms of how much house it will carry, and in what configuration. Look seriously at your home's insulation, air-tightness, windows, doors, etc. and whether you can or will do anything about these areas if they are lacking. This will factor into the size of stove you need.

If you get a good vibe from the staff and owners of a particular store, if you like their products well enough, if the owner or a staff member is willing to do a home visit/assessment, take advantage of it to pick their brains about the siting the stove in your house, about the feasibility of installing a chimney, about clearance and movement of heat. We chose not to do this step with the purchase of the wood stove because hundreds of miles were involved in the round trip, and we wanted to pay that travel fee ONCE. But we'd already had a wood burning device installed in town, and we already participated in this forum, so we had a good idea of the questions we needed to ask. We went to the stove store ourselves (we only had to pay for gas and invest the time) and we established that relationship in the store. We asked the store owner, who was in charge of the installation, what he needed to know from us, and we outlined our situation and concerns to him. We have a big open field in between us and a river that's 2.5 miles wide, for instance, and prevailing winds in the winter can easily top 60 mph off of the water (with the accompanying wind chill) just because it's Tuesday. We have new construction that's relatively tight and well-insulated but given our experience with the pellet stove in town, we wanted a little more stove than we'd need rather than a little less. We wanted ease of use and ease of cleaning and maintenance. We planned to use a warm ash vacuum as well as a shovel and an approved ash bucket to clean the stove so I wasn't all that worried about a built in ash pan. A lot of people think that the Princess isn't the prettiest girl at the party but I don't care. I was much more interested in function over form. Those were our criteria- yours will be different.

In return, the store owner wanted to know about our square footage, one level or two, layout of the house, our preferred installation location, the construction of the attic/roof through which a chimney would be installed, clearances to walls and furniture, etc. We took pictures of our preferred location with painter's tape on the floor for a proposed foot print for the stove and the hearth, we took pictures and measurements between trusses and joists in the attic, and we took pictures of the roof line from several different angles so he could assess how much chimney we'd likely need to meet code, and emailed them to the stove store owner. We ordered the stove, the hearth, the stove pipe and the chimney. When the day came, the crew arrived with enough materials to install the stove on the first trip.

We also arranged to have our county's building inspector on site toward the end of that afternoon so he could sign off on the installation that day- so that any problems could be corrected while the crew was on site.

All went very well.

Having a good stove store staff and a stove company with responsive customer service makes life so much easier. That being said, many of the stove companies have service reps that are active participants on this forum, and are happy to answer your questions and address your concerns. THANK YOU HEARTH.COM AND STOVE COMPANY REPS!

Don't discount stoves from Big Box Retailers. Englander Stove Works/ Summer's Heat/ What's the other name? I forget...Timberline! that's it! puts out great basic products and their customer service is legendary. You can buy their products from big box home improvement retailers, and you can buy refurbished stoves from AMFM Energy online, drop shipped to you. One of their customer service reps, a very knowledgeable and a super nice guy (Mike) is an active participant on this forum.

For our experience, I have personally exchanged messages in forum threads here with THE VICE PRESIDENT OF BLAZE KING. How's THAT for customer service?

Dude, if I had acreage with trees, a winter that sees -50'F with wind chill and electric and oil HVAC in my house, I wouldn't be looking at a fireplace for ambience, I'd be looking at a wood stove for heat. But that's me, and only you know what works for you and your family. (BTW, what do you do now when you lose power?)

If you have friends and neighbors with wood stoves, ask to visit while the wood stove is running. Ask them what they love about their wood stove. Ask them what they hate about their wood stove. Ask them what they'd do differently if they had a do over.

ALSO, I haven't seen anyone mention this yet but it is a factor- are there burn restrictions/burn ban days in your area due to thermal inversions? Check on this before you invest thousands of dollars into any wood burning appliance. You may decide that you want to burn wood anyway- but you certainly want to go into this investment informed. A burn ban can be as arbitrary, I think, as the local government that imposes it- but it can include everything that burns wood: fireplaces, wood stoves, pellet stoves. You want to know this information before you sink $$$$ and tear up your house to install any wood burning thing of any type.

If you can't get a wood stove right now- you can work on getting dry wood stored up if you know you are going with a cord wood burning appliance. Dry wood is as important as the choice of stove- maybe the most important thing in the whole equation besides basic safety of installation and use.

 

[becasunshine]

Also, a couple more thought about installation:

If your locality requires a building permit for installation of a chimney and/or the stove itself then find out what your locality's policy is on the building permit.

Our county strongly advised that we have the installer, in our case the stove shop, pull and sign the building permit for installation. This is because, in our county, whomever pulls the permit and signs the application is responsible for seeing to it that the installation meets code. If the county fails the initial installation, they will go to the entity/person who pulled the permit and signed the application for compliance. If we signed the application, then the stove store was legally off the hook as far as the county was concerned.

We paid the permit fee to the stove store plus an additional fee for their time and work in pulling the application, filling it out and mailing it in.

Two of our major contenders when shopping for a wood stove were the Progress Hybrid and the Ideal Steel prototype, both out of Woodstock Wood Stoves. Wood Stock ships to customers and the customer is responsible for installation. We had to present a certificate of professional installation to our homeowner's insurance company so a DIY install was out of the question for us.

In the investigative process I found that stove stores in our area *might* consider accepting delivery of a competitor's stove, bringing it to our house and installing it and providing us with a letter of certification about the installation, but only if they weren't busy at that time. I.E. this is one area where a summer install might work for you.

Also, people recommended asking professional chimney sweeps/chimney companies if they were certified and willing to do installations, and asking your homeowner's insurance company if they'd accept a letter of certification for a professional installation from a chimney sweep/chimney company. That's a potential route as well. Unfortunately we really *are* out in the sticks so getting a chimney sweep out there was just as challenging as paying the stove store that traveled hundreds of miles to install our stove. We went with the most direct option- the store carried a stove we really liked, they were willing to travel and they were willing to install. Done and done.

About having a "local" store- the store from whom we purchased our pellet stove changed hands, stopped carrying Napoleon brand pellet stoves, to the best of my knowledge no longer carry the Napoleon brand at all in any product, and do not stock Napoleon parts. I order our gaskets and replacement parts from Mountain View Hearth Products in Libby Montana and I am totally happy with their excellent customer service and their excellent web site.

If we have an issue with our Blaze King, I will call the store that's hundreds of miles away from us. If it's under warranty, they will service the stove. My guess is that travel expenses, if there are any, will be negotiated between us, the store and Blaze King. But, for the most part, I anticipate that we will do exactly what we do with the Napoleon pellet stove- we'll order parts to be shipped to us and we'll do it ourselves where we can.

So yes, having responsive customer service is important, but no, the entity supplying your customer service doesn't have to be especially local.

 

[begreen]

It's nice to have a dealer backing you up in case of a defect. They are rare but can happen.

 

[FionaD]

Hi and I'm adding my welcome too!

I had exactly the same wish list when I started my stove hunt just over a year ago. I had an open fire and was really worried about losing the direct experience of those open flames; the sight, the sounds and, yes... even the smell of which I loved.

I live in a mid 1700s stone shepherd's cottage (it's the cottage that's stone, not the 1700s shepherd!). And honouring the age and style of the building is as important to me as it sounds like it is to you in your farmhouse. Now... wood stoves are not a part of authentic 1700s scottish cottage history... I'd probably need to have a fire in the middle of the floor if was going for historical accuracy! But I had a hunch nevertheless that I'd be able to find something that was in sympathy with the place - I don't live in a museum after all...

I went for a Jotul and have never regretted that choice. My model (f3) is too small for your needs, but the bigger versions, such as the 600 that you and others have mentioned here would suit your room size. Screens, as you know, are available for it... The thing about burning with an open door tho is that you not only get way less heat, you also burn way more wood. But, all in all, if you get a screen with a Jotul the worst that can happen is that you hardly use it... No big deal....

Bottom line from me is, the Jotuls are solid cast iron, which is part of the traditional look too, compared to steel. You know when you look at them that they are solid... and for me solid speaks of old style, especially if you add an old cast iron or copper kettle on the top for your tea!

I also have to add that, when I was still looking for the right stove,I wasn't really concerned about getting all night burns either, but now I say there's nothing.... Noooo ....thiinng... like getting up in the morning and feeling that unmistakeable 'stove warmth' when you walk towards the room.

Oh,.... You're going to have such a great time with your stove, when you find the one that's right for you!

 

[becasunshine]

Hi and I'm adding my welcome too!

I had exactly the same wish list when I started my stove hunt just over a year ago. I had an open fire and was really worried about losing the direct experience of those open flames; the sight, the sounds and, yes... even the smell of which I loved.

I live in a mid 1700s stone shepherd's cottage (it's the cottage that's stone, not the 1700s shepherd!). And honouring the age and style of the building is as important to me as it sounds like it is to you in your farmhouse. Now... wood stoves are not a part of authentic 1700s scottish cottage history... I'd probably need to have a fire in the middle of the floor if was going for historical accuracy! But I had a hunch nevertheless that I'd be able to find something that was in sympathy with the place - I don't live in a museum after all...

I went for a Jotul and have never regretted that choice. My model (f3) is too small for your needs, but the bigger versions, such as the 600 that you and others have mentioned here would suit your room size. Screens, as you know, are available for it... The thing about burning with an open door tho is that you not only get way less heat, you also burn way more wood. But, all in all, if you get a screen with a Jotul the worst that can happen is that you hardly use it... No big deal....

Bottom line from me is, the Jotuls are solid cast iron, which is part of the traditional look too, compared to steel. You know when you look at them that they are solid... and for me solid speaks of old style, especially if you add an old cast iron or copper kettle on the top for your tea!

I also have to add that, when I was still looking for the right stove,I wasn't really concerned about getting all night burns either, but now I say there's nothing.... Noooo ....thiinng... like getting up in the morning and feeling that unmistakeable 'stove warmth' when you walk towards the room.

Oh,.... You're going to have such a great time with your stove, when you find the one that's right for you!

This post made me smile out loud.

 

[newatthis]

As a newbie, I'm really not qualified to speak, but I will say... I was like you in that I really liked playing with the fire in the old fireplaces, feeding them, watching them, listening to them. It was like TV for me, mesmerizing. I liked the heat, it seemed like a good hobby. Loved just sitting in front of the fire. I thought I would miss the crackle if we went to stoves, but we made the leap to stoves for all the good reasons that people list here.

With the 2 wood stoves we got, I'm finding that I am still enjoying the view of the flames (getting big windows on the stoves was top of our list), I can hear the crackle a little, but mostly, I am enjoying the fires even more because of the far higher heat output, with less wood. And the stoves are now getting crowded at the hearth, the kids naturally are hanging out in front of them, and even asking for the fires to be lit, when they never did before.

Like others have said, the dealer said we could get a screen to make it a fireplace again, if we wanted to, but he discouraged us from getting it, saying you'll basically never use it. (Have to respect him, he dissuaded us from some other options, and he was right about them all.) Wouldn't consider it at all now.