Looking to upgrade to new Stove

[Hokie_burner]

Like many others I've been reading the numerous threads and have gotten a wealth of information from all the input. Thanks to the many who take the time to provide insight and help to the many questions that we less experienced ask.

My woodstove experience started 13 years ago when I went to a friend's house one night and was just amazed at the amount of heat that was coming from his Buck Stove insert. Could not believe he was essentially heating the entire house from this simple addition to the fireplace. I had recently moved to a ranch house with 2 fireplaces and was now determined to get an insert. Found a Regular Buck stove (26000) used for $100. Bought the glass door inserts and with the help of 3 friends moved it into one of my fireplaces back in the family room. 5 years later that friend that I had visited originally was moving and needed to get rid of his stove, so I got a 2nd Buck stove for free and put it in the other fireplace. I live in Virgina and thanks to several Hurricanes, I have had a steady supply of free firewood and have never had to pay for any yet. I even invested in a splitter this past year instead of continually renting one. I've mainly use only the one stove in the family room to heat that end of the house while still paying $3000 a year for oil.

But, the more I've started to learn the less I'm comfortable using this slammer type woodstove as the amount of creosote in the fireplace is substantial as my chimney cleaner continues to tell me. So I've finally made the decision to upgrade to one of the new EPA stoves and install a liner in the chimney.

My house is a 2600 sf ranch which is shaped in a flat U. The problem being the family room is at one end of the U and the master bedroom is at the other. Chimney is on the exterior wall, more bad news. This was always a problem with the Buck Stove cranking out the heat at one end and chilly at the other end. Being a mechanical engineer, I installed an inline fan in the attic last year and ran insulated flex ductwork from the ceiling diffusers in the family room to the back bedroom. This worked pretty good as I was able to blow 80 degree air into the back of the house, but I still wasn't comfortable doing overnight burns with the Buck so I wasn't able to make it entirely successful.

My dilemma is that I know the smart thing to do is to buy 2 smaller stoves to better distribute the heat, but one it costs more money and two I now have a pool table only about 5 feet from the hearth in the living room so I obviously no longer use that stove.

So while I have learned that I should try to maximize my firebox size to get a longer burn time, I question what size insert would fit in my fireplace. The fireplace opening is 26" high and 17" deep and while most of the inserts I'm looking at will fit in the opening, it seems to me like you need at least 3" clearance at the top to be able to connect the liner to the stove. Yet the stove specs often say minimum opening size is only 1" or 2" larger than stove. How can you get your hands in to connect liner with only 1" clearance?

My chimney cleaner is also a friend and is going to help install the liner and stove. He is only charging me material cost for the liner. I'm trying to keep the stove cost less than $2000 and am looking at the Englander 13NCI (really want an American made stove) as well as the Osburn and Drolet lines. My concern with the Englander is whether the smaller insert will be able to heat the one side of the house and still provide heat through the attic fan to the back bedrooms. So I'm leaning toward a larger stove as long as it fits. Sorry for the long thread and thanks again for any advice.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum Hokie_burner.

Before going into the info on stoves and installs, I am wondering if your biggest problem is not with the stove at all. With all the creosote you say you have, I'm willing to bet your biggest problem is with your fuel. If so, it won't matter one little bit what stove you get as you'll continually have the same problem and probably it will be worse! That is because of the way the newer stoves are built and how they operate compared to the older stoves like your Buck stove.

I know nothing about your fuel but would like to know more. Do you buy your wood? Cut your own? What kind of wood do you burn? How is the wood handled? Do you give the wood the proper amount of time to dry before trying to burn it? I highly doubt that because of the creosote problem. So please give more information if you can about your wood. When do you get it? Is it split right away and then given time to dry? Do you buy? If so, no doubt you are told it is "seasoned" which we usually find is meaningless. How and where do you stack the wood? Do you cover it? How much do you cover? Should be only the top. Also, wood should be dried outdoors and not in a shed or basement. There is much more to it but please give more information.

You can get even more information on the wood by visiting the Wood Shed, which is a big part of hearth.com.

 

[Hokie_burner]

I checked out some of the treads from the woodshed and I would probably agree that I probably haven't burned the ideal would. I've never bought wood, but have mainly burned wood that i got from friends and neighbors who have had trees fall or taken down. I would try to stay a year ahead and depending on the local storms I could have 2 years supply, but I never used a moisture meter to check the wood. I burned hardwood, but again it depended what was available, have burned oak, gum and maple mostly.I keep the wood stacked out back and keep a tarp over the top. The wood I currently have is a year old now and the supply should last 2 years.

The first several years I had the Buck Stove I was dampering the stove down alot to keep the stove from overpowering the room and I thought in retrospect this might have contributed to the problem as it is an exterior chimney with a 13 in sq flue.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

It could contribute but not much unless the wood is not dry enough; then it would contribute a lot. Wet wood requires a hot fire to keep it burning.

Don't forget too that oak takes a long time to dry and if you try to burn it within a year you will have problems no matter which stove you run.

 

[BrotherBart]

Welcome to the forum hokie_burner. I will try to keep the Hokie jokes to a minimum.

Burned in the big Buck's relative, the biggest Sierra insert, here for a lot of years. Here to tell ya that a new stove and a liner is a whole different world. But giving the old hoss more air throughout the burn makes a difference too. As well as, like Backwoods Savage says, how dry the wood is that you toss in any of them.

Dead and downed oak can get it done in two years after it is split and stacked. The three years is pretty much for live or fresh downed. Testing done with a few hundred cords of red and white oak.

Stick around and good fortune with the new stove adventure. Los of people here know what they are talking about.

 

[Stump_Branch]

"how to connect a liner with only one inch clearance"

Just a thought, you can connect the liner collar to the stove flue collar with at least three screws. Wiggle it back and once you get the liner in the collar there's only a band clamp to tighten. At least on alot of liners. You could get a drill with an extension to it.just don't go crazy and over tighten.

And welcome

 

[Ashful]

How are you connecting that insert into the old chimney? How big is the old chimney? Seems to me, a big part of the problem could be smoke pouring out of that insert into the original masonry smoke chamber / chimney, and cooling too rapidly. Same effect as wet wood.

 

[dafattkidd]

Hokie, Welcome to the forum. $3,000 in oil and you're burning two stoves? I think you're going to save some money in heating this year for sure. When I was looking for inserts I found the best deals on www.dynamitebuys.com This may be a bit off topic, but have you considered getting a freestanding stove and placing it on your hearth? Free standing stoves tend to be a bit less expensive.

Honestly, maybe I'm wrong here, but what if you put insulated liners and block off plates in both chimneys and see if that works better for you. I think you'll have much better results. Maybe this is the first step and take it from there. I don't see why you can't burn in the insert that is 5 feet from the pool table. The pool table will get hot, but I would be surprised if your manual calls for greater than 5 feet of clearance.

I hope I'm adding helpful suggestions here, and not adding confusion to your dilema. One thing I will say is you will definitely want something that has a firebox 2 cf or larger. I looked for the largest firebox I could fit in my fireplace and it worked out really well. Good luck.