Medium Sized Rear Venting Wood Stove

[Born Of Fire]

Good Morning,
I am in the market for a stove prefer cast iron the consensus seems I need a medium sized stove thing is it needs to be rear vented because it will be going into an existing installation/ masonry chimney.
Thanks
Dave

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Dave, don't discount Woodstock who sells a fabulous and wonderful soapstone/cast stove. Their company and their stoves are second to none. There is a goodly amount of cast with the stove which really helps dress it up and these things push out some serious heat and long burning times.

One of the best things about them is that with our home, we now use only half the amount of wood we used to and stay much warmer. We also do not worry about chimney cleaning. We did clean ours after 2 full yeas (we heat 100% with this stove as there is no backup source of heat in our home) use and only got a tiny bit of creosote. Of course, we also have good dry wood.

Good luck on your search.

 

[firefighterjake]

You could check out the Jotuls . . . I know the Oslo can be rear or top vented . . . not sure if this would fit your criteria for a medium sized stove . . . this would be easier to determine if this would fit your needs based on your home's size and lay out.

 

[Born Of Fire]

Thanks.
I looked at a hearthstone phoenix iam a little concerned I read it takes a while to get these stoves hot like an hour and a half if i may ask whats your cruising temp on your stove?

 

[Born Of Fire]

Jake
The first floor where stove will be located is 1350 sqft up stairs mirrors square footage room that stove would be in is 350 sqft the house really isnt an open floor plan I may be able to draw up a rough floor plan

 

[firefighterjake]

Jake
The first floor where stove will be located is 1350 sqft up stairs mirrors square footage room that stove would be in is 350 sqft the house really isnt an open floor plan I may be able to draw up a rough floor plan

So you're looking at 2,700 square feet roughly . . . and the floor plan is more or less traditional. A rough floor plan might be helpful showing where the woodstove would be located, stairs, bedrooms, where the family safe is hidden , etc. OK, just kidding about the safe.

My thinking at this point, without seeing the floor plan, is you're either going to want a fairly large woodstove . . . if you can effectively move the heat throughout the home OR you'll want a smaller woodstove to simply heat up the room and area around the room without blowing you out of the area. Seeing a floor plan would give us a better idea of what may work best for you.

 

[Born Of Fire]

workin on floor plan giving me error message of too many pixels

 

[begreen]

Did you check out the announcement for posting pics?
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewannounce/27_2/

 

[polaris]

The Castine(f-400) and the Oslo(f-500) can both vent top or back using the same exit. You just flip it over for venting out the back.
Joe

 

[Born Of Fire]

Ok sorry for delay in floor plan between work kids and trying to figure out resizing of file I think I got it

 

[Born Of Fire]

Awesome it worked any how been frequenting wood stove stores last night went to a small mom and pop store in Jersey gave the lady a brief description of my home she was trying to convince me on a VC Acclaim Resolute to be honest I like the Jotul s better I just wannna buy the right stove as this stove is gonna sit in my living room I dont wanna heat myself out of it but I would like it to heat a good portion of the home

 

[Pagey]

Awesome it worked any how been frequenting wood stove stores last night went to a small mom and pop store in Jersey gave the lady a brief description of my home she was trying to convince me on a VC Acclaim Resolute to be honest I like the Jotul s better I just wannna buy the right stove as this stove is gonna sit in my living room I dont wanna heat myself out of it but I would like it to heat a good portion of the home

Of the two, I would definitely lean towards the Jotul. You can do some searching here and read up on Vermont Castings. Some people have good luck with them, but I've seen too many issues with them to be comfortable myself.

 

[Born Of Fire]

yeah pagey did a quick look on the ratings part of the site seems the fire bricks get burnt out a lot by some of there users it could be from misuse of stove but more then one person seemed to have this problem my dilemma is finding the right size stove as in sqft heating btu s firebox etc etc

 

[firefighterjake]

Awesome it worked any how been frequenting wood stove stores last night went to a small mom and pop store in Jersey gave the lady a brief description of my home she was trying to convince me on a VC Acclaim Resolute to be honest I like the Jotul s better I just wannna buy the right stove as this stove is gonna sit in my living room I dont wanna heat myself out of it but I would like it to heat a good portion of the home

I'm with Pagey . . . I would say go with your gut instinct on the VC vs. Jotul . . . but I would also say that you should also not limit yourself to Jotuls as there are some other great woodstoves out there as well (of course I am a bit partial to the Jotuls myself since that's what I went with in my own home.)

As Pagey says, there are many issues out there with VC . . . some folks love 'em, but many folks hate 'em. Honestly, until the new company owners are established for at least a year or two and we see consistently good reviews on both the products in terms of ease of use, reliability, parts that don't cost an arm and a leg and we know that the company will be around to honor any warrantees I would personally not recommend this product line to my friends . . . that said, I truly hope this company can make a come back and be what they used to be as I personally like the look of their stoves.

 

[firefighterjake]

Thanks.
I looked at a hearthstone phoenix iam a little concerned I read it takes a while to get these stoves hot like an hour and a half if i may ask whats your cruising temp on your stove?

I just realized I didn't answer your question here.

"Cruising temp" stove top is typically between 450-600 degrees. I prefer to keep it right around 500-550.

 

[firefighterjake]

Hopefully now that you've posted a plan some of the veterans who have been burning a heckuva lot longer than me would chime in here.

After seeing your plan though I'm thinking I would recommend going larger . . . if you're really thinking about a Jotul I would go with the Oslo perhaps . . . or honestly the F600 which also can be configured for either rear or top venting.

Your home's rooms are similar to mine . . . only on a larger scale and if you had cut off the playroom and office. I would suspect that any stove that you get would lead to the playroom and office and perhaps the bathroom being cooler. If you were to place a fan in the dining room doorway blowing the air towards the woodstove I would also speculate that it would move the heated air into the hall, kitchen and around to the dining room as well as allowing quite a bit of the heated air to rise upstairs.

Again, I am no expert . . . I am hoping some of the other folks here will chime in.

 

[begreen]

Awesome it worked any how been frequenting wood stove stores last night went to a small mom and pop store in Jersey gave the lady a brief description of my home she was trying to convince me on a VC Acclaim Resolute to be honest I like the Jotul s better I just wannna buy the right stove as this stove is gonna sit in my living room I dont wanna heat myself out of it but I would like it to heat a good portion of the home

The drawing helps a lot. I can see your concerns. It will take some assist to circulate the heat and to reduce it in the living room. Even so, I suspect at best that the office and playroom are going to get the short end of the stick. A fan blowing cooler air from the dining room into the living room will create an air circulation loop that will pull warm air from the LR, through the hall, kitchen and dining rooms. Some will also migrate upstairs. How tall & wide are the arched openings between these rooms?

As for stoves, I would also recommend staying away from the Acclaim. It's a beautiful looking stove, but has a history of high cost maintenance. Some mid-sized, cast iron stove to look at are:

Jotul Oslo (F500), Hearthstone Shelburne, Harman Oakwood, Lopi Leyden. Also look at hybrid stoves like the Quadrafire Cumberland Gap and the Pacific Energy Alderlea T5. The last stove is top vent. It might not work, depending on the details of the current fireplace. Another alternative might be a medium-sized insert like the Jotul C450 or Hampton HI300 if they fit in the current fireplace opening.

 

[Born Of Fire]

The door openings are all 7 feet tall and width ranging from 3 to 4 feet wide dining room door to living room being on of the widest as well as the lr door closest to front door > Ive noticed some of the so called medium sized stoves range in btus and fire box sizes what is a good btu size and firebox size I should be looking at?

 

[branchburner]

Don't worry about BTU #s.
Firebox 2 to 3 cubic ft.