Morso 3610 vs Hampton H300

[L Free Or Die]

I am brand new to burning and having a wood stove installed this month. Because of my fireplaces being short (house built in 1830) I am limited on stove choices (according to the local stove company). So they have quoted me these two stoves the Hampton being about $3800 installed or the Morso for about $4100, install includes liner, hearth extender and shorter legs . I know the Morso is a bigger stove but I want to know if the Hampton is efficient to do the job? Which stove would you recommend for a newbie like myself? I am heating approximately 2000 sq feet 2 story home. Any thoughts on these stoves?

Thanks,

 

[Grisu]

Welcome to the forum!

Both are rather small to barely medium-size stoves and will have a hard time heating 2000 sqft unless your house is really well insulated. From the two I would go for the Morso for the slightly larger firebox. If you want other suggestions it would be great if you can post the dimensions of your fireplace. A pic may also help.

Since any modern stove will need dry wood, how many cords do you have already split and stacked for this winter and since when?

Edit: Since you are in NH, I would take a look at Woodstock stoves located in Lebanon. The Progress Hybrid and Ideal Steel would be a good size for the amount of space you want to heat provided your floorplan is open enough.

 

[City&Colour]

I was in a similar situation not too long ago. I have a house built in 1905 that had an old coal burning fireplace that was sealed of behind drywall. The previous owner told us about it and my curiosity got the better of my wife and I (ME) and I opened the wall... This is what I found.

All of the old brick needed to be carefully excavated and replace with new to make the area usable. It was a HUGE project. I'm not sure if this is an option in your case. We ended up installing a full insulated SS liner in the old terra cotta lined chimney with the Hampton H300. So far it is a great stove. The house is apprx 1,500 sq.ft with the chimney running through the center of the house. It throws out a lot of heat. I would recommend adding the optional electric blower to throw heat out into the house. This is how it turned out...

\

 

[L Free Or Die]

Welcome to the forum!

Both are rather small to barely medium-size stoves and will have a hard time heating 2000 sqft unless your house is really well insulated. From the two I would go for the Morso for the slightly larger firebox. If you want other suggestions it would be great if you can post the dimensions of your fireplace. A pic may also help.

Since any modern stove will need dry wood, how many cords do you have already split and stacked for this winter and since when?

Edit: Since you are in NH, I would take a look at Woodstock stoves located in Lebanon. The Progress Hybrid and Ideal Steel would be a good size for the amount of space you want to heat provided your floorplan is open enough.

Thanks for the information. My square footage is really a guess. When I bought the house it was listed at 2900 but I think a large part of that includes my barn because there is a large finished man town. I probably should also note that we have a pellet stove for our living room which helps heat the kitchen. The wood stove would heat the 4 room layout on the first floor and 3 rooms on the second floor. Realistically I think its about 1500-1800 sq feet. I guess I should try to measure it out.

I will take some pictures of the fireplace later and post them. I know the opening is about 27 inches H x 25 inches W and its not really deep. The flue is about 5.5 in opening x 25'.

 

[L Free Or Die]

I was in a similar situation not too long ago. I have a house built in 1905 that had an old coal burning fireplace that was sealed of behind drywall. The previous owner told us about it and my curiosity got the better of my wife and I (ME) and I opened the wall... This is what I found.

All of the old brick needed to be carefully excavated and replace with new to make the area usable. It was a HUGE project. I'm not sure if this is an option in your case. We ended up installing a full insulated SS liner in the old terra cotta lined chimney with the Hampton H300. So far it is a great stove. The house is apprx 1,500 sq.ft with the chimney running through the center of the house. It throws out a lot of heat. I would recommend adding the optional electric blower to throw heat out into the house. This is how it turned out...

\

 

[L Free Or Die]

Wow that looks awesome, you did a good job! Mine is shallow like that but I was going to have it sit on the hearth and rear vented into the flue. I don't think I am ready for that type of project just yet but maybe in the future.

 

[Grisu]

Thanks for the information. My square footage is really a guess. When I bought the house it was listed at 2900 but I think a large part of that includes my barn because there is a large finished man town. I probably should also note that we have a pellet stove for our living room which helps heat the kitchen. The wood stove would heat the 4 room layout on the first floor and 3 rooms on the second floor. Realistically I think its about 1500-1800 sq feet. I guess I should try to measure it out.

I will take some pictures of the fireplace later and post them. I know the opening is about 27 inches H x 25 inches W and its not really deep. The flue is about 5.5 in opening x 25'.

That's pretty low and really limits your choices. The Woodstock Progress Hybrid would fit, the Ideal Steel would be just a tad too high at 27.5". The Fireview would also be an option if the area heated is not that large and you plan on keeping the pellet stove running. Woodstock stoves are catalytic stoves, so you will get a longer, more steady heat output from them compared with the two you are looking at. Probably more similar what you are used to from the pellet stove. Woodstock is also generally regarded as having great customer support and offers a 6-month, no question asked, full refund return guarantee.

Is the flue 5.5" all the way or is that only the damper opening? I also highly recommend to put a damper sealing block-off plate in: https://www.hearth.com/talk/wiki/make-a-damper-sealing-block-off-plate/
That will help greatly with reducing the heat loss up the chimney. A common shortcut by installers is to just stuff some batt insulation in the damper cavity but a sheet metal plate with some Roxul on top will be much better and only needs to be done once.

 

[L Free Or Die]

That's pretty low and really limits your choices. The Woodstock Progress Hybrid would fit, the Ideal Steel would be just a tad too high at 27.5". The Fireview would also be an option if the area heated is not that large and you plan on keeping the pellet stove running. Woodstock stoves are catalytic stoves, so you will get a longer, more steady heat output from them compared with the two you are looking at. Probably more similar what you are used to from the pellet stove. Woodstock is also generally regarded as having great customer support and offers a 6-month, no question asked, full refund return guarantee.

Is the flue 5.5" all the way or is that only the damper opening? I also highly recommend to put a damper sealing block-off plate in: https://www.hearth.com/talk/wiki/make-a-damper-sealing-block-off-plate/
That will help greatly with reducing the heat loss up the chimney. A common shortcut by installers is to just stuff some batt insulation in the damper cavity but a sheet metal plate with some Roxul on top will be much better and only needs to be done once.

Thanks for the information. I will check those out, Lebanon is about an hour and 50 mins from me. So that may not be an option unless I have someone else install the stove.

I will also take a look at the flue and damper and see what I am working with. Thanks again for the information.