My head hurts from looking at stove specs, help please?

[JaysinSpaceman]

Hi all,

My name is Jaysin and I have been heating homes I have lived in most of my life with wood, at least part time. I haven't had a need to heat my home solely with wood until now. I live in a 900-950 sq ft home, fairly well insulated upstairs (about 300 sq ft) and 12" thick earth walls down stairs (about 600 sq ft), the earth walls offer lots of thermal mass but not much insulation value, with all double pane windows. I am at 3000 ft elevation in the gold country in CA and see snow about 5-10 times a year and freezing temps. at least 1/3 the winter.

I have been looking for a wood stove for the last couple of months and really doing a lot of head scratching. There are always compromises to be made and I would like some help to know where I should make them. For one I would love to have a stove that would still have enough hot spots in the morning to start a new fire without having to really restart a fire but most of the stoves people recommend for that are rated for 2000 sq ft or more so I might have to make a compromise there? I don't really want a catalytic stove as I have had bad luck with an older Jotul in the past and just don't like the idea of a cat in a situation that runs at such varying temperatures as a wood stove, so I think a secondary burn stove is where I am headed. I've looked at Jotul, Morso, Lopi and I really don't know where to head as they all seem to have good qualities and reputations, the only thing that is really different is that the Lopi is lined with firebrick and the other two are cast iron, thermal mass and all that, I don't know where to head here either (except I like the looks of the Jotul and Morso better then the Lopi).

I know it is a bunch of Ford vs. Chevy questions but there are so many people here with soooo much more experience then me I was hoping that someone could help to point me in the right direction.

The stoves I have considered (but I am open to all suggestions) are:

Jotul F 100 QT or F3B CB

Morso 3450 (my wife likes this one) or 8188 (but probably out of my price range)

Lopi Republic 1250 (Not big on looks but advertises 8 hr burn times)

So there you have it. If you need more info ask I will be happy to supply it. I will plan to burn mostly black oak and pine with a little manzanita. I really hope that you guys and gals can help me as the cold season is nearly upon us.

Thanx for your time in helping out with this,
Jaysin

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum Jaysin.

You sound just like we were when shopping for a new stove 2 years ago. We too wanted to stay away from a cat stove. We'd heard so many wild stories about them we just did not want to touch one. Long story short; we now own a beautiful stove with a cat and absolutely love it. Why? First and foremost is that we burn only 50% of the amount of wood we used to burn and stay a whole lot warmer with this stove. Second: it is just such a clean burning stove that we haven't even cleaned our chimney and this stove is our sole source of heat. Also it is one beautiful piece of furniture that will fit into any home.

With that, I think you might owe yourself a look at Woodstock stoves. I'm not so sure about their smaller stoves although many on here love them but they really do seem too small to me. The Fireview for sure would have lots of coals for you in the morning but my only concern would be that it might roast you out. You still might check that out. Just go to woodstove.com to have a look. You can also order some literature if you wish.

Good luck to you.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

well, first thing you are going to absolutey have to get over is the burn time that you want, with the stove's you listed above. All those stoves would do the trick but i would step it up a notch with Jotul. If you are going to install a good tall chimney, check out the Jotul Castine. The morso 3610 is not out of the question either. ALl of these stoves i have listed are larger then what you posted you where looking for, but alittle bigger is sometimes better. I cut the ratings down in half from what the marketing literature says. You are in altitude, with poor insulation, and a lot of pine to burn. I dont think you can put too much stove in there. I would be looking at 50k-60k btu's to heat that space.

Is the stove going in the larger lower level or the small well insulated upstairs? the advice above is based on putting a stove in the lower level. If this is going upstairs in that well insulated 300 square foot, the stoves you mentioned would be more then enough, but they will not burn as long as you want them too. Check out the hearthstone tribute. It will hold the heat longer in its mass then the other stoves we are talking about, but still will not burn all night. Im with you, im not a fan of the cat stoves.

(broken link removed to http://www.hearthstonestoves.com/wood-stoves/stove-details?product_id=4)

 

[JaysinSpaceman]

well, first thing you are going to absolutey have to get over is the burn time that you want, with the stove's you listed above. All those stoves would do the trick but i would step it up a notch with Jotul. If you are going to install a good tall chimney, check out the Jotul Castine. The morso 3610 is not out of the question either. ALl of these stoves i have listed are larger then what you posted you where looking for, but alittle bigger is sometimes better. I cut the ratings down in half from what the marketing literature says. You are in altitude, with poor insulation, and a lot of pine to burn. I dont think you can put too much stove in there. I would be looking at 50k-60k btu's to heat that space.

Is the stove going in the larger lower level or the small well insulated upstairs? the advice above is based on putting a stove in the lower level. If this is going upstairs in that well insulated 300 square foot, the stoves you mentioned would be more then enough, but they will not burn as long as you want them too. Check out the hearthstone tribute. It will hold the heat longer in its mass then the other stoves we are talking about, but still will not burn all night. Im with you, im not a fan of the cat stoves.

(broken link removed to http://www.hearthstonestoves.com/wood-stoves/stove-details?product_id=4)

I wanted to answer your question first, as far as the stove being in the lower earthwall portion of the house, that is where it will live. But I would like you to understand that while this area is not insulated it has the benefit of the thermal mass of the walls and really seems to take minimal heat to stay comfortable (the whole house is currently heated by one little Jefferson gas stove of only 19,000-28,000 btu), but I do think you are right to look for a slightly larger stove then the manufactures advertise, but since I have been heating it with such a small gas stove I am hesitant to put a stove capable of 50-60,000 btu in this space. I don't want to drive myself outside.

That Hearthstone is nice and I am sure a great stove but is then a soapstone style stove out there that isn't quite so ornate? I am a simple fellow and I tend more toward the utilitarian and all the soapstone stoves are a bit overdone for my tastes. Don't get me wrong they are beautiful stoves and the craftsmanship looks to be amazing, just not my taste.

As for fuel, I have mostly black oak to burn with a bit of pine thrown, Oak is abundant here and free except for the gas for the chainsaw. I do have a question about fuels though. My property is COVERED with Manzinita (most of it 30-50 years old and 3-4" in diameter), I have made many a bonfire with it outside and it burns hot and fairly clean (read low smoke), is this an acceptable fuel to mix in with my oak and pine or is it too hot burning? If I can burn it, it would mean that I could kill two birds with on stone, start clearing and thinning the property and have heat fuel for my house.


Thanx for the input guys keep it coming please,
Jaysin

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

How do you plan on venting out of your lower level? Do i understand correctly that the walls are earth? That mass i would think, would take a lot of btu's to warm them up. Once they are warm, of course they will store and release over time. If thats the way you plan on using them, then i probably would not put a thermal mass stove like the heartstone in there. I would think a fast heat delivery system like cast or steel would be the choice. I would take all the 35k btu stoves out of the list, and replace them with the 40-50k btu models from the same manufactures. These are max outputs, you can build smaller fires during the shoulder season, and keep warm on the coldest days.

 

[KeepItNatural]

As far as having a stove that is rated for a larger area than your house-- you can always build a smaller fire in a larger stove, but can never build a bigger fire in a smaller stove. Plus soapstone stoves will hold heat for longer after the fire goes out, plus that heat tends to be more "even".

 

[JaysinSpaceman]

The chimney goes straight up through the roof, the second story is only on half of the house (You can see where the current gas stove chimney comes through the roof in the picture). I will start looking at the 40k-50k stoves. Is it true that a small fire in a big stove causes them to burn less efficiently?

Any input on the Manzinita?

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

I can say with out a doubt that a chimney is going to have a hard time drawing if its going in the same spot as the gas vent. The stack affect of the taller portion of the house is going to make that bump out a bit negative. I would consider outside air hook up, and that chimney is going to need to be taller then that second story.