New stove owner hopelessly confused

[Ditchmonkey]

Hello everyone,

I am in the process of purchasing a wood stove for my somewhat drafty, poorly insulated old farm house. I have been doing exhaustive research over the last couple of weeks and now I'm more confused than ever! Some factors:

1. The home is is just under 1,500 square feet on the bottom floor, and there is also a small upstairs area we don't care about heating too much.
2. We are in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, so winters are mild for the most part although in the last few years we have had some pretty serious cold snaps.
3. This will not be our primary heat, but right now our primary heat is a bit unreliable so the stove may need to step up to the plate on occasion.
4. We don't really care if every corner of the house is warm and a home in the 60's is fine for us, we can put on a sweater.

Since it's an old home, we would like to go with the aesthetics provided by cast iron, and we would like to buy from a local dealer. That said our primary choices are Jotul, Morso, Hearthstone, and Vermont Casting. My primary confusion is around:

1. What is the deal with firebox size? They seem to vary so much. The relatively small Hearthstone Crafstbury has a 1.5 CF firebox while the Larger seeming Morso 2110 only has a 1.1 CF firebox. All the Morso fireboxes seem very small, what is up with that?
2. We like the styling of the Jotul Black Bear. 60k BTU's seems like a lot in our situation but some reviews have mentioned that it doesn't heat like a 60k BTU stove. Is this too big?
3. If we get the Black Bear, I'm pretty much going to have to line the back of the stove up with the back edge of my existing rock floor pad. Is it a problem to not have the rock pad extend past the edge of the stove a bit?
4. We can get a great deal of the Hearthstone Craftsbury but can find very little in the way of reviews. Anyone know much about this stove?
5. We like the styling and reviews of the Morso but all the fireboxes are so small. Comments?
6. I have read that you should have a "full burn" every few fires to keep the stove and pipe clean. If we get something bigger like the Black Bear, will we have issues with this?

I know that's a lot. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

 

[ironworker]

When we did our stove the owner of the stove shop came to our house and gave us his recommendation, best thing I ever did. Oh and he did not charge for the consultation, where as the other place wanted money to come over. Good luck.

 

[begreen]

The Morso 2110 is a great little heater, but it won't hold a fire for long with the small firebox. I would look at the Morso 3640 instead. In Jotul take a look at their F45 Greenville. The Black Bear has not been a very popular stove due to secondary rack problems. I'm not sure if they ever fixed this. In Hearthstone look at the Shelburne. The Craftsbury is probably too small. Another good fit for your house would be the Pacific Energy T5 Alderlea.

Your best success for happy, clean burning will be to have dry wood on hand. You should buy wood now that is split and stacked with a top cover only. Stack it where the sun can hit it and the prevailing winds can blow through the stacks.

 

[Ditchmonkey]

Another mystery:

(broken link removed to http://www.morsona.com/morsoe-2b-classic)

How is it the Morso 2b classic, which has the same BTU rating as the 2b standard, is somehow adequate to heat a 2,000 sq ft home (according to Morso)?

 

[begreen]

I read 1200 sq ft. for the 2B classic. Don't rely too heavily on sq ftg numbers. That is going to vary radically depending on the house, the outside temps and the wood burned. Go by firebox capacity. You will probably want a 1.5 to 2 cu ft stove for your area in a 1500 sq ft house. We are further north in WA and our next door neighbor can heat his 1600 sq ft house nicely with a 2 cu ft PE Spectrum stove in the coldest weather.

 

[Ditchmonkey]

I meant to post this page, which also puts the classic in the 2-3k category.

(broken link removed to http://www.morsona.com/classic-stoves)

 

[begreen]

I see. Must be for the southern Californians. As noted above, take marketing sq ftg with a healthy grain of salt.

 

[brad wilton]

go for a big stove. why, once you get a taste of heating with wood you are not going to want to let it burn out.why suffer when you can throw on some logs and be comfortable. I have an old leaky stone house so i know about sweaters I would rather be able to tell the difference inside to outside we are not artist suffering for are craft. my 60 cents goodluck

 

[begreen]

There is a huge difference in climates between Quebec's frozen, 9-12F winters and the Willamette Valley's mild 40F ones. Too big a stove would be a waste of money, especially when the goal is not 24/7 primary heat.

Ditchmonkey, is the house floorplan open or will the stove room be somewhat closed off from the rest of the house?

 

[Ditchmonkey]

There is a huge difference in climates between Quebec's frozen, 9-12F winters and the Willamette Valley's mild 40F ones. Too big a stove would be a waste of money, especially when the goal is not 24/7 primary heat.

Ditchmonkey, is the house floorplan open or will the stove room be somewhat closed off from the rest of the house?

Somewhat open. The stove sits right in the middle of a mostly open living/kitchen/dining area with two bedrooms off of that without halls. The only space completely separate is our mud room which we dont linger in.

 

[brad wilton]

bg your in same location roughly speaking no?you have t6 i'm not talking monster a cool damp day gets into your bones just the same 2.5 and up

 

[begreen]

That's good, the stove should heat the house fairly evenly then. The main difference stove size will provide you is the length of burn. The 2B is a willing little heater, but you would be stoking it frequently if the power went out or you wanted all day heat. This is especially true if burning NW softwoods. Figure filling it every 2-3 hrs. I've run the 2110, a friend has one. It will burn about 4-6 hrs on a load of good wood. It is very similar to the Jotul F3CB which is also a good little stove. By going up in size you gain both and extended burn time and more high end heating capacity (higher btu output). I think the sweet spot for you house is around 1.5 to 2 cu ft. That will give you 6-8 hrs between loads depending on the stove.

 

[Ditchmonkey]

I see the Pacific Energy stoves are made in the PNW. Where specifically? Are their cast iron stoves generally well-regarded?

 

[Ditchmonkey]

I wonder if anyone has a comment on my #3 above about the rock pad alignment?

 

[begreen]

bg your in same location roughly speaking no?you have t6 i'm not talking monster a cool damp day gets into your bones just the same 2.5 and up

The OP is not looking for full time heat. We are heating a larger older house, 24/7 in the winter and live several hundred miles north of the Willamette Valley. For example Seattle's average winter temp is about 33F. Eugene, OR average winter temp is about 47F. FWIW, our stove has been idle for almost a week now. The weather this year is already getting too mild.

 

[begreen]

I see the Pacific Energy stoves are made in the PNW. Where specifically? Are their cast iron stoves generally well-regarded?

On Vancouver Island north of Victoria, BC. Their cast iron stoves are their steel stoves with a cast iron jacket. They are well regarded. Note that we own one.

I wonder if anyone has a comment on my #3 above about the rock pad alignment?

The stove hearth needs will vary with the model. The hearth usually needs to be 8" past the stove on sides and back and 16" in front. Some stoves only need ember protection. If so, extending the current hearth may be easy.

 

[kennyp2339]

What type of wood are you planning on burning the most? If your going with softer wood types I would consider a CAT stove for longer burn times, if harder woods are in your area than an epa tube stove will do good also, I'm biased towards CAT stoves though, I just like them better since upgrading from an epa stove to a cat stove.

 

[Ditchmonkey]

What type of wood are you planning on burning the most? If your going with softer wood types I would consider a CAT stove for longer burn times, if harder woods are in your area than an epa tube stove will do good also, I'm biased towards CAT stoves though, I just like them better since upgrading from an epa stove to a cat stove.

Soft woods are easier to come by but I hope to mix some hard woods into the mix. Aren't the cat stoves more maintenance? What cat stoves would you recommend?

 

[kennyp2339]

I have only burned a blaze king princess model, the maintenance seems to be actually easier than my old stove, the cat is garenteed for 10 years, cleaning is the same for my setup, brush the chimney, take top of stove pipe off vacuum out. The door seal on the bk seems easier to change out than my old stove, to me it seems like a win win, the only thing to really keep I'm mind is when running a cat stove you want the proper fire box temp before you close the bypass so you get cat lite off, it's kind of the same as an EPA stove, higher firebox temp then shut the air down to get secondary lite off, I was a bit skeptical of owning a cat stove but really it's been a walk in the park at least for me and my girl friend to operate

 

[begreen]

If you are looking at catalytic stoves the two to look at would be the Woodstock Keystone (sold direct) or the Blaze King Ashford 20. They are a little more work and a little more maintenance, but are the champs for longest burn times. With the additional hardware, they are also more expensive.

 

[westkywood]

I've had a PE Super 27 for 5 years now. Firebox size is 1.97 cu ft. My house was built in the 30's. Have my walls are not insulated. Have new windows and good attic insulation. If it's above 25 outside I go about 8-9 hours before my heat kicks on set at 68. The stove is rated for 1200 - 2000 sq ft. It all depends on your house. Sounds like mine and your house is pretty close to the same, so hope this helps. I'm upgrading to a 3 cu ft firebox only because if it's around wind chill of o to 10 outside, my heat kicks on about 4 in the morning and then I can't sleep..

 

[begreen]

Yes, in non-cat I'd be looking at a PE Super Series firebox.

 

[Ditchmonkey]

Thanks for all the advice. Given that we live in a climate that is often mild, and we don't want to be blasted out of our family room by a hot stove, would the milder heat of a soapstone stove be a good choice? Do soapstone owners find the stoves more comfortable to be near?

 

[begreen]

Soapstone or a cast iron clad stove work well in our climate. Our Alderlea has never overheated the house or living room and it is a large stove. Take a look at the Alderlea T5. It's a good fit for the Pac NW.

With any stove, you control the heat by the amount and frequency of fueling.

 

[newatthis]

All the Morso fireboxes seem very small, what is up with that?

I actually wondered the same thing. We've got a Morso insert, 1.49 cu ft, and a Jotul Oslo, seemingly far bigger, described at 2.0 cu ft?!! I have wondered if Morso measures differently, like inside the firebricks or something. Although our two different stoves have different setups, the small Morso insert really cranks out the heat for us, we actually use it more often.