Newb here...should I install this in place of my pellet stove?

[tjdd]

Hello all. I am a complete newb to this forum, and will be a new wood burner as well. I am soooo completely tired of buying pellets (when I can find them), and am dying to switch my pellet stove over to a wood burner. I have a large amount of wood available to be cut and split, and won't have to pay the outrageous pellet prices.

I recently purchased an old wood stove made by Sweet Home Stove Works. It is a Noble Fir model built in 1984. I have searched all over the internet to try and get any helpful info I can on this unit, with no luck. All of the latches and handles were rusted closed; but overall, it looks to be in decent shape. I have freed all moveable parts (with the help of a generous soaking of oil) and plan on repainting the entire stove.

My question is this: Am I wasting my time with this stove or will it be an effective upgrade from my pellet stove? I do not want to spend globs of money. I am trying to use the most economical means to heat my house this winter and thought I would give this a shot.

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Winter is coming and I don't want to be left in the cold! Thanks.

 

[tjdd]

Great advice, thank you. In fact, I bet I already know what the outcome of this will be. Glad I didn't install it yet. Insurance companies can be a hassle sometimes.

 

[begreen]

The best investment would probably be to get an efficient new stove that will give you several years of clean, reliable burning and heat. If the budget is tight, look into an Englander or Drolet, EPA stove. IMHO, trying to make an old stove that has not been that well cared for produce efficient heat is a fool's errand. Investing a few hundred more into a decent basic stove will pay off.

 

[tjdd]

BeGreen, I think you are right. Great advice.

So now, does anyone know if the stove I have is worth anything? Looks like I will be looking into getting something a little newer and more efficient, so I guess I need to get rid of this one. I would like to sell it to recoup the money I spent on it, but if it is not worth anything I guess I will chalk it up as a lesson learned. :down:

 

[mellow]

If it was made in 1984 it is pre EPA and is considered a "Smoke Dragon", aka wood eating monster. I see you are in N cali, I know OR has laws saying you can't install a pre EPA stove, not sure if cali has the same law or not.

I would just go about fixing it up and give it a good sanding if it is that rusty and slap some high temp paint on it, you can find the paint at lowes or home depot. You can also search for how to's on painting your stove on google.

Once you get her fixed up list it on craigslist to try and recoup your costs and put that money towards a new stove.

If it is in good condition and you fix it up you should be able to get $200-$400 for it depending on your local market.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

BeGreen, I think you are right. Great advice.

So now, does anyone know if the stove I have is worth anything? Looks like I will be looking into getting something a little newer and more efficient, so I guess I need to get rid of this one. I would like to sell it to recoup the money I spent on it, but if it is not worth anything I guess I will chalk it up as a lesson learned. :down:

Not really.

 

[tjdd]

Thanks Mellow. I will clean it up and see what I can get. Really, with a coat of paint it will be in prett good condition. Guess I'm in the market for a newer EPA approved model. This should satisfy my insurance company as well.

 

[ControlFreak]

Thanks Mellow. I will clean it up and see what I can get. Really, with a coat of paint it will be in prett good condition. Guess I'm in the market for a newer EPA approved model. This should satisfy my insurance company as well.

I have to laugh at this one. A few weeks from now, the buyer will post a message here saying "I bought this nice looking old stove....".

Tjdd: Welcome to the world of wood heat. If you enjoy work, you'll love this, and especially the savings. Remember that you must have good dry wood for a new EPA stove to operate cleanly. The older stoves actually do a better job with wood of high moisture content because they have tons of draft. You might consider heating this winter with the smoke dragon while the wood you acquire now is drying for next year in an EPA stove. It all depends upon how well seasoned your wood is. Your post suggests that your wood's not split yet, and if that's the case, you'll have moisture problems. Wood needs to sit for at least a year and a half to be ready to go. People who buy "seasoned" firewood only do that once, because the only thing good about "seasoned" firewood is the price ---- to the seller

 

[TreePapa]

Thanks Mellow. I will clean it up and see what I can get. Really, with a coat of paint it will be in prett good condition. Guess I'm in the market for a newer EPA approved model. This should satisfy my insurance company as well.

Regulations in Calif. do not allow installation of pre-EPAII woodstoves (except cookstoves). So if you clean it up and sell it, be sure to state that it is for decoration only. Sure, lots of folks sell smoke dragons on C/L and e.boy, but they are NOT legal to install in Calif. Suck it up and scrap it would be the right thing to do.

Peace,
- Sequoia

 

[wendell]

Actually, I think you will be fine with that old stove if you just add a "Magic Heat"! :lol: ;-)

Just kidding, tjdd.

Although, if you don't have any seasoned wood, you might want to hook it up this year so you can piss off your neighbors with all of the smoke and then next year, when you have all the wood ready that you c/s/s this fall, you can install your EPA stove.

 

[edthedawg]

I'll echo the most recent statements - not fully knowing what kinda wood you have abundantly "available to be cut and split", I'll throw out the usual response: If it hasn't been sitting for a good long time since it was split, then it's not wood you wanna burn this year. Too many threads hereabouts regarding people smoking out their neighborhoods, or worse - waking up the VFD w/ a late night chimney fire in the dead of winter - from burning green wood.

Most important thing you can do for a smart woodstove purchase is to have the wood ready to go a year or two in advance.

 

[bbc557ci]

Look at it this way..... If you have free wood, you no longer have to pay for pellets, right? So, the $$ you save on pellets will in time pay for a clean burning EPA stove.

 

[tjdd]

Now I really need to do some thinking. Everyone is correct. None of my wood is already cut and split. I live on 7 acres that have a ton of wood that I need to cut. I really don't want to buy pellets again this year, but by the sounds what I hear, I don't really have any wood that is seasoned and ready this year. However, I don't really live in a neighborhood either. I am up in the mountains with some land between me and my neighbor so the smoke won't be an issue (although probably not good for the enviroment or my chimney!) I guess I could bite the bullet and buy some "seasoned" wood to get me started, but from what I hear, that probably won't be any better than what I have here. Sooooo, what to do. Man, I never thought there was this much of a process to just burning wood. I wish I would have found this forum a year ago. I would have known to have my wood ready. Maybe I should stick to building rockets! ;-)

 

[allhandsworking]

If the stove you have works try it for a season. You may not like the work involved! But you may get bit by the bug that bit the rest of us. start splitting that timber now! I cant figure out why you are using a pellit stove with all the trees and land you have? That wood is better than free, you will also cancel your gym membership! You may want to do a test burn out side to see if the stove functions properly!

 

[wendell]

What would seem to make the most sense is start cutting, splitting and stacking your wood now so you are ready for next year, suck it up and use the pellet stove for one more year, spend your winter here and in the Wood Shed learning and by next summer, I guarantee the stove you choose will be different than the one you think you want now.

And, when you start burning your new stove next fall with properly dried wood, you will thank us all. ;-)

 

[CTburning]

What would seem to make the most sense is start cutting, splitting and stacking your wood now so you are ready for next year, suck it up and use the pellet stove for one more year, spend your winter here and in the Wood Shed learning and by next summer, I guarantee the stove you choose will be different than the one you think you want now.

And, when you start burning your new stove next fall with properly dried wood, you will thank us all. ;-)

I knew I needed a new stove shortly after buying my home. I am usually an impulse buyer but took my time in choosing a stove. Search the internet and see what is available. My first revelation was that no way did I want a Catalytic stove after reading about the old VC and other cat stoves. I found this site and a couple of others and read everything that I could find. I kept hearing about a Fireview and how everybody loved the stove. I looked into Blaze King and found a friend of a friend who owned one. Very impressed with that stove and his testimonial on how efficent is was with the cat. Long story short, I looked at everything and came full circle and ended up buying a soapstone cat stove. Learn about the 30% tax rebate and remember that the money is essentially being repaid to you in order to purchase an efficient wood stove. You are like me in that you have a lot of wood to choose from but it is not an endless supply. If you need four or five cords a year with the old smoke dragon you may need 2-3 with the new more efficient stove. Don't buy this year and get your wood ready for next year and the year after. I made all the newbie mistakes. My favorite is burning cords and cords of wet red oak for the first two winters. I went through soo much kindling and had a system to get the wood hot enough to stop hissing and produce some actual heat. Good luck

 

[tjdd]

If the stove you have works try it for a season. You may not like the work involved! But you may get bit by the bug that bit the rest of us. start splitting that timber now! I cant figure out why you are using a pellit stove with all the trees and land you have? That wood is better than free, you will also cancel your gym membership! You may want to do a test burn out side to see if the stove functions properly!

Well, the ONLY reason I was using the pellet stove is because it was in the house when I bought it. The house was originally built with a wood stove, then at some point the previous owners switched over to pellet. I have wanted to switch back because of all of the readily available wood that I have. Even more so now, when I figure the money I have been spending on a couple of tons of pellets each year. Don't get me wrong, pellets are nice and convinient, just a little too pricey for my taste and sometimes too hard to even get! I figured that because there was originally a wood stove there that the switch should be pretty simple. All I should have to do is install the wood burner and new pipe to the wall, where it connects to the original chimney. Of course we all know that no home project goes this simple, but that's the plan...

 

[begreen]

Best to have the chimney inspected first. It may be in need of a liner.

 

[ControlFreak]

TJDD:
Consider this: If you have 7 acres, then you should have an abundance of dead trees there in your woods. You can go through and pick out those trees that have been dead for a while but are still standing. If you can find trees that are not punky, but the bark has fallen off, or is peeling off, these will be OK to heat with THIS WINTER using your smoke dragon, and possibly even an EPA stove. Then once you've split your dead trees for this season, you can continue your work through the winter to prepare your wood for next winter with anything you cut down. As you are stacking your wood, keep a stack inside the house where you can get your final drying done. You will be amazed how much the wood will dry inside your house in the fall or wintertime in just a couple weeks. Additionally, wood that has been dead for a while with no bark will have very few bugs in it. As you split, if you find carpenter ants in the wood, then you don't want to bring that inside unless you split out the parts that have holes in it.

I'd suggest using the smoke dragon this year, especially given your remote location. Get your on-the-job training this winter and then next year you'll be in better shape to make a wise purchase of the right EPA stove with a good supply of well seasoned wood.

 

[tjdd]

Thanks ControlFreak, that sounds like a pretty good plan. Definitely the most economical, which is ultimately what I am after. I will have to go back to what pook originally said and check with my homeowner’s ins. to make sure I am covered. In doing some research, I think I will be because the house and place where I want to put the wood burner was originally built for a wood burner. Basically I will just have to remove the pellet stove and install/place the wood burner in its place with about 3 feet of stove pipe to connect to the wall. Shouldn't need any "new" construction, I would think. BeGreen mentioned a chimney inspection. Anything special I should check for with my chimney? It appears as if it was all left original when the pellet stove was put in. They just used the pellet stove pipe to run from the pellet stove to the wall and used an adapter to connect to the old stuff there.

Again, thanks for all of the great advice on this. I definitely came to the right place!

 

[bbc557ci]

Best to have the chimney inspected first. It may be in need of a liner.

What BeGreen said. You may have already thought of this or might already know this but...Also, seems like many if not most of the newer stoves use a 6 inch round flue (no expert here at all, just what I gather from what I read). That said, if you do need a liner and decide to pull the trigger on one, you'd want to size the new liner to the type/brand stove you're going to get.