Newbie Introduction and Some Questions :)

[CorgiMom]

Hello and thank you for providing such a wonderful informational place!
I am finishing up a remodel of my childhood home so that my daughter and her new husband can move in. It is an 1800 sf ranch built from cinder blocks on a slab. It has a traditional brick fireplace which I just ordered a Harman P35i insert for (waiting to be installed). There is also a hearth that my dad had a Franklin stove in, but the chimney has since been removed. I'd like to put a wood burning stove back there as my daughter and SIL will be using the pellet insert and stove for their primary heating sources. I feel pretty good about the insert decision even though I made it before doing much research. But now that I've been doing more reading about stoves, I find myself unsure of what to get. The stove room is about 400 sf on the far end of the house so not good circulation so the stove will need to be fairly small I think. I would like to get a high quality unit. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Rickb]

There are many many many small stoves that might fit the bill.. Maybe post some stoves you want to look at and we can add suggestions or give you some feedback on the particular stoves you like.

 

[CorgiMom]

Thank you Rick! I have been considering the following stoves:

Survival Steel Hybrid by Woodstock Soapstone company
Jotul F 100
Jotul F 602
Answer Wood Stove by Lopi
1250 Wood Stove by Lopi

Also, I'm confused by the catalytic vs non-catalytic debate. So any info/opinions on that would also be most welcome.

 

[Rickb]

I have no experience with any of those stoves.... See signature. But....

All 3 of those stove companies seem to have good reviews on here. And Woodstock seems to have fantastic customer service.

The cat vs non cat is not as confusing as you might believe once you understand the technology. Here is a basic outline.

NonCat also called tube stove, uses air it preheats and injects it at the top of the stove through tubes. It causes the gasses coming off the burning wood to ignite creating a cleaner burn(less smoke). That in turn creates more heat from the wood you burn then you would get from an old stove with no reburn technology. The down side of this technology is the stove has to be run at a higher temperature then a cat stove for this to work. Now depending on your heating needs and numerous other factors you may always need to run at a higher rate anyways.

Cat stoves use a Elements that reacts with smoke to create heat. Because of this they do not need as high of a firebox temp to run. This allows the stove to be turned down to a much lower temperature then a tube stove. If your heating needs demand less heat they can give you a much longer burn time because of this. The down side is that it seems cat stoves burn a little smokier if you have a lot of wood off gassing, and the cat has to be replaced once in a while.

Do some searches on this site and you will find a lot more info about it. You can also search on the specific model stoves you have listed and read reviews and thoughts.

 

[RGrant]

The Survival by Woodstock Stoves is a hybrid stove in that it combines the secondary burn system from a "non-cat" stove and combines it with... you guessed it.. a catalyst system.
There's another company, one up in Vermont (not Vermont Castings) called Hearthstone and they have a "truhybrid" series that is another take on that combination.
Best of luck!

 

[begreen]

There are several hybrids on the market now. FYI this is a January posting.