Noob with questions

[NickZ]

Excellent forum - I have been reading for the last 3 days and am ready to post a qouple of questions to you knowledgeable folks:
We are planning on buying a wood stove - most likely a VC resolute acclaim in the next few weeks.
The plan is to help heat the house (we have electric baseboard heaters throughout) and add some ambiance to our living room as well.
The house is approx 2500 sq ft ranch style and the stove will be in the living room which is at one fo the corners of the house.

I am unsure if I want to install it in the direct corner of the room - or against one of the interior walls due to space constraints.

Is there another type of stove that would be more suited to our application?
The dealer says he can discount his floor model since VC has changed their green color from the model he has on display to another tone? Is this true?

Our flooring in the living room is floating floors. Is there anything specia to take into consideration due to this? I have been on VC's site and it says " Even when the bottom heat shield is installed, you must provide special protection to the floor beneath. For installations with the heat shield attached, use a non- combustible floor protector such as 1/4” non-asbestos mineral board or equivalent, or 24 gauge sheet metal. The floor protector may be covered with a noncombus-tible decorative material if desired. Do not obstruct the space under the heater. "

Following this - does that mean I can lay down some Durock (1/2 inch) and tiling of my choice? We are leaning towards slate... any inherent problems with that? I realize that slate by nature is not even - but the stov has adjustable legs - so it should level fine...

The wall behind the stove is your average drywall that has been painted - should I remove the wall and replace it with Durock and the tiling of our choice ? or is this overkill if the stove is spaced properly from the wall?

Finally the dealer wants 1200 for the install - which includes all materials - he says the piping is double wall etc ... Does this sound like a fair rate.

Thanks to all. Looking forward to your responses and continuing to read the forums.
Nick

 

[begreen]

Welcome Nick. If at all possible, run the flue up through the interior of the house and not up an outside wall. Other than that, an outside wall location should work. If you can post a sketch of the floorplan that would help. Your hearth idea will be fine with the bottom heatshield. As long as you honor the clearances to combustibles, drywall behind the stove is ok. If you install a heat shield on the wall, clearances can be reduced. $1200 sounds average, but it depends on the install. How many stories in the house?

 

[NickZ]

Hi There!
The house is one floor - with only the master bedroom in a loft on the second floor (complete opposite end of house from where stove would be). The plan was to run the flue out through the ceiling and roof and not up an outside wall.
I will draw up a floorplan and att it to my next post.
I imagine the heatshield is an option/accesory and not something that comes with the stove standard?

Thanks for your response.
Nick

 

[begreen]

Before we cover that, are you sure the Acclaim is big enough for the house? If you are planning on heating 24/7 in Canada, you may need a larger stove for 2500 sq ft unless the house is very well insulated. FWIW, heating ranch houses can be a challenge due to their sprawling nature. Is there a ceiling fan in the room where the stove is going?

 

[NickZ]

I don't intend to heat 24/7 with the acclaim - only when we are home in the evening weekends days off and I do realize the layout of our home is not conducive to the best results of a wood stove. I also forgot to mention that we do have a pellet stove at te other end of the house.

Is there a different model/brand or type of stove you would recommend - i am open to suggestions.
Nick

 

[elkimmeg]

The dealer is right about the color Forest green has been discontinued that stove will not carry the complete heating load if you are happy with that and are thinking of about half the heating area it will heat that if not you need a larger stove

 

[NickZ]

HI Elk,
Thanks for your response.

I would up the size of the stove - but due to the layot of the house and the size of the room it is going into (our living room - which is open into the hallway and is apprx 15x12) I am affraid that something larger will bake us outof the living room whe it is on.

Any other suggestions as to make/model/type?
Like your Pyro extraordinaire tag - one of my dogs is named pyro

 

[elkimmeg]

Nick if only for a limited area what about a ducthwest again made By VC. Perhaps that resolute acclaim will do the job in that room but so will an Intrepid.

Go back to your dealer and find out what other floor models he will discount I have a Forest green Encore kind of an earthy color, but green to me means burning wood is a lot greener to out enviorement than burning oil.

 

[NickZ]

Forgive my Noob-ness - but I am looking @ the Dutchwest products on the website and they seem like stripped down cousins to the VC models. Is this correct?
I like the idea of the top loading feature on the VC models - is it as useful as I think it would be?
Same thing for their ash pan feature - seems like it is a cleaner way of doing things?

I was looking at the intrepid II while I was there as well - but I don't know if I want to get into a catalytic model. I am finding there is already enough of a learning curve @ tis point..:-0

 

[begreen]

OK, pellet stove at the other end of the house is a big design influence.

I was thinking an Encore Cat actually. It you are ok with the catalytic converter, I think you would like the long burn times. Another cat option would be a Woodstock soapstone stove.

 

[elkimmeg]

Nick I have owned the resolute acclaim and my cat Intrepid out preformed it. as for controls with automatically controlled secondary air in the Intrepid and Encore you will be doing a whole lot less fiddling with controls I know been there done that I switched to two cat stoves now I feel like the old maytag repairman I set them and forget them no fiddling to find the sweet spot I let the automatically controlled air find that for me The Cat stoves are easer and more forgiving than the non cat stoves

 

[NickZ]

HI again Elk,
To be honest- I prefer the aesthetic and the smaler size of the intrepid II that the dealer had. Seems like it wold blend into the room better size - wise.
The dealer seemed was discouraging about the cat models - claiming that they require much more work and maintenance and are in general a pain in the butt.

I am looking at the specs and it has 27 000 BTu as compared to the 40 000 of the acclaim and heats a max of 1600 sq ft as compared to the intrepid's 1200.


Can you pls explain what you mean by "more forgiving"?

Thanks - I am off to read up on how the cat models actually work so I cna be better informed.
Nick

 

[elkimmeg]

If you are only trying to heat the immediate room the Intrepid would do that easily It not going to carry the entire home know the limitation of the stove then decide the Intrepid will doa decxent job up to about 800 sq ft all manufactures claims are inflated some manufactures more than others. Figure real world e usage, deduct 1/3 of their claims

Since I have owned both stoves recently I currently own an Intrepid and cat Encore Yes the cat combustor needs to be cleaned but nothing special that one should do to b prepe out their stove every year before use if you have a Vac cleaner then that is the only tool needed to clean it and it takes about 5 minutes. Controlling the stove, there are the same two functions the primary air control and the damper in this case when you close the damper it activates the Cat combustor but the same actual function in either stove.

Now if you are burning dry wood, (which you should be), The resolute does not have what is called thematically controlled secondary air Thermostatically controlled secondary air flap is controlled by a temperature sensitive spring as the stove heats up the spring expands and closes the air damper when the stove cools it contracts and supplies more air to bring the fire temps back up
It trys to maintain the setting you had when closing damper till the fuel is gone. This provides an even steady volume of heat while the wood is burnt. One dies not have to constantly fiddle with air controls trying to find the sweet spot it like the stove automatically finds that for you ,ie much more forgiving to user imput.

You are getting the typical response from a salesman that does not understand the product or is lazy and wants to steer his customer to a stove with training wheels on it
you will recieve better advice here and if you have questions many here can advise you how to run your stove correctly once you lean the stove operations everything becomes second nature

Don't buy a standard car you have to learn how to shift buy an automatic that about the difference The cat stoves may not be for you if you are not willing to learn how to opperate it but really it is not all that much to it.

Good thing you wife did not see the ash removal system of the Encore probably the most convient dust less system in any stove. No mess in the house at all, slide the cover on and remove it from the house. Once you have experience top loading you will not being using the front doors except to clean the stove and start a fire

 

[rmcfall]

I agree with everything said regarding catalytic stoves. I had never used a cat stove and am now using a Woodstock Keystone. The procedure involved with using a cat is so much easier than I expected. After I engage the cat on my stove, I normally don't touch the air control again until it is time to reload. There's really nothing to it. Plus, the cat will give you much longer burns than the noncat stove, so you won't be reloading as often.

 

[begreen]

If you are going for VC, I still say go for the Encore. The Intrepid is a very nice little stove, but has a small fire box requiring smaller wood. The Encore takes larger splits and will carry you better through a power outage. Come the next zero degree day, you'll be glad you have the Encore.

 

[NickZ]

I'll go back to the dealer either this aft or tomorrow and have a look @ the encore as well.
So far from what I have been told here and what I am reading - I am leaning heavily towards a cat stove. The dealer said that if the stove runs too hot in the room it is in to simply leave the doors open with a screen and it should lower the heat considerably. Sounds good - bt I can't see running it like thi all the time. Once I figure out the size - my next Q is about the hearth and also the piping.
The color matched VC piping... is anyone here using it? Is the quality of the piping comparable to other double wall piping? Better?
Thanks,
nick

 

[Gooserider]

I'll go back to the dealer either this aft or tomorrow and have a look @ the encore as well.
So far from what I have been told here and what I am reading - I am leaning heavily towards a cat stove. The dealer said that if the stove runs too hot in the room it is in to simply leave the doors open with a screen and it should lower the heat considerably. Sounds good - bt I can't see running it like thi all the time. Once I figure out the size - my next Q is about the hearth and also the piping.
The color matched VC piping... is anyone here using it? Is the quality of the piping comparable to other double wall piping? Better?
Thanks,
nick

Both cat and non-cat have their good points, you will find arguements for both. Minor note - the Encore is not approved to run with the firescreen on a 6" pipe, the firescreen is only listed when used with the 8" pipe - not to say you couldn't run that way, but it isn't approved, and you may get smoke spillage, especially with a short stack / marginal draft setup. I also have not heard of running with the screen as a heat control method - normally one would just turn the air control on an Encore to it's lowest setting - This is one of the better features of the VC cat stoves, they have a thermostatic air control that gives a very stable burn temperature.

Not sure about the VC piping - haven't heard any complaints, but AFAIK, not that many people use it, mostly folks go for basic black or stainless. I would guess that it's at least comparable to the other good brands of piping.

What is the question on the hearth? That is a topic I've done a fair bit of research on in the process of learing what I needed to do to install my own Encore. I'd suggest starting with the article on hearth construction in the Wiki, and then ask questions from there. (The cat Encore has reasonably low requirements btw, as long as one uses the bottom shield)

Gooserider