Good morning all.
It's been years since I've written, but I always enjoy reading your insights into everything relating to my pellet stove and wood stove. Thank you in advance for always taking the time to write helpful advice to novices and amateurs like me!
My mom (in her seventies, living alone) is in New York, about a quarter of the way north from New York City to Canada (roughly halfway between NYC and Albany). She wants to make her living room fireplace more useful by adding a wood burning insert so she can enjoy looking at a fire through the glass and get supplemental heat into that room on cold days/nights - she doesn't need it to heat her house. She will want to pick an insert based only on how appealing the metalwork looks to her and how big the window is, so I want to give her a short list of a few options to choose from.
I've spent a couple days looking over the scores of similar posts others have written over the past 10 years, so I hope I can make it easier for you to help me by narrowing down what I'm asking for.
My hope is to hear from you about the brands you recommend. I won't trouble you about specific models but, just in case it matters, her fireplace opening is at the front 33" wide and 26" tall (but only 24" to the bottom of the damper handle and bracket), 21" deep at the bottom, 17" deep at the top, and at the back 14" high before it slopes forward and... oops, I forgot to write down the width at the back, but it's not too much less wide than it is at the front.... It already has tile over the wood floor, sticking out 18" in front of the fireplace. Her chimney is maybe 25 feet tall and is on the side wall of the house. Her house is a 1900 square-foot (two-storey) Cape Cod built in the 1930s, with insulation blown into the walls. The living room fireplace is on the first floor, above an unheated, cement block basement.
My priorities are brands that are 1) high quality builds that will last 20+ years, 2) easy to use and clean, 3) can be fixed and maintained by local chimney/stove guys or a reputable dealer, and 4) have good customer service and inexpensive readily-available parts if I need to call the manufacturer.
She can pay more money for a premier quality brand if the value is worth the extra cost (I don't want her to pay more just for a name or fancy appearance), and she's also OK with an inexpensive brand so long as it meets the priorities.
We prefer to buy something made in the US or Canada, and then Europe/Scandinavia.
From what I've read in other posts, I think I'd like to choose from among Jotul, Osburn, Drolet, or Pacific Energy. I believe all are good quality overall. I read that Drolet is inexpensive but a good value, easy to use and dependable; and that Osburn is preferable to Drolet as it's a higher build quality with some better materials and possibly better engineered features. In addition, I read that SBI's customer service is very good and parts are cheap and easy to get. I read that Pacific Energy has better engineering and better quality parts than SBI brands, and that since their Super and Summit inserts jut out from the wall a few inches they will help heat the room better. It seems Jotul is a premium brand, but I know nothing about it except that it's probably more expensive. At the moment I think we won't choose Morso (good quality but hard for her to handle with ash/coals falling out the front) and Vermont Castings (reduced quality, too many problems). I'm open to other brands that I haven't mentioned. What I'd really love to hear from you gentlemen and ladies are you opinions about these or your other favorite brands based on our priorities. I've read in other posts very helpful advice regarding superior air flow engineering and better/worse materials in particular brands (dense brick vs pumic, vermiculite, steel thickness, etc.), and which brands have the exact same materials and engineering but cost more or less for other reasons, and I'd appreciate if someone might rattle off some of those things about these brands. Please feel free to offer differing opinions or correct me anywhere, since my opinions are built from your past opinions and I know that over the years brands have gotten better and worse and materials have changed.
I'd prefer a non-catalytic stove to one with a cat, but one that is at the more-efficient and less-polluting end of the range of inserts. I looked through the EPA's short list of 2020-certified stoves and their older database of certified stoves, and I saw that all the inserts are within a somewhat small range. Why are their HHV efficiency ratings and pollution level values are noticeably worse than those advertised on the manufacturers' websites? The manufacturer says 80% efficient, EPA says 71% efficient. One says 2 grams of pollution per hour, the other says 5. Which is to be believed? I want to recommend to my mom inserts that are more efficient and that put less carbon monoxide and smoke particles into her air.
I believe I want the largest firebox I can fit.
I have a competent installer who will put in an insulated sleeve as well. Our good local fireplace guy (who also does my annual pellet stove, wood stove, and chimney cleanings) is a dealer for Jotul, Morso, Harman, Quadra-Fire, and Heatilator, plus a few other brands. The nearest Drolet dealer is 100 miles away in Massachusetts, which seems like a deal-breaker, but we could also buy a Drolet from our local big box store (when they're back in stock). There are two Osburn dealers 30 miles away (45-60 minute drives). I called Osburn and the guy told me that my mom wouldn't need a dealer because their stoves are so easy to fix that homeowners and chimney guys can do it, but I'd like to be sure that if there's a problem she will be able to call someone to fix it without spending a fortune.
So, what do you think? I hope my post isn't too long. I wanted to be as specific as I could so you'd know exactly what I'm after. Please let me know anything else you'd like me to mention.
Thank you so much!
Chris
It's been years since I've written, but I always enjoy reading your insights into everything relating to my pellet stove and wood stove. Thank you in advance for always taking the time to write helpful advice to novices and amateurs like me!
My mom (in her seventies, living alone) is in New York, about a quarter of the way north from New York City to Canada (roughly halfway between NYC and Albany). She wants to make her living room fireplace more useful by adding a wood burning insert so she can enjoy looking at a fire through the glass and get supplemental heat into that room on cold days/nights - she doesn't need it to heat her house. She will want to pick an insert based only on how appealing the metalwork looks to her and how big the window is, so I want to give her a short list of a few options to choose from.
I've spent a couple days looking over the scores of similar posts others have written over the past 10 years, so I hope I can make it easier for you to help me by narrowing down what I'm asking for.
My hope is to hear from you about the brands you recommend. I won't trouble you about specific models but, just in case it matters, her fireplace opening is at the front 33" wide and 26" tall (but only 24" to the bottom of the damper handle and bracket), 21" deep at the bottom, 17" deep at the top, and at the back 14" high before it slopes forward and... oops, I forgot to write down the width at the back, but it's not too much less wide than it is at the front.... It already has tile over the wood floor, sticking out 18" in front of the fireplace. Her chimney is maybe 25 feet tall and is on the side wall of the house. Her house is a 1900 square-foot (two-storey) Cape Cod built in the 1930s, with insulation blown into the walls. The living room fireplace is on the first floor, above an unheated, cement block basement.
My priorities are brands that are 1) high quality builds that will last 20+ years, 2) easy to use and clean, 3) can be fixed and maintained by local chimney/stove guys or a reputable dealer, and 4) have good customer service and inexpensive readily-available parts if I need to call the manufacturer.
She can pay more money for a premier quality brand if the value is worth the extra cost (I don't want her to pay more just for a name or fancy appearance), and she's also OK with an inexpensive brand so long as it meets the priorities.
We prefer to buy something made in the US or Canada, and then Europe/Scandinavia.
From what I've read in other posts, I think I'd like to choose from among Jotul, Osburn, Drolet, or Pacific Energy. I believe all are good quality overall. I read that Drolet is inexpensive but a good value, easy to use and dependable; and that Osburn is preferable to Drolet as it's a higher build quality with some better materials and possibly better engineered features. In addition, I read that SBI's customer service is very good and parts are cheap and easy to get. I read that Pacific Energy has better engineering and better quality parts than SBI brands, and that since their Super and Summit inserts jut out from the wall a few inches they will help heat the room better. It seems Jotul is a premium brand, but I know nothing about it except that it's probably more expensive. At the moment I think we won't choose Morso (good quality but hard for her to handle with ash/coals falling out the front) and Vermont Castings (reduced quality, too many problems). I'm open to other brands that I haven't mentioned. What I'd really love to hear from you gentlemen and ladies are you opinions about these or your other favorite brands based on our priorities. I've read in other posts very helpful advice regarding superior air flow engineering and better/worse materials in particular brands (dense brick vs pumic, vermiculite, steel thickness, etc.), and which brands have the exact same materials and engineering but cost more or less for other reasons, and I'd appreciate if someone might rattle off some of those things about these brands. Please feel free to offer differing opinions or correct me anywhere, since my opinions are built from your past opinions and I know that over the years brands have gotten better and worse and materials have changed.
I'd prefer a non-catalytic stove to one with a cat, but one that is at the more-efficient and less-polluting end of the range of inserts. I looked through the EPA's short list of 2020-certified stoves and their older database of certified stoves, and I saw that all the inserts are within a somewhat small range. Why are their HHV efficiency ratings and pollution level values are noticeably worse than those advertised on the manufacturers' websites? The manufacturer says 80% efficient, EPA says 71% efficient. One says 2 grams of pollution per hour, the other says 5. Which is to be believed? I want to recommend to my mom inserts that are more efficient and that put less carbon monoxide and smoke particles into her air.
I believe I want the largest firebox I can fit.
I have a competent installer who will put in an insulated sleeve as well. Our good local fireplace guy (who also does my annual pellet stove, wood stove, and chimney cleanings) is a dealer for Jotul, Morso, Harman, Quadra-Fire, and Heatilator, plus a few other brands. The nearest Drolet dealer is 100 miles away in Massachusetts, which seems like a deal-breaker, but we could also buy a Drolet from our local big box store (when they're back in stock). There are two Osburn dealers 30 miles away (45-60 minute drives). I called Osburn and the guy told me that my mom wouldn't need a dealer because their stoves are so easy to fix that homeowners and chimney guys can do it, but I'd like to be sure that if there's a problem she will be able to call someone to fix it without spending a fortune.
So, what do you think? I hope my post isn't too long. I wanted to be as specific as I could so you'd know exactly what I'm after. Please let me know anything else you'd like me to mention.
Thank you so much!
Chris
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