Recommend Wood Stove for Small Home

[RICGuy]

I have recently bought an old home in Richmond Va and would love to have a recommendation on a freestanding wood or pellet stove. My home is only 850sq ft with no basement or attic. It is roughly 90 years old and has zero to very little insulation. I have floor board heating which does little to nothing in the winter. Looking for a wood stove for a primary heat source. Price range is $1k and the stove would need to have a long burn at night. There are new developments all over the area so there is a great supply of hardwood here.


You guys seem to really know your stuff and appreciate your suggestions.

 

[begreen]

Welcome. In your neck of the woods I would be looking at a catalytic Buck 20 or an Englander 30NC if you like to sleep with the windows open. But the stove is only a part of the budget. The stove flue system is equally important both for safety and stove performance. That can cost more than the stove if starting from scratch. Last is wood supply. These stoves like dry wood. Some hardwoods like oak need 2 years to dry, after it is split.

 

[Todd]

If your stuck on the 1k price range I think the Englander 13 would work well. A better choice for longer burns would be a small to medium cat stove like the Woodstocks.

 

[fossil]

Seems to me the 30NC might be overkill for 850 ft². I'd look at the 13NC first. Rick

 

[Shadow&Flame]

My advice is to keep reading here and listen to what these great bunch of people have to say.
I am in the same boat as you in trying to get a small stove and they have helped me out a lot.

Might want to have a look at this type...same as Englander 13NC.

http://overstockstoves.com/50epacenowos.html

Not pushing the company, just wanting to give him the info on the stove....if thats not cool please delete.

 

[ddddddden]

I think the smallness of the house doesn't matter that much, if you really have 0 insulation. . .probably very leaky/drafty too. Richmond isn't the Great White North, but we have enough nights below freezing that I think you might struggle to heat an uninsulated house with a small stove. On such nights, you'd probably have to run a small stove hard and reload more often than you'd like. @ $1k, I would go with the 30NC. p.s. Have you considered insulation?

 

[raybonz]

I think the smallness of the house doesn't matter that much, if you really have 0 insulation. . .probably very leaky/drafty too. Richmond isn't the Great White North, but we have enough nights below freezing that I think you might struggle to heat an uninsulated house with a small stove. On such nights, you'd probably have to run a small stove hard and reload more often than you'd like. @ $1k, I would go with the 30NC. p.s. Have you considered insulation?

+1 on the insulation! I feel the best thing to do there is seal that house and insulate it well.. It would be easy and inexpensive to heat a small space such as that after taking care of the draft and insulation issues.. Then if you decide you want a stove you could get a small one that takes little space and little to run..

Ray

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum RICGuy.

No insulation, figure you are heating about double the size of your house. Maybe slightly less but that gives a good idea how insulation will help. And for sure a wood stove will suit you much better than the floor board heating in that house. Good luck. Oh, I also agree with Todd that a Woodstock Keystone or Fireview would be great. For sure they are out of your price range but you will never be sorry if you get a stove like those. Good luck.

 

[leeave96]

My house is uninsulated, except for some old thin blown-in stuff in the roof. It is really drafty and in need of wall insulation and new replacement windows. I heated my house pretty good with a 1.5 cu ft stove - a cat stove. This stove offered two things, a smaller foot print and long low clean burns during milder temps via the cat. However, when the temps plunged below 20 degrees and the wind started blowing, I was having to burn the stove hard to keep-up. The problem was not the stove size, but that I was loosing heat about as fast as the stove cranked it out. Once I take care of the insulation problem, I can turn the stove down a good bit.

If you have a budget of 1000 dollars to spend on a stove, and plan on insulating later, I'd get the Englander 13. You can burn it hard during the colder temps and let it cruise for longer burns at milder temps. The other option is the Englander 30. You will NOT get cold with this stove. You can build smaller fires to limit the heat in warmer temps and pile the wood in it to crank the heat in January. You'll have a bigger footprint with the 30, but if you can live with it, the Englander 30 will definately get the job done.

Remember, you can always go smaller fires with a big stove. Also - Englander is made in Monroe Virginia FWIW.

Here is a link to their online web store: http://www.overstockstoves.com/

You can also order them online from Home Depot and get free shipping. Compare prices plus shipping for your best deal.

Lastly, how's your wood, chimney and stove location?

Good luck,
Bill

 

[DBoon]

Insulate first, then install a stove. After insulating my older home in Central NY (no wall or floor insulation, only 6" of attic insulation) and weatherstripping the windows, my oil consumption dropped by 40%. There might be some tax credits or other programs to pay for the insulation as well. Then, when that is done, add the stove.

I like my Lopi Answer but that will be beyond the $1k budget you have set.

 

[BrowningBAR]

My house is uninsulated, except for some old thin blown-in stuff in the roof. It is really drafty and in need of wall insulation and new replacement windows. I heated my house pretty good with a 1.5 cu ft stove - a cat stove. This stove offered two things, a smaller foot print and long low clean burns during milder temps via the cat. However, when the temps plunged below 20 degrees and the wind started blowing, I was having to burn the stove hard to keep-up. The problem was not the stove size, but that I was loosing heat about as fast as the stove cranked it out. Once I take care of the insulation problem, I can turn the stove down a good bit.

If you have a budget of 1000 dollars to spend on a stove, and plan on insulating later, I'd get the Englander 13. You can burn it hard during the colder temps and let it cruise for longer burns at milder temps. The other option is the Englander 30. You will NOT get cold with this stove. You can build smaller fires to limit the heat in warmer temps and pile the wood in it to crank the heat in January. You'll have a bigger footprint with the 30, but if you can live with it, the Englander 30 will definately get the job done.

Remember, you can always go smaller fires with a big stove. Also - Englander is made in Monroe Virginia FWIW.

Here is a link to their online web store: http://www.overstockstoves.com/

You can also order them online from Home Depot and get free shipping. Compare prices plus shipping for your best deal.

Lastly, how's your wood, chimney and stove location?

Good luck,
Bill

+1

I deal with a lot of the same problems as Leeaves. With your budget, go with either Englander and don't look back. My climate is a bit colder and I like it warm, so I would go with the 30nc. I think either would work for you.

 

[RICGuy]

thanks everyone for all the great information. i lost power and internet during the hurricane or else i would have replied much sooner. it's rare that anyone agrees on anything in forums so that's pretty awesome. makes it easy for a beginner. making room in the budget for a the englander 30. now my next my even larger expense is the chimney. going to price out the duravent chimney and see what the damage is.

Im really surprised that no one suggested that i go with a pellet stove.

 

[tfdchief]

Im really surprised that no one suggested that i go with a pellet stove.

Had you posted on the Pellet Stove Forum, they probably would have, but you posted on the the Hearth Room - Wood Stoves and Fireplaces. But to your question. I have a small stove in my kitchen and it is rated to heat that much square footage. But, because it is small and all small stoves would probably be similar, it needs to be reloaded more often. I have another stove in the house and the small one is only to take up the slack when it is really cold and heat an area that the main stove doesn't get to well. I would go with a bigger stove as all have suggested. Otherwise you will not get the long burns you will need to go over night or all day while at work.

 

[Dix]

I'd go with the 30. The 13 has a max 5-6 hour burn time, with a quick restart. Better to go big, or go home.

Welcome to the forums !

 

[Beetle-Kill]

thanks everyone for all the great information. i lost power and internet during the hurricane or else i would have replied much sooner. it's rare that anyone agrees on anything in forums so that's pretty awesome. makes it easy for a beginner. making room in the budget for a the englander 30. now my next my even larger expense is the chimney. going to price out the duravent chimney and see what the damage is.

Im really surprised that no one suggested that i go with a pellet stove.

Power outage = no heat from a pellet stove. Had a transformer blow once one winter. That was not pleasant. I'm in the NC 13/30 camp, leaning strongly towards the NC-30 in your situation. My NC-13 will only be heating 330 sq. ft., and I'm good with 4-6 hr. burns in it's location. The 30 is what you'll be after. Just my .02

 

[pyro68]

my advice before you purchase a new stove in the $1k range, look for a quality used stove, much better to purchase a $2k to $3k stove used for $1k. May end up with a better product. can be hard to find but never know util you look

 

[eabpmn]

I finally did the log in thing for this site which has been useful for years. Weirdly I read this thread after having seen something on another thread - a photo of a brand new still-in- box stove that we put in a remote cabin 20 years and which worked miracles.

Here is where we put the Waterford Leprechaun:

(1) Old - very old - 900 sq ft single story cabin in the mountains of Virginia

(2) Cabin originally built of rough cut lumber - not a piece of insulation anywhere except someone had put vinyl siding over the wood. Only "insulation" was some gypsum wallboard, rough boards nailed horizonatally making up the walls and then vinyl siding.

(3) Single pane windows - we did slap up some cheap storms on it.

(4) No foundation, no crawlspace, no basement - just sitting there on rock piers with the one side of the house 2 1/2 feet off the ground because the ground dropped away.

The bloody place gave new meaning to drafty - I have had 3 -season back packing tents that had fewer drafts and better insulation.

In order to be able to use it during the cooler months, we put in a little cast iron wood stove (early EPA) which was rated for 800 sq ft. at 33,000 BTU (but the stoves by that company were probably way way under-rated on power.) It was THIS STOVE

The Waterford Leprechaun worked - and worked fabulously. No pipes froze. It burned small stuff (so the wood supplier gave us great prices because no one else wanted the little wood.) Stuff it up over a nice bed of coals, down the damper and it held a low burn, heat and coals all night so all you had to do was toss in some small tinder and up it came in the AM and was blasting heat within 15 minutes.


And it passed the ultimate test of extreme conditions. We had gone up to check the cabin in the winter and a record snow/ice storm hit. Normal winter temperature stayed above 0 - it hit MINUS 31 degrees. We were stuck at the cabin as our 1/2 mile driveway was blocked by a 3' diameter oak that came down. Electric was out - ended up being out for a week. So no range to cook (electric), no refrigerator (at least that could go outside), no well pump (but we had a creek next to the cabin) --- and the only heat was this little stove.

So I cooked on top of the wood stove - even baked a cake on top. We had coffee and hot meals. We had hot water - I stuck a 20 qt pan on the wood stove and it heated it. And we had showers because I pulled the solar shower out of the pack backing equipment and hung it on a nail in the bath after filling it with hot water heated on the little wood stove.

And we were WARM - warm enough that we could wear cotton sweaters inside as if we were home with central heating. That little stove kicked way beyond its rating - would run wide open with no problems and would held heat over night. (Although at minus 31 we did have to refill it around 3 or 4 AM where normally there were still hot coals in the AM)

Nothing fancy but it was the first company to use secondary burning. Simple damper system controlled it beautifully. Burned anything I put in it without fussing about whether the wood was 6 months old or 6 years old. Never had a fit or a snit and you couldn't kill it unless you blew it up with dynamite.

We sold the camp several years back. Buyer didn't want the stove (building new cabin) so we sold it. Last time I heard from the person who bought the stove, it was still going strong - no breakdowns, no repairs, no parts needing replaced - as of 3 years ago and the stove was pushing 20 years old.

It was a Waterford Leprechaun. It outmatched and outperformed its closest competitor the small Morsø.

Check this thread for a picture of it on the thread called "The Clarks Ace Hardware Warehouse/Time Capsule Thread."

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/70573/P0/


I called Jay who started the thread to see what other Waterfords he has NIB. He still has the Leprechaun. Now it is too small for our set up or I would buy it in a heartbeat. Maybe I still will if he can rattle up a larger Waterford so we will end up running 2 (closing on new house. this month and it needs a wood stove...)

Solid, near-indestructible, cast iron, idiot-proof small stoves that do more than they should are hard to come by.

I should have kept that stove........sigh............


BTW< yeah, I know only warranty status is questionble since Waterford pullled out of the US and the only parts source for Waterford is Lehmans Hardware but since they don't break down - or do so very very rarely - so what? We ran that thing hard - really hard and often wide open whenever we were at the camp and it ran pretty much the equivalent of 1/2 a heating season for nearly 10 years before we sold the place. Only thing it ever needed was a new door gasket available at any hardware store.

Check it out - you aren't far from Maryland.

 

[robertmcw]

I would ask what do want to use for fuel? Do cut your wood, or you pay for wood? Pellets cost money. Here is write up about the costs for pellets.

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/W/AE_wood_pellets.html

I cut my wood from a tract I got from my parent’s estates’ but if I had to pay for wood, I would be requested to use gas because the costs is so high.

Robert

 

[Backwoods Savage]

In order to be able to use it during the cooler months, we put in a little cast iron wood stove (early EPA) which was rated for 800 sq ft. at 33,000 BTU (but the stoves by that company were probably way way under-rated on power.) It was THIS STOVE

The Waterford Leprechaun worked - and worked fabulously. No pipes froze. It burned small stuff (so the wood supplier gave us great prices because no one else wanted the little wood.) Stuff it up over a nice bed of coals, down the damper and it held a low burn, heat and coals all night so all you had to do was toss in some small tinder and up it came in the AM and was blasting heat within 15 minutes.

And it passed the ultimate test of extreme conditions. We had gone up to check the cabin in the winter and a record snow/ice storm hit. Normal winter temperature stayed above 0 - it hit MINUS 31 degrees. We were stuck at the cabin as our 1/2 mile driveway was blocked by a 3' diameter oak that came down. Electric was out - ended up being out for a week. So no range to cook (electric), no refrigerator (at least that could go outside), no well pump (but we had a creek next to the cabin) --- and the only heat was this little stove.

So I cooked on top of the wood stove - even baked a cake on top. We had coffee and hot meals. We had hot water - I stuck a 20 qt pan on the wood stove and it heated it. And we had showers because I pulled the solar shower out of the pack backing equipment and hung it on a nail in the bath after filling it with hot water heated on the little wood stove.

And we were WARM - warm enough that we could wear cotton sweaters inside as if we were home with central heating. That little stove kicked way beyond its rating - would run wide open with no problems and would held heat over night. (Although at minus 31 we did have to refill it around 3 or 4 AM where normally there were still hot coals in the AM)

It was a Waterford Leprechaun. It outmatched and outperformed its closest competitor the small Morsø.

BTW< yeah, I know only warranty status is questionble since Waterford pullled out of the US and the only parts source for Waterford is Lehmans Hardware but since they don't break down - or do so very very rarely - so what? We ran that thing hard - really hard and often wide open whenever we were at the camp and it ran pretty much the equivalent of 1/2 a heating season for nearly 10 years before we sold the place. Only thing it ever needed was a new door gasket available at any hardware store.

Check it out - you aren't far from Maryland.

Welcome to the forum onthelake.

It does sound as if you did well to keep warm and as for cooking on the stove, many of us do that on a regular basis. It is great!

I only want to caution you as you mentioned 2 times about running the stove wide open. Yes, you can do that but in so doing you are wasting a lot of heat! Yes, run wide open and a good share of the heat goes straight up the chimney. Dial the draft down and you'll get more heat and the wood will last a lot longer. Don't feel bad though as it is a common mistake. Of course, if you did not have good wood, which is the case especially with people using the older stoves then you may have had to run it that way to keep the wood burning.

Good luck to you.

 

[BrowningBAR]

my advice before you purchase a new stove in the $1k range, look for a quality used stove, much better to purchase a $2k to $3k stove used for $1k. May end up with a better product. can be hard to find but never know util you look

As someone who has gone this route on all four stove purchases, I will say that is not always the case. In fact, for the most part, the difference between a $1000 stove (England 30NC) and a $2800 stove (Hearthstone Heritage) are materials and design. Build quality, function, and efficiency are nearly the same, if not better on the Englander. The 30NC has a higher efficiency/emissions rating and will throw a lot more heat than the Hearthstone Heritage.

My opinion is that even if the original poster found a Hearthstone Heritage, or even a Mansfield, for $1000 (which is how much I paid for my used Heritage), that person would still be better off buying the 30NC in this particular case.

 

[raybonz]

my advice before you purchase a new stove in the $1k range, look for a quality used stove, much better to purchase a $2k to $3k stove used for $1k. May end up with a better product. can be hard to find but never know util you look

As someone who has gone this route on all four stove purchases, I will say that is not always the case. In fact, for the most part, the difference between a $1000 stove (England 30NC) and a $2800 stove (Hearthstone Heritage) are materials and design. Build quality, function, and efficiency are nearly the same, if not better on the Englander. The 30NC has a higher efficiency/emissions rating and will throw a lot more heat than the Hearthstone Heritage.

My opinion is that even if the original poster found a Hearthstone Heritage, or even a Mansfield, for $1000 (which is how much I paid for my used Heritage), that person would still be better off buying the 30NC in this particular case.

Good honest answer!

Ray

 

[eabpmn]

I only want to caution you as you mentioned 2 times about running the stove wide open. Yes, you can do that but in so doing you are wasting a lot of heat! Yes, run wide open and a good share of the heat goes straight up the chimney. Dial the draft down and you’ll get more heat and the wood will last a lot longer. Don’t feel bad though as it is a common mistake. Of course, if you did not have good wood, which is the case especially with people using the older stoves then you may have had to run it that way to keep the wood burning.

__

Yep we ran it as hot as possible when we were stuck in the cabin for a week when it had a night at MINUS 31!! Thought I had been teleported to Alaska! LOL! It was so cold that there wasn't a chance of overheating it - the stove was workings its little heart out to keep the cabin warm and the heat jsut flew out.

Normally that little stove did great with the damper at about half-way for during days . To keep it going all night, you turned the damper to nearly closed and stuffed it.

Luckily the only time I had to try to cook on a wood stove surface only 14" by about 18" was during that blizzard. After we got out from that storm and back home I promptly ordered a gas range that didn't need electric to start and a gas refrigerator.

 

[GAMMA RAY]

We have the 13 and it is a great little stove, and has done well for us but.....we have new windows are the house is well insulated. We did not have to use our oil furnace at all last winter. Our house is set up is very good for circulating the air to just about everywhere. We use a box fan blowing into the stove room and that has been one of the best tips I learned here and it made a hell of a big difference. (Thanks BG btw)...

But the loading times as others suggested is my biggest gripe...5-6 hours generally. Our work schedules are very different so loading does not pose a problem but I still would like the 30 for that reason...Whenever I think about getting the 30, I can't help but hear the folks here saying "You can always build smaller fires.." Another saying they like here....."Go big or go home"...and oh yeah..."Pics or it didn't happen"..

Well you came to the best place for information....these folks here are the best..

I am just a newbie myself and just wanted to share my experience with the 13..

Welcome to the forum...
(and pics would be nice when you get that baby installed and fired up.. )