We've been heating with a Jotul 3CB that I got used about 12 years ago. And a Hearthstone Heritage has come up for sale in town. $800. The Jotul had been rebuilt when I bought it (which I think meant he replaced the baffle), but I don't think the internal iron "fire brick" parts were replaced at that point. I rebuilt it (baffle still perfect, as it is now) about 6 years ago, including the inside castings. It's in good shape now. The Heritage seems to be in good shape, but I haven't inspected it.
I could probably sell the Jotul for at least the price of this used Heritage?
The Jotul is the best stove I've ever had in 50 years of wood burning here in Vermont, except a decade plus with a masonry stove in a very different house. This chimney stays clean (except for a layer of fine soot) every time the sweep comes every other year. I burn about a cord of a half of wood cut two years previously and stacked in a shed with walls and air openings. Starts easily, burns clean, warms up pretty fast usually.
This is in a "great room" 28 x 28, which was a one room schoolhouse built in 1860, in Vermont. It now has a lot of windows and 2x4 wall fiberglass insulation and a high ceiling. We added a mini split to this room 5 years ago, which carries all the load in shoulder seasons and can help a bit in the real cold. We've done about all we can to retrofit insulate, but short of tearing the walls down there isn't any more we can do.
Chimney is interiour brick with an 8" round stainless steel liner, really pulls hard, especially once warm.
The mini split has changed the way we use the stove. Used to heat fall-winter-spring with wood, but now it's more like hitting the stove hard in the real cold, bring the room temp up for morning coffee and evening after work in real cold. Or make a little fire to make it cozy -- mini split is not cozy comfy, but background warmth. Previously I didn't want a more powerful stove particularly, because I didn't want to overwhelm this space in shoulder seasons and burn the stove cool. Now, when we need the stove, there's no worry about that, real cold weather use or the small cozy-making fire. (Of course lately in Vermont we haven't had anything like the hard winters we used to have. I've planted peach trees, which are thriving. You couldn't keep a peach tree alive for long a couple decades ago. But with the unstable polar vortex you never know, could get some real cold. Not last winter.)
End of the workday in real cold, fire up the Jotul to take the chill off for the evening, let it go out overnight. On a cold morning fire up the Jotul for breakfast, let it go out for the mid day unless it's crazy cold. So clearly the Hearthstone might be sub optimal for our use pattern, and I'd have to keep it going more to keep it warm, use more wood and less electricity, use the mini split less.
So the downsides of the jotul are that I don't want to overfire it, it's a bit hard to control in serious cold, and it's just barely enough heat in the very coldest weather. I mostly have to be careful not to put too much wood in it if it's 0F or below. Like I said, my chimney pulls hard and my wood is as dry as can be. If it's burning hot and the chimney is pulling, it's going to really burn. (In rebuilding it I saw that the air control can't fully shut down below about maybe 15% open, it seems). At some points I have to be careful not to put too much wood in the firebox, when the stove is hot and full of coals. Sometimes at the end of a cold weekend day I can only put a small split or two at a time as it has built up a pile of hot coals and also will really take off if I fit a couple of bigger splits in over the coals. Could use a but more heat on those coldest days. I could backfill with the mini split in the real cold, but the heat pump is only a 15K. Also have oil heat in here but try not to use that -- and the oil by itself won't keep up with this room, not enough radiator for all this heat loss. I've been rather stubborn about not supplementing the stove with the oil, but thinking about it now it seems like a better situation than overfiring the Jotul and ruining it.
Advantages of the Heritage would be probably more maximum heat output in the real cold? Cruising along through a cold weekend. It would look good against the granite slab behind the stove and the soapstone hearth (I scored some old salvage soapstone lab counters and made a hearth out of them). Also have soapstone kitchen counters.
Disadvantages would be that it might rather suck for our favorite use case: bump it up a couple degrees quickly and take the chill off while we drink coffee or eat supper sitting by the stove. I've read here about the latches and hinges on Hearthstone, so that's obviously a downside. I also understand that our use pattern isn't great for the Hearthstone.
(40 years ago I built a soapstone Tulikivi masonry stove in a superinsulated house, lived with it for a dozen years, burned little poplar sticks, half a cord a year. The tulikivi was one of the first ones imported into the US, sort of a trial run, so I got it for a steal. Needed a small bit of steady heat in that little R38 house, and it was perfect. Very different world than my 1860 schoolhouse! So I understand thermal mass stoves. The hearthstone is probably like a tin can compared to the 3500 pound Tulikivi, but a lot bigger a flywheel than the Jotul.)
I'm a spry 60-something year old, cut and stack all my own wood these days, though at some points with back or tendon injuries I've had to buy cut split and delivered and even pay people to help stack it. Doing OK this year, but really my goal is to burn less wood and not more.
I have considered upgrading to a more modern and bigger iron stove, like a new Jotul, at times, but financial security is at an all time low this year. Wife is a healthcare worker at the VA, and oh boy. The healthcare infrastructure altogether in Vermont is on the brink of collapsing at this point, and the VA, oh dear, so healthcare workers like my wife, main breadwinner, are kind of on shaky ground here right now. Worst case scenario layed out in some analysis is that we lose 18 hospitals in the state and several clinics too, under the new cuts. I'm a starving artist by trade, and my sales are a lot slower in the current economy. Probably should keep the old Jotul and rebuild it as needed as long as I can, right? The used Heritage would be probably a break-even financial move I guess but I’m guessing I’d burn more wood.
I could probably sell the Jotul for at least the price of this used Heritage?
The Jotul is the best stove I've ever had in 50 years of wood burning here in Vermont, except a decade plus with a masonry stove in a very different house. This chimney stays clean (except for a layer of fine soot) every time the sweep comes every other year. I burn about a cord of a half of wood cut two years previously and stacked in a shed with walls and air openings. Starts easily, burns clean, warms up pretty fast usually.
This is in a "great room" 28 x 28, which was a one room schoolhouse built in 1860, in Vermont. It now has a lot of windows and 2x4 wall fiberglass insulation and a high ceiling. We added a mini split to this room 5 years ago, which carries all the load in shoulder seasons and can help a bit in the real cold. We've done about all we can to retrofit insulate, but short of tearing the walls down there isn't any more we can do.
Chimney is interiour brick with an 8" round stainless steel liner, really pulls hard, especially once warm.
The mini split has changed the way we use the stove. Used to heat fall-winter-spring with wood, but now it's more like hitting the stove hard in the real cold, bring the room temp up for morning coffee and evening after work in real cold. Or make a little fire to make it cozy -- mini split is not cozy comfy, but background warmth. Previously I didn't want a more powerful stove particularly, because I didn't want to overwhelm this space in shoulder seasons and burn the stove cool. Now, when we need the stove, there's no worry about that, real cold weather use or the small cozy-making fire. (Of course lately in Vermont we haven't had anything like the hard winters we used to have. I've planted peach trees, which are thriving. You couldn't keep a peach tree alive for long a couple decades ago. But with the unstable polar vortex you never know, could get some real cold. Not last winter.)
End of the workday in real cold, fire up the Jotul to take the chill off for the evening, let it go out overnight. On a cold morning fire up the Jotul for breakfast, let it go out for the mid day unless it's crazy cold. So clearly the Hearthstone might be sub optimal for our use pattern, and I'd have to keep it going more to keep it warm, use more wood and less electricity, use the mini split less.
So the downsides of the jotul are that I don't want to overfire it, it's a bit hard to control in serious cold, and it's just barely enough heat in the very coldest weather. I mostly have to be careful not to put too much wood in it if it's 0F or below. Like I said, my chimney pulls hard and my wood is as dry as can be. If it's burning hot and the chimney is pulling, it's going to really burn. (In rebuilding it I saw that the air control can't fully shut down below about maybe 15% open, it seems). At some points I have to be careful not to put too much wood in the firebox, when the stove is hot and full of coals. Sometimes at the end of a cold weekend day I can only put a small split or two at a time as it has built up a pile of hot coals and also will really take off if I fit a couple of bigger splits in over the coals. Could use a but more heat on those coldest days. I could backfill with the mini split in the real cold, but the heat pump is only a 15K. Also have oil heat in here but try not to use that -- and the oil by itself won't keep up with this room, not enough radiator for all this heat loss. I've been rather stubborn about not supplementing the stove with the oil, but thinking about it now it seems like a better situation than overfiring the Jotul and ruining it.
Advantages of the Heritage would be probably more maximum heat output in the real cold? Cruising along through a cold weekend. It would look good against the granite slab behind the stove and the soapstone hearth (I scored some old salvage soapstone lab counters and made a hearth out of them). Also have soapstone kitchen counters.
Disadvantages would be that it might rather suck for our favorite use case: bump it up a couple degrees quickly and take the chill off while we drink coffee or eat supper sitting by the stove. I've read here about the latches and hinges on Hearthstone, so that's obviously a downside. I also understand that our use pattern isn't great for the Hearthstone.
(40 years ago I built a soapstone Tulikivi masonry stove in a superinsulated house, lived with it for a dozen years, burned little poplar sticks, half a cord a year. The tulikivi was one of the first ones imported into the US, sort of a trial run, so I got it for a steal. Needed a small bit of steady heat in that little R38 house, and it was perfect. Very different world than my 1860 schoolhouse! So I understand thermal mass stoves. The hearthstone is probably like a tin can compared to the 3500 pound Tulikivi, but a lot bigger a flywheel than the Jotul.)
I'm a spry 60-something year old, cut and stack all my own wood these days, though at some points with back or tendon injuries I've had to buy cut split and delivered and even pay people to help stack it. Doing OK this year, but really my goal is to burn less wood and not more.
I have considered upgrading to a more modern and bigger iron stove, like a new Jotul, at times, but financial security is at an all time low this year. Wife is a healthcare worker at the VA, and oh boy. The healthcare infrastructure altogether in Vermont is on the brink of collapsing at this point, and the VA, oh dear, so healthcare workers like my wife, main breadwinner, are kind of on shaky ground here right now. Worst case scenario layed out in some analysis is that we lose 18 hospitals in the state and several clinics too, under the new cuts. I'm a starving artist by trade, and my sales are a lot slower in the current economy. Probably should keep the old Jotul and rebuild it as needed as long as I can, right? The used Heritage would be probably a break-even financial move I guess but I’m guessing I’d burn more wood.
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