Replace Resolute III with a Hearthstone Craftsbury?

[Ronbert]

After 15 great years of heating our home with a VC Resolute it is time to upgrade to a newer EPA stove. We were considering a Jotul F3 or F 400 but came across a Heartstone that looks like it will fit perfectly in our hearth as a corner install. We burn continuously from about Nov to March here in southern ontario and although the Resolute didn' t burn all night we would have enough hot coals to restrart without matches for weeks at a time. We loved the way you could pack the Resolute with wood using the top loading function and will miss that. The Jotul F3 firebox just looks too small to us and although the F400 would work we are concerned we would be underutilizing the 55,000 btus or overheating ourselves + the Hearthstove is a floor model of the non-current model and is marked down several hundred dollars below the F400. I haven't seen many comments here about the Craftsbury so would appreciate hearing from anyone who uses one as a sole heat source for their home. I am new to this forum but am learning a lot here.

Cheers,

Ron
Resolute III with some issues, now in the workshop

 

[begreen]

Welcome. The Craftsbury didn't get the greatest reviews and is a small stove. For longer burns there are several good choices. Look for something in the 1.5-1.8 cu ft range. Some choices are the Hampton H300, Enviro Boston 1200, and the Hearthstone Shelburne,

 

[Ronbert]

Hi and thanks for your reply. Our Resolute III is not a big stove and heated our 1100 well insulated square feet fine. It was rated as 42,000 btus even though i understand that would be an optimistic maximum. We would be happy to match that output and burn time. The firebox on the Craftsbury claims to be 1.5 cu ft and appeared to be able to accept reasonable sized logs. This floor model comes with a rear heat shield and fan. We have no experience using a stove with a fan.

Cheers,

Ron

 

[begreen]

The F3CB will be too small, I owned one and average burn time as 2-4 hrs depending on how cold it was outside and how hard the stove was being pushed. Jotul makes a nice cast iron clad model F45 which would be right sized and a good fit.

Complaints about the Craftsbury seemed to center on weak hinges and poor latch assembly. I haven't looked at a recent one and don't know if these issues have been addressed. Do a search on Craftsbury in this forum, titles only for past threads. Here is a sample:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...y-vs-jotul-f3cb-plus-one-more-question.51642/

 

[DanCorcoran]

I originally intended to get a Craftsbury, but after reading reviews decided to upgrade to the Shelburne. I'm very glad I did. There have been a few occasions when it got down in the single digits (even -9 once) and the Shelburne couldn't keep up. I know the Craftsbury would have struggled on many more occasions. I'm very pleased with the Shelburne and recommend it.

 

[Ronbert]

The F3CB will be too small, I owned one and average burn time as 2-4 hrs depending on how cold it was outside and how hard the stove was being pushed. Jotul makes a nice cast iron clad model F45 which would be right sized and a good fit.

Complaints about the Craftsbury seemed to center on weak hinges and poor latch assembly. I haven't looked at a recent one and don't know if these issues have been addressed. Do a search on Craftsbury in this forum, titles only for past threads. Here is a sample:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...y-vs-jotul-f3cb-plus-one-more-question.51642/

Great, I appreciate the search tip - there is definitely some good information there. I tried the ash pan handle and was concerned it might be a problem. I hadn't thought of the F45 as I assumed it would be too big, both in heating capacity and how it would fit on our hearth and chimney configuration. That was part of the lure of the Craftsbury in that it would basically bolt right up where the Resolute was. I hear Jotul is having a special offer coming up - hopefully before heating season starts.

Ron
SW Ontario
old Resolute III, soon to be replaced (or rebuilt)
Stihl MS260

 

[Ronbert]

I originally intended to get a Craftsbury, but after reading reviews decided to upgrade to the Shelburne. I'm very glad I did. There have been a few occasions when it got down in the single digits (even -9 once) and the Shelburne couldn't keep up. I know the Craftsbury would have struggled on many more occasions. I'm very pleased with the Shelburne and recommend it.

Thanks for the reply, the Shelburne looks big for us but the clearances are amazing for corner installation with double walled pipe so maybe it would work. Will have to check prices and consider. Two winters ago we saw a -20F and 6ft of frost (unheard of around here) and burned a lot of maple to keep up. Last winter was extremely mild, so who knows what to expect.

Ron

SW Ontario
Resolute III in need of a rebuild or a replacement
Stihl MS260 with 18" bar

 

[begreen]

The Shelburne wouldn't be too big. Think of it as getting a car with more horsepower. That doesn't mean you have to use it all the time, but it's sometimes nice to have the additional power when conditions require it (going up a mountain, accelerating on to a freeway, toting a heavy load, etc.). If you want less heat in milder weather, just load less fuel.

In a smaller area we have found a less radiant stove is more comfortable with less temperature swing. This led us to a jacketed stove. These often have closer clearances which allow them to fit where an equivalent radiant stove will not. The Jotul F45 is an example of a jacketed stove. There are several others made by Quadrafire, Pacific Energy, Enviro, Jotul, and Blaze King.

PS: Many years back we had a Resolute 1 in a 900 sq ft house and still have fond memories of that stove.

 

[jrems]

I have a Shelburne too. 1150 sq ft single floor ranch. Definitely not too large. I need the larger firebox on many cold nights. I wouldn't recommend anything much smaller. With the heat shield on the back it can have very close clearances. I don't have the blower and don't think it's needed.

 

[Ronbert]

I have a Shelburne too. 1150 sq ft single floor ranch. Definitely not too large. I need the larger firebox on many cold nights. I wouldn't recommend anything much smaller. With the heat shield on the back it can have very close clearances. I don't have the blower and don't think it's needed.

Thanks for the feedback, there are so many variables to consider. Our woodstove is located right in the middle of the 1.5 story older part of our house and needs to heat about 1100 sq ft. I have been concerned about sizing the stove too big thinking that the best efficiency comes when a stove is well loaded and allowed to burn hot this seemed to be true with our old Resolute. I need to look into the efficiency of running a larger EPA stove but with a smaller fire especially in the shoulder seasons.

 

[begreen]

We had the Castine (F400) after the F3CB and I was concerned about shoulder season burning. We have long mild falls and springs. As long as I was burning well seasoned wood the ~1.7 cu ft Castine had no problem achieving good secondary burns with a half load of wood. Now we have a stove that is twice the size of the Castine and almost 3 times the size of the F3CB and we still get a nice secondary burn on 4-5 splits of wood. Dry wood and less thick splits are the key here.

 

[Ronbert]

We had the Castine (F400) after the F3CB and I was concerned about shoulder season burning. We have long mild falls and springs. As long as I was burning well seasoned wood the ~1.7 cu ft Castine had no problem achieving good secondary burns with a half load of wood. Now we have a stove that is twice the size of the Castine and almost 3 times the size of the F3CB and we still get a nice secondary burn on 4-5 splits of wood. Dry wood and less thick splits are the key here.

OK, that's a key piece of information. We cut and split most of our own wood so getting different sized pieces is easy. The Castine is another stove that will bolt right up to our existing hearth and chimney so that might be the one. I like the 20" log length too although the firebox did look very shallow. It looks like you could cook on top too if you needed to as well.

thanks

Ron