Well the wife has spoken, time to find a new stove.

[SPED]

Ok, so I bought the englander on sale, but the wife vetoed it because it is not as wide and decorative as our franklin.....so I am basically starting from scratch here. I have been searching like crazy so I know some of this stuff has been covered. But here we go...

First the house is a 2000 sq ft ranch with a couple rooms with high ceilings. My franklin can keep up with this easily but that sucker eats wood like crazy and I really just don't feel safe burning it unless I'm home. Insulation is pretty typical, r-13 in the walls, plus 1" pine board and batten siding. Attic is R38, all double pane windows. Stove is centrally located so I can move the air decently although the living room where the stove is gets pretty warm.

Ok so now for the stove requirements... First and foremost from the wife, she wants it roughly the same shape/size as the franklin. I showed her the jotul firelight and the oslo as well as the quad isle royale, that is the type of size/style she wants, basically wider than it is deep, somewhat like the franklin. As far as brand/size I'm completely open to suggestions, I think i'd rather stay non-cat especially since i'll never have any bigger than a 15 foot chimney from the bottom of the stove. So far I'm looking at

quad isle royale
jotul 500 or 600

So please help me add to the list and for all you quad and jotul users out there, how do you like them? I'd like to stay around 2000 or less for the stove,but I would go higher if I need to, this is a one time deal and I might as well get something that will make all of us happy.


Thanks
Ed

 

[begreen]

Both the F600 and the Isle Royale are good 3 cu ft stoves. You would like either. The F500 is a bit smaller stove, but very capable. You might think about if you have a preference for a left, right or top loader.

 

[SPED]

Yeah I'm wondering if for 2000 square feet I should go smaller? As far as loading, I'm used to front loading so don't mind that. Where the stove is it has equal amount of room right or left, I have a 66" alcove. I guess if I had to pick I'd pick left side, but I really could do either.

 

[begreen]

I suspect that the F500 would cover a very large percentage of the heating needs, but perhaps when it gets below 0 supplemental heat would be needed. As a minor point, I think the Jotul's enameled finish is a bit tougher. The blue-black is my favorite. Good wife appeal factor, the stove always looks great with just a damp cloth cleanup.

 

[SPED]

Ah good point, anyone know what one of these is going for? the 500 or 600 with enamel finish?

 

[BotetourtSteve]

I just purchased a F 600 w/blower, matte black, for 2,500. Blower and heatshield (gotta have for blower) ran about 300 of that total, VA tax was 120 of total. I priced enamel and it was 300 extra.

It is a horse. Hot temps, long burns, less wood. Not convinced that blower makes that much difference (convective vs radiant) yet, but need to experiment with room thermometer to see for sure. I side load exclusively. Not sure the double doors are the best if I front loaded all the time - what few times I have opened and closed them with the removable handle, it was kind of cumbersome and awkward with the removable handle and the length of turn required to fully open/close (handle strikes ash lip and you have to remove and reposition to fully open/close). I guess if I used it more often maybe it would become easier. Single doors on it's smaller brothers and sisters are definitely more user friendly I think, although like I said, the side door is smooth as silk for me.

Too much heat not an issue for me - stove is in unfinished basement with 2 living floors above. I can use all the heat it will put out. Even with a full wood load it seems very agreeable to adjusting temperature from 250-525 with the single draft lever. Manufacturers and people on this site talk about 600 degree plus temps, but so far I haven't gotten that bold. By the time she hits 500 it is plenty hot for me, and she starts eating the wood pretty quickly at that point too.

 

[DriftWood]

Go big or stay home, size makes a big difference with these new wood stoves.

 

[SPED]

Go big or stay home, size makes a big difference with these new wood stoves.

So are you saying to go with the 600 or isle royale or that those might be too small also?

 

[swestall]

Don't forget to look at the PE Aldera series; the T5 or T6 might be something she would really like, and you would love them.

 

[Hogwildz]

Did you ever get the draft issues squared away?

 

[babalu87]

Morso 3610 would be worth looking at
We love ours

 

[BrotherBart]

Morso 3610 would be worth looking at
We love ours

I hear they only made one.

 

[SPED]

Don't forget to look at the PE Aldera series; the T5 or T6 might be something she would really like, and you would love them.

Wow those are nice looking, and can you load wood in both directions in the T6? Seems a lot deeper than the jotuls. Anyone know what price range those are?

 

[SPED]

Did you ever get the draft issues squared away?

Well, not squared away yet, but partly figured out I think. I found that the top part of my chimney can be rocked back and forth for the last couple feet or so, essentially the last flue tile, which means it's leaking like crazy there. So between that and the fact that it needs to be 2 feet taller, I've come to the conclusion of either a liner or new chimney, especially cuz I'm worried that other parts may have gaps between flue tiles. Based on the thimble coming through the wall being 6" id exactly, I don't see how I can get a liner through there. So....right now I'm thinking new class A chimney, really about the same price as a liner for me, since I'll only need about 9ft of the expensive pipe, missed the dang home depot sale, all cleared out near me. The rest will be either single or double wall black pipe. And with that I should end up with about a 16 foot chimney foot chimney(from bottom of stove).

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Pssst... Maybe this guy still has the pipe!

(broken link removed to http://albany.craigslist.org/mat/582337597.html)

Your insulation is pretty darn good for this area! Most of the houses on the other side of the river barely have any insulation.

Check out the stove shop in Burnt Hills. They've always been a lot of help whenever I had any questions. All I've ever bought from them is singlewall and liquid gasket, but they always recognize me.


Edit: I picked up a thimble there too.

Matt

 

[SPED]

Thanks, I'll have to check that place out, hopefully get the wife out to start looking this weekend, maybe catch some end of season sales coming up. When we tore apart my dads walls it's was all 1 1/2 inch insulation, he lives down in waterford, we replaced it as we redid rooms, and the difference is amazing just going to r-13, the rooms that are redone get almost too hot now.

 

[begreen]

Don't forget to look at the PE Aldera series; the T5 or T6 might be something she would really like, and you would love them.

I thought of suggesting the Alderlea, it would be up on my short list. But it doesn't go with the prime directive:
"First and foremost from the wife, she wants it roughly the same shape/size as the franklin. I showed her the jotul firelight and the oslo as well as the quad isle royale, that is the type of size/style she wants, basically wider than it is deep, somewhat like the franklin."

The Alderlea T6 is basically a cube. It doesn't have the leaner profile of the other stoves. So if you want a PE T6, be sure to take her to a store that has one and show it to her in person first. It's a real heavy sucker. You don't want to be moving it more than once.

 

[SPED]

Don't forget to look at the PE Aldera series; the T5 or T6 might be something she would really like, and you would love them.

I thought of suggesting the Alderlea, it would be up on my short list. But it doesn't go with the prime directive:
"First and foremost from the wife, she wants it roughly the same shape/size as the franklin. I showed her the jotul firelight and the oslo as well as the quad isle royale, that is the type of size/style she wants, basically wider than it is deep, somewhat like the franklin."

The Alderlea T6 is basically a cube. It doesn't have the leaner profile of the other stoves. So if you want a PE T6, be sure to take her to a store that has one and show it to her in person first. It's a real heavy sucker. You don't want to be moving it more than once.

Yeah that's a good point, it is a foot deeper than the other ones. Doesn't seem like there are many that fit the bill of what she is looking for. So far I'm kinda leaning towards the jotul, mostly because of the log length it can take.... and it just seems like their customer service/reputation is pretty good. Still open to anything at this point, the plan right now is to get a handful of stoves in mind, and then go hit up some stove shops and see them in person and get a feel for the places selling them, i'm big on doing business in a place that treats me well. All kinds of great advice in this thread so far(as usual) thanks guys.

 

[begreen]

FWIW, your wife and my wife are similar thinkers. And I too am trying to warm her up to the Alderlea, we'll see. She also runs the stove at times so she is trying to be practical. As a heating appliance, I think it is a winner. However, one strike against it is that it's not available in enamel. If you want to see your wife smile, plan on the enameled stove. With a little care, even after several years, it will still look new.

 

[SPED]

Hehe, trying to "warm her up to it" no pun intended right ;-). I may be able to talk the wife into the alderlea, since it does look the same from the front, but it may be a stretch.... are you looking to get a bigger stove? My only beef right now with the F600 is the double doors, would make it hard to front load. I guess side loading would work, I should have about a foot and a half clearance, it'll be going into an alcove. I'm worried the 500 wouldn't keep up, decisions decisions.

 

[begreen]

One nice advantage of the Alderlea is very tight clearances. For size, think of the Englander, dressed up and ready for the ball.

But the Jotul and Quad are pretty good for clearances as well. I think you can stick with this trio and start visiting stove shops for a closer look.

 

[SPED]

Well made it to a jotul dealer on our way to dinner tonight. They had quads too but only the lower end ones. Looked at the 500 and 600, and the firebox on the 600 looks a lot bigger and the wife likes it better too. I'm not crazy about the double doors and the little handle thing you have to use to open them. But the side loading seems like it would work really well. They have 15% off of what they have left in stock which would put me at about 1954 w/ tax for the 500 in blue/black enamel and 2209 for the 600 in blue/black enamel. Either of those in the black matte knocks 300 off the price tag. Gonna try and look at the quad tomorrow, wife isn't liking the PE so it's prob gonna be either the jotul or the isle royale. At this point I'm really leading toward the 600, the firebox looked tiny on the 500, and I can side load the 600..... Wife actually liked the black matte better...go figure, so that would be about 1900 out the door for the 600, sound like a good price?

 

[scotty]

"" As far as loading, I'm used to front loading so don't mind that.""

Don't ever try a top loader. You might get spoiled and find like I did that top loading sure does reduce the number of stoves to choose from. Of course if you feel a need to kneel in front of your stove everyday...... well, that's OK too. Top loaders also load from the front.
scotty

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Up on Hoosick St in Troy there is a shop called Best Fire. I've driven by it every day, but haven't made it in yet.

Matt

 

[SPED]

Yeah I know the one you're talking about, I called them today, but they only have the smaller jotuls, nothing close to big enough for me. There's a new place on rt 9 near me(matchless chimney and hearth or something) and they have the isle royale, gonna go scope that out on monday since they're not open tomorrow.