When should I buy my stove?

[Danno77]

I've looked a little on the forum for this, but came up empty handed to the specific question I have. I'm looking to buy a small stove. I've narrowed it down to the Jotul 602cb or Morso's 1410 or 2B, all three are very small stoves and look great. They are also about the same cost RIGHT NOW. I wondered if there is a better time of the year to get these. I feel like I'm trying to buy a 4x4 during a blizzard, but at the same time these stoves are at local dealers that are fairly small. Will they ever go on sale significantly enough to wait for them? Do small dealerships do that to clear out inventory when new models come out? Also, it is likely important to mention that I live in the middle of nowhere, near the Jotul Dealership, but the Morso dealership is in the St. Louis area, maybe that will make a difference on likelihood of sales.....

I've got my eye on a stove at a big box store, that is reportedly predictable about significant sales in the late winter, so I'll probably wait for that stove (will go into fireplace). Hopefully I can save 40% or so on that one. That's definitely worth waiting for IMHO.

The Jotul and Morsos are all around 900ish, so 10% might make me hesitate, but anything less seems like I might as well get it over with and enjoy it this winter.

What say you all to this? I'm also open to your biased opinions on these stoves!

 

[MishMouse]

As for the Jotul and the Morso stoves, they typically (as with any other major stove manufactures) have a price increase in the Feb-March timeframe. If you want to get a deal, I would try to get 2 or more dealers competing with each other for your business. Which may be a hard thing to do since the stove market is very active at this moment.

As for the big box store, if your talking Englanderstoves (Summer's Heat, Englanger, TimberRidge) then there is a chance you may find one on sale towards the end of the season (March-April) timeframe. Then again since the market is tight they may not have any leftovers.

My advice if you found a stove that you like, and it is within budget, get it.
When Oil goes up again the stoves you are looking at may disappear, and when they are in stock again they will be at a much higher price.

 

[yukiginger]

Do you have wood ready to burn? If you're looking at stoves that cost around $1,000 new what kind of cost savings will you reap by waiting for two or three months for a discount when you could get one installed right now and start saving on your heating bills?

Just wondering if you've considered that in the equation.

MarkG

 

[BJ64]

I don't have any experience with your stove picks, but I suspect they are quite fine.

As for time to buy, what winter are you planning on using them? If you have the wood already, then go ahead and get the stove. By using it you will save more on your other heating bill than $90 off the price of the Jotu. I don't have much faith that there will be any 10% off sale this side March 2009. If energy prices drop in relation to oil prices, then who knows what will happen.

Get a stove soon and enjoy it now. The extra you might pay now will be offset by some energy savings. For a bonus, you get to enjoy a fire.

 

[Danno77]

Do you have wood ready to burn? If you're looking at stoves that cost around $1,000 new what kind of cost savings will you reap by waiting for two or three months for a discount when you could get one installed right now and start saving on your heating bills?

Just wondering if you've considered that in the equation.

MarkG

I didn't make it out to the timber in time to get anything ready for this season. Not only that, but I'm not so sure I can get good seasoned wood that is small enough for these stoves. I have a nice supplier of seasoned firewood, I get a truckload for 45 bucks and I work with the fellow, so all is good, but he's been giving me 16-18 inch splits for my fireplace and these stoves take 12" or so. He's already got it seasoning, so it's not like I can have him cut the logs shorter.

So, yeah, i've thought about it, not sure what I'd do, considered bio-bricks or something of that nature for this winter. I really need to get moving on some wood for next season. I really need to play catchup and have two seasons worth cut, split and drying, I have had good luck with getting stuff to a decent moisture level (not by measurement, just by how it seems to burn) after about 9months to a year. But I know I have room for improvement.

I'm still new at this, I've been burning in a fireplace (for heat, not ambience, let me be clear) for a couple of years and am just feeling comfortable enough to move towards becoming a more dedicated wood burner. I have access to it, and I love to cut, split, etc, so why not? I just need to get some better stoves, because a fireplace is fun and all, it just doesn't work efficiently. (I can heat just fine with it, but it just feels wasteful)

So, you are right, I need to figure out what the heck I'll be burning in it if I was to have it NOW. I have been thinking, just haven't got a good solution yet. Guess I could always cut those 18" logs in half, just doesn't seem to be efficient! I always tell him to throw miscelaneous scrap wood (knots, etc) into the pile too, It's all wood, right? I guess I could just burn that scrap in it for a season, lol.

 

[Todd]

Something else to ponder is if you wait til 2009 you may be eligible for a $300 tax rebate from the Feds. It's part of that $700 billion bail out bill passed last month. You need a 75% efficient stove to qualify.

 

[Danno77]

You need a 75% efficient stove to qualify.

I've looked everywhere and haven't found any efficiency ratings on these small stoves. I guess I could email the companies. They are all "EPA certified" I know that doesn't indicate much, but it's there....

 

[eernest4]

englanders & summersheat goe on sale at lowes & home depot about the first or second week in feb or at least ,they did last year. I bought a summersheat 2000sq ft model secondary burn for $476. oo marked down from 1300.oo, brand new. However, I had to internet search all the lowes stores in conn & only the newington store had 3 left to sell. 1 bought 1 & someone else bought the other while I was compleating my sale, leaving the store with only 1 left & this was on the first day of the 7 day clearance.

On sale may be either secondary burn wood stoves or pellet stoves. The only pellet stove that they had left had already been sold 3 hours earlier than when I got to lowes, on the first day of the sale. As i mentioned, 6 other lowes had nothing to sell on sale on the first day of the sale.

I'm not saying that it is impossible to get on of these half price stoves,just very hard & you need a lot of luck & planning.

The chances of getting a stove on one of these sales are not good unelse you plan hard for it & check with the store every day & are ready to strike, early in the morning, the moment the stove goes on sale.

First come,first served & sold out an hour ago have hit me in the face many times.

your best bet along these lines is to just buy & pay for & get a reciept for the stove & leave it at the store until you can arrainge transportation. A pick up truck or even a small 4 ft x 8 ft utility trailer & an appliance carrier two wheeled dollie truck with canvas strapes & stair climbers makes easy 1 person work of moving the stove around. a set of tail gate ramps were very helpfull for unloading either the pick up truck or trailer.

Now balance against this, the use you will get & the piece of mind & money you will save in fuel
in the next 4 months against the uncertainty of actually being able to get a 1/2 price stove and it sale may not be 1/2 price but only 10% or 20 % off,instead.

Prehaps your answer is to hedge, that is ---for you to buy 1 stove now & then pick up another stove at the end of season sale so that you can enjoy a stove now & still save money later, if you are dilligent & lucky.

I have usually been disapointed when I try to wait for later to save money & then not able to buy exactly what i wanted & then end up having to buy something else(second choice) for more money.

 

[Todd]

If you email the companies make sure you ask them what the "cordwood" efficiency is not the EPA default. The EPA has their own efficiency ratings where all cat stoves are thrown into one basket and given 72% and non-cat stoves are rated at 63%. The EPA doesn't test for efficiency, their more worried about how clean they burn, so manufactures will do a independent lab test for a better efficiency.

 

[eernest4]

What i was trying to say before (but now in different words) is if you really need it & have an immediate use for it, go ahead & buy it right now, It will pay for itself very quickly in saved fuel & customer satisfaction. You will be happy you have it, it will be installed before the winter hits & you can get on with the next thing in your life.

The piece of mind & happiness of getting somethind well done & out of the way, has moneytary value too, you should realize.

Note about wood----well seasoned wood was cut down in march or april of 2008 & has been seasioning for 7 or 8 months now. Anything that you buy now from a wood seller, more that likely was cut down in aug or sept & has only seasoned for 4 months at best. We call this wet green wood for the nov , dec 2009 burning season. It can be burned, but it gives a relatively cold & more smokey fire that has a hard time reaching 400 to 450 deg UNELSE IT IS MIXED IN WITH SOME DRY WELL SEASONED, 1 YEAR, WOOD.

Pallet wood or old unpainted lumber work well when you don't have a supply of seasoned wood realy, because this wood has been cut down several years ago & is probably not wet or will dry out,if it is wet ,within two weeks or sooner. especially if it is placed in the vertical position. 6 ft from a hot stove & a 20 inch box fan directs the hot air from the stove at the wood.

Wood can be dried out in 2 or 3 days with this method.

 

[mayhem]

Buy when you're ready to spend the money and have wood to burn.

Prices are only rising and many resellers are not discounting anything. This past year the local shop got hit with 2 price increases that were passed along to the customers...once in the Feb/March timeframe and another in August due to the high cost of steel/iron and shipping costs. My Morso 3610 that I paid about $2000 or so for in mid 2006 is now running about $3700 at the same place. I bought a floor model so I got about $200 off the list price, but that still a good 65-70% increase in roughly 18 months. Prices right now will probably stabilize a bit, but I bet you won't see them dropping significantly.

Seasonal pricing aside, if you install the stove now and are ready to burn, you'll make a significant portion of that cost back in energy savings this winter.

 

[Adios Pantalones]

I wish I had a need for that Jotul (602 CB). It's Scarlett Johansen purdy.

 

[begreen]

I can vouch for the Jotul 602. Great stove. Normally around late winter in Feb. you'll find some drop in price, but no guarantee. Best to call around a lot.

 

[fossil]

As you shop for stoves, make sure you're keeping in mind the whole system...where is the stove to be placed (clearances, hearth protection)? Insert, hearth stove, freestanding? How is it to be installed, and how will you route the connector pipe (stovepipe) and chimney, where will it penetrate the stucture of your home (or, if you're using an existing flue, are you planning on a liner?) Lots of "system" things to consider that are just as important as the choice of appliance. Rick

 

[RedRanger]

Danno: I would buy the stove when you have the wood ready to burn or slightly before. As a 30 year+ wood burner, I can testify to the fact that the new epa stoves really demand nice dry wood. Before I bought my new one this spring I used to get away with so-so wood, but not anymore.

Not to admonish the advice of the experts on this subject-but with the economy the way it is today-it is simply a "crap shoot". There may be bargains because nothing is selling, or prices could continue to rise because of greater demand? I can only adress the later in saying that in April of this year I paid $1589 for my insert,and it is now selling for $2109 in my locale.

Think that if you are looking for a "sale price" then perhaps the big box stores that sell Englander`s etc. might be your best bet sometime in the spring when they have to make room for the gardening goodies.

 

[itworks]

July 10, 2010

 

[Danno77]

thanks for your input all, keep the advice coming.

Also, I just want to clarify that I'm getting two stoves. One is an Englander (or whatever it was labeled as) from a big box store, that's decided. Just haven't decided between the Jotul and two Morso models.

 

[begreen]

All of these stove are well made. I like the box design because they burn N/S so there are no logs rolling out of the stove, they're efficient and simple. The 602 will take a 16" split, the 2B an 18" split. That's enough for me to go for a box stove right there. The 1410 is cute, but 12" splits would drive me nuts. The larger cooking surface on the box stove is also nice if that is a consideration.