Wood Stove for Wood Shop, looking for advice

[danielcoyle]

I have never installed a wood stove before but plan on buying a used one off craig's list. My budget is under $300 (hopefully the advice here will make it so I can stay under that!)
I have a wood shop with 12' ceilings and two bays separated by an uninsulated wall with an open doorway. Each bay is about 450 square feet. I am in Oregon (on the wet side of the state).
I want something that will take the chill out of working in the shop in the winter. Heating 12' ceilings in a marginally well insulated shop with electricity is not working out.
I would like to have advice on things like EPA vs. non EPA stoves (and just any basic feedback about a good stove type for this job), safety of operating a wood stove in a wood shop, the length of the flue (I will have to go through the wall and not straight up through the roof) and single vs. double wall pipe for this application.
Any thoughts or links to relevant threads would make a big difference for me.
Thanks!

 

[begreen]

Welcome Daniel. It's going to be hard to find a good EPA stove for $300, but look for earlier Lopi, Avalon, Regency, Quadrafire stoves. You probably know this, but it's illegal to sell a pre-EPA stove in OR, not that that stops people from doing it. If nothing shows up, you could get a new EPA stove for about $650 that would do the job. Note that modern stoves really want fully seasoned wood to burn properly. Poorly seasoned or damp wood is going to dramatically reduce heat output,

 

[ian105]

Even if you can find a stove for $300 you are going to have a bunch of $ in chimney pipe. The stuff is expensive. I would estimate your chimney pipe cost using both 6 and 8 inch before buying anything. Alot of the older stoves use 8" and that will drive the pipe cost up even more.

 

[fossil]

Yes, you can find old stoves for sale on Craigslist or other places, but as has been stated above, Oregon law prohibits sales and installations of pre-EPA appliances. I have a wood stove in my workshop and it does a great job. My shop's not as big as you're talking about, so I'd think you'd want a stove bigger than my little Century. I bought my stove new at Lowes, in 2008, and it is an EPA-certified stove. My shop was built with the ceiling support box and chimney already installed, and I hired a mason to build a hearth, then i installed the stove. I spent a good deal more than $300.00 to get it all done. Rick

 

[danielcoyle]

Thanks. Still curious about safety in a wood shop and if things like blowers or glass doors or whatever are important in ways that wouldn't be obvious. I am trying to find a used stove that is being sold with a bunch of pipe as I do know the pipe is expensive and i will need to use a fair bit. Is there anything about there being bends in the pipe (since it has to go through a wall and not a ceiling) that i need to be thinking about?

 

[Highbeam]

I have a woodstove in my 1800 SF shop with 14 foot ceilings. Walls and slab are insulated but at the moment only plastic on the ceiling.

The stove is great fun. The flue system cost about as much as the stove though. I used single wall in the shop and of course class A in the attic on up.

 

[greythorn3]

ill probably get attack for saying this but what i do for my 50 x 40 pole barn is use a volzegang or however you spell it barrel kit and make a barrel stove, save the $$ for the expensive double wall ss chimney pipe. and run it that way. works good and i have pretty big drafts, i sit by the stove if i need to warm up. but thin barrels give off almost instant heat and dont need a hugh fire in the, i do the small hot fires allot but have done some large ones when it gets below zero.

 

[Simonkenton]

Yep, if you want a good wood stove for under 300 bucks, get the double barrel kit. I had one for 3 years in Georgia, what a beast! Firebox is 32 inches long, once you get the fire going, the Bad Boy doesn't care if the wood is dry or green, it is gonna burn! No problem getting a 12 hour burn.

 

[greythorn3]

i would just get the single. but thats just me, it gets plenty hot. i did surround mine with steel siding, and its 3 feet or more from anything combustible.