Im going to be buying a woodstove and theres so much to consider, catalytic or not, front or top loading, brands, burn time etc. Im looking for a large stove that is efficient, doesnt stink up the house and burns for a long time, like 10 hrs maybe ? Anyone have any experience ?
thanks.

I heated 3 different houses with wood some years ago
when I lived in the frozen tundra of Vermont.  So I have
the experience of a few stoves.

Tip 1.  If you are getting the wood for free, it may be
worth the dirt and aggravation.
Tip 2.  If you are purchasing wood my advice would be
to skip directly to Tip 3.
Tip 3.  Get a coal stove instead.  Have it installed by a
Chimney Sweep, and have him come back for a visit
regularly.

DanM

Im thinking of a vermont castings catalytic wood stove with glass doors , top loading.
I have read mixed reviews though. So, Im open to other brands and designs.
I am going to be useing it save on heating costs, so I ll be using wood as I have 40 acres to cut on. the coal stove is a nice idea, but what a mess with coal deliveries and loading and stoking it. I had one in my Pa. home, man did it throw some heat. But by morning time , DAMN , it had always burned down and the house was feeezing !!! Took another hour or two after stoking to get the place warmed up. I have a cheap wood burner in my garage, and it gets the place toasty but uses a ton of wood and stinks up the place.
Hoping a newer and better stove will perform better and more efficiently.
thanks.

I got a vermont castings catalytic wood stove with glass doors , top loading.  Sits in an open design super insulated house in Illinois... I really like it. I been using it sense 1989... I would guess I get about 75 to 80% of my house heated from it..  It is a lot of work... If fuel prices are sky high this year it will be going no stop....

Check Harborfreight and Northern Tool, they have some cheap ones, don't know if they are very good.  

Don't pay for the high-end ones, the mid level ones are just as good.

Remember, only buy a wood stove if you 1) have wood on your property or nearby to cut and can trailer it, 2) you will need a chainsaw and your own splitter really helps.  

If you have to buy wood, better to get a pellet stove and buy the pellets in bulk  

Wood takes about 1 year to age before it burns well.  Its alot of work, figure at least several chords per year or more if your only source of fuel.

Personally I would get one that is side loading...Also on a side note. If you end up getting a wood stove try not to burn too much pine. The pine causes increased creosote in the chimney. Also if you burn the hard wood hot enough it will keep the creosote from forming in the chimney. Bigger isn’t always better in a wood stove also. A small one will often do just as good as a bigger one at half the cost.


-Derek

I installed a wood pellet stove in my living room after I got my first $300 electric bill for running my <cough> efficient  <cough>heat pump for 2-4 hrs each evening last winter (I don't run heat when I'm sleeping, quilts are just fine ).  I would burn about a 40 lb bag of $4 pellets from Tractor Supply in 2 evenings at almost full blast for 2-4 hrs.  Heats up the living room just fine to around 70 degrees, rest of the 1st floor stayed around 55-60 degrees.  Heat would go up the stairwell and heat the game room and one bedroom to almost the same temp as living room by the time it was shut off.  Next electric bill was around $50 and I bought 15 bags of pellets a month.  Basically, from $300 to $110, and just spent more time in the living area.  

Stove cost $3700, is an insert for my fireplace, with a narrow lid on top to open up and dump 25-30 lbs of pellets in at once.  My house fireplace apparently could not accomodate a wood burning insert, only a pellet insert would fit without ripping the area out due to some zero clearance issue with fireplaces that are installed in some new construction houses.  It has a remote control type controller in addition to the built in knobs to turn it on and control blower speed, etc, I can set it to come on at a certain time of day, etc.  It's electric start, I turn it on or the program does, and after maybe 5 minutes or so, you'll have the ignition of the pellets.


eta: found receipt

Quoted: I installed a wood pellet stove in my living room after I got my first $300 electric bill for running my <cough> efficient  <cough>heat pump for 2-4 hrs each evening last winter (I don't run heat when I'm sleeping, quilts are just fine ).  I would burn about a 40 lb bag of $4 pellets from Tractor Supply in 2 evenings at almost full blast for 2-4 hrs.  Heats up the living room just fine to around 70 degrees, rest of the 1st floor stayed around 55-60 degrees.  Heat would go up the stairwell and heat the game room and one bedroom to almost the same temp as living room by the time it was shut off.  Next electric bill was around $50 and I bought 15 bags of pellets a month.  Basically, from $300 to $110, and just spent more time in the living area.   Stove cost around $3000, is an insert for my fireplace, with a narrow lid on top to open up and dump 25-30 lbs of pellets in at once.  My house fireplace apparently could not accomodate a wood burning insert, only a pellet insert would fit without ripping the area out due to some zero clearance issue with fireplaces that are installed in some new construction houses.  It has a remote control type controller in addition to the built in knobs to turn it on and control blower speed, etc, I can set it to come on at a certain time of day, etc.  It's electric start, I turn it on or the program does, and after maybe 5 minutes or so, you'll have the ignition of the pellets.

+ a trillion


We installed a pellet stove in my old house and it's tons better.

Pellet > everything else except central.

Ours was around $6k at the time since that was like 10yrs ago but that little fucker heated up our downstairs very nicely.

I've also got a Vermont Castings stove. I love it. It loads from the front or side and the glass doors are a huge plus. They also have an automatic vent valve to slow airflow into the unit as it gets up to temp. I'd highly recommend it.

Lopi in-the-fireplace stove.

Heats the basement.  I like it.

GREAT call on the Lopi.  I had one that heated the whole house, looked beautiful, worked like a charm, and when loaded and adjusted properly would slow burn all night and still be giving off heat in the morning.  Catalytic, blower, and we had a ceiling fan we used in "reverse" mode above it to help distribute the heated air as well.

ok im a chimney sweep have been for 28 years own a hearth shop and sell the things and yes im a vermont castings dealer as well as a few others.  having read the above posts i have to say  pellet stoves are nice. Having said that if  you intend to cut, season and store your own wood ....this persons
(sledhead907) was probly your best answer yet what ever you do ...stay away... far away form..... harbor freight if you could get one thru the local building dept insp process they tend to crack in a few years.   side or front loading is going to smell less than a top laoder  and he knows what hes talking about whith the creasote build up small hot fires and stay away from pine if you can help it ,if not get some ACS
and spray on your wood

Some nice ideas, only thing is, Im stuck with the wood route, I have too much of it not to use it. I have a couple of cord of seasoned hardwood in my woodshed right now that I can transport to this house easy. I ll do all my wood processing at my upstate home and then bring it down here to Long Island and use it in the wood stove. Im glad to see that Vermont castings are getting good reviews, anyone with a catalytic vermont castings ?

defintly go with the converter it helps to cut down the creasote build up and is well worth it in the savings on matance of you system also get a set of brushes

i personally own a vermont castings catalytic wood stove.

i live in texas, so our 25 degree days are normally double digits, if that.  we don't have 100 cold days a year.  i paid 1 grand for the stove.  i thought it would take 3 years to pay for itself.  it did so in 2.  

i have an inexhaustible supply of dry oak 1 hour away.  can go get it whenever i want.  it's great and an excuse to take the AR out to scalp coyotes with hollow points on my off days.

i like it.  it's fun.  fireplaces are ok but woodstoves are better.  i don't live in a cold area, so for 2-3 months, it's fine.  

our hard season is right now, in the end of the summer.  it's 100 or more daily, with high humidity too.  in michigan, the hard season is winter, in texas, it's the summer.  

heats my house.  2k ft2 (square).  when it's 25 outside, it's 75 inside.

i like vermont castings.  i think it's good junk.

Quoted: Im thinking of a vermont castings catalytic wood stove with glass doors , top loading. I have read mixed reviews though. So, Im open to other brands and designs. I am going to be useing it save on heating costs, so I ll be using wood as I have 40 acres to cut on. the coal stove is a nice idea, but what a mess with coal deliveries and loading and stoking it. I had one in my Pa. home, man did it throw some heat. But by morning time , DAMN , it had always burned down and the house was feeezing !!! Took another hour or two after stoking to get the place warmed up. I have a cheap wood burner in my garage, and it gets the place toasty but uses a ton of wood and stinks up the place. Hoping a newer and better stove will perform better and more efficiently. thanks.

I want one of these
Harman Stove Company - Add Beauty and Warmth to Your Home. Pellet Stoves, Wood

Stove

Thanks for all the tips, Im hoping my house will be warm and not bankrupt me this year !!! Sounds like the Vermont castings line is pretty well rated here, Im leaning towards getting their largest model, what should I expect to pay for installation ? I will do the surround Id need the stove set and the pipe run thru the roof, the ceilings are 12 foot in my living room and the roof is just about 2 foot from the drywall ceiling thru the attic to the actual roof. Any ideas ?

you will need a class a chimney system with a support thimble, a roof flash( need to know the pitch) ,storm collar and cap,if its a sraight up install with no off sets dude its real easy to do  yourself  i keep sayin if i could get a monkey to work for bannas he could do it

We had a Fisher brand when I was growing up.  It was loaded from the front, didn't have any power blowers or anything.  You could cook on top of it if you desired.  I warmed one end of the house OK.  But it was very dusty.  My mom hated it because of the ash particles that collected in all her furniture over the years.  We ended up giving it away to my Aunt.

Dont know your situation so this might not be helpful advice if you just want a cast iron stove.

Check out Masonry Heaters - Tulikivi is one type. Much more effcient than most other wood heat options - avoids many of their downside(very efficient, burns clean, few feeds, little maintenance) but they are somewhat massive - more like a fireplace than stove. I seem to recall that there were some more "freestanding" type installations that might work.

Not quite enough to heat 4000 ft+, but It would do of 2/3rds of that as the sole source w/o issue.   25 pounds of dry wood fired twice daily should heat such a space nicely.

Maybe some Finns that frequent can chime in - they are very common in Scandanavia.

Luck
Alac

Hey Guys,

so what is the diff between the catalytic & non-catalytic stoves?

I've never gone wrong with a Franklin

I use an Ashley. It is the castiron firebox type and side loads. My 2400 sq ft house is an old farmhouse that isn't airtight by any means. The Ashley heats it and keeps it comfortable even on the nights that get below zero a few times each winter. The sheet metal lid raises up so you can cook on top if need be.

I burn cross tie butts.  The local sawmill sells the for $10 for all that you're brave enough to put in your truck. I can haul about a cord and a half worth.

Slabs burn good too. The sawmills here give slabs away. There is usually free wood around if you look for it. If you don't have your wood by now though it will be too green to burn this winter.

I don't like the idea of a pellet or coal fired stove because you are tied to a market that could fluctuate. Cutting your own wood is better peace of mind for me.

http://jotulflame.com/jotulwood.html


I've had the F 500 Olso for seven years, all the heat I use. Top loading, top of the line


rk

Quoted: Hey Guys, so what is the diff between the catalytic & non-catalytic stoves?

 it has a cleaner burn with it than with out