Wood Stove ?

R

Robbie Roberson

Joined
Dec 27, 2003
Messages
1,983
Hello, need a little advice on a wood burning stove.

Any brands better than most ?

Any advice on these "new" smokeless types ?

Thanks for any info. or any suggestions.

Robbie Roberson ;)
 
I bought a Lopi fireplace insert over 20 years ago,my second year in this house,and I have never regreted it.It is still going strong after heavy use every winter.
It replaced a wood stove with no glass doors which I moved to my detached garage.

Two things I recommend,a lot of glass in front,watching the fire is half of the reason for having one and the only reason I replaced my old stove.
Get one wide enough to take larger cordwood than you will buy or cut .A large stove will burn small wood but not vice versa.Also no problem keeping a large stove going all night.
 
Thank you, that's good advice/ info., we need a standard free standing wood stove. Just needed to know some good brands to check out.

Robbie Roberson ;)
 
Robbie,
Check out a Vermont Castings, we had one for years, they put out an amazing amount of heat, although they do tend to go through wood. Also are heavy bastards, but overall excellent stoves. That was our primary heat source for our house (log cabin, my parents built themselves... read drafty) up in NH and it would keep us warm all night long, even when temps fell as far as -20 plus windchill. The next stove we had was imported from NZ, I think. Can't remember the brand, if I think of it I'll post a link. It was good, but instead of being cast steel had tile inside. surrounded by a thin metal shell. Heated fine, but after a while the tile developed cracks which is a little worrisome. It also had a glass door, and I agree that watching the fire was a lot fun, however once the glass got scorched or smoke smudged it was a cast iron b***h to clean.

Here's the Vermont Castings Website. Looks like they have a bunch with glass fronts now, ours was an older one which didn't have that. Good luck
http://www.vermontcastings.com/content/products/products.cfm?category=16

Lagarto
 
lagarto, thanks very much, I am just starting to look so I'll sure look at those.

It makes it so much easier to do things like this when you can hear some feedback. :D

Robbie Roberson ;)
 
there's are NOS army wood stoves at the Sportsmansguide.com for under 150$ if you're on a limited budget. Nothing to look at yukon type tent stoves, but easily adapted for dwelling use I would think.
 
I have been shopping for one recently. Unfortunately I will not be able to install one in my house do to the expense of the installation and building codes. Lopi and Jotul's are very good. Avalons are nice too but are a little overpriced becasue they were designed by some famous furniture maker. I have heard bad things about Vermont Castings. The old ones were great but the new ones are not up to the quality of the originals. Apparently 10 years ago Vermont Castings was bought out by a large company. Their quality has gone down hill. I really wish I could have put one in my house, but the cost for the stove and piping was over $4,000 and installation would have been another $3-4000. I could buy alot of sebenzas for that.
 
lagarto said:
Robbie,
Check out a Vermont Castings, we had one for years, they put out an amazing amount of heat, although they do tend to go through wood...........................................
http://www.vermontcastings.com/content/products/products.cfm?category=16

Lagarto
Click to expand...


+1 on the Vermont Castings! We've had one for years. We originally got it because this area had the highest electric prices(the only utility you could get for heating)in most of the USA.

But we got gas finally and don't use it anymore.

Another problem is the wood you use. Juniper is very popular around here as it's about the only thing the forestry allows to be cut for firewood, and it causes sensitivities, like throat and lung infections, bronchitis, etc. Wood stoves used to keep the doctors in business in this area, just prescribing antibiotics from November through May to 75% of people who used wood stoves.

My wife was among those that had problems. I got migraines and dizzy spells, as did three of my neighbors. One of them spent several thousand $$ on tests to determine the cause with no results, till she stumbled across a toxicologist who asked if she burned cedar/juniper etc. And told her to stop that. Her symptoms disappeared almost overnight, as did most of the people on the block when we heard her results and quit burning that type of wood.

If you get one, get a smaller one with a 6" chimney pipe, that takes 16" logs, versus 18" for the bigger models, as the regular sized stoves will drive you out of the area you have the stove in. I mean you can get a suntan from it.

When the inside of the glass doors turn black from burning, just use regular no scratch comet on a wet sponge to get it off. I tried every chemical I could find before stumbling on the comet as a last resort, and it works like a charm.

Good luck whichever way you go.
 
Thanks a bunch everyone, that helps narrow it down. ;)

We intend to get a smaller size stove. I have bad allergys but hope the wood smoke is not too bad, we don't expect to use it every day, just maybe a couple times a week and in emergency.

The glass door is a must for us, we want to see the fire.

These two below I really like so far, it's just so hard to figure out what we need. Our house is 2 story, so heat "rising" will go upstairs easily. Our square feet in house is 1850, not sure but I would say 1000 to 1200 is downstairs.

http://www.lopistoves.com/product.asp?dept_id=4&sku=31

Or this one, (Same company makes both stoves)

http://www.avalonstoves.com/product.asp?dept_id=4&sku=35

Robbie Roberson ;)
 
If there's a vocational school in your area with a welding class, they routinely make wood stoves and sell them to cover the cost of the materials. Deals can be had and the quality is first rate. I've never seen one of these stoves with a glass door but I suppose you could ask the instructor if it's doable. Also, be sure to have your insurance agent come by and inspect the stove since it doesn't carry the proper UL listing, he will have to personally sign off on it (not a big deal).
 
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