First wood stove - looking for guidance

Wood stoves are space heaters - the room they are in will be much hotter than the rest of the house.

Use fans to push COLD air along the floor from cold rooms toward the stove.

Pellets are too expensive to be economic right now - I have two pellet stoves sitting idle because of low oil prices (1 ton = 120 gallons of fuel oil)

If you are buying "seasoned" wood it will be green. The only way you are getting dry wood right now is kiln dried.

It takes two years to properly dry hard woods - less might burn but won't burn well and you will need to clean the flue more often.



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I can speak against the insert. I have one, and is has a heatilator fan that blows the warm air out quite nicely. That being said...if it stands on the hearth, you wouldn't need the fan.

I weep, for my heat lost.

We have a newborn in the house, and oil is cheap enough now so we will burn sludge this year. It was nice when oil was $3.75/gallon though...
 
We heated a +75 year old 1400sq' house for years with a pre-catalyst Vermont Castings Vigilant wood stove using ~3 cords a year. It could load from the top or front, and had an cross-flow air control system that helped it to hold a good fire for a long time. It would throw a lot of heat when running full up, and could hold a fire all night when fully loaded @~10:00 and throttled down appropriately. We had a gas furnace for backup that rarely ran.

Have a good chimney, and clean it regularly, at least once a year. Keep something like ChimFex or FireEx on hand in case of a chimney fire. I would put a damper in the flue. It gives a bit more control, and helps reduce downdrafts out of season. Use a magnetic wood stove thermometer on the flue, with a safety wire. It really helps in getting the fire temperature right.

Use seasoned hardwood. Not being in a place I could cut my own, and without space to store much more than 4 cords, I tried to buy what I needed for the next year in late winter before mud-season. If I'd had the storage I would have bought wood in the late fall/early winter after the ground freezes and before the snow gets bad. Try to get a stove that will let you load at least 18" logs. Our stove would take 18", a bit more if jammed in at an angle, but I usually ordered wood in 16" lengths. This gave some margin for error for logs that ran long, and 16" works out nicely from 4'x4'x8' cords. Less than 16" becomes more work to stack. Have a place to stage wood for loading into the stove. Loading cold logs covered with ice straight from outside can put a damper on a going fire, and forget about trying to start a fire with such.

Make sure the walls and floor are properly protected. Ours sat in a corner on a brick pad, with 5' brick walls set ~3/4" out from the regular wall. There might have been asbestos board between the brick and the wall but the cap course of bricks made it hard to see. Technically the bricks should have gone all the way up around the thimble close to the stove flue. Brick was nice because it had good thermal mass. It would get pretty warm, but not too hot to hold your hand against. Make sure the floor can support the weight. I've used stoves in other places that had metal heat shield over asbestos on the floor and walls, and I don't recommend it. While technically safe, the metal in places gets too hot to hold you hand against it for more than a few seconds, and cooled off quickly once the fire died down.

Sorry for the tome. I do miss the feel of wood heat, but not the dirt and dust.
 
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I have a 1970s Sears stove that looks just like an Ashley.
These stoves have a sheet metal surround that can help save some skin on kids, or even yourself.
The pipe comes out low on the back that makes it easy to run into an existing fireplace or piping. They're not terribly expensive,but do the job.
No fire viewing, just a nice stove that takes big logs through the side door.
This one is too much $$$.
I've seen them on Craigs L for $400 and under.

http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/h...aVQinnoIGs3ysP2u9DKajZXjezCFYyo2KpRoCxWvw_wcB

Ha that's my current stove I've had it for over 8 years and its still kicks butt. I can get a 18" long log in it and maybe 12"s round. I love the side load to.
I have a Mama bear 1/4" thick steel stove in the waiting if the Ashley quits.

OP in some towns they may require a certification tag on the stove you buy even a used one, I got jammed up with a free stove. it had no tag and I found the Ashley a few towns away.

Jason.
 
Avoid the Dutchwest non-cat stoves they suck. I have an old school Jotul 602 that i paid $300 for off craigslist and it rocks. The 602 is too small for you but they have larger models...have never heard anything bad about Jotul stoves.
 
I got a big quadrafire and compared to my older stove (made in 70s, big, heavy, works good still) it's crazy more efficient. Newer stoves have merit. Cat loves it, wife loves it.

For a big stove there is no mechanics to work or break. Fully loaded stove can keep you warm long time. If you can't get free firewood, subscribe to more junkmail. Nothing burns hotter than free shit.

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also quadrafire and some local dude in MA make add-on temp controller for wood stoves that restricts airflow to keep target temp. It's the convenience of burning dinosaur juice without the mess of pellets.

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Not a indoor unit but she was loaded at noon Monday 12/5 now at 12am she's still set till morning so most likely 24hrs between loading.
Big enough I can get in and move around during the summer clean out.



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Wood stoves are space heaters - the room they are in will be much hotter than the rest of the house.

Use fans to push COLD air along the floor from cold rooms toward the stove.

Pellets are too expensive to be economic right now - I have two pellet stoves sitting idle because of low oil prices (1 ton = 120 gallons of fuel oil)

If you are buying "seasoned" wood it will be green. The only way you are getting dry wood right now is kiln dried.

It takes two years to properly dry hard woods - less might burn but won't burn well and you will need to clean the flue more often.



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Yup, nobody sells truly seasoned wood, especially since oil prices went up and everyone was buying wood. Most "seasoned" wood sold in the fall/winter was cut only 6-12 months ago, not seasoned enough. I re-injured my knee and I may have to buy more wood than usual this year since I wasn't able to split and stack my rounds that have been seasoning. So I am hoping the lower oil prices improve the wood situation this year.

Also very few wood guys sell an honest cord. I have one guy who does but he came up short one time when he had a hired hand load the truck. He brought extra the next time to make up for it. I usually manage to scrounge, cut and split 1-2 cords each year and buy 1-2 cords. My house is very small and I usually don't keep the stove running all day unless it's really cold so I only go through 3-4 cords per year.
 
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My house came with a Bosca Spirit 550. House is just under 1000 sq ft, so on the small side.
Previous owner heated exclusively with wood, and he had two Defiant Encores in the shed and the garage that I had to remove to keep the insurance company and the zoning guy happy when I moved my FFL business to the property.
The Bosca feeds through the wall into the exterior chimney, which works fine for me
Biggest complaint for me is that the stove only accepts up to 14-15" chunks. That can be a lot more sawing when you're cutting and splitting logs down to size.
I grew up with a dual wood/oil furnace in my parents house that for a while was supplemented by an Ashley freestanding stove in the living room.
Biggest regret over 20 years living with the ex was not having the space or capability to run wood heat in that house the ex got in the divorce.
Her problem, now....
 
My parents have had a stove from Woodstock Soapstone company for almost 20 years now. Their house is roughly the same size as yours, and it does a good job of keeping it warm. Of course after I left for college is when my dad decided to buy a log splitter...
 
When I lived in Derry (in the 90's) I installed a wood stove in our dining room with an exterior metalbestos chimney running alongside the house. Worked well, kept the house fairly warm except for the rooms over the garage (cape style).

Moved to Weare in 2001 and had a wood stove in the basement, but it really couldn't heat the whole house. Ended up putting a pellet insert in the main floor fireplace, which worked well. Kept the main floor and upstairs bedrooms toasty. Used the wood stove sparingly except when we were using the basement or the power died.

Looking at the photo you will want the chimney to go straight to the wall exit as opposed to the angles the OP has now, in order to get good draft. Angles also make it more difficult to sweep and get the crud out of the chimney.

Edited to add- When I was looking at stoves (replaced the Franklin that came with the house in Weare) I ended up getting one from Home Depot. Did the trick and was relatively cheap. Non catalytic, had a secondary burn chamber. Englander brand if I recall.

I liked burning wood, but the wife preferred the pellet stove as it was easier for her.

Live in Colorado now, put in a pellet insert in the house on our campground to fill in the fireplace. What's scary is people burn pine and aspen out here, when I cleaned out the fireplace prior to putting in the insert the creosote was nasty. Amazed they hadn't had a chimney fire. We rarely lose power in the winter here, more often lose it during the summer due to lightning storms than in winter due to heavy wet snow.
 
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I have a wood stove that came with my house. Not sure of the exact model.

A couple of things to watch out for:
Wood Size: The max length I can fit into the burn chamber is around 14". Most firewood delivered is up to 16 or 18". If I cut and split my own, its not a problem, but if I need to buy some wood, its an issue.

Front Glass: I would not get a stove that I couldn't see inside as its burning. I can see from a distance if there's trouble with the draft or it needs more wood. And, its just nice to see the fire.

Heat output: Even with a small stove, it puts out a lot of heat. Unless the outside temps are going to be below 40 all day, I won't run the stove. Even on the coldest days in the winter (-5 low overnight low, +20 daytime) my living room is 75 with only half throttle setting on the stove, and gas furnace tuned completely off. Rest of the house is still 65 or so. Usually the biggest problem is turning it down low enough, but still keeping the draft going.
 
There are many used wood stoves for sale. A lot of people find out how much work they are and how short the burn times are and get rid of them.

i have burned wood, coal and pellets and coal was by far the easiest and cleanest and had the longest unattended burn. Real even steady heat.

With how cheap Oil and gas are right now you should be able to find a deal, new or used.
The place where your current stove sits may not be up to code for a wood stove. The codes may have changed but when I had my wood stove it needed to be 24" from the wall, the pellet stove could be closer.
 
Cool, never seen one of those before. I put the pic here because I liked it so much. A new black job and it would look like a million bucks.

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We have one of these, with a bit longer firebox, it looks like, at our Trap house, in the secondary room. It works okay, though the other stove in the other room gets more use.
 
... Exiting the wall like your current propane setup isnt gonna fly dude, and if you dont have a chimney, youre looking at the added cost of the proper stainless double walled pipe (I didnt have a chimney, I believe I spent about 3k on the ss pipe and accoutremants alone in 1997 to make my chimney). ...

A stainless steel double wall chimney can be run outside. If it's possible to run inside you will get a bit more heat transfer into the house and it should produce less creosote.

... Pellets are for homoes and AR shooters, when you run out of pellets you are ****ed, when you ran out of firewood, you can burn your neighbor's trees, crack, glocks, weed, evidence, those hookers you stashed in the freezer from the last year's xmass party ... in short, just about anything.

Quoted because I love your way with words.



Every bend in the chimney costs you draft. That's an attractive setup and maybe works fine for gas(?), but you should consider a simpler setup for a wood stove. GPP's $3k guess for a chimney was probably pretty close unless you DIY. You will need a real hearth. Your tile on concrete slab might be enough though.

Go here: http://www.hearth.com/talk/

Hearth is to solid fuel heating as NES is to guns.
 
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A stainless steel double wall chimney can be run outside. If it's possible to run inside you will get a bit more heat transfer into the house and it should produce less creosote.



Quoted because I love your way with words.




Every bend in the chimney costs you draft. That's an attractive setup and maybe works fine for gas(?), but you should consider a simpler setup for a wood stove. GPP's $3k guess for a chimney was probably pretty close unless you DIY. You will need a real hearth. If you have a slab then maybe you can simply expose the slab and tile it.

Go here: http://www.hearth.com/talk/

Hearth is to solid fuel heating as NES is to guns.

That's for your input. We do have tile and I will be doing the install. My brother in law installs stoves so for a steak and stogie he will take care of that.


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This is our current setup. I believe some furniture may have to move, but this is where the stove is planned to go. If it cant go through the wall, I'm not sure a wood stove will work as running it up through the ceiling would mean also running piping through the bedroom before getting to the attic. Not sure thats something we want to do. But we're at the beginning stages of planning as well.
Not sure if it's been mentioned/discussed already, but you really should have something protecting the walls behind the stove in the corner. I would recommend brick, but metal shielding over some kind of insulating board would probably work. Check the building codes.
 
Not sure if it's been mentioned/discussed already, but you really should have something protecting the walls behind the stove in the corner. I would recommend brick, but metal shielding over some kind of insulating board would probably work. Check the building codes.
Only if the stove requires wall protection - install with the required clearances and no heat shields are needed.

A modern stove that has been installed per the manual poses essentially zero hazard when run properly.

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Only if the stove requires wall protection - install with the required clearances and no heat shields are needed.

A modern stove that has been installed per the manual poses essentially zero hazard when run properly.

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true, but still you don't want it close to wood or anything that would be affected by thermal movement. Wood will get hot and shrink, expand, not catch on fire, but creek so other materials. Most woodstoves have those clearances published.

One thing I'd really recommend is fan option. Stove may be hot, but something need to circulate air if you want quick heat up time (and do want quick heat up time). Some stoves have fan option, some don't but I would not buy one without for a larger room.
 
Only if the stove requires wall protection - install with the required clearances and no heat shields are needed.

A modern stove that has been installed per the manual poses essentially zero hazard when run properly.
True, but I question whether the clearances shown in the picture are IAW code and manufacturer's instructions. The nominal clearance for unshielded wood stoves to combustible wall surfaces is generally 36", andsome guides say more. Proper wall shielding (metal with ~1" air gap) appears cuts that 1/2 to 2/3, possibly as low as 12".

Based on the size of the ash bucket and floor tiles, the stove in the picture looks to be 6" to 8" from apparently unshielded walls, certainly no more than 1'. Even if that stove location is OK, I would question clearances on the flue pipe, unless it's double-walled.
 
True, but I question whether the clearances shown in the picture are IAW code and manufacturer's instructions. The nominal clearance for unshielded wood stoves to combustible wall surfaces is generally 36", andsome guides say more. Proper wall shielding (metal with ~1" air gap) appears cuts that 1/2 to 2/3, possibly as low as 12".

Based on the size of the ash bucket and floor tiles, the stove in the picture looks to be 6" to 8" from apparently unshielded walls, certainly no more than 1'. Even if that stove location is OK, I would question clearances on the flue pipe, unless it's double-walled.

With this current propane stove. You're spot on. The stove is approx 8" from either wall. The piping is approx 6" from the wall. We know the wood stove would have to be moved out to allow adequate clearance though. A brick shield would look nice in here so we wouldn't be against doing that. I'm wondering if this is going to be a more expensive swap than we had originally anticipated. I think I've got a lot of good food back and point outs, I think the next step is to have someone come in and give us a their thoughts one what they could do and what we'd be looking at price wise.


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I also have a Lopi Freedom, but mine is an insert. I would have preferred to go with a freestanding stove, but it would have required ripping out the raised hearth and losing a couple of feet of living room that we just didn't have to spare.

I grew up with an Ashley-style thermostatic wood stove. These modern reburners have a bit of a learning curve, but they are awesome at throwing out the heat. They are very sensitive to moisture content, and your wood *must* be thoroughly seasoned. If not, you'll spend an hour getting the firebox up to temp until it kicks into secondary, and then what's left will burn up in 30 minutes and you have to start again.

The insert depends on the blower to put heat into the house; if we ever had a power failure, we would hang some blankets over windows and doors and move everyone into the living room if it was really cold. When I set the fire before going to bed, I turn the blower to high to get as much heat into the LR as possible as we're going to sleep. Our fireplace is pretty massive and makes a good thermal mass.

Our house is an 1850 New Englander, poorly insulated. We have an oil furnace as backup, but it only kicks on when we let the fire die down to clean out the stove. We don't dare light a wood fire until it drops below 40, or it will run us out of the house.

This weekend I'm finally taking the window A/C out of our bedroom and sealing up the basement bulkhead door.
 
True, but I question whether the clearances shown in the picture are IAW code and manufacturer's instructions. The nominal clearance for unshielded wood stoves to combustible wall surfaces is generally 36", andsome guides say more. Proper wall shielding (metal with ~1" air gap) appears cuts that 1/2 to 2/3, possibly as low as 12".

Based on the size of the ash bucket and floor tiles, the stove in the picture looks to be 6" to 8" from apparently unshielded walls, certainly no more than 1'. Even if that stove location is OK, I would question clearances on the flue pipe, unless it's double-walled.
The stove in the photo is gas. The clearance's will be different, the chimney pipe will be different and even the through wall thimble will be different. The floor/hearth is probably OK as is and the wall clearance is determined by the manufacturer.

With this current propane stove. You're spot on. The stove is approx 8" from either wall. The piping is approx 6" from the wall. We know the wood stove would have to be moved out to allow adequate clearance though. A brick shield would look nice in here so we wouldn't be against doing that. I'm wondering if this is going to be a more expensive swap than we had originally anticipated. I think I've got a lot of good food back and point outs, I think the next step is to have someone come in and give us a their thoughts one what they could do and what we'd be looking at price wise.


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It will be more expensive than you think, but imo it is worth it for esthetics. Whether or how soon you earn your money back is a function of your house specs, prices on the stove, chimney and fuel. That and the degree to which you ease off gas or oil. From a preparedness POV, a wood stove is sustainable without electricity, gas or oil. There's that.

hearth.com

There are a lot of NES'ers there, although most of us fly under the radar.

hearth.com

The answers you'll get there on the tech, law, diy and everything stove related rival the best info here. You'll literally get flamed if you say something like eff those requirements, I'm using the same chimney I had on the gas stove! Not unlike the way we flame newbs that post pics of holding a rifle with the finger on the trigger.

Did I mention hearth.com?

No?

hearth.com
 
I have been running an old Federal Airtight - Vermont Castings for years. The house was built in 86 is about 2500 sq feet, and I can heat the whole house with it.
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This is a catalytic converter stove. Once you get the converter up to temp, you close a bypass gate that forces the exhaust over the converter and re-combusts the exhaust. Very efficient, very clean, less creosote and longer burn times when you run it right. I can fill the stove before bed and just throw in some kindling in the morning. I use a small 6" table top fan to move the air and it does the trick nicely.

With your current set up, the stove will probably be the least of your expense. If that stovepipe is not running into a dedicated flue, you are looking at running metal bestos above the peak of the roof. You will definitely need to add something to protect those walls.

One of the nice things about the stove sitting in front of a fireplace is that once the brick gets hot, it really radiates. After 26 years, I can literally tell how hot my stove is running by putting my hand on the brick.

Burning pine, in general, is a bad idea. Yeah, if you dry it for a long long time, it won't produce a lot of creosote, but if you dry it that long it will burn as fast as paper. If you have to burn it a little wet, you need to burn it real hot, which means lots of air and it will burn fast.
Hardwood is best and the dryer the better. I can tell how wet a piece of wood is by it's weight in my hand. If it is not fully dried, you open up the air intakes a little and it burns hotter, creating less creosote.
Burning hot is clean. Slow smoldering fires are a recipe for disaster, although if you run a metal bestos chimney it won't burn the house down ( probably ) , but it will be like a volcano and sound like a freight train.

So there are pros and cons. I really don't run a wood stove to save money and I still burn about 275 gallons of oil every winter. ( yes, one tank). But it is a ton of work.
I do it because the wife and kids love it. It is a different kind of heat and there is nothing like it. It is very cozy. It is also much much easier to convince your wife ( girls are always cold ) to take her clothes off when she is 3 feet away from a wood stove with an exterior temp of 400 degrees. Great way to dry wet boots after shoveling as well as hats and gloves after sledding. And of course, if the power goes out during a winter storm, I can keep the whole house warm and even cook on it.
And did I mention the whole naked wife thing? Of course, as we get older I will likely opt for using more oil.
 
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