Purchasing a new indoor wood stove

[TheMrs]

We are finally purchasing our homestead! However, the previous owner will be taking the indoor wood stove with them, so we have to purchase one. Since we will be taking possession of the property in early January, we would like to get one as soon as possible. We would need a stove with a flat top for cooking on occasion and one that will heat a home of 1830 square feet. We have set aside $2000 for this purchase.

I've found this company http://www.elitedeals.com/wood-burning-stoves.html and was wondering if anyone had any experience with them. They offer free shipping for orders over $99.

If not that company, does anyone have a different supplier that they would suggest?

Thank you so much!

[oz in SC V2.0]

From reading about this very topic,Quadra-fire wood stoves sound good.

http://www.quadrafire.com/

Something else we learned was that the square footage calculation uses 8 foot ceiling height and adequate insulation so make sure you take that into account.

[timfromohio]

The Mrs - don't know about the website you posted but we do have a Napolean 1150p (one of the stoves on that site) and are quite pleased. A couple of suggestions:
1 - check out www.hearth.com go to the forums section, you can find tons of information on different stoves, where people have bought them, etc.

2 - www.woodstoves.net we bought our Napolean from them - good price, good service, nice people to deal with

3 - have the existing chimney system thoroughly checked out prior to using and make sure it will be compatible with whatever stove you pick out. Safety must be the top priority.

Let us know what stove you go with and verify that the free shipping extends to stoves. Usually they are drop shipped and can be quite expensive to get sent to a residential address. I was able to receive our at work (with loading/unloading dock). Shipping to a residential address might necessitate a truck with a lift gate which is typically more expensive.

[Cabin Fever]

I would recommend either the Lopi Endeavor or the Lopi Liberty. These American-made woodstoves have two-level tops for cooking. The lower level is for frying and boiling and the upper level is for simmering and slow cooking. They are made of thick plate steel and use secondary combustion for effiency. Personally, I'd stay away from stoves made of cast iron or ones that use a catalyst.

This is a photo of our Lopi Endeavor:

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

i love my quadrafire mine is a 3100 step top

i cleaned the chimny this fall after a full years use of the stove that was about 5 cord of wood i removed about 2-3 cups of black soot and was ready to go for this year , they really are effcient i have 22 feet from stove top to chimney top it drafts great , heats well and burns so clean my mail man saw the wood stacked up and we started talking about the stove , when i siad it was burning right then he was amazed no smoke just heat vapors visiable from the chimey top

[Common Tator]

Might want to check out Northern Tools selection too http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...970_122+766841

[TheMrs]

Thank you so much for the suggestions. Looks like I have a lot of places to research.

Cabin Fever, I love the picture of your stove! Your home looks so warm and inviting. I didn't realize that they made them with two level tops..good information. Also, I like your quote in your signature. Being that DH is a college law enforcement instructor, he was fortunate enough to attend one of LTC Dave Grossman's seminars. He enjoyed it very much. Lots of useful information there too!

[Teri]

We had a Lopi Endeavor in our last home and loved it!
We'll probably get another one for the new place.
A really cute stove, and heated the whole house (1800 sq ft), no problem.

[Bonnie L]

Originally Posted by oz in SC V2.0

From reading about this very topic,Quadra-fire wood stoves sound good.

http://www.quadrafire.com/

They are good. We have 2 - 1 in each building. And they're American made - just up the road a piece.

They are similar to the Lopi - secondary combustion & steel.

[Alex]

We love our Blaze King catalytic wood stove, with side clearance reduction panels and rear clearance reducton dual fans. It is 82.5 % efficient which means it burns 17.5% less wood for the same heat output, haul less, split less, chop less, fall less trees.

[FreightTrain]

we love our old 4100 quadrafire!

[seagullplayer]

I have an England Stove Works 18-TR and we love it.
I burn a fraction of the wood some of folks do, and wood heat is all we use.

I think this is our eight or nineth year with the stove, and it still looks new.
I just bought a used one for my MIL that is 14 years old, after polish it looked like new. (craigslist find)

We went without power for a week last winter thanks to an ice storm and I cooked every meal on the stove.

You can see a picture here:

http://www.englanderstoves.com/store/18-TR_Parts.html

I would recommend you get a bigger stove that you think you need, the only downside to ours is how long it will keep a fire, normally it will only go about five hours between loads. My wife is self employed and works just a few miles from the house, so when it is really cold, she will come home for lunch and fill the stove.

[Delrio]

We have a Pioneer Princess and love it. We used a whole cord of wood last year. That cast iron top gets hot and warms up the whole house to the point that I have to open windows!! It's great for cooking on too.

[Beeman]

Every home is different as is every stove. Since you are using an existing chimney and hearth you must take that into consideration. If you have close clearances to combustibles with your hearth you must use a stove approved for close clearances or modify your hearth. You also have to match chimeny diameter to the stove. What type of chimney and hearth are you working with? What type stove are they removing? How well did it work in that large of a house?

[Cabin Fever]

Originally Posted by Beeman

....If you have close clearances to combustibles with your hearth you must use a stove approved for close clearances or modify your hearth. ...

The minimum clearance to combustibles for the Lopi Endeavor is 4.5 inches (when using double-wall stovepipe).

[TheMrs]

Wow, so many things that I never thought of. The next time we'll get to see the house will be with the home inspection. I'll make sure DH is measuring and checking out things during that time. We close and take possession of the property on December 14th. Thanks again for all the recommendations.

I did call the nearest wood stove dealer, which is an hour and a half away from our current location and two hours away from the new property. They do sell the Lopi Endeavor for $2300 and will deliver it to our property for around $100.

I checked with the website I posted earlier http://www.elitedeals.com/wood-burning-stoves.html and they would deliver to our residence for free. They have great prices and no sales tax. They have a limited selection, but do sell the Napolean 1150 that someone recommended earlier.

My main concern is to get a stove that is capable of being the sole source of heat for our 1830 square foot home. Obviously that won't apply for this first winter since we don't have a supply of wood or anything yet. So this year we'll be using our central heat, but in future years, we would like to only use the wood stove for heat. It's also important to us to have a stove that provides a nice cooking surface to use in case we are ever without electricity.

A question...I see some models that stand on legs and others with a pedestal stand. Is there a functional difference in these or is it just a decision about which one you think is prettier? Thanks!

[Cabin Fever]

Originally Posted by TheMrs

A question...I see some models that stand on legs and others with a pedestal stand. Is there a functional difference in these or is it just a decision about which one you think is prettier? Thanks!

Many of the pedestal stand models can take their combustion air from outside. A connection to the outside is made by cutting a hole in the floor below the pedestal. Then, one routes flexible vent pipe from the bottom of the woodstove to an outside wall thru the basement or crawlspace. Also, some pedestal models have an ash pan in the pedestal making ash removal a bit easier.

[timfromohio]

I would second the suggestions for both steel stoves that utilize secondary combustion to achieve a high efficiency rating.

Regarding the stove being capable of heating the home. It's a bit more complicated than square footage. How old is the home, what type (ranch, split level, colonial, ?), and most importantly how much insulation do you have. We have a split level built in 1970 - it had basically zero attic insulation. Our stove (on the main/kitchen level) and a Pacific Energy insert on the lower level could keep the house warm up here in NEOhio, but running one them alone - not so easy. This past year we added R-38 worth of attic insulation to the little bit of blown in that was in place. Now, I'm confident that I could heat the home with a single stove except for the coldest parts of winter. The insulation made a HUGE difference.

Unfortunately, I cannot post a pic of either of our stoves but can email one of our 1150p if you like. We are quite pleased with. The firebox is a bit on the small side, but it will easily heat our home which is 1760 square feet.

[timfromohio]

PS - even though you won't be using wood for your sole source of heat this year, start your scrounging or wood gathering activities now if you plan on heating with it next winter. You'll want to burn only good and fully dried hard wood. Get it split and stacked now and you'll be good for next year. I try to run a year in advance at least, and am starting this year on getting a multi-year supply ready.

Best of luck and let us know what you decide on!

[Cabin Fever]

I’m not sure if the comparison between the Napoleon 1150 and the Lopi Endeavor is a fair comparison. The Lopi Endeavor is a larger stove (2.2 cf firebox vs, the Napoleons 1.7 cf firebox). The Lopi is also 60 pounds heavier which might be due to its larger size and/or the use of thicker plate steel. The Lopi is rated at 72,000 btu versus the Napoleons 55,000 btu. And due to its >75% efficiency, the Lopi qualifies for the federal 15% energy rebate....I’m not sure about the Napoleon.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe that the Napoleon is also a good stove...it’s just your comparison between models is not fair.

Good luck!