Wood Stove/Heater

[Bajr]

I'm looking to get a wood stove/heater for 1500 sqft house. Alot to pick from. Cast iron, steel, soapstone, or catalytic or no catalytic, vs flexburn. The store in my area has vermont casting cast iron, quadrafire steel stoves and hearthstone. Anyone have any recommendations of one over the other?

 

[EdP]

Any stove has to heat up before it heats the house. That is heat stored in the stove material of construction. The different materials store different amounts of heat. Soapstone stores the most, followed by cast iron, and then steel. The more heat the stove absorbs the longer it takes to heat up, and the longer it continues to give off heat after the fire burns down. Your lifestyle and how you plan to use the stove should be a consideration when looking at options, as well as price and appearance. Soapstone tends to be the most expensive and steel the least.

Cat or non cat is something else that depends on lifestyle. We had a cat Vermont Castings many years ago. It was a great stove but took a full load burn and about an hour to come up to the temperature at which you swapped the exhaust to go thru the cat. It would be below cat temp by morning and need to be warmed back up. I don't know if that is how they still operate but it can be an issue if everyone has to get to work in the morning. (Note: I didn't have to swap to the cat but it burned cleaner and gave more heat). It was a very clean burning stove when on cat with no visible smoke coming out the chimney.

 

[loganwayne]

^ pretty much covered it.
Only thing I'll add is we used alot less like 1/2 as much wood through the winter when I sold my old insert and got a new cheapo insert with the cat. BUT the wood has to be dry dry for the stove to burn good. My old one I could thrown in some green wood in the box and no issues. The cat stove would choke down

 

[Pony Soldier]

I have a hearthstone as my main stove and it maintains an even heat for hours even after the wood is consumed.

At the other end of the house I have a Quadrifire. It heats quickly and generates a lot of heat. I use it mainly when that end of the house gets chilled such as sustained -10 to -40. I light it about 15 - 20% of the time largely because we spend most of our time in the living room.

I have propane renaii heaters in remote portions of the house like the master bathroom. That way I can sleep in a cold bedroom but start the morning in a warm bathroom.

If you need steady heat I would go with the vermont or similar. I would lean toward the Quad if your needs are more occasional.

 

[JFK]

My house is just shy of 1600 sq/ft and gets heated primarily by wood in the winter. It has an old steel Lopi, no cat or any of the fancy epa stuff and the main problem is that the house can get too hot. Granted this is Ca where we have very mild winters compared to the rest of the country. Buddy of mine has one of the new cat stoves and he goes through half the wood I do.

 

[Amos Keeto]

I started heating with a "one-eyed" heating stove.
It did very well in my 1100 sq/ft home.
It was very old and the sides eventually burned out and had to be replaced.
When I pulled it down, there were three long cracks in the bottom. As much as I hated the idea, it went to the scrap yard.
The quickest answer was a Chinese built steel stove. It does okay, but I don't think as well as the old antique!
We burn wood all day, then turn on the LPG central heat unit at night. Works great!

 

[huntsman22]

Quadrafire or bust......

 

[NRA4LIFE]

I have a Quadrafire insert in my fireplace and it rocks. Heats all of my 2400 square foot house easily.

 

[Perrin713]

If you can find a dealer near by for Blaze King check them out.

 

[Bajr]

Quadrafire or bust......

Do you cook on it?

 

[Gseith]

Lopi Endeavor for 12 years. Only source of heat. It still has a lot of life left in it. My house is 1200 sq ft and the only time it struggles is when it’s below zero out. The shoulder season can be tough because it gets the house too warm.

 

[Amos Keeto]

Our stove resembles the Quadrafire above.
Fire fire we built in it, I cooked a pot of black-eyed peas! I don't think it "enhanced" the flavor, but it proved it "could be" used to cook!
I also wrap potatoes in foil and pop them in the stove! Now THAT makes an awfully tasty baked tater!

 

[rustynail27]

Gotta go with the cast iron!

Sent from my SM-S916U1 using Tapatalk

 

[onlybrowning]

I’ll give a vote for Hearthstone. I have a Mansfield in my 2600 sq.ft. house and it does great. Once the heating season is underway (sometime around now where I am), the stove never goes out. I work a lot of hours away from home and can generally keep the house at temp putting in wood twice a day. I load it up before bed,let it get up to temp, then dial it back. In the morning before work, open the air back up and load it up again. Close it down before I leave and repeat. If I happen to get to home early, I can open it up and toss in a couple sticks to bridge the time before the full overnight load. Usually burn between 3.5-4.5 cords per year. Propane doesn’t typically kick in unless it’s below 10 or so overnight and we keep the thermostat at 68 during the day and 66 overnight.

I love the heat curve of the soapstone stove. Plus, it’s really nice looking.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Macintosh]

I hate to say it, having grown up with them…but Vermont castings has been bought out multiple times over the last decade + and cut quality every time. They are a shadow of what they once were. I would strongly consider the other options.
We did have a hearthstone a number of years ago but didnt own that house long enough to have a strong opinion, but we liked it. We just refurbed our current jotul f600 after 18 years. Couple new parts, sandblasted, reblacked, new seals and glass, and fingers crossed its gtg for another 10-15 years. Its our full-time heat for 2000sq ft in northern vermont, not arctic but legit winters.

 

[Brooks]

I’ve had a Jotul wood stove F500 for over 15 years. Great stove. I’d buy a Jotul again.

 

[IDLassie]

We have a Quadrafire stove now and it heats 700 sq ft house and garage. Stove does great just hate the fire mat you have to replace once a year. Would not buy another one.

Had a nice little Soap Stone stove in the other place. It's a great little stove if someone is home all the time to keep the stove going. If you come home and need to warm the house up instantly they won't work.

Have a Heatalator stove in the Shop and we like that one. It heats the shop and keeps it warm in the winter.

Jotul wood stove are good and there is others out there if you can find them.

 

[doc holiday13]

Jotul and Vermont Castings are fairly top tier.. I find that the catalytic type stoves burn longer. I don't think they take an hour to heat up but maybe 30 minutes. Just depends on your damper settings and quality of wood on how fast your stove heats up

 

[ZDR]

Morso 6148…perfect for small homes, only downside is the wood needs to be cut shorter.

 

[Hackleback]

Also depends on you budget as well. Jotul are nice for sure (had one a long time ago), but spendy. I'm currently running an Osburn insert, it does what I need and this isn't my forever home.