Recommended wood stove brands

[brutus54]

The problem I see with a pellet stove is if you lose electricity you'll have no heat. If you are in a rural area that could be a problem.

 

[ruffdog]

It is important to match the wood stove size to your needs. Too big of a firebox will have you opening windows or smoldering a fire (not good) to control the heat. A well matched size allows you to have a efficient clean burning fire that doesn't cook you out. Also, that clean burning fire has better draft than a smoldering big stove.

 

[quielo]

I have two in different places.

The hearthstone is pretty though the firebox is too small for serious weather

Craftsbury - HearthStone Stoves

Beautiful and functional, perfect for smaller homes. [...]Read More...

www.hearthstonestoves.com

The US stove is new to me but it was on sale for $191 so I bought it. It does not have a window. Some people say theirs leak smoke.

900 Sq. Ft. Cast Iron Log Wood Stove | US Stove Company

US Stove US1269E Cast Iron Stove…

www.usstove.com

I would just look on craigslist and FB marketplace and see what is available locally. Some people sell the chimney pipe with it and that can be a big savings.

 

[coaster]

I had a Quadrafire 7100 (zero-clearance wood stove - looks like a fireplace insert) installed in 2008. I've used it since, every winter, to heat two floors in a 3100 sqft home. In moderate temps (25 and above), it heats those floors fine. Below that, my heat pump for upstairs kicks on some. The only problem I've had with it is that it vents from the outside (has an adjustment for how much air you want to pull from the outside) and when you have it completely closed, I still seems to get a stream of cold air coming through. It doesn't matter most of the time cause I keep it going 24/7 when it's cold. You can load it up overnight and in the morning when heading off to work and it does a decent job of keeping some coals around for the next fire.

 

[deezler]

The outside air kit (specific to each stove) is nice because it brings outside air directly into the stove. It's not being pulled into the living space and making it colder.

Yes, good point. When we built our house I went back and forth agonizing over whether to add the outside air kit. In the end I did not (would have meant a PVC pipe through the floor slab), and it is no problem at all in our tightly sealed house.

Downside of outside air coming straight into your woodstove is that in the depths of winter, you are trying to combust your firewood with zero degree air coming straight into the stove. This produces less than optimal combustion. Whereas without the outside air kit, if you let the house supply air into the stove for combustion, it's a nice toasty 70+ degrees and the fire burns more efficiently.

The bottom line is that a good small woodstove, burning hot, with nice dry wood can be damped down and still burn very efficiently, and pull very low CFM out of your house. But I still wish I had run the PVC pipe for outside air for mine, as it would be nice to have the choice sometimes.

 

[caver]

Caver
We live in a 20X24 ft log cabin. There is a loft as well as a full basement where our bedroom is. The stove is in the basement which is on the other half of the wall of the bedroom. There is a 2X3 ft regerster in the 1st floor and the cabin stays in the lower 70's throughout the winter months. We just replaced our 12 yr old Englander wood stove with a new Lopi Evergreen which has a high EPA rating. We went through around 12 - 14 facecord with the Englander stove and expect to use a lot less with the Lopi.

Same as what I plan, walk out basement and a loft with the 4' vertical extension. It's nice to hear others experiences.
To address some other things members have mentioned...no codes nada zilch. You can run your sewer into a small lagoon as the soil is poor. Plenty of Oak on my place and firewood is cheap if I don't feel like cutting it. Also it's pretty rural so power outages do happen.

 

[Krazi]

I just installed the small Lopi in my cabin. I think it said 700 to 1200 s/f. My cabin is about 750. I can light it when the cabin is 40 and have it up to 80 in a couple of hours.

 

[deserteagle71]

Kind of ironic when folks pay to haul off oak here...

Can't give it away.

What's ironic is that I drive by miles of dead standing trees, killed by bugs or wildfires. But it is on public land managed by the Federal government and they do not allow harvesting of the wood.

 

[oosik]

I started heating the house here with a LOPI wood burning stove. This was in 1982 - before all the regs on burning wood. So ..... our LOPI had no afterburners, smoke chambers nor catalytic converters.

It was a really great stove. It was built of heavy steel plate and had a flat platform top. We occasionally would cook on this top. We used this stove for twelve years - then we went to pellets.

 

[Ken45101]

I started heating the house here with a LOPI wood burning stove. This was in 1982 - before all the regs on burning wood. So ..... our LOPI had no afterburners, smoke chambers nor catalytic converters.

It was a really great stove. It was built of heavy steel plate and had a flat platform top. We occasionally would cook on this top. We used this stove for twelve years - then we went to pellets.

We have a pellet stove but it's for supplemental heat, not our main heat source, which is wood. Our wood is "free" and pellets are not. Furthermore, our pellet stove (Harmon "Advance") needs frequent cleaning and it's a real bear to clean.