As stated in my previous thread, we are building a larger cabin in SW Arkansas as our permanent retirement home. 1152 sqare foot bottom floor with cathedral ceiling and about one third of the area in an open loft area. SW Arkansas. We have been looking at wood burning stoves to be the primary source of heat. I probably need to add that we are using thermal pane windows along with some fixed glass at the top of the cathedral ceilng. The roof is metal with 2 X 6 joists and plan to fill the space between the decking and the finished ceiling with blown in cellulose. the walls are 2 X 4 with R-board (6.5 r factor) plus filling the 4" wall cavities with blown in cellulose. We will caulk everything. Pier and beam foundation. Still studying what to do about insulating the floor.
Hope this gives a good idea of what I will be trying to heat with my stove purchase. When I started looking at stoves on the internet I thought this would be a quick selection process, then
I found this web site! Reading everything here I can find and trying to avoid making a poor decision is daunting to say the least. I really appreaciate all the help from the members here. I have gleaned a few things so far that are coloring my search. The Harman was eliminated due to poor end user reviews. I also am coming to the conclusion that down draft stoves are problem prone and fussier to operate. The wife and I went to Little Rock yesterday to look at stoves and saw some beautiful and not so much units and am not much closer to a conclusion. The stoves we
looked at are the following:
Jotul Black Bear-latches and hinges seemed loose and stove did not seem to be top quality
Buck Stoves-Solid construction but somewhat spartan and ugly to our eyes (great performance
trumps cosmetics)
Lopi Leyden-nice looking but down draft technology which has mixed reviews (mostly bad)
Quadra-Fire Millenium 3100-Solid construction and best looking plate steel stove
Hearthstone Heritage-Back Iron finish- Very good looking stove-megabucks for us ($2400 for
stove only). Of course my wife thinks this is the one she has
to have.
Drolet Legend-Like the looks of this one but have not been able to see one in person
to see if it is made well and if it will meet my needs. Not much info on
burn times, etc.
As mentioned above my wife would like to make the stretch to the Hearthstone but there are
other considerations. Right now it is 14 degrees here with some wind and we are freezing our
butts off (unvented propane heater in our small cabin). Seems we are having colder winters
every year up here on this mountain our cabin is on so we are motivated that warmer is better.
But being realistic we know that we may have two months of very cold weather here but there are several months each year where we will start out with a fire in the morning but let it go out
during the day and fire it up in the evening for the night. My concern is that a soap stone stove
will not cool down fast enough to conform to the warm afternoons. I have zero experience with
wood stoves as we have only had heat-a-lator fire places in previous homes we owned in Texas.
We spent 8 years in Vermont previous to moving back home a year ago and all of our heating up
there was done with oil furnaces ($$$$). Would hate to feed one of those on retirement income
and rising oil prices! We will have backup propane wall heaters here but would like for them to
never come on.
Well, that's the whole story and I would appreaciate your best advice. Also would like to know which of the above listed stoves are "down draft" technology. One last thing, what does "shoulder season" refer to. lol.
Thanks again,
Jbird
Hope this gives a good idea of what I will be trying to heat with my stove purchase. When I started looking at stoves on the internet I thought this would be a quick selection process, then
I found this web site! Reading everything here I can find and trying to avoid making a poor decision is daunting to say the least. I really appreaciate all the help from the members here. I have gleaned a few things so far that are coloring my search. The Harman was eliminated due to poor end user reviews. I also am coming to the conclusion that down draft stoves are problem prone and fussier to operate. The wife and I went to Little Rock yesterday to look at stoves and saw some beautiful and not so much units and am not much closer to a conclusion. The stoves we
looked at are the following:
Jotul Black Bear-latches and hinges seemed loose and stove did not seem to be top quality
Buck Stoves-Solid construction but somewhat spartan and ugly to our eyes (great performance
trumps cosmetics)
Lopi Leyden-nice looking but down draft technology which has mixed reviews (mostly bad)
Quadra-Fire Millenium 3100-Solid construction and best looking plate steel stove
Hearthstone Heritage-Back Iron finish- Very good looking stove-megabucks for us ($2400 for
stove only). Of course my wife thinks this is the one she has
to have.
Drolet Legend-Like the looks of this one but have not been able to see one in person
to see if it is made well and if it will meet my needs. Not much info on
burn times, etc.
As mentioned above my wife would like to make the stretch to the Hearthstone but there are
other considerations. Right now it is 14 degrees here with some wind and we are freezing our
butts off (unvented propane heater in our small cabin). Seems we are having colder winters
every year up here on this mountain our cabin is on so we are motivated that warmer is better.
But being realistic we know that we may have two months of very cold weather here but there are several months each year where we will start out with a fire in the morning but let it go out
during the day and fire it up in the evening for the night. My concern is that a soap stone stove
will not cool down fast enough to conform to the warm afternoons. I have zero experience with
wood stoves as we have only had heat-a-lator fire places in previous homes we owned in Texas.
We spent 8 years in Vermont previous to moving back home a year ago and all of our heating up
there was done with oil furnaces ($$$$). Would hate to feed one of those on retirement income
and rising oil prices! We will have backup propane wall heaters here but would like for them to
never come on.
Well, that's the whole story and I would appreaciate your best advice. Also would like to know which of the above listed stoves are "down draft" technology. One last thing, what does "shoulder season" refer to. lol.
Thanks again,
Jbird