Is it worth it to buy a new stove?

[highland]

We have been heating our house with wood since we built it in '79. It is 2 stories 1600 square feet - heavily insulated. We have a single stove (Glacier Bay) as our only source of heat. We are in Upstate NY where the winter temps rarely get below 0 (we are near Lake Ontario). We have our own woods so our only cost is the labor.

My question is has stove technology inproved enough in the last ~30 years to justify the expense of purchasing a new stove? The dealer of course says yes. The stove we are looking at is a Lopi Endeavor - $2,000.

Will we burn less wood with a new stove? If so is the Endeavor a good choice?

Thanks.

 

[cmonSTART]

We just installed an EPA approved non-cat 2 days ago and so far we've used about 30-50% less wood than before, and it's a lot warmer in here!

 

[Chettt]

You'll use less wood and produce less smoke, but if wood is free and you don't have neighbors nearby, I'd save the $2000.

 

[johnsopi]

Some the new stove mighty nice looking and you can watch the flames which to me would be worth it.

 

[synthnut]

Burning 30-50% less wood means cutting, splitting, and carrying 30-50% less wood !!...Plus your house would be warmer ....Over a few years, that alone would pay for the stove , not to mention how much better your back will feel fetching that much less wood !!.... What kind of shape is the old stove in ?....That's another factor ....Jim

 

[swestall]

YES, once every 30m years is OK....

 

[webbie]

I think your unit has paid for itself, and Lopi is a fine brand. That said, you can get stoves from $800 to $3,000 to replace yours, so much of the decision is a matter of exact preference......even Lopi and Avalon have $1100 models......

Note, you can probably get a few bucks for your unit also!

 

[BrotherBart]

If the old stove is doing the job, and it obviously is, keep on keeping on.

 

[Jimbob]

It depends on how much you enjoy cutting, splitting, stacking, carrying wood. And how much you enjoy cleaning out ashes.
There are plenty of good stoves for <$1000.00 if money is a factor.
The new ones should have a bit longer burn time than the old Glacier Bay.

 

[RonB]

When looking for a new stove educate yourself on the type of heat the stove will produce. That is, radiant or passive. I mention this because I had an old large steel stove and it was radiant heat. I liked that! I purchased a modern stove that I thought was a near duplicate. It uses primarily passive or convection to heat my house. I do not like that as well but it still does the job (at least so far with my coldest day this year 15degrees). I'm sure your old stove heated by radiant. If that type of heat is important to you, then look for that feature in the new stoves.

 

[RonB]

Hey Highland, I forgot to mention that the newer stoves have that nice viewing glass front door. That is really nice, and will help you monitor/run stove correctly. It's like having a fireplace but without the heat loss. I went thru the same thought process you are right now this April. Tipping points for me were: 1)Burn/handle less wood (even though I have my own woods) 2)Clean the chimney less frequently (3X season down to 1X I hope) and more easily because of less creosote 3)Put less smoke in the air.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

So the stove has 28 years of use. I'd certainly begin wondering about the stove and how much longer you can safely use it. We just replaced an old stove that had well over 20 years usuage, but it was an old steel stove that was not that heavy of a steel. We could certainly have used it longer, but we had been talking for a few years about replacing it. A little remodeling made our final decision to get a new stove. Was it worth it? Much too early to tell, but so far I have to say we are burning less wood.

Having your own wood supply does make a difference. We too have our own wood supply and we definitely enjoy the cutting, splitting, stacking and all that it requires. However, as we are getting up in years we realize that we soon will be able to do less. In fact, my wife has had some physical problems and has not been much help for the last couple of years and no help last year. So, we're (me actually) going to build up a big supply of wood now....just in case we can't at some time.

btw, the new stove looks so much nicer than the old one!