Best Wood Stove?

[BKVP]

Keep in mind also when you’re thinking about stove size that though manufacturers tend to specify heating areas using square footage, the stove is actually heating cubic footage. While your intended square footage may be 1,300, your cubic footage is equivalent to that of a 2,000 square foot house or even more depending on the heights of the ceilings. Stove manufacturers’ square footage ratings are calculated assuming eight foot ceilings and a cool winter climate like the Pacific Northwest, not an extremely cold climate.

I commend you for planning to skip the fireplace and adding a woodstove. If you’re really serious about heating with wood, though, you might want to rethink a cabin plan that has such a high ceiling in the stove room. The heat will definitely rise up there, and even with a ceiling fan, you’ll have a lot of BTU’s going to empty space. (I do understand the appeal of the look, though.)

Oh yeah? I hunt in Seneca and in last 20 years I've seen plenty of propane tanks crack! I realize it's an ancient record, but some of live east of others..

 

[stovelark]

Wow- glad I don't have to endure that cold...
OP- Jotuls are fantastic cast iron wood stoves, been making them since 1853. I've sold them, I've worked on many many, I've had them in my house (and still have a Jotul Sebago gas stove, sister stove to the F400 Castine), they are great stoves. So are Soapstone stoves, my only burning experience is with a Phoenix, I liked it. Pretty stove, still a cast iron/soapstone hybrid. Of all the wood stoves I've had, I do like the Enviro Kodiak 1700 the best, ironically its the least expensive one too. What I like about it is its forgiving, easy draft and can take a wetter piece of wood and still deliver heat, but remember dry wood is the absolute key. I sometimes think here we get lost in the weeds too much, any stove that has a proper chimney install, hooked up properly and ran with good dry wood is going to be a good wood stove period.
Find the one you like, install it and run it properly- remember always too you are inviting fire in your home, treat it well. Stay warm...

 

[mthoodfire]

Good luck on your search, I will warn that if you want something "soon" you may be very limited in options. I just started looking recently and found that most of the models I liked were sold out until March or April 2023, which I guess is better than April 2024.

If you are looking for "contemporary" or "modern" stoves, so more boxy with a larger window proportional to stove size, these are the brands that stood out on my list:

• SBI = Drolet (Deco series) and Osburn (Matrix or Inspire) both have contemporary options (same parent company, share firebox designs)
• Blaze King (such as a Boxer 24.1 or a Chinook)
• MF Fire (Nova / Nova 2)
• Supreme Novo
• Pacific Energy (Neo 1.6 / Neo 2.5)

You will need to look at balancing how much you want to spend, how you wan it to look, and how soon you want to get it. I would also read up on catalytic vs non-catalytic for your specific usage pattern and decide which is the best fit. I will also warn that you may find you must buy the stove from a shop locally to even get them to talk to you for a chimney install. The chimney is really two primary parts: stove pipe (inside and connects to stove) and chimney pipe (goes through your ceiling/wall and vents to the outside).

I picked a Drolet Deco-II as I am in a tropical climate compared to you and wanted a low heat output, it is pretty rare for for my address to be below have sustained temperatures below freezing for more than a few days...and most of the time our lows don't even make it there. I don't the the stove yet so I can only share what I found here.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Oh yeah? I hunt in Seneca and in last 20 years I've seen plenty of propane tanks crack! I realize it's an ancient record, but some of live east of others..

View attachment 305028

Point taken, BKVP. Nevertheless, the average highs in mid January in Southwest Wisconsin, where the OP plans to build a cabin, are closer to the average lows in Grant County, Oregon, at the same time of year. I just wanted the OP to be aware that he could be in danger of undersizing a stove for his build if he just works off published square footage ratings since he’ll have extra cubic footage and pretty cold winters.

As far as I can recall, I’ve never been through anything below single digits below zero, and I hope I never have to. If I had to, I would sure want a nice big woodstove to keep me warm..

 

[GerryM]

Hi
Good luck with the stove- I have a Napoleon but am a fan of Pacific Energy and Blaze King also.
My layout is pretty similar except where the fireplace is in your place I have another room added. My second floor is larger, with a 12 x 15 bedroom, bathroom and loft. Our stove is almost dead centre at the front and heats the place very well- when we are there the furnace only comes on when it's below minus 30. The basement stays cool- 2 bedrooms down there. (daughter doesn't mind- son is a softie).
WE use a ceiling fan again dead centre to push air down otherwise our bedroom and loft on the second floor are pretty hot!

 

[BKVP]

Point taken, BKVP. Nevertheless, the average highs in mid January in Southwest Wisconsin, where the OP plans to build a cabin, are closer to the average lows in Grant County, Oregon, at the same time of year. I just wanted the OP to be aware that he could be in danger of undersizing a stove for his build if he just works off published square footage ratings since he’ll have extra cubic footage and pretty cold winters.

As far as I can recall, I’ve never been through anything below single digits below zero, and I hope I never have to. If I had to, I would sure want a nice big woodstove to keep me warm..

Yeah Begreen, Highbeam and a few others here are NW wood burners. Here in the "east" have some cold weather. Walla Walla got -26F but usually hangs closer to single digits above. I was in Ely, MN last winter and every diesel rig in town wouldn't start. When I retire, I won't travel 250+ days a year! Unless we break open in Hawaii !

 

[BKVP]

Hi
Good luck with the stove- I have a Napoleon but am a fan of Pacific Energy and Blaze King also.
My layout is pretty similar except where the fireplace is in your place I have another room added. My second floor is larger, with a 12 x 15 bedroom, bathroom and loft. Our stove is almost dead centre at the front and heats the place very well- when we are there the furnace only comes on when it's below minus 30. The basement stays cool- 2 bedrooms down there. (daughter doesn't mind- son is a softie).
WE use a ceiling fan again dead centre to push air down otherwise our bedroom and loft on the second floor are pretty hot!

View attachment 305092 View attachment 305093

Very beautiful!

 

[GerryM]

Very beautiful!

Thanks- waterfront place, retiring in January, 2 hours from our home. Few properties on the lake, and 45 minutes from my hunting camp and property!

 

[mikey]

After you do your search pick two then ask your wife to pick one then buy it.

 

[Jedi]

Off topic, how much does it cost to build a cabin like this?

 

[zimmerra]

Off topic, how much does it cost to build a cabin like this?

Don’t know. Still checking into it.

 

[zimmerra]

Thanks all for the responses!

 

[zimmerra]

Driftless area by chance?

Yes

 

[moresnow]

Yes

If you fish the IA. side by any chance PM me. I am up that way all the time. Might be close to your spot. Enjoy!

 

[mdocod]

Lots of comments on how the loft space and high ceiling space will be too hot, while the downstairs bedrooms will be cool.... Some ideas on that front to consider:

The 2 story home we had built about 2 years ago is similar in concept to the cabin you have planned, it's just much larger. ~3500 sqft total, with about half downstairs and half upstairs. The upstairs half extends out over the garage (bedrooms) and has a huge U shaped loft that is our "everything" room (living/family/rec) That loft overlooks the kitchen and great room (dining/entryway/stove-area), with 18' clear height to the ceiling, and is above our master suite/halls/closets/utility/laundry etc. The south wall has lots of large picture windows.

I knew this floorplan would concentrate most of the heat up in the loft and high-ceiling space above the kitchen and great room year-round without help to distribute it, especially in the winter while heating with wood out in the great room. To combat this, we did a few things to the HVAC system.. 1. Return-air ducts in every bedroom and living space. 2. High-mounted return-air at the top of the loft wall to "skim" the heat off the ceiling and redistribute it. 3. A furnace with a high-efficiency (VFD or PM type) variable speed blower that can be commanded to run at low or medium fan-only mode continuously. We run ours at 50% year-round. Not only does this balance the temperature in the house, but also results in much better air quality as we're constantly circulating the house air through a MERV 13 filter, so dust, dander, and even smoke from the wood stove when a bit jumps out the door on accident (if I open it wrong, or if we have a lot of sources of vacuum on the house) is filtered out.

When the loft is a comfortable 70-74F, the bedrooms both upstairs and downstairs around around 62-66F, and the kitchen is ~66-70F. This works fine for us, as we prefer a cooler bedroom. Us millennials can't sleep without our weighted blankie!

Anyway... if you're having a furnace installed anyway, you can use the furnace to solve the heat distribution. Low fan speed (~25%) on most furnaces would be plenty to balance the temps in that little cabin just fine, and at that speed it's almost completely inaudible.

 

[Woody Stover]

Coldest I have ever been in my life was horse shopping in Portage, WI, in January, -25F

Yeah, I remember that day. With the wind chill it was -70. 🥶 I was working outside, but luckily I could come back in and get warm.
Then in another -70 blizzard, I decided it would be fun to load my wife-to-be in the car, along with her sister and young child, and drive to Indiana. They closed the road we were driving on, and we teamed up for a caravan of two with another woman and her kid, and cut over to the interstate. We took turns following each other at 25 mph, and even that speed, really, was too fast to be able to see something and stop in time. Then we heard on the radio that they had closed the interstate!
We finally drove out of it, 200 miles south of where we had started. 😖
I enjoy challenges, but it was lucky I didn't end up killing us. 😯 Ah, to be young and foolish again... Well, at least I'm still foolish! 😏

"Best" is in the eyes and needs of the beholder.

1. easiest operation
2. best features

At first I thought you missed the grated ash-handling system in your "best" list, one of my first considerations in a stove candidate. But then I saw that you had indeed covered that feature. 😏

WE use a ceiling fan again dead centre to push air down otherwise our bedroom and loft on the second floor are pretty hot!

I thought we were supposed to blow the air up in order to work with the natural convection loop already at play, i.e. the colder air falling down off the walls and forcing warmer air upward in the center of the room...?

When I retire, I won't travel 250+ days a year! Unless we break open in Hawaii !

I think your stoves have a good chance of breaking open in any state. 😏

 

[Woody Stover]

Of all the wood stoves I've had, I do like the Enviro Kodiak 1700 the best

They are out of production now, though, correct?

 

[Woody Stover]

Us millennials can't sleep without our weighted blankie!

Huh, really? I took all the heavy blankets off and replaced them with fleece. 😏