Choosing a stove: Is bigger really better?

[Roger Feeley]

I’m wrestling with choosing my first stove. Is bigger really better?

If I buy a big stove, I might find myself building small fires. I’m afraid that the flue gases won’t get hot enough for the catalyst. And if I do heat the thing up to use the catalyst, would I be opening the windows?

In my case, it’s between Vermont castings Intrepid (small stove) and the Encore (my bride of almost 50 years likes the warming shelves). We like the size of the Encore but are worried that it would turn the house into a sauna if we run it the way it wants. Also, the Intrepid wants 14” logs which you can’t find around here. I would have to shorten standard logs.

 

[dmccoole]

Did you also look at the Dauntless which can take 16" logs? It can have warming shelves.

It really depends on how big of a space you have to heat, small room, big open room, etc. As well as your average winter temps.

The VC Encore likes to run 24x7 when it's cold out, i.e. when it is below 32. I would say it's more of a challenge to build/maintain small fires especially during the edge season when it's 32-50 degrees.

 

[Roger Feeley]

Vermont Castings doesn’t offer warming shelves for the Dauntless. Very strange. I even called their support line.

 

[stoveliker]

Bigger is not always better. If you're operating the stove continually below what it was designed for, you'll not be happy. It'll need more babysitting to burn clean.

Stoves work best when operated in the middle of their range. It's fine to occasionally go below that, and to burn it hot in a cold snap.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Vermont Castings doesn’t offer warming shelves for the Dauntless. Very strange. I even called their support line.

To really answer your question the answer is how much space are you heating and how easy is it for the warm air to travel through the house.

I have an encore, my house is open and the heat from the stove is not trapped in the living room where the stove is, it moves freely through the rest of the house. This being said the stove really shines with its low burn. Many here with this stove heat their home when its a little warmer and not get the house over heated and during cold snaps like this past week, well the stove does a great job keeping the house up to temperature. The type of wood also plays a factor in heating. Using oak gets you somewhere around 25 million BTUs per cord where something like poplar is only like 14 million BTUs per cord, so the wood will play a part in how much heat the stove produces.

What do you want to do with the stove determines the stove purchased. Fire viewing the encore has much more glass, longer burn times, the encore has a bigger box and easily burns 12 hours.

The most important things to consider with any stove is making sure you meet the requirements for proper draft, as draft is what operates the stove. The next most important thing is dry seasoned wood. The stove performance will be absolutely crap with wet wood. As just a heas up.. you will NEVER buy truly seasoned wood. I don't care how much your firewood selller is telling you its seasoned... its not Oak takes roughly 2 years to season. Most of the sellers split in summer and sell it that fall so 3 months sitting in a pile isn't really seasoned. So if your purchasing wood you should get it now and start letting it dry out.