Jotul f45 and conversion

[Jfior1983]

Hi All, sorry, this will be a longer post. I’m in Alaska. Just bought a house and was between a Jotul f45 and f55.
After firing up the existing stove, a huge old 1984 blaze king princess , I discovered that it absolutely roasted us out. 80 degrees inside without even getting the stove to 400 degrees, and that thing was hot after the fire for 9 hours. Absolute overkill.

The house is 1600 sf with vaulted ceilings, and brand new Anderson windows throughout. I assume the giant blaze king was necessary with older windows, since I’m not sure how it was possible to live with that thing running.

I’ll attach pics of living space. Based on this, I think I’m going for the f45. I do like the looks of the f55 much better (bigger, larger window, would be more impressive in my living space), but I need to swallow my pride on that point since I don’t want to turn my house into a volcano. Would you all agree with this…since the blaze king is too much, the f55 would be too much as well?
Who has good experiences with f45?
Another question here is this: I have a few different quotes for how to address the chimney. Blaze King has an 8 in pipe, and the two options seem to be adding a 6-in pipe inside the existing, or to add a double wall 6 inch with telescoping conversion. Any thought on what’s better? I’ll include the 2 different quotes in text and in pictures. Couple different options:

1.). estimated around 9’ of inside ventis double wall chimney pipe at $700 to $800.
We can deliver stove, materials and install it for $1000 cash or check.
Total $1,700 $1,800

2.). If you get the old stove out and new one in we can hook it up for $300. This all depends on if the current chimney we would be increasing to is in good condition. We would clean the old chimney before hooking the new pipe up also.
Total $1,000 to $1,100.

 

[Todd]

I’ve had my F45 for about four years now and it’s a great stove. If you would rather have the F55 go for it! The difference in firebox size is only a little less than .4 cu ft. That old Blaze King probably has a 4 cu ft fire box verses the F55 2.7 cu ft. With that open floor plan I think you’ll be fine with the F55.

It would be best to go with 6” stove pipe and chimney all the way up but If the 8” chimney is in good shape I think I would try a 6” reducer at the ceiling support box with double wall 6” down to the stove.

 

[BKVP]

All the old smoke dragons (including ours) were monsters of heat output. As wood heaters have come into compliance with EPA regulations, we (industry) have reduced the 70+ gr/h of emissions down to 2.0 - gr/h. The good news is efficiencies have gone way up, but Btu's have dropped. The KTJ model you have was 65,000 btu's. The new models are =/-45,000 btu's.

Your dealer has multiple retail locations, but we can assume you are in the Matsu Borough based upon the estimate. There are several great dealers for Jotul, Hearthstone, etc. Shop around for best deal. Several models qualify for the IRS tax credit..which can be up to $2,000.00

Perhaps the credit would help replace chimney....if needed.

BKVP