Looked at new stoves

[Hoytman]

...”but how many winters do we have like that?”

Well, look at it like this. I guarantee you won’t be asking that question when we do have another winter like that. LOL!

Then the question will be more like:
“Why didn’t I buy a stove one size bigger?!?!”

The answer at that time will not be bragging “how much fuel a stove can hold”, but how much heat the stove can throw.

The better answer is more insulation, or more clothes. LOL!

Lots of trade-offs in life. Choose wisely!!

 

[logfarmer]

Hoytman, you are correct! And since I’ve sold my WS, my stoves have been bigger, I have been just too big for what I need and I’m trying different stoves for “research” lol and it tells me what I do need. It’s all about dropping the all mighty dollar for what I need/want.

 

[firefighterjake]

I like the Hearthstone stoves looks quite a bit.

The guy I bought my Hitzer from had just bought a new $4000 (his words, not mine) Hearthstone to heat his 2200 sq. ft. home. This was I believe two years ago when we had that real bad cold snap here where we both live. He told me he loved the stove, got it sized to fit his house, but with the cold that winter being so cold he said it wouldn’t keep up with his not so well insulated home and that he had to fire up his grandma’s old wood cookstove just to help keep the place warm. All this while in his sons room sat the giant Hitzer 354 wood/coal stove that I ended up with. Was a no brained solution to me, but oh well...he thought he wanted a fancy stove. Nothing wrong with that and the problem was the weather and house that needed more insulation. It wasn’t the stoves fault. He was also trying to burn green wood in it as well, so that didn’t help things. He actually had 9 cords of wood he was trying to get seasoned that he’d stacked early that spring and had it covered. He was trying.

The point is...

That style of stove puts off soft heat they say, not the blaring radiant heat from a steel stove that he needed that particular winter. Also, the size of the home comes into play as does having a little stove left or a lot of stove left. A highly insulated home can stand a stove better that only has a littleextra heat left to radiate or to convert. An older, cut up design with little insulation will require a stove sized to have a lot of heating capability left in it.

In my mind the guy I bought my Hitzer from, he should have bought a Blaze King, King model and had the ability to turn the stove way down or run it on medium to medium-high when the house and weather conditions called for it. The Hearthstone stove he bought just couldn’t handle it by his own admission of having to run the kitchen cook stove...the Hearthstone dealer should have upsized his stove chive one model bigger for him. That was an expensive mistake!! $4000 virtually wasted.

Nit saying you need a King model for your house, but you know the size of stove you have now and what temps it takes to keep the home comfortable...or you soon will know this month. Use that information for helping to choose and size a new stove.

I am different than most on forums. I don’t feel you should have to run a stove cranked up all the time. In fact, with today’s stoves...like everything else built today...they are built to replace in a few short years rather than being built like tanks like older stoves. So in my mind get a stove to run mostly in the mid-range for your homes conditions. Use the temps you record from the stove you have, as well as your current stoves size, as a way to gauge your future stoves needs. Also keep in mind a radiant style stove or a convective type stove. Radiant will warm things in the house and will give a warmer feel...even a hot feeling in the house. Some use radiant and convective, like Lopi, Blaze King, Buck, and many others. Another thing to consider is a blower. My feeling is that it’s better to have it and not need it, than it is to need it and not have it. Blowers in stoves are like 4-wheel drive on trucks...the resale value is more and has more appeal.

Check out Regency stoves, Buck, and SBI brands like Drolet and Osborn as well as those mentioned above including Hearthstone and WoodStock. Kuma stoves are another great choice.

I agree with about 98% of this post and think much of this is very sound advice.

I do disagree with two points however.

I do not think most stove manufacturers are building stoves designed to be replaced in a few years. In fact, I would argue that it would be the opposite in most cases. I know my 2008 Jotul -- OK, so maybe it is 12 or so years old so maybe it would be considered older vs. newer -- has only had a few gaskets and baffle blanket replaced by me and it is still going strong. I suspect it will be going for many more years to come and will no doubt some day need to be rebuilt . . . but that time is not yet come.

I also disagree with the recommendation of the blower for stoves. I actually considered this and asked my dealer about buying one and while he could have easily netted a little more profit on the sale he suggested I wait and see if I needed one or not. As he told me, "If you try it out and find you need one you can very easily add one later." As it was I discovered simply using a regular, plain Jane desk fan pointed towards the stove worked quite well at moving the heat in the case of my free standing stove.

 

[Hoytman]

I agree with about 98% of this post and think much of this is very sound advice.

I do disagree with two points however.

I do not think most stove manufacturers are building stoves designed to be replaced in a few years. In fact, I would argue that it would be the opposite in most cases. I know my 2008 Jotul -- OK, so maybe it is 12 or so years old so maybe it would be considered older vs. newer -- has only had a few gaskets and baffle blanket replaced by me and it is still going strong. I suspect it will be going for many more years to come and will no doubt some day need to be rebuilt . . . but that time is not yet come.

I also disagree with the recommendation of the blower for stoves. I actually considered this and asked my dealer about buying one and while he could have easily netted a little more profit on the sale he suggested I wait and see if I needed one or not. As he told me, "If you try it out and find you need one you can very easily add one later." As it was I discovered simply using a regular, plain Jane desk fan pointed towards the stove worked quite well at moving the heat in the case of my free standing stove.

Hey...I make no claim at being perfect. LOL! Points well taken and understood.

On the first point I failed to mention what I was really referring to, and that is parts replacement, but that is different because the parts are what gives these stoves the advantage over older stoves. Still, much fewer parts from the old stoves. It’s a trade-off though for less efficiency compared with modern stoves. Still, there some cheaply made stoves being offered out there. The kind/brands we talk about here generally do not fall into that category and are well made. Still, the verdict is still out whether or not they will be around as long as Fisher’s etc., simply because models are discontinued and parts can be hard to find or very expensive. VC and Harmon to name two. These then become boat anchors where, while inefficient, old stoves can often still be used for heating. Glass, bricks, and gasketing are pretty universal and common.

I completely understand your second point. In my case a blower helped with clearance issues...not so much to pass code clearance which my Lopi with blower will also do, but with the coal stove I am using without the blower the Heatshield would not have been included. It still does not meet code clearance, but I can tell you for certain it is completely safe. My hearth wall runs 90-100F where before it could be double that or more. Tearing it out and starting over was not an option and it was either coal or a stove like the Lopi with a 4” clearance I believe it is...maybe it is 6”. Heco I can’t remember, I just remember it will work because I actually have room to keep it further away than that, so I’m past clearance if I want. I just happens to find the wood/coal stove before I found the Lopi. So, I understand what you are saying and agree. I just have a little unique application.

 

[logfarmer]

I would say if you have to run the stove hard all the time, yes it will fatigue faster! Some stoves have thinner walls than the “older” stoves did.