New House-Insert or Stove?

[Pizzaman]

It's amazing how much help I received here when we installed our first stove. Reading and listening here for a few months proved invaluable. In our first adventure, we installed a Lenox Striker C160. A small stove, but it did a decent job trying to heat our home.

Flash forward to our new house. Tons of space to heat, and an existing fireplace. I'm not in a position to post a picture yet, but can if anyone finds it helpful in providing answers to my question.

The fireplace is stone. Stone mantle, stone hearth, stone all the way up 20' ceilings.

The dimensions of the existing fireplace are 29" high, 26" wide, and 28" deep. The hearth is approximately 20" deep.

I'm fairly certain I want to put in a HearthStone, just not sure which one.

I'm trying to decide between an insert or going free-standing. Due to the height of the fireplace, I could literally stand an inset partially inside the firebox, protruding partially onto the hearth.

Any thoughts from the experts here on the benefits of insert vs. the benefits of a free-standing stove.

My primary purpose is to provide heat to as much of the house as possible. My wife's primary purpose is something that looks nice and keeps her toasty in that room!

My thanks in advance for any thoughts.

 

[firefighterjake]

If you do a search for stove vs. insert I suspect you'll find more than one thread on this topic.

However, we might as well bring this great debate back to the forefront so . . .

I like the look of an insert better for existing masonry fireplaces . . . but that's just me . . . I'm kind of a traditionalist.

However, I would think the benefit of a free-standing stove would be more exposed surfaces (stone or metal) for the radiant heat . . . plus most inserts seem to use fans to blow the heat out whereas most free-standing stoves would not need a fan . . . a benefit in terms of noise and more effective use in power outages. Of course, one could argue that a properly sized insert can heat as well as a free standing stove, the noise is neglible and even in a power outage the insert will pump out heat without the use of a blower.

 

[Fsappo]

I agree with everything Jake said. Hearthstones Clydesdale insert is a decent heater. My customers report heating 1500 square feet or so with 8+ hour burn times. It's a cast iron insert lined with soapstone. Some of my customers tell me that because of the heat life of the insert, they can let it burn down to just a few coals, clean out the ash and add new wood to get the fire started without the convection fan ever turning off.

As far as looks goes. One thing to consider is how that nice cast iron surround panel will match up to the rough surface of the stone face of your fireplace. Some folks (Like me) would be happy just pushing it in as flush as you can and not worry about the little gaps between the surround and the stone. (Draft isnt an issue as inserts should be sealed at the damper area around the pipe anyhow)

The idea of a Hearthstone stove out in front of the fireplace sounds great, more so if that large area is all open. With 20' ceilings it sounds like it is. The things to consider are the hearth size for one. If you want the have that big beautiful even soapstone heat, you'll want the stove out in front of the fireplace. Also, if you want to get more heat than you would with a Clydesdale (which it sounds like you can use) you would want to look at something the size of the Mansfield. The Mansfield is top exit only, so there is no easy way to install it into a 29" tall fireplace. You would end up having to go with the Heritage. Now, you can add a heat shield and fan to the Heritage, but they are not nearly as effective convection heaters as something with a true heat exchanger would be.

All those things considered, if it was me, I would go with the Clydesdale. I just rechecked your post and your saying 29" high x 26" wide. It would be great if it was really 36" wide, not 26" Because with that width, your not gonna find an insert that will give you decent heat...so now, if your really 26" wide, I would go back to a Heritage with a fan and planning on extending your hearth out a little

Frank

 

[ClydesdaleBurner]

I wanted to add if you do a search for "clydesdale" and go back a couple years, there is a lot of info on this stove. Check the winters of 2007 & 2008. I bought mine in 2007 and there were some great posts on here back then.

Here is my $0.02 even though I'm obviously biased. It is a great insert. It puts out great heat and the heat cycle is a longer bell shaped curve due to the soap stone liner. It won't warm up super quick, but within 1 hour of burning my living room is already up a degree or two and after a couple hours it will start heating other rooms (depending on your home layout). My house is 1800 sqft colonial, two story. The stove has the potential to keep the whole house warm. I do not do many 24/7 burns, only on weekends, but when I do them they will definitely keep the house toasty even upstairs if I leave the doors open. If you stuff the firebox full at 10pm by 7am you should still have some coals left to do a restart. The stove temp will be down considerably, but inside the firebox is usually still enough to get up and going.

As for the looks of the stove, that was the main reason I bought it. I wanted to be able to see the fire and the view on the Clydesdale is one of the best available. The window is huge and if you burn hot enough the glass stay about 90% clean. I also liked the all black look and no gold/brass trim on it either. The blower isn't that bad either, especially since you can control the speed, at medium speed, it puts out a good stream of hot air and is not that loud. Also this year Hearthstone made some refinements to the Clydesdale and I guess one of them was to use rubber bushing in the blower assembly so it is even quieter. Mine will rattle and vibrate once in a while and it might require me to give the blower a little tap to get it to stop. If the new units fixed this problem it would be nice.

Well happy hunting.

 

[Highbeam]

The striker was a tiny stove. You can do much better with even a medium sized stove. How big is this home? The 20' ceiling tells me you'll need a lot of heat and the tiny fireplace dimensions tell me that you can't buy an insert that will make enough heat for the space.

So for this reason, plus many more, you will need a freestanding stove somehow vented into the fireplace. Is this a masonry fireplace with a huge flue or some sort of prefab deal with only a 6" flue? Does your hearth set up 18" or so like a typical modern fireplace or is the fireplace really low to the ground like the old ones? Reason I ask is that you need to set the freestanding stove on something and the typical little fireplace hearth is too narrow to hold a stove.

The Hearthstone equinox is a heritage doubled and can be rear vented into an 8" or larger flue. I like the looks of some inserts but I owned a large Lopi insert and hated the blowers.

 

[Fsappo]

mmmm, the Equinox. Who dares use this beast?

 

[Highbeam]

It's become quite popular on this site. My next door neighbor even has one. Really depends on the house size though.

 

[Fsappo]

I've sold a few of them. It's always exciting to meet someone who has the space to really use one.

 

[THEMAN]

You could also look at a Buck stove its made to be either free standing or used as an insert. So if you don't like it as an insert get the leg kit and viola you have a free standing stove without having to purchase one. Better yet if you decide that you liked the insert better than the free standing stove you can remove the legs and us it as an insert again. Wow. The possibilities just seems to go on and on haha.