Question/suggestions?? Recommendations?

[WYOmom]

General info: We currently have a Kozy Komfort free standing stove in our basement living area. We also have a ???? Stove insert on the main floor in a Superior Heatform fireplace. We know that if we replace the stove insert (which is only used on the coldest days) we would need a chimney reline. WE use wood as our main source of heat but we do have baseboard heaters in each room.

Questions----

1. Is it better to replace the basement freestanding stove, that is regularly used, or to replace the insert on the main floor? We are leaning toward replacing the basement stove.

2. We have cottonwood easily available (the main wood for our area), but also some Elm and pine. Would you suggest a catalytic converter stove or a non-catalytic stove? Why? we have spoken to local dealers and gotten an even split on what was best based on what was being sold.;

3. Currently we are considering Blaze King or Pacific Energy (Amberlea T6) as these are what is represented locally (by local I mean within an hour away) since we live in a rural area. Do you have a preference/recommendation = these or others-- based on your experience/our situation?

 

[Bigg_Redd]

General info: We currently have a Kozy Komfort free standing stove in our basement living area. We also have a ???? Stove insert on the main floor in a Superior Heatform fireplace. We know that if we replace the stove insert (which is only used on the coldest days) we would need a chimney reline. WE use wood as our main source of heat but we do have baseboard heaters in each room.

Questions----

1. Is it better to replace the basement freestanding stove, that is regularly used, or to replace the insert on the main floor? We are leaning toward replacing the basement stove.

2. We have cottonwood easily available (the main wood for our area), but also some Elm and pine. Would you suggest a catalytic converter stove or a non-catalytic stove? Why? we have spoken to local dealers and gotten an even split on what was best based on what was being sold.;

3. Currently we are considering Blaze King or Pacific Energy (Amberlea T6) as these are what is represented locally (by local I mean within an hour away) since we live in a rural area. Do you have a preference/recommendation = these or others-- based on your experience/our situation?

1) Why are you replacing either?

2) If you're burning lots of cottonwood (tough draw there) I'd lean toward a cat stove just to squeeze every BTU out of it.

3) I fully support any BK or PE purchase. Both great stoves. I went with PE for ease of operation and proximity of dealer. Either way there's no wrong choice.

 

[WYOmom]

1) Why are you replacing either?

2) If you're burning lots of cottonwood (tough draw there) I'd lean toward a cat stove just to squeeze every BTU out of it.

3) I fully support any BK or PE purchase. Both great stoves. I went with PE for ease of operation and proximity of dealer. Either way there's no wrong choice.

Both are old and inefficient. I am guessing early-mid 80's on the insert and we know it would not meet current codes as the chimney has not been relined. I understand this would be an additional expense. My husband is handy but is not certain that this is a job he can tackle (or has time to tackle). The freestanding stove is also older and inefficient though possibly slightly newer than the insert. We have owned the house for 3 years and it has been our main source of heat during our cold Wyoming winters. Also both are ugly and you can not see the fire in either.

We agree on the cottonwood, it stinks, and try to get other wood when possible, but not much else is available regularly in our area. Some have told us that a cat stove is not as good to use with soft woods or pitchy woods like pine (which is about the second most available wood to us) and that the cat will clog much quicker and need to be replaced often. Opinions???? I find the whole cat or no cat thing to be either great or not great depending on what the dealer is selling. lol The closest dealer for either the BK or the PE (or for any fireplace dealer) are over an hour away from where we live.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

1) Why are you replacing either?

2) If you're burning lots of cottonwood (tough draw there) I'd lean toward a cat stove just to squeeze every BTU out of it.

3) I fully support any BK or PE purchase. Both great stoves. I went with PE for ease of operation and proximity of dealer. Either way there's no wrong choice.

Both are old and inefficient. I am guessing early-mid 80's on the insert and we know it would not meet current codes as the chimney has not been relined. I understand this would be an additional expense. My husband is handy but is not certain that this is a job he can tackle (or has time to tackle). The freestanding stove is also older and inefficient though possibly slightly newer than the insert. We have owned the house for 3 years and it has been our main source of heat during our cold Wyoming winters. Also both are ugly and you can not see the fire in either.

We agree on the cottonwood, it stinks, and try to get other wood when possible, but not much else is available regularly in our area. Some have told us that a cat stove is not as good to use with soft woods or pitchy woods like pine (which is about the second most available wood to us) and that the cat will clog much quicker and need to be replaced often. Opinions???? I find the whole cat or no cat thing to be either great or not great depending on what the dealer is selling. lol The closest dealer for either the BK or the PE (or for any fireplace dealer) are over an hour away from where we live.

Cat stoves don't like wet/green wood (neither do non-cat stoves for that matter) but I've never heard anything about them not liking softwood or pine or the like. BKs are made in Walla Walla, WA which isn't exactly known for it's massive stands of oak/maple/elm/beech/ash/etc. North of 60 burns nothing but pine in his BK Princess.

 

[WYOmom]

We had not heard that either about the Cat stoves until yesterday, so then that had us second guessing if the BK should even be an option. I really think we are leaning toward replacing the free standing stove now and doing more research about what to do with the insert. I am not crazy about pellet stoves, but we might consider a pellet insert since it is our secondary heat source and it would not require the chimney reline. There is just so much to think about and consider since this is a large sum of $$ for us with 3 kids and only one income we really want to make the best decision.

Thanks so much for your input.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

We had not heard that either about the Cat stoves until yesterday, so then that had us second guessing if the BK should even be an option. I really think we are leaning toward replacing the free standing stove now and doing more research about what to do with the insert. I am not crazy about pellet stoves, but we might consider a pellet insert since it is our secondary heat source and it would not require the chimney reline. There is just so much to think about and consider since this is a large sum of $$ for us with 3 kids and only one income we really want to make the best decision.

Thanks so much for your input.

Just say "no" to pellet stoves.

If the insert is just backup heat then I wouldn't do anything with it at all but burn it on extra cold days.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum WYOmom.

I was surprised when I read about you having some elm out there. Elm gets a bad rap because of being so hard to split but we burn a certain amount of it every year with no problems and actually like it. Cottonwood? Well, it is plentiful out there, so burn it.

It is difficult for anyone here to suggest a stove or insert because you have not posted the size of home or square footage of the space you are heating and some do not know what type of weather you have. Some areas of the state get extreme weather and some don't. But that is true of many states.

As for cat or non-cat, there will be some pro and some con. When we were in the market for a stove a couple years ago we wanted to stay from a cat stove simply because we had heard and read some bad reports. Long story short, we ended up with a cat stove anyway. End result? We have a smaller stove than we had before, we stay much warmer with this stove and we burn only about half the amount of wood we used to burn!

We do have a Woodstock stove and you will find they only sell direct; you won't find them in stores. One of the best things about this is their guarantee of 6 months. If you don't like, you return it for full refund. That is just the starting point for this company. They are just fantastic to work with. However, they do not make a really big stove yet. Still, we read on this forum of people heating up to 3,000 sq. ft. with the Fireview and I suspect these are very well insulated homes.

Good luck in your quest but please do post for others who may want to answer you about what size home you have.

 

[WYOmom]

Welcome to the forum WYOmom.

I was surprised when I read about you having some elm out there. Elm gets a bad rap because of being so hard to split but we burn a certain amount of it every year with no problems and actually like it. Cottonwood? Well, it is plentiful out there, so burn it.

It is difficult for anyone here to suggest a stove or insert because you have not posted the size of home or square footage of the space you are heating and some do not know what type of weather you have. Some areas of the state get extreme weather and some don't. But that is true of many states.

As for cat or non-cat, there will be some pro and some con. When we were in the market for a stove a couple years ago we wanted to stay from a cat stove simply because we had heard and read some bad reports. Long story short, we ended up with a cat stove anyway. End result? We have a smaller stove than we had before, we stay much warmer with this stove and we burn only about half the amount of wood we used to burn!

We do have a Woodstock stove and you will find they only sell direct; you won't find them in stores. One of the best things about this is their guarantee of 6 months. If you don't like, you return it for full refund. That is just the starting point for this company. They are just fantastic to work with. However, they do not make a really big stove yet. Still, we read on this forum of people heating up to 3,000 sq. ft. with the Fireview and I suspect these are very well insulated homes.

Good luck in your quest but please do post for others who may want to answer you about what size home you have.

Our home is about 2500 sq feet - the basement where the freestanding stove is located is about 1200. We used that stove to heat the entire house unless it is really cold and then I will use the fireplace insert on the main floor. As for weather we are around 4800 feet so we are in the "milder" area of the state. That said it is Wyoming so we have LOTS of very windy days and even though we are in the milder area of the state we still have temps that go below zero. Last week we had about a foot of snow, but then today it is 70+ degrees! Being that our home was built in the late 70's early 80's it is not the best insulated, but we have updated all the windows and added insulation where we could.

 

[WYOmom]

Dennis since you are using the woodstock I do have a question about it. We had looked at those, but I was concerned with 3 rowdy boys about the durability of the soapstone with their wild antics etc. Thoughts? THey are pretty stoves, but .......

 

[edthedawg]

Them'd hafta be some pretty wild boys to do any damage to a soapstone stove. Do they regularly shoot at the stove w/ .22's? smack it w/ Louisville Sluggers?

I'm kiddin, of course. Can't fathom how the boys there would hurt the stove.

'course, don't reckon Redd will be likely to endorse a soapstone purchase. Tho you'll find plenty around the site who are rather fond of 'em Good luck in your search!