I'm looking for local carriers of such products in Downeast Maine. So far the closest I've found is in Southern Maine, 225 miles away. The delivery fee would be $500 alone. I don't have a trailer, but I at least have a Dually.
What happened to the styled stoves?
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Yes, that may be a challenge. Looks like there is a Tractor Supply in Bangor. TS sells Redstone bricks.
Still a question nags me, would the Woodstock PH be too much stove for my 1300 sqft Salt box? The house is pretty well insulated, and it's difficult to keep the house UNDER 75 when the Defiant is 400 f griddle temp or higher. It seems the cat stoves are more tolerant of lower slow burns, so maybe that will work in my favor?
Rearscreen
Minister of Fire
I would call Woodstock, but I will bet they will say it will cook you out. However, I was at one of their picnics and a fabricator told me you can always build a smaller fire...In my situation, for whatever reason (Possibly because my OAK intake is high on the exterior) our stove cruises around 350 - 400. My brother has a Fireview in his very well insulated 1,200 sf and it cooks them out. However, I just learned that just last week after a season of running the Fireview, he "just learned" how to run it properly. In other words, he used to load it up and not pay enough attention to how to manage the air. Now, they don't pack it full, get it to a certain temp, engage the cat and shut it much lower than they used to. The result is less heat but constant for longer period and less wood used.
The Woodstock Progress Hybrid is a beautiful and amazing stove, but I would think it might be too big for your space. It’s Woodstock’s highest BTU stove. That said, Woodstocks are great at running low and slow in addition to cranking out heat. A better fit size-wise would be the Woodstock Fireview, or even their smaller Keystone or Palladian (KS and Palladian are the same stove with a slightly different look). They Keystone has a large window and an ashpan, but many folks would encourage you to go a bit bigger in general when sizing a stove, however perhaps just not as big as the PH for your space. Woodstock also has a line of steel stoves and an Absolute Steel could be an option. You should call Woodstock, as you will find them incredibly helpful. If you send them a layout of your house, they will point you in the right direction. Also, Fireviews and Keystones/Palladians come up somewhat regularly in the Northeast on Craigslist and FB marketplace (just because they have been around for a while and many in this part of the world bought them). I just scored a Fireview for little money and brought it to Woodstock to restore. All said and done, I’ll walk away with a like new FV for under $1500 including gas and a UHaul trailer rental. That said, know what you are getting into first if you go used, and if you do go with a used Fireview make sure it is the newer 205 model and not the 201. Again Woodstock will help you through all of this even if you buy used.
What’s your chimney setup like? That’s another factor - you want to make sure it’s safe and works well.
Finally, as others here have said - cat stoves are not difficult, and you’ll need dry wood for any modern stove!
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Yes it would blow you out!
Of course you can build smaller fires, but do you want to be building fires all the time? Once that stones hot, there’s not you can do about it but open doors and let the fire die out. Especially considering the additional expense.
I'm heating over double that square footage and the PH keeps up, it's actually been too warm in the house with the temp in the 30s so probably too big.
kennyp2339
Minister of Fire
Take a look at Woodstock stoves, there's plenty of choices either soapstone or steel plate.
I'm not finding much that has a cook top and in the medium size range. It will get bitterly cold here soon. Maybe not AK cold, but I am right on the coast almost at the most northeastern point of Maine. My chimney is in fantastic shape. It was barely used prior to us moving in, and it had been cleaned prior to our purchase. It's a masonry chimney with a ceramic tile liner. Draft is fantastic and the chimney is at least 25' tall with a clean out at the bottom inside. It also runs through our bedroom and a room on the opposite wall downstairs. The house was built to use a wood stove and passive solar heat. The 1975 Defiant that's already in here with a cracked Fireback is definitely too much stove, but it's beautiful, has a griddle, and a long burn time. I want to rebuild it and put it in my planned shop and try and get a new stove in here before next winter.
Even with a tile lined masonry chimney, you are going to need a six inch insulated stainless steel liner (7 or 8 inch for some stoves, but most are 6) for a modern stove. This is going to be another expense that you can’t forego, but will make sure you are at code, safe and your stove will work much better. Depending on your setup and ability level, it can be a DYI job (with help from folks here!) or you will need to hire someone. I have a tall chimney and didn’t feel comfortable going up on it, so I hired a chimney company that could do it right (watch out for companies that want to cut corners like not using an insulated liner - there are plenty out there). When the chimney company I hired ran into some problems getting the liner down and had to use tools I didn’t have to knock out some pieces of mortar that were keeping it from going all the way down, I was glad I did! There are some pros here like @bholler and @begreen and others who can offer better guidance than me, but what I can add is a reminder that it’s better to read up here, take the time and money to do it right the first time and not have regrets later and/or have to redo things and thus end up spending more time and money... Good luck!
Also, I think people cook on some of the Woodstock stoves like the Fireview that don’t “officially” have a cooktop and they work well. Others, like the Ideal Steel and possibly the Absolute Steel do have a cooktop. Again, check with Woodstock as they won’t steer you wrong!
That's important info. Up to this point the suggestions have been for a roughly Defiant equivalent. But given this new info, I'd be steering you more toward around a 2 cu ft stove like the Quad Explorer II or Aderlea T5. In this case the Fireview would be a better fit if your are going for a Woodstock stove.
There is absolutly nothing wrong with running a stove through a clay lined chimney it it is up to code. Yes an insulated stainless liner would be better but not nessecary in some intances.
As I said, you’re the pro here, so thanks for chiming in - I’m learning!
Have you had the chimney inspected by a pro thoroughly? As i said before it may be fine and if so thats great. But if it is from the 70s it probably doesnt have proper clearances and chances are the clay isnt in as good of shape as you think
Agree 100%! Had a Jotul Firelight with the foot pedal to open the top. Loved it. Moved to the Quad Isle Royale thinking I would top load that as well. I think Ive used it four times in four years.
My sister lives on the coast in Maine and heats her 1600 one story with a Woodstock Keystone, not sure if it has a cooktop.
We've been trying to get a chimney inspector, but there aren't very many and it's difficult to get them out here. I really don't want to do anything to the chimney unless there's a problem. The chimney was serviced before the house went up for sale. The chimney was built to accommodate a stove with an 8" flue. This house was bought by the previous owners to be a summer house, but it wasn't intended to be used like that. On the bright side the house is mostly in great shape since they rarely used it.
There are also a few antique wood stove restoration shops. We aren't opposed to buying an antique Parlor or cottage stove, but I have a feeling it will be hungry. I'm the kind of person that likes to buy one of something and be done. We really want a cook top stove for the frequent power outages. All of the cook top stoves I've seen, antique or modern, so far are bigger than we need. I'm hoping to make a lifelong purchase, so I'm pretty thorough and I don't want to compromise if I don't have to. I hope I'm not being unrealistic in my search.
I realized that it came out as gibberish, so I went back and edited it. Apparently I didn't catch my nonsense quick enough.
XmasTreefarmer
Feeling the Heat
I should weigh in here because we are fellow VC Defiant owners. Got our Defiant back in 1979. Burned it a few years, but then started moving around a lot and living in town. We moved it everywhere we went, but never used it. Then when we built this house in 1989 we hooked 'er up and burned it through Spring, 2018. I noticed the cracked fireback at the beginning of the season and just decided to burn it while I looked for a new stove.
The Defiant served us well - smaller fires in Spring and Fall, and bigger fires in Winter. Very hard to get what I would call a clean burn. Maybe a 1970's clean burn, but not a 2018 clean burn. Like you, we wanted a good looking stove and something along the lines of the Defiant. Looking at that stove every day for almost 30 years, kinda grows on you. ;-) We went with the Jotul Oslo. It has lines that are similar to the old Defiant and that really caught our eye. Did the break-in burns in Spring and heated with it a bit until things warmed up. Then the cold weather came early here in WI so I've been heating with it for about 1/2 of October and all of November. Very pleased with the stove. Seems to have a more even heat than the Defiant - I can't quite put my finger on it, but we like it. It does weight a full 100# more than the Defiant - that could be part of it.
We are heating around 2,500 sq ft, well insulated, but a fair amount of glass. So far I would say that the Oslo can keep up with the Defiant. The next few days the lows will be around 12 and the highs around 22, so this will be sort of the first real test to see how it does in colder weather. Given your experience with the Defiant, I think the Olso is a stove to consider. Looking at some of your comments in this post, you also talked about wanting to be able to cook on it and you can get a cook top for the Oslo - it replaces the oval section on the top of the stove. We cook with LP here, so I don't have to worry in a power outage - else, I might have considered getting the cook top.
The Defiant served us well - smaller fires in Spring and Fall, and bigger fires in Winter. Very hard to get what I would call a clean burn. Maybe a 1970's clean burn, but not a 2018 clean burn. Like you, we wanted a good looking stove and something along the lines of the Defiant. Looking at that stove every day for almost 30 years, kinda grows on you. ;-) We went with the Jotul Oslo. It has lines that are similar to the old Defiant and that really caught our eye. Did the break-in burns in Spring and heated with it a bit until things warmed up. Then the cold weather came early here in WI so I've been heating with it for about 1/2 of October and all of November. Very pleased with the stove. Seems to have a more even heat than the Defiant - I can't quite put my finger on it, but we like it. It does weight a full 100# more than the Defiant - that could be part of it.
We are heating around 2,500 sq ft, well insulated, but a fair amount of glass. So far I would say that the Oslo can keep up with the Defiant. The next few days the lows will be around 12 and the highs around 22, so this will be sort of the first real test to see how it does in colder weather. Given your experience with the Defiant, I think the Olso is a stove to consider. Looking at some of your comments in this post, you also talked about wanting to be able to cook on it and you can get a cook top for the Oslo - it replaces the oval section on the top of the stove. We cook with LP here, so I don't have to worry in a power outage - else, I might have considered getting the cook top.
I was living in an RV for two years heating and cooking with Propane (in NC, not Downeast Maine), and I hate the glass top stove in the house. Maybe some day we will get a nice gas range, but first to deal with the cracked defiant. I think the Oslo would bake us alive. To be fair we do have four sliding glass doors, but otherwise only like seven windows. The Jotul F400 seems like a good stove as well. It just seems you can't get the exquisite Castings of the really old stoves but they are very hungry and dirty.
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