Wood Stove Insert in a Tight Spot with a Tight Budget

[Nellie]

We lost our Jotul c450 in a flood last April. Are finally back in the house and getting ready to replace it. Our LR is small and I was thinking about a flush mount insert. Even tho the 450 did not take up much space, we would prefer to have a flush if we can get one. When we moved here in Dec 5 yrs ago, we were freezing our toes off and quickly bought the first thing we thought would fit. We had no experience at all with wood stoves. It was a good little stove, blowers kind of noisy but did a fair job. We were counting on it to heat the entire 1st floor, and we did have pockets of really cold in the far reaches (downstairs about 900sf)

Due to installation and service issues, I would NOT return to the place where we purchased before.

The Jotul 350 seems a bit too small and the 550 might be overkill? I went yesterday and looked at a QF Voyageur which seemed very nice, tho perhaps small. Now for the questions:

• The Voyageur is 1.83cf. Jotul does not list that dimension on their lit. Does anyone know what the actual CF of the boxes are on these models?
• Was shown the "ceramic baffle" (I think) on the Voyageur above the reburners which the Jotul does not have. Is that an example of catalytic vs non-cat stove?? Can someone please explain that to me and give me opinions on which is better and why.
• Cast iron or steel? Differences?
• There is a Lopi dealer in the area as well. How do they compare pricewise? Was quoted $2968 for the Voyager, $2549 for the Jotul c350 and $3149 for the c550. Those are w/out install.
• We have the chimney cap and steel 6" liner from the old stove in place - all we did was move the stove out after the water receded. At the QF dealer they quoted me $535 for install including a chimney clean. The Jotul dealer went round and round with me about the need to see the place first and when I finally pressed him to ballpark it he said "About $1000, maybe more." Obviously this impacts the budget and may impact the stove we can afford if we go with the Jotul. Why would these prices be so different? (for example, if we decide we like the bigger Jotul, the price of the stove plus $1000 installation puts it out of the range we were hoping for)
• The old stove sat directly on the old brick fireplace floor with a nasty brick hearth that is flush with the floor. We've replaced the LR flooring and now can put some concrete board and stone tiles down before we install stove. Does anyone have any tips, hints or thoughts on that? Things we should look out for or make sure we do?

After reconstruction, the house has a subfloor, full insulation and a nice, tight floor - all of which were missing before so we're hopeful that the stove will not have to work as hard to heat the downstairs.

If there are other options I might not be thinking of, please enlighten me! Thanks all.

 

[dafattkidd]

Hey nellie,

Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about your flood. Sounds like you ended up with a better home as a result, although I'm sure that came at a great inconvenience.

Whichever insert you choose i would recommend a 2+ cf firebox for longer burns.

I will not comment on the hearth floor, but I will say that if you are on a tight budget this site has very good insight as to how to do a proper install yourself. You have the liner run already which is the hard part. I found www.dynamitebuys.com had great prices, and customer service. I don't know if that is helpful to you, but that was how I upgraded my insert on a tight budget, and it has worked out great. Good luck!

 

[dafattkidd]

Also inserts that are known as good bang for your buck are Osburns, Napoleon 1402, and the Englander insert. There are probably others, but these are the ones I researched. I ended up going with that largest one that would fit in my fireplace. (Sorry to post 2x in a row)

 

[Dix]

What Dom said.

The Englanders/Timber Ridges are pretty reasonable. This is the dressed up version :


(broken image removed)


http://www.overstockstoves.com/50tnc13i--epa-certified-noncatalytic-wood-stove--1550131500.html


Do some research on the flooring, and ask questions. You'll get the answers you need here.


Welcome to the forums

 

[begreen]

I'm not sure if the C550 would be overkill. We need to know more about the setup and the house layout. Is the room open to other rooms so that the heat easily convects out? How many sq ft total will the insert be heating? What is the size of the fireplace opening and what is it's depth?

 

[Nellie]

Thanks to all who have replied.

The first floor is quite open There is the LR, a small office, DR, kitchen and mudroom area; total about 900sf. No hallways and there are open pass-thrus between LR / kitchen and DR / office. The only door is between the LR and office. Stairway to second floor with 3bedrms and a bath. House is elevated, but as stated before, once we had the floors all torn out, it was easy to really insulate undeneath, so we're hoping that makes a big difference come winter as that was where the cold issue was. There were days when the portable baseboard heater read 48° on the floor. The upstairs was always plenty warm enough.

I've tried to attach a pic and measurements of the FP (not sure if I'm doing it right). The opening is 36", width in the back, 34." Depth is not quite 21." The opening at the front is 29" high but it gets short at the very back. The back wall height is 14." But it's 24" tall 5" from the back. We fit the Jotul c450 in there with no problems.

Not sure about going the DIY route as we need the heat before winter and hubby works at a farm and is gone 6 days/week until Dec.

Also: what is the difference between a cat and non-cat burner??

Thanks all.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Also: what is the difference between a cat and non-cat burner??

It is the technology behind how the stove burns. For the most part you either have a Non-catalytic stove that has burn tubes or a catalytic stove that has a catalyst. Both are efficient. The Catalytic stove comes in handy when you want to burn at a lower temperature and still have a clean and long burn.

Either technology is good. It just depends upon your needs.

 

[Nellie]

so the jotul had re-burn tubes (??) up top and the QF Voyageur had the same thing but with some sort of ceramic filter (looked like insulation, but she called it ceramic) above the tubes. Are these the same and why does one have the ceramic and one does not?? Thanks!

 

[BrowningBAR]

Thanks to all who have replied.

The first floor is quite open There is the LR, a small office, DR, kitchen and mudroom area; total about 900sf. No hallways and there are open pass-thrus between LR / kitchen and DR / office. The only door is between the LR and office. Stairway to second floor with 3bedrms and a bath. House is elevated, but as stated before, once we had the floors all torn out, it was easy to really insulate undeneath, so we're hoping that makes a big difference come winter as that was where the cold issue was. There were days when the portable baseboard heater read 48° on the floor. The upstairs was always plenty warm enough.

I've tried to attach a pic and measurements of the FP (not sure if I'm doing it right). The opening is 36", width in the back, 34." Depth is not quite 21." The opening at the front is 29" high but it gets short at the very back. The back wall height is 14." But it's 24" tall 5" from the back. We fit the Jotul c450 in there with no problems.

Not sure about going the DIY route as we need the heat before winter and hubby works at a farm and is gone 6 days/week until Dec.

Fact is, it is always better to over-size than under-size. Rarely do you see threads from member complaining that they are too warm from a stove that is too large. But you will see dozens upon dozens of threads filled with complaints about a stove that is too small. With an over-sized stove, the worst case scenario is that you open a window to cool off or you build smaller fires.

You could go with the Jotul Oslo with the short leg kit if you wanted a free standing stove, while still using the side loading.

Other free standing stoves:
Hearthstone Mansfield (even though it says 31", is you set it in the fireplace it looks like it should fit)
Englander 30NC (again, if you set it into the firplace, it should fit)

Other inserts you could go with (other than the Jotul):
Lopi Declaration
Hampton HI300
Hearthstone Clydesdale (about the same size as the Jotul 550)