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Need a new woodstove

Started by Handy Andy, July 03, 2008, 12:55:07 PM

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Handy Andy

When I built my house, I installed a small woodstove in the basement.  It is an Eric that I bought from Sears.  Doesn't have a shaker grate or ash drawer, and when it gets some ashes in it, the thing just won't heat.  So you have to clean it out before you can build another fire.  So an ash drawer would allow me to keep a fire going.  When I built the house, put a masonry chimney down into the basement, and filled around the flue tile so it couldn't shift, and it has stayed in good shape.  About 27 years old.  Anyway, hoped someone could advise me on where to get a good quality stove, hopefully reasonably priced to replace the old one.  It is not a furnace, looks kindof like a Ben Franklin only airtight.  Jim
My name's Jim, I like wood.

Raider Bill

I'm going to be watching this post closely as I too need a woodstove for the House in Tenn.
The First 70 years of childhood is always the hardest.

Ironwood

Some are more fancy than others. A catalytic will get you the most heat for your buck and keep your nieghborhood cleaner (brace yourself for a whole new litany of enviromental regs as people rush to heat with wood) Also, there will be a whole LOT of chimney and house fires as well (unfortunately). I would try Lehman's Non-electric catalog from Kidron, Ohio. We have the biggest Vermont casting and love it.

Ironwood
There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love to do, there is only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.- Wayne Dyer

RSteiner

We have been heating our home for the past 34 years with only wood stoves.  Last year we had to replace a Consolidated Dutchwest stove that was about 18 years old.  I looked at several different stoves before going with a Yotul.  We have one heating season experience with it and I really like the stove. 

I would stay away from the catalytic's, our Dutchwest was one and the cat. lasted only 3 years.  I ran the stove for the next 15 years without it losing a bit of its efficiency.  The Yotul gives me a longer burn time out of the same amount of wood and more even heat over that time.

The newer stoves meet the EPA emission requirements without using a catalytic by using a secondary combustion system that seems to work well.  I have noticed that burning well seasoned wood makes a huge difference in the efficiency of the stove.

The second choice was a model sold by Lopi but I liked the way the Yotul was set up beter for loading the wood.  The Yotul does have an ash pan which I have to empty about every third day during peak burning times. 

Good luck stove hunting, I think this year there will be a big demand for wood stoves.

Randy
Randy

Ironwood

If you go a seeking, it is Jotul (I think). I have had our Vermont for 13 years, used for several seasons (3-4) of wood only heating and sparatically since, and the original catalytic is still going strong, this was one of my early worries as well ($350 or more to replace). 

Ironwood
There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love to do, there is only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.- Wayne Dyer

Warbird

I have the largest Blaze King and love it.  We purchased it 3 years ago, before heating oil went over $2/gallon.  It has a catalyst and heats our ~1700 sq ft home very well.  It ain't as purdy as some stoves but we get extremely long burn times.

Not sure where you live but I also recommend you get a stove that you can pipe a fresh air intake directly to.  I ran 3" dryer ducting from the stove, down to the crawl space and to an outside wall.  Having the stove draw its combustion air directly from outside vastly improves your efficiency. 

RSteiner

Ironwood you are correct it is Jotul.  It was late last night.  ;D

The price of stoves today are right up there, we paid $2,000.00 for our new one.

Randy
Randy

Warbird

RSteiner, have you owned both catalyst and non-catalyst stoves?  If so, are the non-catalytic re-burner type stoves really as efficient as the catalytic ones?

I've studied both a little bit and I just don't see how you get as much heat reclamation out of the non-catalyst.  Yes, both types burn very clean but those catalysts get *very* hot while doing their job and the extra heat output you get into your home as a result is amazing.  I just don't see how the non-catalytic stoves can claim they are as efficient!

Any help or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.  I've been puzzling over this for a few years now but have never known anybody who has personally tried both.  :P

Handy Andy

  Our old Eric has a catalytic converter, and it turns red when you first build up a fire.  Makes a lot of heat, but the lack of an ash drawer makes you have to let it go out before you can build a new fire and get heat again.  Unless you want to clean out a bunch of hot coals.  For some reason you can't just add wood and get any heat to speak of.  The old catalytic is still in there although pretty well used up, and it still turns red.  It has a small hole with glass insert in the top so you can look down into the converter.  Figured I'd have to dig up for a good stove.  See lots of ads for these Napoleon cast iron stoves.  Are they good?  Jim
My name's Jim, I like wood.

Handy Andy

  Another thought, does anyone have a tank of water next to their wood stove hooked up before their water heater to reduce the cost of heating hot water?  Seems like you could just substitute wood heat for gas or electric water heating.  Hard part is probably finding a suitable tank.  Jim
My name's Jim, I like wood.

RSteiner

Quote from: Warbird on July 05, 2008, 12:58:33 PM
RSteiner, have you owned both catalyst and non-catalyst stoves?  If so, are the non-catalytic re-burner type stoves really as efficient as the catalytic ones?

I've studied both a little bit and I just don't see how you get as much heat reclamation out of the non-catalyst.  Yes, both types burn very clean but those catalysts get *very* hot while doing their job and the extra heat output you get into your home as a result is amazing.  I just don't see how the non-catalytic stoves can claim they are as efficient!

Any help or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.  I've been puzzling over this for a few years now but have never known anybody who has personally tried both.  :P

The answer is yes.  The Dutchwest stove had a catalytic and the new Jotul does not.  I also have an old ThermoControl stove which had a system to burn off the unburnt gases in the smoke.

To get the catalytic to work on the Dutchwest you had to position the damper to allow the smoke to exit the stove directly up the stove pipe and run the stove wide open until the temperature gauge got over 500 degrees.  Then you would open the damper to allow the smoke to go through the catalytic which would run around 1500 degrees.  Once the wood turned to mostly coals the catalytic would cool off a bit.

The catalytic operated well for about 2 1/2 heating seasons then started to loose its zip.  To replace the cat then was around $200.00, I purchased the stove new for $700.00.  I decided to run without the catalytic and did notice a loss of heat output but not enough to spend $200.00 on then.

The Jotul with the secondary combustion system only requires a temperature of 350 degrees on the top of the stove to start working.  With the window in the front of the stove you can see the secondary combustion happening near the top of the stove.  Time will tell how good this works.  I think cleaning the fly ash out of this element will help keep things working right.

The ThermoControl Stove has pipes inside the stove that is supposed to heat the air for the secondary combustion process.  This feature worked well for over 15 years and then the internal damper burnt out. 

Unless catalytics have come down in price and have a longer life I would not by another stove with one, that is just my preference right now.

Randy
Randy

Handy Andy

  Went shopping today, there is a chimney sweep company that sells all kinds of stoves.  They have Lopi, and Jotul, he said they start at 2500, the Jotul model he has there is 2600.  It has a door on the side for loading, and fits about a 22" piece of wood.  The Lopi models he has mostly are welded steel, 5/16 thick, only can get an ash drawer on a pedestal model.  Appears to be a bit more expensive than Randy's dealer, although hard to compare without knowing the model.  Checked on the Vermont casting, no prices yet but UBC the lumber and concrete company is a dealer in Wichita.  We have a UBC in Salina, so will call the contractor salesman when he gets back from vacation.  Jim
My name's Jim, I like wood.

RSteiner

I purchased my Jotul stove last November for $1,999.95, I tried to get the dealer to come down a bit on the price but they would not move.  I also called another dealer in Vermont to compare prices, they offered the stove at the same price but said if they had one in stock they could come down $50.00 but they had none in stock and by the time I paid Vermont sales tax it would have been more (no sales tax in New Hampshire, yet).

The model Jotul I bought is the Jotul F 500 Oslo which is supposed to put out
70,000 BTU's and heat 2,000 square feet.  The burn time is specified as 9 hours, my experience has been that after 9 hours there is a good bed of coals left to rekindle a new charge of wood. 

The Lopi model I compared to the Jotul was a cast iron stove with an ash pan which was priced I think $50.00 less than the Jotul.  The Lopi model was called the Leyden and is supposed to heat 2,000 square feet also. They say it will hold 65 pounds of hard wood and the burn time was rated at 12 hours. 

The reason I decided to go with the Jotul is there is a left side loading door, you can load it from the front also if you want.  Where my stove sets it can only be loaded from the left side and I don't like loading it from the front.   The Lopi loaded from the top of the stove, they did have a good baffle system so you did not get a puff of smoke in the house when you opened the top.  At the show room they had this particular stove set up and running which was nice to see.  I would imagine that stove prices have gone up some since last November.

Randy
Randy

Handy Andy

  Thanks Randy, looks like they are watching the price of gas.  Think the Jotul at the store in Salina had the door on the right.  Looked handy for loading.  Jim
My name's Jim, I like wood.

beenthere

Handy Andy

I've two wood stoves...one heats the water for pumping around the house, and the other is a Vermont Castings and heats a great room. Also, water one preheats 30 gal water going to the domestic gas hot-water heater (copper coil inside a stainless steel tank).

Like both stoves very much.  Like Ironwood, have heated with the VC Defiant for 7 years, and the catalytic converter is still doing well. Have heated with the water system with the same unit for 26 years at least. Heats a 9 gal water jacket, and keeps the house well heated in the coldest of WI winters.

Below is a pic of the wood and gas hot water system with the 30 gal stainless tank in the center for pre-heating water going to the gas hot water heater.




Below is the pic of the Defiant installed 2001. It loads from the top, without any problem with smoke in the room when loading (or the doors open to load from front which I only do on start-up).
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

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