Woodstove Recommendations

[fabsroman]

Might have finally bought a single family home if everything goes right over the next 30 or so days. Thing is, it is an oil heat furnace with the piping in place for a wood/pelletstove in the family room.

It is a rancher with 2,200 sf on the main level and an unfinished basement below. I am looking for recommendations for a woodstove to heat the upper 2,200 sf. The family room is located about in the middle of the house right next to the kitchen and the master bedroom. I've seen some stoves on Craigslist for decent prices, but have no idea what I am looking at. Since closing is scheduled for February 8th, something tells me that I am going to have to deal with a little bit of cold weather when we move in there.

Thanks in advance guys.

[skeet]

Well what kind of "piping" is in place?? Woodstove and pellet are 2 different things. If I were you with young'uns in the house..who have never had wood heat...I'd go with a Pellet stove..and I'd put it in the basement if I used a woodstove...Heat the floors..heat the whole house that way. Either are kinda messy..Woodstove very much so. I use wood for most of my heat..but have done so all my life. In my opinion wood heat is a way of life..but a LOT of work. I cut my own. I also use a couple of pellet stoves..one in the basement and one in the garage for when I work on guns(and reload) out there. I have hot water in the floor in the garage to keep it up to 45-50 It was 21 below yesterday morn only 8 below last night

[jplonghunter]

Fabs

Listen to skeet. Wood stoves are hard work. I thought my name was "get wood" the first 15 years of life.

jplonghunter

[Skinny Shooter]

Fabs congrats on the potential new home.
Harman has some good products: http://www.harmanstoves.com

I don't know about other brands but Harman pellet stoves take 3" pipe for venting.
This might be a good unit for you: http://www.harmanstoves.com/products/details.asp?cat=stoves&prd=pellet-stoves&f=STVPP68&nav=overview

We have this pellet stove installed with a straight section of 3' pipe right out the side of the house: http://www.harmanstoves.com/products/details.asp?cat=stoves&prd=pellet-stoves&f=ACCPSTV

We wanted a woodstove but since time is valuable, we opted for pellets instead of having to cut, split and stack wood.
We are not disappointed and its the main heat for our home.

Two drawbacks for pellet stoves: You need a generator to power it when the electric goes off and you rely on someone else for the fuel.

For this season we will have spent only $935.00 for our heating needs. Thats 5 tons of pellets.
I grew up with coal and wood and the pellet stove is fairly clean thanks to the negative pressure design.
Cleaning is usually performed once for every ton of pellets burned and the firepot gets the clinker scraped every other day.

Check out this forum for more info on pellet stoves: http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewforum/22/

[fabsroman]

Well what kind of "piping" is in place?? Woodstove and pellet are 2 different things. If I were you with young'uns in the house..who have never had wood heat...I'd go with a Pellet stove..and I'd put it in the basement if I used a woodstove...Heat the floors..heat the whole house that way. Either are kinda messy..Woodstove very much so. I use wood for most of my heat..but have done so all my life. In my opinion wood heat is a way of life..but a LOT of work. I cut my own. I also use a couple of pellet stoves..one in the basement and one in the garage for when I work on guns(and reload) out there. I have hot water in the floor in the garage to keep it up to 45-50 It was 21 below yesterday morn only 8 below last night

Skeet,

You know what the weather is like around here. Nothing even close to 8 degrees below zero.

Right now, I have at least 3 farms I can get wood from for free. That is what I am looking for, free. I also don't mind cutting and splitting wood. Done it forever my entire life with my dad. He has several chain saws and a splitter. He even has a relationship with a guy that does grading for new developments who told him that if he ever wants wood he will drop the trees off in his backyard for him in lieu of having to pay to dump them. I have the ability to drive the truck/trailer right into the backyard of this house we put an offer on and stack the wood right below the deck on the patio. The garage has a door that goes out onto the deck and the "bonus room" below the garage has a door out to the patio. The wood stoves would be right next to the patio and deck doors. Wheeling a shop vac out of the garage or the bonus room wouldn't be that big of a deal. Plus, the house has a central vac which is probably going to be nice.

What I am looking for is the cheapest way to heat the house because I am cheap. If/When time becomes such a big deal to me over money, then I'll just use the oil heat furnace to heat the house. Problem is, oil heat is $3.25 a gallon and that is a rather large tank. Right now, I would much rather save that money and invest it instead of giving it to the oil company to invest. Eventually, when I buy my own farm, I am guessing that will be another source of wood.

If the wood stove really ends up bugging the crap out of me, I will go out and buy a pellet stove, and if that really bugs the crap out of me I will go with the oil heat.

People look at me like I have 3 heads when I talk about using wood to heat my house. Initially, I wanted to go with a wood burning furnace that would use propane as a backup. Problem is, the furnace is located in the middle of the basement right underneath the steps and I like its location for when I want to finish the basement. Anyway, people look at me like I have 3 heads when I tell them I do my own remodeling, my own car repairs, etc. Had to fix something on my truck last year that the dealer wanted $500+ for. Guess what, it takes me 7 billable hours at $145 an hour to make that $500 after taxes. I am paying 50% on the first dollar I make because my wife's salary gets us into the 25% federal tax brackets and one of the highest Maryland tax brackets.

federal: 25%
FICA/Medicare: 15.3%
Maryland: 6%
Montgomery County: 3%

Total: 49.3%

Add the 6% sales tax to that and we are talking 55.3% tax on anything we spend that I make.

So, if it is going to cost $500 a month or more to heat the house with oil, then I can spend 7 hours a month getting wood and I will break even time wise, assuming I have so much work that I just don't have time to do it. Another bonus is that I will most likely be spending time with my dad cutting and splitting wood. I'd rather spend time with him than working on legal/accounting stuff. When my son is older I would rather spend the time outdoors with him cutting and splitting wood. Yep, I have thought this through to a certain degree. It isn't a life changing decision, so I am going to try a wood stove out first and find out for myself how dirty they are and whether it is just too time consuming to go this route.

[skeet]

Well Fabs..I must admit it looks as though you have thpught the money angle out. Even in Md though the weather will probably require more than 7 hours a month. It did me and the woods for my fuel was a whole 250yd from the house. We heated completely with wood. And most prople will not cut wood in the summer in Maryland. They do here cause you can get wood in the National forest with a permit. Closest is 60 miles for mer one way. Also remember the safety factor with young'uns. Both of ours got burned..once ...as did the grandkids..once. Well not the granddaughter. Wasn't bad..and grammy the nurse fixed it all up. Skinny is right about the pellet stove. I have a Quadra Fire in the garage(40x32) and that sucker can keep it up to about 70 when it is below Zero. The other nightwhen it was 21 below i checked the temp out there and it was 66 at knee level. The pellets i have were purchased at an auction for 80 bucks a ton so heating is pretty cheap with them..but i just bought a ton at Sam's Club for 175 for a ton.

[fabsroman]

Well Fabs..I must admit it looks as though you have thpught the money angle out. Even in Md though the weather will probably require more than 7 hours a month. It did me and the woods for my fuel was a whole 250yd from the house. We heated completely with wood. And most prople will not cut wood in the summer in Maryland. They do here cause you can get wood in the National forest with a permit. Closest is 60 miles for mer one way. Also remember the safety factor with young'uns. Both of ours got burned..once ...as did the grandkids..once. Well not the granddaughter. Wasn't bad..and grammy the nurse fixed it all up. Skinny is right about the pellet stove. I have a Quadra Fire in the garage(40x32) and that sucker can keep it up to about 70 when it is below Zero. The other nightwhen it was 21 below i checked the temp out there and it was 66 at knee level. The pellets i have were purchased at an auction for 80 bucks a ton so heating is pretty cheap with them..but i just bought a ton at Sam's Club for 175 for a ton.

For me, doing physical labor once in a while is actually therapeutic. Better to spend the time on that then the time and money to see a psychiatrist. LOL I have promised myself that I will spend at least one day a week doing something other than sitting in front of the computer and typing. For the most part, I am calling it the "get my hands dirty day". I want to build a barn and put a vehicle lift in it too.

There are a lot of things that appeal to me with wood or pellet stoves. One is that they are a renewable resource. I hate depending on oil. That is why we bought a small little car for our everyday driving without the kids. It gets 35 mpg on the highway and it was CHEAP. LOL I am seriously thinking about buying a plug-in as our next vehicle, but that will not be for about 10 years and the technology should be a lot better by then, along with the price.

One farm is about 5 miles down the road from where we are trying to buy. I get to hunt there too, so that is going to be awesome. Another farm where I can get wood is about 30 miles away and I get to hunt there too. I know the guys that manage Sugarloaf mountain park and that will be about 30 miles away and the wood would also be free. In a day, my dad and I can usually cut 2 truckloads of wood. Like I said, if it becomes a big hassle or I find that I don't really have the time for it, I can always resort to the oil furnace. I just want to try it out before saying no to it. Kind of like trying a new type of hunting, a new food, or anything else new.

By the way, my dad also told me that a wood stove is a dirty endeavour, but this is coming from a man that has used a fireplace to heat his house for the past 20+ years. I'll try the wood stove and if it turns out to be a PITA, then I'll probably go to a pellet stove, and if that turns out to be a PITA, oil heat it will be until the furnace blows up and then it will be on to propane.

[fabsroman]

Fabs congrats on the potential new home.
Harman has some good products: http://www.harmanstoves.com

I don't know about other brands but Harman pellet stoves take 3" pipe for venting.
This might be a good unit for you: http://www.harmanstoves.com/products/details.asp?cat=stoves&prd=pellet-stoves&f=STVPP68&nav=overview

We have this pellet stove installed with a straight section of 3' pipe right out the side of the house: http://www.harmanstoves.com/products/details.asp?cat=stoves&prd=pellet-stoves&f=ACCPSTV

We wanted a woodstove but since time is valuable, we opted for pellets instead of having to cut, split and stack wood.
We are not disappointed and its the main heat for our home.

Two drawbacks for pellet stoves: You need a generator to power it when the electric goes off and you rely on someone else for the fuel.

For this season we will have spent only $935.00 for our heating needs. Thats 5 tons of pellets.
I grew up with coal and wood and the pellet stove is fairly clean thanks to the negative pressure design.
Cleaning is usually performed once for every ton of pellets burned and the firepot gets the clinker scraped every other day.

Check out this forum for more info on pellet stoves: http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewforum/22/

Skinny,

Thanks for the info. I still have both links bookmarked from when I was on here asking about inserts for my parents. The Harman stuff looks really nice.

[Adam Helmer]

Fabs,

I have a 60-acre farm in northcentral PA and 30 acres are wooded with ash and maple. I heat my home with a woodstove in the livingroom. I have gas hot water baseboard heat as backup. It takes me two weeks every Spring with a helper to cut, split, stack and cover 4 cords of firewood. It cost me about $200 total for fuel and labor to lay in a year supply of good firewood.

I like the alternative heat source. I do not find wood to be "dirty" and have heated with it for 16 years. It suits me. Pellets are an alternative. I would check with a local woodstove company and be guided accordingly.

Adam

[skeet]

As Adam said..it took me about 2 weeks of cutting splitting stacking etc for my wood for the winter. I did use a bit more than 4 cords though. Double that, approximately. Ii cut the trees in the winter and cut them to length and split in the early to late spring. I used mostly Beech and Oak. The beech was a cleaner wood. By cleaner I mean no bark mess etc when taking in the house. We stored the wood in a barn. I also used quite a bit of Wild Cherry and some Osage orange from a friends farm. He cleaned out a hedgerow..That OO is really hard to cut. Hard on chain saws. There was more than 40 cords in that hedge.. I burned it all.. Been burning wood since the later 60's. A lot of work. My helper..hereinafter known as de broom ridin Boss still helps me cut and split the wood we burn. She really likes wood heat

Fabs..no matter what kind you go with...get a good stove and have it installed prefessionally. I also am a very firm believer in MASONRY chimney's if you go with a real wood stove.. Now..gotta go light de stove in the broom riders bedroom

[GoodOlBoy]

Bah, cutting wood is a pleasure after being stuck in an office all day. I can cut and split a cord in two days, when I was younger and in better shape I could do it in a day. Get a hydraulic splitter and you can split alot faster too. Down south we only go through about a cord per house in a rough winter (2 cords I hafta acquire), and maybe 3/4 of a cord in the summer to feed the barbque pit. Down here pellets are hard to come by and expensive. After the hurricanes came through the last few years I bought two cords at around $30 a cord from a guy who had sold to pretty much everybody he knew and was just driving around looking for anybody with a low woodpile to sell to. Normally we pay around $125 a cord for it if we buy it. But having two good working chainsaws, a chainsaw that works when it feels like it, half a dozen double bit axes, a sledge and a dozen or so good iron wedges you can tear up some wood pretty fast with even half decent help.

GoodOlBoy

GoodOlBoy

[M.T. Pockets]

My house is 25 miles from Canada in Northestern MN. Minus 31 tonight.

I have a free standing stove in the great room that can heat the entire 1600 sq. ft. house to 70 something with very little electric supplement heat. The brand name is Cottage.

Wood heat just plain feels good, and it's also very satisfying. I'd compare it to eating wildgame that you harvested compared to meat from the grocery store.

I would also recommend having it professionally installed. You may also want to check with your insurance company to see if they have any further requirements.

I'm a firefighter, and I've been to more than a few fires involving wood stoves. Many are due to dirty chimneys, but the most I've seen involve people who don't dispose of the ashes properly and they reignite and start a fire. I feel safer heating my house with a wood stove than having my wife light a candle.

[fabsroman]

My house is 25 miles from Canada in Northestern MN. Minus 31 tonight.

I have a free standing stove in the great room that can heat the entire 1600 sq. ft. house to 70 something with very little electric supplement heat. The brand name is Cottage.

Wood heat just plain feels good, and it's also very satisfying. I'd compare it to eating wildgame that you harvested compared to meat from the grocery store.

I would also recommend having it professionally installed. You may also want to check with your insurance company to see if they have any further requirements.

I'm a firefighter, and I've been to more than a few fires involving wood stoves. Many are due to dirty chimneys, but the most I've seen involve people who don't dispose of the ashes properly and they reignite and start a fire. I feel safer heating my house with a wood stove than having my wife light a candle.

While I am cheap, I am not that cheap. I know absolutely nothing about installing a wood stove so I would hire a professional. Had a client burn down his house by installing one himself. What a mess that was. I agree, it is a personal thing for me, along with a cheap thing. I really hate paying to heat the house. As soon as they come out with something good in the form of solar and/or wind power, you can bet I will be getting it. Same goes for a plug in vehicle after the solar/wind power is installed.

My plan with the ashes is to suck them out with a shop vac and then dump them in the yard in a pit or in the garden. Any advice on that?

[multibeard]

My plan with the ashes is to suck them out with a shop vac and then dump them in the yard in a pit or in the garden. Any advice on that?

Better find some metal buckets to put them in unless you are going right out side to dump them. If you suck a hot ember in that shop vac it can start to smolder a long time after you suck it out especially if it a plastic vac.

[Duffy]

One farm is about 5 miles down the road from where we are trying to buy. I get to hunt there too, so that is going to be awesome. Another farm where I can get wood is about 30 miles away and I get to hunt there too.

There are farms in Montgomery County, MD?!

Congrats on your pending home purchase, and decision on heating. My friend and neighbor has a wood-burning stove and loves it. He also has an "endless" supply of wood on his thirty acres. I'm not sure what brand he has, but my uncle in New York has one of those Harman pellet stoves in his garage/man-cave. He swears by it.

Good luck.

[M.T. Pockets]

I would not use a shop vac unless the fire has been out a week. An old fashioned metal bucket (with a lid) works great. A metal scoop from any fireplace store will work fine to scoop up the ashes.

Ashes are absolutely fantastic fertilizer, if you have a garden you have a place to put them.

Disposal isn't hard, just don't set that bucket anyplace where you don't want a fire to start. Don't set it down anywhere - take it to the garden & spread them out. Watch the wind, an ember can reignite and take off a few feet. I've seen many fires start when people leave the "cold" ashes outside in a bucket too close to a wood strucutre and the structure catches on fire. Those embers can stay hot for days and when they're exposed to a good oxygen supply they'll take off.

[skeet]

What MT said..no shop vac..I use a coal scuttle for the ashes. Now the wood I use here has very little ash...except cottonwood....but the wood you wil use has quite a bit..good stove is necessary as is a good chimney. Be careful. Nothing like wood heat

[fabsroman]

What MT said..no shop vac..I use a coal scuttle for the ashes. Now the wood I use here has very little ash...except cottonwood....but the wood you wil use has quite a bit..good stove is necessary as is a good chimney. Be careful. Nothing like wood heat

Yeah, figured I would dump the shop vac out immediately after sucking up the ash or at least pour a bunch of water in it. They both have a drain that would allow me to let the water, and most likely some of the ash, out later on. The plan is essentially to suck it up with the shop vac and then dump the stuff in a garden. Don't know if this is good, bad, or indifferent for the soil, so I will have to do some research on it. Otherwise, I'll just dig a pit to throw the crud in. Any other suggestions for getting rid of the ash other than the garden and/or a pit?

Yeah, I know I need to buy a good wood stove. That is why I started this thread. So far, I think I got one reply regarding what a good stove is and that was from Skinny. The title of the thread is "Wood Stove Recommendations". Next thread on this subject might be "What brand wood stove do you use and what are the pros/cons of that brand". I've got about a month until we are in the new house, maybe a little more since the bank/seller is dragging its feet on ratifying the counter-offer it made to us and that we agreed to in its entirety. If we don't get in there until mid February, I might be riding the rest of this winter out with the oil heat because I will be smack dab in the middle of tax season without much time to sleep, much less deal with buying a wood stove and getting wood for it. Decisions, decisions.

[Skinny Shooter]

Hey Fabs, if we have the opportunity to build a new home we are going to keep the pellet stove in the basement and buy a woodstove for the 1st floor.
The Harman Oakwood stove looks great but I'm leaning towards the TLC2000 instead which can also burn coal.
We'll add the grill kit to make burgers and steak and the optional blower.
I believe that all of the Harman woodstoves have a removable ash pan so you don't need the shop vac or coal bucket to empty the ashes.
Have been relaxing next to the pellet stove this evening and there is nothing quite like a wood fire to warm the bones.