We’re up here in Maine, and it’s starting to get a bit cold out. Our house is set up for a wood stove, but we don’t have one. There is a spot in the basement with a chimney and all that, so we aren’t looking for something decorative, just as efficient and functional as possible. Also, we don’t have a lot to spend on it, we’re looking at used stoves on Craigslist. We have friends to help move and install it.
But, I’m not sure what to look for here. Any advice? We don’t mind refurbishing one if necessary. What type should we be looking at? Is this type more efficient than this type?
We had a wood-burning fireplace insert for a number of years, which made us pretty happy. It was able to use the existing chimney as an exhaust source, and brought combustible air from outside. In addition, it had a forced-air fan with a rheostat so you could adjust how much air was forced past the hot box. I highly recommend this feature in either an insert, or a free-standing unit, like the one you have in your second example. The unit we had would provide about half of our heat in a 2,300 sq. ft. multi-level home (it was on the lowest level).
For the record, we got tired of having to procure firewood and replaced the wood-burner with a pellet-burner which we love. It has an automatic setting that feeds the proper amount of pellets for the amount of heat you want. In the dead of winter here in KC, it provides about 70% of our heat. The disadvantage is having to buy and store 50-lb. bags of pellets, and each one lasts about 2 days on average at $4.50/bag. Pellet-feeder types are rather expensive, though, in the $1,000 - 2,000 range depending on size and features.
I bought a secondhand one off of Kijiji, only to be woefully disappointed with it. It was not as described in the ad, impractical for my purposes and basically a waste of money. I was horrified.
I ended up buying a second hand one from the guy who installed the chimney. He often replaces perfectly good woodburning stoves for gas ones, especially for seniors who have grown incapable of hauling, stacking wood.
It was less than the one I had purchased and far better quality It was basically just the firebox, he ordered brand new legs, door, handles, etc., to our tastes. Brilliant. Wished I’d checked him out first, would have saved me $350.
You’re should really have your chimney serviced/cleaned/checked before installing a stove, even though the set up is there. Hire the best installation guy in town, to do it and talk to him. Perhaps you’ll get as lucky and we did.
I built and installed one of this type of wood stovein our first house 30 years ago. It worked great. A second barrel can be added on top as a smoke chamber that radiates more heat. You need to find a good quality 55 gallon barrel, stainless steel being preferable, and I think those are harder to find for free these days. Construction was quick and easy though.
Pity you don’t want to spend more … I bought a bakers stove and absolutely LOVE it. I can crank out bread in the oven portion while I have stew or chili or whatnot cranking away on top =)
You can have it when you pry it out of my cold dead hands. Seriously.
you want to have a stove where you can provide outside combustion air in order to have an efficient and safe fire. you need a stove that accommodates this and provide a duct for outside air. if the stove uses room air for combustion you could still provide a damper controlled duct for combustion air placed near the air intake of the stove. if you don’t you will pull outside cold air across your living space and maybe have a starved fire.
the second link has some good discussion points. you want a stove that has secondary combustion. also you want to keep the chimney temperature high enough to minimize creosote deposits.
check with your home insurance for requirements and coverage needed. only certain makes and model may be allowed.
I have one of these (brass-finished door instead of chrome), which is very like what DirkGntly describes. It’s even exceeds EPA ratings.
There was a big blow in the Winter of 2006/2007, which blew down some trees. I had wood for the following Winter. I have a propane furnace and oil-filled space heaters, so I don’t use the stove much. I keep meaning to buy a quarter-cord of wood, but I forget or have bills to pay. It does put out a fair bit of heat, and with its fan and the fan over the stove in the kitchen it can be quite toasty. The downside is having to go outside in the snow to get wood (when I have it) and to dump the ashes. I had the stove professionally installed, and the county inspector came round to check it out. He was glad to see that I had an ashcan next to it.
there are low clearance stoves and noncombustible wall materials. always important to follow your local fire codes and insurance policy requirements. lots of details in a correct installation, both for function and safety. also use carbon monoxide detectors.
If you are going to be using this stove in your house as a regular source of heat, do yourself a favor and save up some more money and buy a newer high quality “blaze king” like stove with a clean burning catalytic reburn and a circulating fan. The have low emissions and are usually efficient enough for a fire to last all night/all day and the circulating fan will push the heat throughout the house.
You will cut you work in half if your stove is efficient enough to still be hot when you get home from work at night and when you wake up in the morning.
that is probably a flaw in the photography, mine is set up properly, with 12 inches between it and the brick backing, and is well out of range of anything else on the other 3 sides =)
We added a log cradle for inside the firebox, and a nice set of fire irons =) and bought a lovely cast iron la creuset casserole and dutch oven for cookign in and on =) sized for it, and a matching water kettle to add humidity to the air, and make a lovely pot of tea +)
Thanks for the replies. We’re probably only going to be in this house for 3 more years, so making a huge investment isn’t really worth it. Also, we don’t mind dealing with chopping wood/making fires, all that, so something basic will do.
Here is our setup. There is also concrete board on the ceiling. This house was built last year.
That flappy thingie on right: outside air intake? It goes to the chimney. Does that actually attach to the wood stove in some way?
