Help choosing a new wood stove (Gorham, Caribou: how much, new home, buying)

[family first]

Hey folks, need help choosing the right stove and figured you guys would have some real expertise with this. Looking to put it in my 2000' single story house. Looking for a reliable, non fussy, well made stove that isn't going to send me to the poorhouse. Still looking at steel vs cast vs enamel finishes...does finish effect the performance. Been into a few dealers and they all say "their" brand is the best! Any insight would be appreciated. What brand and model would you suggest?

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by family first

... does finish effect the performance.

I have never heard anywhere that finish effects anything. The finish is purely for aesthetics.

... Been into a few dealers and they all say "their" brand is the best!

Don't you love that?

I also enjoy the commercials where they say that their furnace will save you 20% over whatever your using now. A few years ago, I was in a meeting where they already had a 'system 2000' furnace installed. But they were complaining about how much oil they burned. A group was convinced that buying a new 'system 2000' would save us 20%. I tried my best to point out that a new furnace of the same model would not do any better, but they were convinced it would because of the advertising. So we bought the new furnace.

A year later, they were complaining again about how much oil they burned. One of the men complained to me, that it makes no sense because we bought the new furnace, it should be saving us. He was very puzzled by it.



We like radiant heated floors. We had read about them, and decided to put them into our new home. Now that we have been living with it, I think that it makes a huge difference.

I suggest that you read a bit about heated flooring and see what it would take to convert your floor. With a warm floor you feel as you need less heat.

Our woodstove heats water, which circulates to a thermal-bank. Water from the thermal-bank circulates through our floor.

Our woodstove heats our home directly, just as any other stove does. Though it also stores heat in the thermal-bank, which continues to heat our floors many hours after the fire has gone out.

Our system is home-made, and was very inexpensive.

[tatans]

Have friends who heat an old 3 story house by the water in Nova Scotia with a Pacific Energy stove called a summit classic, it purports to heat 3000 square feet ( be very wary of this figure) they are done under absolute ideal conditions. They are made in Canada but probably available in Maine.
Do lots of investigating and asklocals about their woodstoves, they will rave about them or tell you what model they are going to buy in the future.

[family first]

I see Jotul's are being marketed out of Gorham. I know they are from one of the Scandinavian countries. What is their reputation as far as quality, user friendliness and price. I think the oslo 500 is one of the stoves people are talking about. Heard some good and bad about them????

[slyfox2]

I have a Pacific Energy Summit. It burns about 20% less wood than my old stove did, without a catalytic converter. After burning it for two years, I had the fireman/chimney installer dude who installed the SSteel liner in my interior chimney come over and do the cleaning. He told me that the stove is burning so clean that I shouldn't need a cleaning more than once every TWO years. Last year I burned 4 cords.

I've burned wood for more than 34 years. Its the best stove I've ever owned. Easy to start up, runs even when the temperatures are as high as 55 degrees outside, and even when the wind is blowing right over the house at 25 mph, and the outside temps are -5, it was still easy to control.

Its made of welded 3/8 inch steel with a firebrick fire box, and a SS secondary burning box. Using it with the optional fan, it heats my 1600 square foot two story house from the living room downstairs. My house does have good insulation but it also has lots of big windows. I do shutter the windows downstairs at night whenthe temps drop below 25 degrees, with movable window coverings.

[bangorme]

The one piece of advice I'd give you is to take a look at your house and decide how much space your wood stove can heat. Heat goes vertically very efficiently, but not horizontally. If your house is 2000 sq. ft. and not open, a wood stove in one room won't efficiently heat another on the same floor without fans. So if you buy a honking big wood stove and you can only really heat 800 sq. ft, you are wasting your money.

I owned a passive solar home in Caribou that I heated with a pellet stove. The house was very open and I heated the entire house for about $500 for the winter... that's every room except one that was on the first floor and not open. That room stayed very cool.

[family first]

Looks like I am down to the following, any thoughts?

Pacific Energy Super Step Top
Jotul Castine
Lopi Endeavor
Alderlea T4

[slyfox2]

There is a forum on the web especially about stoves. You might go there. It called The Hearth Room: The Hearth Room - Wood Stoves and Fireplaces | Hearth.com Forums Home

But again, I love my Summit. Last night it was only 55 outside but the inside was cold. So I started for a quick burn. The stove went into serious secondary combustion in just 10 minutes of starting. Its so neat to see almost no flames coming from the bottom and all these blue flames dipping down into the firebox from the top, and the temperature on the stove pipe at 550 F.

And the stove did this when the outside temperature was only 55 F outside.

[family first]

Does anyone have any good things about the Vermont casting brand? If so what model for non cat and small or medium size wood burner?

[EastMark]

LOVE our Vermont Castings Resolute Acclaim with a glass front. It has a non-cat reburn system of some sort. Also Top loading which it is really is huge IMO. Super easy.

Pretty effecient and real easy to regulate. Got it 2nd hand great condition in and out on Craigslist under a thousand.

Mark