Wood stove opinions, please (sales, how much, house)

[gcberry]

I am debating whether to buy a new Hearthstone or Woodstock soapstone wood stove, or a completely restored cast iron wood stove such as a Glenwood or Clarion ca. early 1900s . You can say "they don't make 'em like they used to" but then again, perhaps the antique models aren't as efficient or effective as the newer stoves, although they were clearly built to last a lifetime. What are your thoughts?

[tankratt]

I would lean toward the antique if it were me, it would be neat to think of all the Christmas dinners and turkey dinners, the bread and so on. If you can own something like that do it. I have always wanted one just no where to put it. Have fun with it gcberry

[tcrackly]

do go with new if you can. Not only are they more efficient, but they will most likely be safer, especially if it's a contemporary airtight. Investing in a stove that is less likely to exhaust carbon monoxide is a definite plus. There is also the possibility that purchasers of newer, more energy efficient wood stoves will get a tax break in the near future as well.

[rod67]

It depends on what the stove is used for & how much it's used. Heavy heating use - go new. If aesthetics are more important and it's just being used occasionally for cooking and supplemental heat the antique will work fine.
I've used both but just bought a new Defiant for my home.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Those old kitchen stoves were made to last some lifetimes. You can still buy parts fro most of them. If your primary purpose is heating the house I recommend a new one.

[woolwiTch]

I'd go with a newer soapstone in a heartbeat. It will give you a better thermal mass.

[gcberry]

Just to clarify, if I were to go with an antique stove, it would be a parlor stove, not a cook stove (no oven cavity or large burner area on top). There's no question that the old stoves were beauties, but it does sound like I might be better off with soapstone based on some of the replies, since the primary purpose is heating. Thanks to all of you for your speedy replies.
GB

[tankratt]

Sorry I have been looking at restore glenwood 6 burner stove and wondering where I could keep it till I could use it, so I assumed when I saw glenwood you were talking a wood cook stove. For heating go New.

[kellysmith]

gcberry,
No question, the restored parlor stove is to look at, not burn wood in. I had one restored about 30 years ago. Was worth many more $$ than I paid to have it restored. It was my grand father's so well worth every cent I spent, but it still ate wood like it was 1890! Go to a stove shop and hear the sales pitch about the new stoves, the amount of pollutants, the amount of heat, the amount of wood burned and you will own a new technology stove. They just know how to build stoves better that are more efficient today. No such thing as an air tight stove in the 1800's.

[forest beekeeper]

sigh.

Buy a CO alarm, then you are no longer concerned about any gases.

If you want heat at economic rates, look at modern whizz-bang models.

If you wanted a cook stove I would say otherwise.

We use a two drum [two 55-gallon barrels stove] rated at 200kBtu. It puts out a massive amount of heat, and it burns anything. But it is not pretty. We also use it to heat our radiant floor water system.

The soap stone models do look nice. With modern engineering they should be very hi-tech efficient.

Make sure that you can burn wood, peat, and coal in it.

Heating water is a really nice option. Whether you want to heat domestic water, or baseboards or radiant floors. moving the heat from the stove out to other places is nice.

If your home will require heated water, even if only for showers, it would be nice to heat that water with the cheapest method possible.